Apollo Nvidia 6800 Agp 128 card problems

[Wkdclwn01]

 

Ok.. I bought a (to me atleast) major upgrade for my pc, from an fx 5200 256mb agp card to an Apollo Nvidia 6800 Agp 128mb card.

I was pumped!!  Played Fear MP Demo.. WOW!! AWESOME!! Got the bright idea, lets check out Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.. it won't display ANYTHING anymore..

Ok.. I email them.. wait for a response.. Try Area 51.. looks good.. but.. what are the strange "glitches" I am getting from lighting and/or shading?  like triangles shaped from wide (far) to a point (near).  

Hmmm.. I try Half Life 2.. same "glitches" only it seems WORSE!!

MAD..    I try Age Of Empires 3 (demo).. play for a few minutes.. then I get so many "glitches" when there are a bunch of men on the screen, it is unplayable.

I have tried every driver from every person under the sun.. the only one that seemed to solve the problems was the old 61.77 forceware driver.  BUT!!  NOW Fear MP is so laggy I can no longer play it!!  

I am furious at this point... and yes, btw.. I did properly uninstall the drivers each and every time.. (thought I would fry my computer)  on off on off... anyway..  I finally put my 5200fx back in.  Works flawlessly.. but.. still no high end gaming..

has anyone else had this problem??  What can I do??  Any solutions??

My system:

P4 3.0 ghz Prescott, 1 gb dual channel ram, 200gb hard drive, Asus P4p800e Deluxe mb

HELP ME PLEASE!!  I am about to return this card and wait for an xbox 360.  I don't want to though..  

[Wkdclwn01]

Note: I have included a screen from Area 51 here:

http://img226.imageshack.us/my.php?image=area51glitching2gx.jpg

Also.. I should have said the triangles go from a point (far) to wide (near)..

Please help.. I really want to keep using this card.. but.. I can't like this..

[Wkdclwn01]

Well.. for the heck of it, I tried the 61.77 drivers again.. no longer fixes the problem.

I think this card is screwed up.  ?

[Fed]

DirectX 9.0c.
Latest video drivers.
Check the game websites for fixes & patches.
After that....  

[Wkdclwn01]

  Does this sound like a card problem

I am really clueless at this point.

I have the most current Direct x and all patches available.

And with the up to date patches, it doesn't seem to happen with the up to date games, IE: FEAR, Doom 3, even FARCRY

But, other games I want to play, like AOE3, AREA 51, HALFLIFE 2 ... I no longer can.

Should I send the card back and just try a different type?  Or exchange it for another card of the same?
(afraid to do either of the above)

Or just forget it and get an Xbox 360?
(not real keen on doing this)

EDIT:
Ok.. I just ran 3dMark 03.. got over 10000 in the first test..  

Noticed some glitching in the Mother Nature part..seemed to stem from the butterfly.

Also, when the test went to CPU Testing, I got ALOT more glitches.  What does this mean??  And PLEASE don't tell me my cpu is bad.. I keep it running cool. (rarely hits 50c).



EDIT: I ran ATI tester (with Nvidia compatibility)... here are the  results from the first test.

2005-12-06 07:54:57 ATITool v0.25 Beta 10 started.
2005-12-06 07:54:58 D Successfully connected to driver, version 123
2005-12-06 07:54:58 D Found NVIDIA device: 0x10DE 0x0041 bus 1 dev 0
2005-12-06 07:54:58 D  fbPhy: 0xFC000000, mmrPhy: 0xFD000000.
2005-12-06 07:54:58 D  mmapped mmr to 0x14A0000
2005-12-06 07:54:58 D  F75373 temp chip detection: failed (VendorID)
2005-12-06 07:55:11 Scan for Artifacts started... Core: 250.00 Mhz Memory: 350.00 Mhz
2005-12-06 07:55:11 Scan for Artifacts running for: 0:00:00
2005-12-06 07:55:30 Artifacts detected after 00:19.21. 68322 pixels don't match.
2005-12-06 07:56:48 Last message repeated 9517 times.
2005-12-06 07:56:48 Scan for Artifacts stopped Total runtime: 97 seconds

After this, I tried to run it a second time, but it resulted in an auto-reboot of my computer.  I am guessing my card is badHuh

[Dell4700]

Not being a high-end gamer myself, could you tell me how you consider your new card as a major upgrade?

Your 'old' card has about the same clocking speeds and capabilities, and twice the memory!

If you're operating your system at the edge, it wouldn't surprise me to see goofy things when you switch to a less capable card.

Your new card must have something really uniquely better than your old?

Dell

[Wkdclwn01]

Yes, this card has GREAT differences.. including the following huge leaps in technology:

change from:

4 pipes to 12 (16 are possible)
2 shaders to 5 (6 are possible)

Many updates in the way the card processes shading, lighting etc...

You should read up.. there are HUGE differences in the card, and the memory isn't always everything on video cards!