Graphic Issues (artifacts)

bushio · May 19, 2014

So I've been struggling with this problem for quite a while now, not by a long shot have I fixed it though. Firstly (like one and a half year ago) I got an issue with my PC shutting down for no particular reason. I decided to change my MOBO and eventually got down to changing my GPU as well. It fixed the shutting down issue yet another turned up - it were graphic artifacts that made me unable to play some games (stretched textures, http://i.imgur.com/k7Xwzfv.jpg . The only screen I could find) such as Dead Island, Rome II: Total War, Bioshock Infinite. The artifacts used to show up after 25 minutes of playing. Some games were not problematic whatsoever and some were annoying as hell. So I decided to RMA my GPU since it was most likely the culprit. They tested it and accepted to RMA plus they got me a brand new Radeon R9 280X for a change so I was kind of satisfied with that. Got it plugged in, turned on the game. Everything had worked fine until after 6 hours the other kind of artifact showed up. It's not as annoying (I mean stretched textures all over the screen) but they are more like flickering ones. On Bioshock: Infinite, for instance I got a texture square out of blue + various pixels showing up. I'm unable to get a screen of it since it flickers so fast and probably it isn't even possible to get it visible this way. So it kind of improved but the problem persists. One more thing, these artifacts happen to get visible after like 6 hours of gaming instead of ~45 mins. still I'm sure able to play although it's extremaly annoying to play knowing that there's still a problem and my system my not be working 100% efficiently.

As I said I'm struggling with this problem for a REAL while now and yet specialists were not really able to help me, they just told me to RMA the GPU and left me in the lurch.

But anyway, here's what I have done already: *installing new drivers/old ones *adding some RAM *doing CPU tests with Intel Diag Tool (+PASSED it) *changing my HDMI cable *checking the temperatures on various stuff (NO OVERHEATING WHATSOEVER!!) *formatted my HDD, re-installed Windows / re-installed problematic games *asked on multiple various formus, noone able to really help me*running 2x2GB Kingston*running VGA cord*downclocking GPU with GPU Tweak using Power Saving setting*

here're my specs

PSU: Modecom Volcano Extreme 1000W GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 -> Radeon R9 280X RAM: 3x Kingston 1333D3N9K3/6G 1x GoodRam GR1333D364L9/2G CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz MOBO: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3P

what I'm thinking of:
- new motherboard causes the problems?
- PSU causes the problems?
- CPU causes the problems?
- RAM causes the problems? (*note that: Running 2x2GB of identical Kingston sticks did not solve the problem* Cleared of suspicion?)

how do I check it?

Danbuscus25 · May 19, 2014

well, ive never heard of that psu before, and it isnt on the tier list, so i question its reliability. try running only 1 or 2 sticks of ram and see if that fixes it. if you have another psu that is atleast 500 watts test it, see if that fixes the problem.

Eggz · May 19, 2014

The only thing I can think of is the PSU, but that is only because I am not familiar with Modecom's Volcano. It might be perfectly reliable, and if the rating is accurate, then you certainly have enough power. To test the PSU, you can do one of two things: (1) switch out the PSU for another one, or (2) put your PSU into a computer that doesn't have these issues. Either way, you'd have to run the game that's giving your trouble on both computers, and then see how long it takes to get the artifacts (if at all). You'd pretty much do the same things for each part you are testing. What that does is isolate the parts, one at a time. If you see the problem change when you do one part, you've found your problem.

That's assuming it's hardware, though, and it might be a driver issue. Have you ever done a driver sweeper? It requires you to restart in safemode and run a special program before resinstalling all drivers from scratch. Get the latest version of that program here and just follow the directoins: http://www.guru3d.com/files_get/display_driver_uninstaller_download,9.html

Good luck!

bushio · May 19, 2014

Thank you for your answer. I don't really have any spare PSUs to test at the moment. I forgot to mention that it used to work fine with my previous GTX280 (no artifacts but this GPU was quite old). But anyway, I'll try running 2 Kingston sticks only to see what happens and I'll report back to you. Maybe the two diffrent RAM brands cause the issue?
Eventually, I'll have my PSU replaced and then report back yet again.

Danbuscus25 · May 19, 2014

ok, sounds good

bushio · May 19, 2014

So I just removed 1x GoodRAM and 1x Kingston and tried running 2x2GB=4GB Kingston sticks only. I put them both in blue RAM slots (my MOBO has 2x blue slot + 2x white slot) as written in this guide: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080214041946AAe65vg . What strikes me though is that my system indicates only 2GB RAM while it would be way more logical for it to display 4GB, right? Or is it just so that it indicates 2GB but as they are both put in the blue slots they work as 4GB? I don't really get it.

But on the bright side we might be getting closer to the truth. Using 3x sticks of a one brand and 1x stick of another, having one Kingston stick placed in one white slot and GoodRam stick placed in another white slot sounds like a terrible idea if you ask me!

Anyway, I'll test it tomorrow as it's quite late here where I live. We'll see if the problem persists.

