I' ve had a problem with the graphics for my PC for a while but it hasn' t bothered me too much. Until I played the COD4 demo where the problem occurs all the time.
When playing a game I get some weird texture pop-ups everywhere and it' s flickering and shit.

What' s causing the problem and how do I solve it?

Here are some screenshots to help you understand.

What gfx card dyu have? I' ve had that problem before and it was down to an overheating gfx card.

Does it come on straight away or does it get worse the more time you play?

I have Ati X1900 something...

It seems to be happening randomly, sometimes it gets better, sometimes all hell breaks lose. But it doesn' t show up immediately when I start playing.

It' s far worse with COD4 than with Counter-Strike Source.

It could be the refresh rate you are using, try dropping it to 60Hz and take it from there.

I clicked on the 60hz thingy in the options menu but it didn' t help.
I have no problems at all with Oblivion so it' s either that something isn' t right in the settings or that my graphics card have some kind of problem with some engines or something.
I didn' t install the game on the same harddrive as my OS is on, but that shouldn' t matter right?

Ah crap it seems I have the same problem with Oblivion but it' s not as frequent.
So, what do I do now? Buy a new graphics card? I was hoping someone would say
" oh, it' s a known issue with the ati cards and the latest version of directx, download a patch at www.patchmeup.com"

or something like that....

c' mon, give me some good news!

ATi cards are notorious for driver issues.

right click on the EXE, go into compatibility mode and try changing it to XP, or Even 98 (if you have that option)..

1) Uninstall the drivers and reinstall the latest drivers..

or

2) reinstall windows, some stuff get fucked up in windows and might give you headaches

or

3) your graphicard is overheating, change the heatsink or the fan or buy a new one (sorry)

or

4) your PSU is giving up , lack of juice to your Graphic card.

Ginj thats the same card I was having issues with. Im pretty sure its an overheating issue since mine only ever came on after a certain amount of time and only when the temp was above 70 degrees.

Happened with any drivers. Only way to solve it is to get better cooling, although Im looking more into it myself since I was already using an Arctic Cooling fan.

ORIGINAL: Virtua fighter 5

right click on the EXE, go into compatibility mode and try changing it to XP, or Even 98 (if you have that option)..

Uh?????

Gin, try reinstalling the driver, look for the latest one and use that if possible.
Open the case and use a fan to blow into the machine,(This will prove if the card is overheating.)
Are you having any issue with the DVD rom rebooting the machine anything like that? Tell tale sign of the psu starting to die.

Not sure if ATi has a configurator like Nvidia does, but try fiddling with it if it does.

Other than that the only thing I could suggest is using remote assistance with someone you trust to have a look at your settings etc.

*sigh* I hate PC' s.

Completely shut off your PC, (not just restart), then unplug it from the wall for a few minutes. Then plug it back in and turn it on and see if it still happens. Sometimes when you update drivers it fucks shit up like that and won' t fix itself until a complete shut down.

If it doesn' t fix it it probably means your graphics card is overheating. Same thing is happening to me right now.
I also happen to have an ATI 1900XT 512 mb and it started happening after I got the latest drivers. But it also pops up a thing that says it is overheating and it is reducing the clock speed. I think it might be because of all the dust that has accumated on it. So I' m going to get a can of air and see if that helps.

yes dust when accumulated can reduce the airflow raising the temp considerably, enough to make the card go crazy, so do what locopuyo suggested , vacuum the shit out..

It looks like your GPU is fried.

Does it make more noise than usual?

I few months ago my moms computer was making a grinding noise for a while and all of a sudden we started to see graphical anomalies. It turns out her old graphics card (FX5700LE lol) was fucked. The fan was so full of dust and shit that it couldn' t even spin anymore. The GPU was fried because it over heated for too long.

It' s not noisy.
I checked the Ati Catalyst Control Center.
The ATI Overdrive page shows the temperature. When not playing games the temperature is 55-65 degrees Celsius. When I play a game it' s 70-85 degrees Celsius. Is that too hot?

Mine too. I think it seems to be a common issue with the x1900 series. All my previous cards seemed to reach a max of 65 degrees. But my current card starts causing graphical glitches at over 75... I resort to opening the side of the case and putting it next to the window so cold air gets drawn in through the fans.

But eventually I' ll just upgrade... I know how you feel Ginj.

Well the 19** series cards usually run hot.

I hate ATI. I' m not gonna buy that shit anymore. Their drivers suck in comparison with NVidia' s.

I disagree. That was true 5 years ago but ever since the Nvidia 8*** series Nvidia takes the crown for worst drivers by far. They still can' t ge it right. Part of it is Windows Vista but ATI seems to have no issues with their drivers on Vista. They even recently had a huge update that increased performance accross the board by about 30%!