Problem: Monitor or Graphics card?

I've been having trouble with some games on my computer lately, during play green spots flicker on the screen and increase in number and intensity until the game crashes, this occured on both The Witcher and Dragon Age's character creator. I have a Radeon HD 4850 Graphics card with the latest drivers, so is it more likely to be the monitor, which is a BENQ that's about three-4 years old, or could it possibly be that Bioware's graphics engine and my computer just don't agree? If anyone has any advice or experience with this problem could you please speak up, I'd rather not have to purchase a monitor I don't need.

It's not the power thats the problem, strangely it works on other games like Mass Effect with the graphics on full, which I always thought required more power than The Witcher on full. The graphics card is only a year old, so I'm not sure it would be the card itself. Is it more likely to be the other hardware like the motherboard or is it more likely to be the cooling system that's not working properly?

Don't mean to hijack your thread... actually I do, but anyways, I have a 8800GTS and I just got a similar problem, and am now afraid of turning my computer on lest it go "poof". Basically, I came back to my computer today to find the screensaver frozen in place, with a bunch of blue dots scattered randomly across the screen like sand. I try restarting, and the screen remains black. I begin to panic thinking my monitor is not working, and so I restart again.

This time the computer does boot up, only I get some strange message talking about settings being changed etc and if I wanted to configure them or keep them default. I choose default. Then I get the Windows Safety Mode startup message and choose to run Windows as normal. Now at first it seems everything is working just fine. Then I realize I can't move the mouse, the lower right part of the desktop is covered in a huge blurry square, and random flashes of black lines and blue sparkles dance around the screen.

Before I could scream in fear the computer goes "POOT" and restarts. I panic and shut it off completely before it tries to rise from the dead once again. Am I also having a graphics card problem?

It sounds like your graphics card is getting artifactes due to overheating...doesyour case have an intake/exhaust fan?

simple way to test if it's overheating is just open your case and put a normal cheap room fan next to it and let it run that way. It should be able to dissipate all the extra heat that way.

Also I'm pretty sure the RAdeon catalyst has a temperature bar in it that tells what temp your gfx card is running on.
My Radeon used to overheat but after a while of running it case open I just bought a different gpu fan and worked fine ever since.

But yeah, it is most likely your card, both of you.

Yeah my card has a fan, but it's nearly 4 years old now (Bought it when it was fresh out of the factory), and I'm worried that it's just going to die of natural causes/old age(If only we are all so lucky).

Anyway, it looks like I'm going to have to upgrade my graphics card and perhaps pimp out my cooling system now that I have a fancy paying job, and so I was wondering if you guys could recommend some solid 250 - 300 dollar cards... preferably from nVidia since I'm a biased fanboy, have never had any problems with mine, and always here AMD/Ati (whatever their new merger name is) users complaining about their HD xxxx having graphical glitches with numerous games.

Your card is getting to hot, just increase the speed of the fan, and clean your computer out. Your monitor will never make a game crash.

Wait. You're telling me my card is getting hot, from running my bloody desktop?! Holy hell if I want to run a game then I guess I'll be needing at least 15 of those fans on high speed.

Well I can't check the temps as I can't get past the desktop without the computer going "poot". As for dust, I just cleaned out my comp thoroughly less than 4 months ago. I'm beginning to worry that the GPU fan has simply ceased to function altogether.Rottenberry

I've been having trouble with some games on my computer lately, during play green spots flicker on the screen and increase in number and intensity until the game crashes, this occured on both The Witcher and Dragon Age's character creator. I have a Radeon HD 4850 Graphics card with the latest drivers, so is it more likely to be the monitor, which is a BENQ that's about three-4 years old, or could it possibly be that Bioware's graphics engine and my computer just don't agree? If anyone has any advice or experience with this problem could you please speak up, I'd rather not have to purchase a monitor I don't need.

DiabolicalX

Do you have another PC that you can switch out and test the monitor and vidio card components on ?... If so that would give you a better idea which of the two are causing your problems if it is in-fact a hardware issue. Do you have these problems with anything else, or just these two games ? If not try re-installing them again and check your drivers...you may have to try a re-install there also to narrow things down to find your problem....Any PSU issues ?, may be aniother area you want to check out if this problem is hardware related.

*+

Okay so I'm planning on purchasing a new card tomorrow, and was just wondering how much of a performance boost compared to the 8800GTS 640mb I originally had would I see if I bought one of the following:

1) GTX260 896M DDR3
2) GTX 285 1.0G DDR3

OR

3) ATI HD 4890 GDDR5

I managed to solve the problem by turning my fans spin rate up from 50 to about 75, with a full game that should be abput 80-85 then. It turned out that my fans aren't powerful enough to keep up with my graphics card, so can anyone recommend any good cooling systems that won't break the bank?

I managed to solve the problem by turning my fans spin rate up from 50 to about 75, with a full game that should be abput 80-85 then. It turned out that my fans aren't powerful enough to keep up with my graphics card, so can anyone recommend any good cooling systems that won't break the bank?

DiabolicalX

Did you clean out the HSF assembly of dust? A solid year of use can cause a sizeable buildup of dust if your case doesn't have fan filters.

I managed to solve the problem by turning my fans spin rate up from 50 to about 75, with a full game that should be abput 80-85 then. It turned out that my fans aren't powerful enough to keep up with my graphics card, so can anyone recommend any good cooling systems that won't break the bank?

DiabolicalX