Danbuscus25 · May 19, 2014

ok, well try to use the ram in identical pairs, so if you have 3 sticks of identical 2gb, and 1 different stick of 2gb, then there might be a problem there. if your mobo supports tripple channel memory then leave the 3x2gb sticks in it, if only dual channel then buy a 2x4gb kit for it.

bushio · May 20, 2014

Here's an update:
Running 2x2GB of identical Kingston sticks did not solve the problem - textures got messed up again. I guess RAM is now cleared of suspicion since using different kind of RAM sticks was not the cause. What I'm going to do next is to change my PSU - will be able to do it in a week or so. What about the CPU though? Isn't it likely to cause graphical problems?

btw: managed to take some screens with my textures stretched all over the screen. so the problem on both GPUs got exactly the same.

http://i.imgur.com/aefuzmG.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/H6xre2x.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lFh0GDo.jpg

Danbuscus25 · May 20, 2014

well, i doubt its a cpu problem, and i dont think it is likely the psu either. make sure you have all the latest drivers, do a virus scan, and do you know what temps the gpu is getting up to?

bushio · May 20, 2014

Rarely does it go above 60 degrees Celsius. My system is perfectly cooled as overheating was the first thing that came to my mind as well. My drivers are up to date - got them downloaded with official GPU software. Virus scan shows nothing really, not to mention that I've recently formatted and reinstalled Windows. Any more ideas? Let's write them down on a whiteboard and think them over as House M.D does. (http://images2.fanpop.com/image/quiz/344000/344599_1262807610013_500_282.jpg)

Danbuscus25 · May 20, 2014

does it only do this on one game?

bushio · May 20, 2014

Nope. Pretty much every graphically demanding game - Bioshock: Infinite, Rome II: Total War, Guild Wars 2. Seems to work fine with low-requirements games.
ALTHOUGH - I noticed some graphical distortion while browsing the net as well. Some pixels showing up and so on. One more thing that I noticed - when screen goes black (i.e. while starting the game), it tends to show up as kind of green-black, not pure black. This does not happen on any other PCs I've used.
Yet another edit just to clarify things: I got it tested on the other monitor/screen, no improvement at all.

T-Bag · May 20, 2014

Hey.. R9 280X GPU have these sort of artifact issues. Just google "R9 280x artifact issues". There are lots of people have such issues and I've found some posts where people claimed a BIOS update fixed the issues. What is the brand of your GPU?

bushio · May 20, 2014

Thank you for your answer. My GPU's brand is ASUS. I'll definitely consider trying BIOS update, never done it before though. You might be right there. Any possible drawbacks of that? Is it 100% safe?

edit: Done some research and it turns out that my GPU might be faulty yet again. Both GTX680 and R9 280X were ASUS. I'm guessing that ASUS pushed too far setting the voltages on their cards resulting with unstable performance.

Danbuscus25 · May 20, 2014

that is very possible. download msi afterburner, go into the settings and enable voltage control, and them lower the voltage by a tiny bit and see if that solves the problem.

bushio · May 20, 2014

Thank you for your answer.
I don't have any dvi cord to test at the moment. But I tested 2 HDMI cords and 2 slots so it's extremaly unlikely that this is the cause. Especially considering that artifacts show up after a certain amount of time and rarely does it happen to get some visual distraction while not playing the game.

T-Bag · May 21, 2014

I'm assuming you're using ASUS DC2T one. That also have artifact issues. Try downclocking your GPU and test it again.

bushio · May 21, 2014

Presler :

That sounds perfectly logical and forced me to go and find a spare dvi cord. Found it, plugged it in, tightened the screws as much as possible but the problem remains exactly the same - no improvement whatsoever.

@T-Bag - used GPU tweak to downclock it Power Saving mode. Didn't help.

edit: Found a guy with quite the same issue as I have, he said:

"My issue is resolved and it turns out that my graphics card wasn't the culprit here and is actually fine. My system RAM was causing this, it was running at 2000 MHz with 9-9-9-24 timings and command rate 2T. Once i restored my PC into stock settings then graphical issues i was facing were gone, which is strange because the very same profile works perfectly with old HD 5870."

What do you think of it?

T-Bag · May 21, 2014

Yeah. That could be the culprit. Try it and check it yourself.

bushio · May 21, 2014

My RAM is running with 9-9-9-24 timings and command rate 2T as well but my DRAM Frequency is set to 667.3 MHz only. To be frank, I have no idea what it means and how it influences the way RAM works. By the way, supposing there's a problem with RAM indeed - what exactly do I have to do to get rid of it? That guy mentiond restoring his PC to stock settings - how do I do it?

Eggz · May 21, 2014

bushio :

You just go into your bios at startup by taping the button to enter bios (usually del or one of the F buttons at the top if the keyboard, your computer should tell you which at startup prompt).

Once you're in there, there will be a button to restore defaults. Look around the screen and menus to see which button or selection will restore the bios settings to default. Then save changes and exit.

bushio · May 21, 2014

Thank your for explanation. Nothing happened after restoring defaults. Like no reaction at all, nothing seems to have changed. That's probably because I've never done any changes to my system BIOS and I haven't personally overclocked my hardware. The artifacts are still there.

But it was worth a try.

Eggz · May 22, 2014

Presler :

Yeah, I think he was talking about RAM timings being set back to default. BIOS is the only way I know how to do that, but "factory defaults" can mean a lot of things I guess.

You can do it for each component, and you can also do it in a more holistic way for computers that come preassembled from companies. For instance, HP will give you a partition on your hard drive that allows you to reset everything back to the way it was when you first bought the computer. It's usually not worth it unless your computer seriously isn't working. You'll have to redo everything you've done since buying your computer, every configuration. On the other hand, if you haven't done all that much, getting everything back to the way you like it won't really take as long. It just depends on the computer. Also, doing a factory reset assumes that the problem is software. It may not even fix anything. Just be sure you want to do it before you do a full factory reset.

Another option (if you have Windows 8) is to reinstall Windows 8 using the option to keep all of your settings. I don't think Windows 7 has that option. Goo luck!

bushio · May 22, 2014

I'll pass on that. I'm getting sick and tired of all this and I'll probably give my PC back to the IT guys who have previously assembled it to see if they can fix it. They'll most likely do it by trial-and-error method thus replacing pretty much every component to find the faulty one. It seems like the only effective way to be honest. I'll keep you guys posted anyway and report back on what was the actual cause.

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