Artifacting using 9800 xt

Ok for starters here is my setup:

Windows XP pro
AMD Athlon xp 2100+ (1.7 Ghrtz)
1024 MB pc 2700 ddr ram
ATI Radeon 9800 xt (stock speed) 256 MB

The problem I am having is that after an uncertain amount of time, sometimes a few mins to a few hours, my card stops rendering some in game characters and instead of people they are large solid white cubes. It is very strange, the cubes still have the names and classes above their heads but they just slide around on the ground instead of people running. When this happens I usually just log out and log back in, but in doing so i get a message that GW is "Repairing Data Archive" and i have to wait a few mins before i can log back in. I had a problem with heat a few months back when my comp was clogged with dust, and my card was running at 83 C under load.

I have done everything but get a new graphics card. I have downloaded new drivers from ATI and am currently using Catalyst drivers 5.7. And as I said sometimes i can play for hours and have nothing wrong and sometimes it happens minutes into playing. Once i continued to play and eventually i lost all of my in game text except for the chat box. That was terrible.

If I do get a new graphics card, I am leaning toward a 6600 gt, or maybe a 6800 of some kind. Thank you for any help or suggestions you have.

I dont know what the problem is because I have a 9800 pro and my friend has a 9800 xt and we have never had anyproblems like that. The closest thing I've had to that is sometimes the graphics will screw up things will change into multiple colors and then go back, then after like 5 mins of that even if it stops my comp will crash and restart. I'm just glad it doesnt happen that often only 2 times to me.

The white cubes, as far as I know, means that Guild Wars can't load the models/textures properly. Maybe try running memtest to see if your RAM crapped out, reinstall the game, etc. If you do need a new video card, the 6600GT is a great choice, probably the best bang-for-your-buck out there right now, and the price should keep going down now that the 7x00 series is out there. I got one about 6 months ago now, hasn't failed me yet, performs great, best $180 I ever spent.

Do a search. There is a thread regarding this already. You may find an answer in there. It is located in the Technicians Corner though, so you should only need to search for White Cube in the text info looking in this section in the search engine.

a friend of mine had the same problem, and as it turned out, it was the ram that produced the errors.

problems like this are generally RAM issues.

run a memtest or download SiSoft Sandra and run a Stress Test on your machine.