7970 Artifacting

[Lepton87]

Why didn't you just check at stock clocks? It's so obvious it's like you're too lazy to do that and want someone to bring his crystal ball...

 

[blackened23]

Why didn't you just check at stock clocks? It's so obvious it's like you're too lazy to do that and want someone to bring his crystal ball...

Thats exactly what I was thinknig but didn't want to say () Unstable / improperly volted overclocks cause artifacts.

 

[Panopticon]

Why didn't you just check at stock clocks? It'sle so obvious it's like you're too lazy to do that and want someone to bring his crystal ball...

Thanks for the useless post/thread crap but maybe you should read the thread before making needless rude comments. I asked because it was only in one instance of a certain game that had an issue and given the wide gammut of cards that had similar issues with the same game I wanted to see if anyone else here had experienced the same issue. My oc seemed otherwise stabile and because the card was so cool I was unsure if it was even the card or not so before spending 8 hrs running at stock to see if it possibly would come up again I figured maybe someone had a similar experience. Also did not want to mess with voltage if it was not needed because everything else has been solid. Thanks to those with useful input.

 

[Lepton87]

You know you can return to stock clocks while gaming? It's not hard to alt-tab out of the game and change clocks and see if anything changes.

 

[blackened23]

Thanks for the useless post/thread crap but maybe you should read the thread before making needless rude comments. I asked because it was only in one instance of a certain game that had an issue and given the wide gammut of cards that had similar issues with the same game I wanted to see if anyone else here had experienced the same issue. My oc seemed otherwise stabile and because the card was so cool I was unsure if it was even the card or not so before spending 8 hrs running at stock to see if it possibly would come up again I figured maybe someone had a similar experience. Also did not want to mess with voltage if it was not needed because everything else has been solid. Thanks to those with useful input.

May I point out you seem pretty defensive here. Fact of the matter is unstable overclocks will result in artifacts, and when/where those artifacts occur can vary wildly. You really should have tried returning to stock or upping the voltage, period. On my MSI lightnings if I don't have an adequate voltage I get dots on my screen during witcher 2 gameplay but WoW / SC2 play fine. Now If I judge my stability from WoW Witcher 2 should be fine right? Well when I up my voltage in MSI afterburner or revert my overclock, my artifacts disappear in witcher 2. Take this for what its worth or completely ignore it.

 

[Panopticon]

I dont think that calling a poster lazy is productive or adds to a thread in any way. I did not know it was safe to adjust clocks or voltages while the gpu.is under load. I also did not know that powertune did not up the voltage.

Just wanted to add that most of the reviews I read of the 7970 ran the oc with only CCC settings so I would not have assumed that anything else was needes

 

[nitromullet]

Your issue does sound like an oc related issue though. I actually have to follow up to my previous post because upping the voltage did not help my oc after all.

It's actually quite odd and I'm having issues in the most unexpected games. For instance, my card at 1125/1575 will run the Heaven benchmark no problem but will artifact in Portal 2. In all of my previous experiences unstable clocks were generally unstable in everything with more demanding games showing issues quicker, but with my 7970 it seems to be inconsistent. The only thing that fixes ALL the issues for me is running at stock clocks.

 

[guskline]

I'll ask nicely, Panopticon, have you run the game and map scene at stock video settings? If so, is it still artifacting? Honestly, with a card that powerful I would not OC it. I understand why because I overclock also, but that video card is a Monster and we all drool with envy! Have fun. BTW, the balance of your rig is very impressive also!

 

[blackened23]

Your issue does sound like an oc related issue though. I actually have to follow up to my previous post because upping the voltage did not help my oc after all.

It's actually quite odd and I'm having issues in the most unexpected games. For instance, my card at 1125/1575 will run the Heaven benchmark no problem but will artifact in Portal 2. In all of my previous experiences unstable clocks were generally unstable in everything with more demanding games showing issues quicker, but with my 7970 it seems to be inconsistent. The only thing that fixes ALL the issues for me is running at stock clocks.

I've said it before and i'll say it again, INCREASE YOUR VOLTAGE IN MSI AFTERBURNER by 100mV, powertune does not increase your load voltage, it increases your TDP and removes throttling during non use.

what you described happened to me constantly with msi lightning gtx 580s (while trying to find my oc sweet spot), trust me, voltage should fix the issue.

that should eliminate artifacts

 

[AdamK47]

May I point out you seem pretty defensive here. Fact of the matter is unstable overclocks will result in artifacts, and when/where those artifacts occur can vary wildly. You really should have tried returning to stock or upping the voltage, period. On my MSI lightnings if I don't have an adequate voltage I get dots on my screen during witcher 2 gameplay but WoW / SC2 play fine. Now If I judge my stability from WoW Witcher 2 should be fine right? Well when I up my voltage in MSI afterburner or revert my overclock, my artifacts disappear in witcher 2. Take this for what its worth or completely ignore it.

Nah, I don't think you should judge stability from WoW, StarCraft 2, or Witcher 2. Try Folding at Home. It shouldn't take long for it to report "Unstable Machine" with a 950MHz core GTX 580.

