Currently I built my own personal computer that included

P4 3.0 ghz
DFI motherboard with a gig of ram
dvd-rw drive
a ATI Radeon 9600

Shortly after I built the computer, It began to freeze when I ran high quality games. I thought it may be a case of overheating but everything seems to be running relativley cool. just to make sure I purchased a PCI slot fan and placed it right next to my video card. that helped. Now the games at time may expierence a huge drop in quality aftet a certain amount of time.

I have the latest drivers ect.

Im not sure if I should send back the video card or if there may be another solution

thanks in advance for the help

Did you try the latest drivers?

How hot does it get?

If it's 9600xt it decreses the clock when it gets too hot.

I'm not an Intel guy, but if I'm not mistaken, the P4 will start to slow down on its own once it hits a certain temperature. If by "huge drop in quality after a certain time" you mean that it's slowing down, perhaps it's just your processor overheating.

Just a thought

processor seems very cool

and yes I have the latest drivers

How would I go about decresing the clock?


Thanks for the replies

You can adjust the clock with Radeonator and there are many more tools. Try google.

After I bought my 9600XT I was very disappointed with the video quality and the lack of ability to pump up the graphics in games. I ended up not playing games for quite a while because I didn't have the time or money to start "testing" different scenerios. I recently bought a new heatsink and fan for my processor and it's like having a new PC. All games run great and graphics can now be turned up.

Just a thought, especially if you have the stock fan and heatsink for your processor.