Having a "pop in" problem

[fishfillet]

I have a gainward 6800gt golden sample, 1 gig of ram and a 2800xp. Recently I have noticed that the fps i play have this popping in problem like those of halo 2 where the model would swtich to low res when i move away from it. Its it very obvious as the popping occurs quite near me. I have the image settings changed to quality and the problem still occurs. What is happening?

 

[Barley]

when did this start happening, did you do something to your computer before this started happening?

 

[fishfillet]

Yeah i reformatted it :-| It happens with recent games like call of duty2 and half life 2, they models switch from low poly to high poly ones as i move closer to them.

 

[D3v01D]

...they models switch from low poly to high poly ones as i move closer to them.

It's actually supposed to do that, but not when your close to the object. It's supposed to happen at a distance so you don't really notice it.
For Half-Life 2 there is a console variable to set the distance at which it happens, but I can't remember it. Look on a HL2 tweaking site to find it.