Any way to fix video memory artifacts?...

[XJ220]

EDIT: Aaah damn it!, this is meant to go on the ArmA 2 troubleshooting, I was just looking around in case someone had the same problem and screwed up, sorry!

Hello everyone. In ArmA 2 and OA, after 5 minutes playing or so, I get TONS of artifacts, after a while I can't even see anything. From what I've searched around these forums, it seems to be a problem related to video memory, and it usually happens on ATI cards. It doesn't matter what I do in the ArmA2.cfg/ArmA2OA.cfg, or the video memory setting, it always happens.

A temporary solution has been to alt-tab when it happens, but it's quite bothersome, and this has never happened in OFP or ArmA. It's obviously not FADE, as my copies are original and the artifacts have all the telltale signs of graphic failure (hell, at first I thought my card was dying on me...)

Right now I'm stuck in an old system, a Pentium 4 with 2gb ddr and an ATI HD3650 agp (I've got a 9800GTX+ here though,waiting for my new parts...but it'll take a while), but I've seen it happen to people around here with newer systems. Also, Crysis, Far Cry 2 and the like run (very slowly now because of the Pentium, but the dual core I had before the mobo crapped out had the same GFX card and they ran) perfectly with no artifacts.

I've got the 10.8 drivers now, but I've tried 4 older versions, and no dice. Any solutions?, I'm getting desperate, and it'll be a year until I have my new computer completed.

[Günter Severloh]

Do they show up right away when your playing or after a short period of time?

[XJ220]

It depends. On infantry missions they can take a good 5 minutes to show up, but in aircraft flying missions, or missions that require moving a lot around the map, they show up in around half a minute-one minute. They're not like "real" overheated/broken card artifacts, those usually appear slowly over a long time, but here it's like the textures suddenly reach a limit and in about half a second the graphics pass from normal to screen completely full of artifacts.

[T_Roc]

I had something simillar and it was broken memory on the graphics card.

[XJ220]

Makes sense, so I tested it with 2 different video memory stressers, and it came out perfect. Also, like I've said before, I play a few different games, sometimes for long sessions, and I've had no problems at all.

Oh well, it might be a driver problem, or a game code problem, or god knows what... I guess I'll just wait for my new computer :computer: , thanks guys!

[jblackrupert]

I'm getting it sometimes using a 9800GT 512mb.

It looks sort of like overheating but it's not. temperatures are completely normal.

It usually only happens for a 2-4 seconds and then clears up but the last one
caused a crash (Can't remember error).

[kklownboy]

... Buy OA.

Turn off "Post Processing". Turn down/up "Object Detail".Set "Video Memory" to VeryHigh/Default.Set HDR to 32 or 16.

Older drivers for Arma2 may be better, 9.12~(hotfix) tho 9.6/9.8 is ok, Arma2 1.07? maybe 10.1?

Buy OA.


Keep trying Drivers and their profiles.

If your win7, I would try 9.12hotfix.
If XP, I would try 9.8.(Yeah, August of last year)

[URA]

Hi to all Community, sorry for post in old Thread.

I have same MEGA artifacts as XJ220 said. Difference: in ARMA 2/Armed Assault V 1.08-1.18 (when option "Video Memory" - "Default" show up) it happen only on "Video Memory" - "Default").

I believe that my Video Memory broken somewhere between 700-1024 Mb. All old\ported games that use standard amount of video memory (~512Mb) work well. If i use "Video Memory" - "Very High" in ARMA 2 it work fine too, except Armed Assault (after some time/loading world, LODs show up everywhere, replace high quality models\textures. Map ("M" key) make mega lags. Map, Gear menu, Notepad hes lost markers and fonts - just (grey,red,green) squares). All that happen (I believe) after loading Video Memory reach some point.

My question:
1.What mean "Video Memory - High\Default", how much Video Memory Armed Assault\ARMA 2 will use ?
2. Can i manually limit Video Memory (like xxxMb) for use in AA/A2 by tuning some ".cfg" or use some software for Win XP ?
3. Can i confirm that i have broken Video Memory by some software (all stresstests that i find are old and do not support GTX460, and tell that with memory all fine) ?

I ask for HELP very badly, because i save money for GTX460 2 year and not be able buy new one next 2 year.

My system is: Win XP SP3, AMD X2 2.9Ghz (5600+), 2Gb DDR2, GTX 460 1Gb. All work with acceptably temperature. I use drivers from disk (Because i do not believe that updates - solution). I don't have ARMA2 OA.

P.S.
GTA4 hes sometimes crashed too, if i set load more then 6xxMb Video memory in video options.