 

[blackened23]

Nah, I don't think you should judge stability from WoW, StarCraft 2, or Witcher 2. Try Folding at Home. It shouldn't take long for it to report "Unstable Machine" with a 950MHz core GTX 580.

I don't test stability with witcher 2, wow or sc2. I was merely pointing out to the OP that stability in one application doesn't mean you will have stability in another.

I generally test stability by disabling throttling and running furmark for several hours or running 3dmark 11 in a loop. Have not tried folding@home.

 

[nitromullet]

I've said it before and i'll say it again, INCREASE YOUR VOLTAGE IN MSI AFTERBURNER by 100mV, powertune does not increase your load voltage, it increases your TDP and removes throttling during non use.

what you described happened to me constantly with msi lightning gtx 580s (while trying to find my oc sweet spot), trust me, voltage should fix the issue.

that should eliminate artifacts

I didn't anything about PowerTune. As indicated in my previous post I used Aferburner and Trixx (because Afterburner resets voltage after each reboot). Perhaps you have me confused with the OP.

 

[Phynaz]

Either the card is defective. Or the VRAM is getting too hot.. Did you OC ? di you chek your temps while on load..............lgl

Did you even bother to read the op?

 

[Cookie Monster]

This kind of makes me wonder just how reliable the reported overclocks are from forum users. Just like SB overclocking with users that boast high overclocks and low/stock voltages yet most of them aren't really stable once people start questioning the op about it..

For GPU stablility test, one should consider the following tests:

1)Extreme load on GPU core- Furmark/EVGA OC scanner
2)Extreme load on GPU - Heaven everything maxed (Very high vRAM usage + ~99% GPU load)
3)Medium load - Heaven on default
4)Light load - watch a video, or a GPU accelerated media content
5)General gaming - Crysis2 to starcraft2 etc. Test atleast 3 games that are considered different (for e.g. FPS, RTS, MMORPG).

If it passes all that without any weird corruptions or artifects or slowdowns, id consider it stable.

And with regards the OP, by testing with stock clocks you know whether or not its a driver problem or an OC problem. I think this one is the most important and helps isolate the problem so that we can further help you out on your issue with a new toy

 

[tweakboy]

You need to RMA your card my friend.. end of story....

gl

 

[Panopticon]

I'll ask nicely, Panopticon, have you run the game and map scene at stock video settings? If so, is it still artifacting? Honestly, with a card that powerful I would not OC it. I understand why because I overclock also, but that video card is a Monster and we all drool with envy! Have fun. BTW, the balance of your rig is very impressive also!

I am about to investigate this further. And thank you my new system is treating me great it is a solid performer and I spent a total of $1400 by snagging every newegg promo code and bundle deal I could squeeze... the only thing I paid full price for was the 7970.

Anyway thank you to those who continue to offer useful advice on overclock trouble shooting and I now have a better understanding of the methodology for testing stability. I will chime in once I have a chance to push the card to its limits but for the meantime I am going to follow the advice of blackened and test at stock clocks if/when the artifacts show back up. I have to reiterate the fact that I probably have about 15hrs of gaming done so far on this card and the artifacts were only in one match of BF3. If artifacts reappear and stock clocks fix the problem I am going to enable the OC and adjust my voltage. If this solves the problem I will let you all know so if anyone else runs into these kinds of issues they can find a quick solution.

 

[nitromullet]

Be interesting to see how this turns out for you. Keep us posted.

 

[Phynaz]

You need to RMA your card my friend.. end of story....

gl

You need to RMA your brain.


GG GL BFE LOL POS WTF BRB ROFL FDISK

 

[Panopticon]

So i finally was able to reproduce the black lines... I played all night various maps and no problems then at the beginning of a match only players, vehicles, and building doors would occasionally have a black line coming out. I minimized the game to drop my oc and before I got a chance I accidentally clicked back into the game and they were all gone and would not reproduce. I clearly remember reading this in a thread from around the time BF3 came out when many cards were having the same kinds of artifacts and one of the remedies was just to alt tab out and back in and they would go away... Not saying my OC is 100% stable but I think this is interesting.

I still need to run some more games and gpu benchmarks to get a more accurate measure of stability.

 

[Madcatatlas]

You need to RMA your brain.


GG GL BFE LOL POS WTF BRB ROFL FDISK

There must be something wrong with me, cause i find this comment hilariously funny

 

[Lepton87]

There must be something wrong with me, cause i find this comment hilariously funny

Funny, I wanted to write the exact same thing and then my civility took over.

 

[Achilles97]

I was getting the same problem on my 460. After trying all different things, such as setting to game to LOW settings, underclocking the card, different drivers, reinstalling the game, nothing fixed it. I eventually replaced the card with a 6970 and no problems with that. A lot of people have reported the same issue. As you mentioned, you can find loads of videos on Youtube about this problem.

Good luck.

 

[Panopticon]

Quick update on this. Was able to minimize the next time I saw an artifact appear still only minor and not game breaking but anyway I dropped everything back to stock and no change. The only thing that dropped off were my frames, it is really insane to me how much better my FPS is with the card at mentioned clocks.