Hey guys, I recently bought Just Cause 2 on Steam and after I Downloaded the game and started playing I had this weird problem with the Graphics. I tried removing local content, messing around with the video options, I asked about it on the steam forums but no luck. I made a video about it on Youtube a while ago for my post on the steam forums so here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEyAzGeuOek The guy on the steam forums asked what kind of power supply(Corsair 450W) I was using and that it might have been that my videocard(Radeon HD 4850 512 mb) was overheating but that doesn't seem to be the problem. A friend of mine has basicly the same system as me apart from the motherboard and the game works perfectly for him. I also recently bought Red Faction: Guerilla which has the same problem, but any other game like Borderlands, Left 4 Dead, GTA4 and Starcraft 2 don't have this problem. So tell me do I need to buy a new videocard or can this be solved in some other way? Hope you guys can help.
@sodiumCyclops: Thanks for the fast reply and also thanks for linking the video properly :P. No I haven't had any crashes, and also don't you think that if it was a overheating problem that it would only start after playing for a while, this happens as soon as I start it up. I used a program to check to see how hot my videocard is and it's at 36 Celsius 96 Fahrenheit right now and when I start the game right now the problem immediatly begins. So, do you have any other ideas? I really appreciate the help so far guys.
You said your friend has an identical system, have you tried putting your friend's GPU into your PC to see if it runs ok. If it does then that would suggest that you have a GPU issue, in which case it would be upgrade time!
Latest version is10.12 which I've got so that's probably not it. Do you think I might need a new video card or power supply? I just think it's weird because I only have this problem with Just Cause 2, Red Faction: Guerilla and Crysis, any other game is fine.
@Glasshopper: Sorry for giving useless advice. =[ BTW, did you try if the gpu on the motherboard gives the same artifacts to see if it's really your video card/driver's fault?
@teh_pwnzorer: No problem at least you tried :). I don't know enough about computers to know what exactly you mean when you say the GPU on your motherboard. I thought there wasn't a GPU on a motherboard, also how do I try out what you said?
" @teh_pwnzorer: No problem at least you tried :). I don't know enough about computers to know what exactly you mean when you say the GPU on your motherboard. I thought there wasn't a GPU on a motherboard, also how do I try out what you said? "
A lot of desktop motherboards have built-in (crappy) gpus. Check the back if you have any extra vga or dvi connectors.
It's most likely a graphics card problem and nothing to do with the game. I had a similar problem with a graphics card once. Does the same thing happen with any other games? Also try updating your drivers if you haven't already done so.
@Glasshopper: I meant that if you have an IGP (gpu on the motherboard), you can take out your video card and test the game with the IGP. If there is still a problem in the game with the IGP, then you'd know for certain that the 4850 card isn't the problem. I'm surprised you don't have an IGP.
I gave this advice to someone else who didn't listen to me on another pc forum thread. I'll let you know again it has nothing to do with drivers. I am a heavy gpu overclocker and when it's clocked too high, that happens. It's called artifacts, or it's artifacting.
But hitman, I didn't overclock my videocard... No you didn't however alot of ppl have problems with this card, everyone I knew who had this card has it overheating or it's fried by now.
So what should I do about it hitman? Well for starters you might as well stop playing pc games like that or it will be permanently damaged?
then what should I do after that hitman? Well you get a program called msi afterburner and you adjust the fan speed to 100% and that should take care of the heat. Besides I think your thermal paste is about to go, it's probally dried up and this might only be a temporary solution to your problems. Maybe it's time to get a new card.
Someone tried to replace the thermal paste and it was too late, also you need thermal pads on the ram too. I fixed my old videocard problem buying an entirely new heatsink and fans with thermal heat plates for the ram. However that might be too difficult for some ppl.
" Latest version is10.12 which I've got so that's probably not it. Do you think I might need a new video card or power supply? I just think it's weird because I only have this problem with Just Cause 2, Red Faction: Guerilla and Crysis, any other game is fine. "
Huh.
I can see how the guy that talked to you on Steam pointed at either power or heat as the cause. Those three games aren't easy on the hardware, so if you're driving less voltage or causing too much heat, those are the games that would do it (Red Faction just because it's a crappy, crappy port that is not optimized at all). I would expect a crash, though, rather than just trouble rendering polygons. That looks a lot like a software issue somewhere. Have you double checked all your settings, both in the drivers and in-game? Are you turning on any ATI-specific modes or telling the game that you have Nvidia hardware support for stuff like PhysX or CUDA? Try setting your drivers to the minimum specs for everything and seeing if that has an effect. Force antialias off, force Anisotropic off, set texture stuff to lowest quality settings, check that nothing is overclocked and so on. Also try setting the game to minimum and the lowest resolution you can.
Also, if that fails, and I know this is counterintuitive, try reverting to earlier drivers. See if that at least makes a change.
I wouldn't entirely rule out a driver problem, although I think it's highly unlikely in this case. I had the game kind of glitch playing Gothic 2--a sufficiently old game that requires zero effort from my GPU. A driver update solved the problem.
Given that Just Cause 2 is pretty new, I'd wager that just about any driver that allows you to run the game would work fine. I was using an older driver set when it came out in March and I never had any trouble. In this instance, I'd put money on heat being the problem, but I'd definitely look into reinstalling the latest drivers just in case.
With a problem like that, it could be the graphic card. I understand that some games work and some don't, but those games that are having the problems are the ones use up a lot of your system. I looked up the card on Newegg and it seems some people are running into quite a few problems with this card. I say swap it out and get a new one. Some people are against, and I don't know why, but you can find an nVidia GTS 450 for around $120. I did and it runs all my games perfectly. Even the most recent game I bought, Black Ops, runs fine on max settings.
EDIT: Oh, and everything @HitmanAgent47 tells you, DO IT. You need to find all kinds of ways to keep your RAM, GPU, and CPU cool. Leads to a better system and better running games.
Hey Guys, Thanks a lot for all the great advice and suggestions. I've tried most of the things suggested in this thread and I think my video card really is broken :(. So I’ve been looking for a new video card and on the something awful forum I found the RADEON HD 5770 which should cover all of my gaming needs. As posted earlier I have a Corsair 450W. Can I trust something awful when they say this power supply can take the RADEON HD 5770? The site where I want to buy the video card from says I need at least a 600W power supply. Unfortunately I don’t know enough about these things yet, I’ve only been a Pc gamer for a while and I’m still learning how these things in the PC work and what you need for certain parts. What do you guys think do I need to buy a better power supply? Thanks in advance.
@Glasshopper: Hey I just wanted to give you some thoughts on this problem. I am playing this game using a 4850 and a 4870 in crossfire. It runs fantastically I get an average of 50 fps with all my settings maxed. But your problem is completely different then that. I have actually seen that problem before. I bought a new netbook, an Asus 1215n with an NVIDIA Ion and when I play Age of Empires III on it sometimes I get that weird polygon failure. I haven't found a fix for that yet... BUT I have found a work around. (This works for Age of Empires on a netbook at least) I start the game up then I change the resolution. This seems to fix it sometimes. Have you tried running the game in windowed mode? It's not a hardware problem. The highest powered CPU takes 150, your Radeon maybe 200, add another 100 for mother board, memory, peripherals, and hard drives. That is 450 w. You are dangerously close to maxing it out. A power supply runs best at 80% of capacity.
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