It can be two other things : driver version and dirty GPU slot and or card connectors. Also due to age and inserts into; many older systems the GPU socket pins could be worn and in such cases I deliberately screw the card slightly off center to the left and then to the right... if that works then it's magnifier and sewing needle to encourage the pins to connect to the GPU again.
It was so much easier to throw things away before they stopped getting sold 😀

Actually it seems like that could be the problem, or something along those lines

Just tried an FX5600 and ATI 9800 PRO I have in my collection and both are doing crazy things with screen corruption! Either half my collection just broke or there is an issue with this machine..

Gives me a bit more hope... will try these cards in another board and see what happens !

Tried on a different board and looks like both the Ti4600 and 9800PRO are dead, artefacts on the POST screen 🙁 noticed these cards are all super expensive on ebay now ... i wonder if thats because so many have died? I remember they used to be worth very little only a few years ago.

My FX5600 appears to be working OK so have put that in the Socket A machine ... it's not the best card but it's not horrible, performance seems to be not THAT much lower, will keep on the lookout for a reasonable priced replacement to my ti4600...

Got luck and managed to pick up a 9800 PRO locally for £25 yesterday so things are looking up!

Just tried it in the machine and it's stable, going to give it a bit of TLC and new thermal paste and hopefully my problems are sorted...

If it fails this time please get another motherboard and PSU as well this time 🤣
personally i go for the less desirable hardwares but they don't get used up as much and generally a hot potato online.
Chances are they have more life in them and although might be a bit slower be much cheaper too 😀
If you are using the same PSU be wise just to check cables and listen to humming noises at socket ends.
Small voltage spikes ruin electronics and classic electronics loose ability to filter efficiently.
(surge protection is wise)
your cards might be damaged but since they still function you should be able to have them refurbished by a technician it would cost the price of a new card though.

Both 4600 and 9800 are prone to BGA RAM failures. You need to reflow it or find new one as replacement.

is it becaue BGA memory during that era was faulty?
or is it because during that era people used to overclock the memory for some more fps.

Has way more to do with the crappy Lead-free solder and secondly with poor cooling.

Lead-free solder

Too old for that.

is it becaue BGA memory during that era was faulty?

Mostly yes. Plus high operating temperatures. Some manufacturers are more notorious than the others. From my anecdotal experience - early Samsung BGA chips are the main culprit. Infamous GeForce FX 5800 cards were exclusively on DDR2 chips from Samsung and most are dead already. Same goes for Radeon 9700/9800 cards, which were commonly packed with Samsung DDR 2.8ns memory.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2021-07-28, 15:50:

Too old for that. […]
Show full quote

Lead-free solder

Too old for that.

is it becaue BGA memory during that era was faulty?

Mostly yes. Plus high operating temperatures. Some manufacturers are more notorious than the others. From my anecdotal experience - early Samsung BGA chips are the main culprit. Infamous GeForce FX 5800 cards were exclusively on DDR2 chips from Samsung and most are dead already. Same goes for Radeon 9700/9800 cards, which were commonly packed with Samsung DDR 2.8ns memory.

Good guess, just checked and my dead 9800 PRO has samsung memory! Not sure about the Ti4600 as its back in storage now. My replacement 9800 PRO has hynix (I think, its in the machine now)

The dead 9800 PRO had an aftermarket cooler installed (was like that when the card came to me), but I removed it just now as I was curious and it didnt look like it was making proper contact with the die, due to that shim they have being slightly higher ... when I removed it there was barely any thermal paste on the die... curse whoever fitted that! I guess the RAM not core died but still, im sure it didn't help the temperature situation. My "new" card is a Sapphire 9800 PRO, I think its a slightly later card as has the R360 core, the cooler has a raised section that makes contact with the core, no thermal pad, so I was able replace it with new paste without too much difficulty.

Machine seems good now anyway ... played NFS Underground for a few hours yesterday with no issues

zapbuzz wrote on 2021-07-28, 12:03:

personally i go for the less desirable hardwares but they don't get used up as much and generally a hot potato online.
Chances are they have more life in them and although might be a bit slower be much cheaper too 😀

There's a lot of sense in that, subbing in a later midrange for a previous gen hot and flighty high end card. Last years of AGP that's difficult though because of PCIe transition. An x600 might be a sub for a 9800pro (more 9600-ey but higher clocks so benches similar) but then you have almost as much trouble finding an AGP one as a 9800.

Well, Pentium 4 chipset by SiS not popular but she works even with modded windows 98se and 500gb PATA
I think also its a change from everything Intel 🤣

People... You are using 20+ year old video cards which more often than not have critical capacitors on them which are either out of spec or completely bulged. A Ti4600 needs mostly very low ESR, high ripple capacitors in said critical locations. Be prepared to pay $2 each per capacitor for adequate modern replacements.

Vogons members are responsible for 90% of destroyed vintage hardware, due to their overwhelming ignorance. No offence.

There is abundance of video cards except for the high end ones like Ti4600. There are plenty of FX5200, FX5500 and they are extremely cheap. Bulged capacitors on video cards are very rare, probably because those faulty ones failed long time ago and got thrown away.

Don't go overkill on the expensive caps, put the cheaper 6000 hour ones on it, you're not gonna leave your retro rigs on 24/7 and 6000 hours give you 2 hours a day for 8 years, which I doubt you would actually do, so would probably last until the 10-15 year mark where you'd want to replace even highest spec ones again due to age in years rather than time on in hours.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2021-07-28, 15:50:

Too old for that. […]
Show full quote

Lead-free solder

Too old for that.

is it becaue BGA memory during that era was faulty?

Mostly yes. Plus high operating temperatures. Some manufacturers are more notorious than the others. From my anecdotal experience - early Samsung BGA chips are the main culprit. Infamous GeForce FX 5800 cards were exclusively on DDR2 chips from Samsung and most are dead already. Same goes for Radeon 9700/9800 cards, which were commonly packed with Samsung DDR 2.8ns memory.

I thought that the move to Lead-free solder started earlier. From what I am finding, the push to remove Lead bearing solders in electronics was started in the early 1990s. The Ti4600 came out in 2002.

Looks like a move to Lead-free solders was started around 1999.
https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/761872

I guess it would mostly depend on the mfgs.

AlexZ wrote on 2021-07-29, 16:30:

There is abundance of video cards except for the high end ones like Ti4600. There are plenty of FX5200, FX5500 and they are extremely cheap. Bulged capacitors on video cards are very rare, probably because those faulty ones failed long time ago and got thrown away.

Bulging is only one failure mode. Capacitors dry out as well.