Graphical corruption: How do you know if it's hardware, or software?

[Dankk]

I recently upgraded to an RX 580. Specifically, it's the XFX GTR-S model, which is factory-overclocked to 1,430MHz. However, since the card is advertised as having a "1,450MHz OC+ Capable Clock", I overclocked it in WattMan to 1,450MHz.

After playing Ghost Recon: Wildlands for about an hour, I started to notice some pieces of the environment flickering to black. The sky, different parts of the terrain, and other things randomly started flashing.

I figured, "OK, maybe this card isn't as capable of 1,450MHz like it's advertised to be." So reset the overclock and put it back at 1,430MHz.

After getting back into the game, it was fine for a few minutes, but then this happened:

I guess my question is: How in the world do I know if this is just the game being dumb, or a bad driver, or (worst scenario) bad hardware?

To help narrow it down, I also own a different, slightly-older RX 480, and that card has been able to run the game perfectly fine for the past several weeks that I've been playing it. Which makes me worry that it's the new card causing the issues.

I just barely updated to the new AMD driver 17.5.2, so it's hard to say if it's the driver or not. I guess I could revert back to an older driver, and if the issue still happens, then it would safely rule out the driver and point to a bad card.

Just an observation: The graphical corruption still seems to exist "within the confines of the game", so to speak. There was a DoF effect being applied to it, the brownish/blackish colors matched my darker-skinned character, and if I rotated the camera a certain way, I was able to take a glimpse at the environment normally again, without the wall of chaos in front of me.

I just want to know if I need to send this 580 back for a replacement or not. Full PC specs are in sig. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[sm625]

Can you clock it down to like 1300MHz and see if it still does it? Also try underclocking the memory.

 

[Despoiler]

What are the GPU temps after an hour of playing? What are your fan speeds like? Is Radeon Chill enabled?

 

[Dankk]

What are the GPU temps after an hour of playing? What are your fan speeds like? Is Radeon Chill enabled?

Ah, this is a detail I accidentally left out of my original post. I've had GPU-Z running the whole time, and I'm pretty confident that the issue is not related to temperature or fan speed. On load, the card doesn't get much higher than ~80 C. My fan speed currently maxes out at 2500 RPM, which isn't terribly high, but I keep my room cold so it works out fine.

To be honest, I've never used Radeon Chill, and I'm not even 100% sure what it is. But yeah, no, according to WattMan it's not enabled.

Can you clock it down to like 1300MHz and see if it still does it? Also try underclocking the memory.

I took your advice, and underclocked the card to 1300MHz. I played Ghost Recon: Wildlands for well over an hour, and experienced no corruption whatsoever.

Meanwhile, if I reset the card back to default clocks, I get corruption within 5-10 minutes of playing.

Time to RMA the card I guess? the thing can't even run at its advertised clocks. Fortunately, it's eligible for a replacement from Newegg, so I can go that route if the card is decidedly borked. Any further suggestions are appreciated.

 

[daxzy]

Maybe cards just die with age?

I have an ATI Radeon X1900 XTX. It goes into Windows just fine. Does the D3D tests and some limited (non-game) 3DMark tests fine. But fire up the full 3DMark game tests or any game and it will corrupt in seconds. I should try lowering the core speed on that as well.

 

[Crono]

It might be a power issue, if you have another power supply I'd try a swap first, but it sounds like the card is not stable though and might fail completely after a while. I'd RMA it.

 

[Rifter]

Id RMA it too. Sounds like its just not stable enough at the clocks they are trying to sell it at.