Graphical "fuzz" - Radeon 9800

I haven't been able to find anybody else having a similar problem, so here goes....

I am using an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9800 Pro with the latest drivers for Win2k (6.14, date: 3/22/2005). The game runs fine on close to the maximum graphics settings, but it's having some very odd issues near water and shadows. In either case the video display starts showing random bits of fuzz that flicker all over the screen. The obvious solution would be to turn off shadows and reflection, but the same problem persists even on the minimum graphics settings.

When I first wander near water or into heavily shadowed area I don't notice a thing. Slowly the graphical fuzz will creep into the picture and will grow in intensity until the area is left. After awhile it gets to full-on distortion where water starts flickering between normally textured and an odd checkerboard texture and landscape is nothing but a variety of shifting smudges (shifting even as I stand still).

This problem occurs in full screen and windowed modes. In windowed the graphical fuzz is not limited to within the game. In fact, if I leave myself in a shadowed area then pop up another window (say a web browser) the fuzzy flickering continues even over the other window. The problem seems worse when I am standing still as opposed to moving around, but that could just be a mistake in my perception.

The game is currently riding a fine line between breathtakingly beautiful and so garbled and annoying that it's nigh unplayable. Any help on making this a little easier on the eyes would be much appreciated.

You must mean 5.14. Check this out for some more driver options.

I have a 9800 pro with no such problem using the most recent drivers, 5.4. It almost sounds to me like you are getting artifacting from an overclock or heat issues. I remember a ways back hearing those 9800 All in Wonders get very hot and thats why I steered away from them. I would try to either go back to default settings if your arent doing so now or perhaps underclock the card using ATI Tool or Tray tools. Maybe knock them down 25-50 mhz and see if it helps. You could also try taking off the side of the case and have a fan blow in there for a short while just to see if heat might be an issue, it's always worked like a charm for me.

My 9800xt works fine. I run on high in textures then default reflection and medium shadow quality.