Softmod: 9800 SE and WinXP64 problem

[vde]

Hi,

I installed the softmoded drivers, the 8 pipelines are active but my screen looks like a chess board when playing 3d games, does that mean that I'm fucked up?

Cheers

V.

[INSTG8R]

It means that your 9800SE has broken pipes and cant be unlocked

[Darkowl]

I have experienced a similar problem following softmodding, however the effects are not half as noticable. I do get these checks in games when textures are being rendered, some more than others. This is occuring in every program using complex textures, but not absolutely everywhere.
Here is an example from Half-Life 2:

http://www.clanblitz.com/html/member...eli_010005.jpg
http://www.clanblitz.com/html/member...own_010001.jpg

In some situations this is barely noticable, in some it makes a huge difference. Games are still highly playable, but simply not as smooth as before and after a while it becomes a huge annoyance.

What I do not understand is that although the quality of textures has been reduced, I'm getting double FPS rate in most games, most notably Counter-strike: Source.

Seeing this, I am aware that softmodding has failed (using W1zzard's Catalyst), but I'm interested in why it has improved in some areas but not in others. I'm entirely new to the world of softmodding, so an explanation would be appreciated, as would advice on how to improve my card as much as possible without losing significant performance.

Note: I'm also using a 9800 SE, having similar symptoms on 8 pipelines.

[geeman74]

if you keep running your card like that it wont last long, ive benched like that a few times but not prolonged times