Well I got home from work (September 21st) and decided that I would give STALKER a try. Downloaded it from STEAM and started attempting to play. The game would hard lock my computer. I solved this by disabling EAX. Once I was able to play, within minutes (around 5 or so) I would get colored lines radiating through the screen. The game wouldn't lock up, but the graphic corruption got worse. I checked my temps on my X1900XTX and they didn't seem too out of line (70 C). I tried a few other games, but they didn't exhibit the problem, but they didn't heat up the card as much either. I tried cranking up the fan speed to see if I could keep the card cooler, and thus associate the problem with heat, but it didn't seem to lower the heat enough. I cleaned out the HSF thoroughly without success. I then tried seeing if ATI Tray Tools would show the same thing. I ran the 3D view while scanning for artifacts and within a few minutes, I started to get them (artifacts). At this point I knew the card was screwed (memory most likely), so I checked my warranty. ATI's warranty is only good for 1 year (BS) and I knew I was close. I checked my receipt from Memory Express and I had purchased it September 7th and it was September 21st that I discovered this. Then I noticed that I had got the IRP from Memory Express for 2 years. To make a long story short, I got a replacement, a HD2900XT. I would have rather gotten an 8800GTS 640MB (it would have been cheaper for Memory Express too), but I didn't get any input on that decision. So I got a better card out of the deal, with DX10 (I don't have Fista though) and the Orange Box free. I finished HL2 E2 twice before I left for work (Oct 14th).
