Now before I begin I should say that I've been trying to research and resolve this problem since the first week of November last year, when it seemed to suddenly start, and hasn't stopped since.
Basically, every video game I play on any platform in my house has very distracting and annoying flickering with lines/sharp edges/foliage/grass when they or the camera moves, almost as though anti-aliasing isn't functioning at all. Before I go into more detail I will give a link to an example that shows what I mean, a recording of the GTA V PC benchmark test. I chose this because it's a recent title, I'm using the AMD updated GTA V optimized drivers for my graphics card (full specs below, but as I say it's not just limited to this PC), and there are a few segments where it clearly demonstrates the problem.
Ignore the FPS, as this was recorded purely to show the issue I am having. I would also highly recommend watching it in 1080p as it makes it a lot clearer.
Pay close attention to:
These are just a few examples that are relatively easy to spot in a compressed YouTube video. It's VERY prevalent and distracting when playing, and is very noticeable. Please read the rest of this post before watching the video and responding with "turn MSAA on" or "probably faulty GPU". I will explain why I don't believe this is the problem later. I'd be very happy to give more examples via screenshots or recordings if needed.
As you can see, the problem SEEMS to be with anti-aliasing, with edges appearing jagged and blocky. This is true to an extent, with high levels of MSAA either through the game itself or CCC often somewhat masking the problem to make a game playable, however it is not possible for me to crank my MSAA up to 8x or 16x on most new games, and I never needed to do that before this problem began suddenly in November. The issue is most noticeable on objects in the mid/background, and tend to be less noticeable the closer they are.
My current PC setup is as follows
Windows 7 64-bit
Intel i5 760 @ 4.01ghz
Sapphire R9 280X 3GB
Asus P7P55D-E LX
16GB DDR3 RAM
2 x 128GB Sandisk SSD
2 x 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 HDD
However as mentioned before, I don't believe this is directly a problem with my PC. This is because the issue is also obvious on my brother's PC, in the same house, who runs an entire different setup to me, and Windows 7 32-bit. And here's the really strange part; it also affects our two Xbox 360's, and our PS4 that was purchasing in January (2 months after the issue began for us). I can also notice it when watching sports/TV, to a lesser extent, which I assume is due to the lower resolution. Strangely, it doesn't seem to happen on games played via mobile devices such as iPhone or iPad.
Here is the basic mental steps I've taken since November in trying to figure this out;
1) Problem started, assumed it was a problem with the game I was playing on my PC, re-installed, also re-installed fresh drivers
2) Began to believe my graphics card was faulty, tested a spare nVidia GTX 560ti I had lying around, the problem is still there
3) Believed that another component in my PC was faulty, tested both graphics cards in my brother's PC, the problem still existed, as well as on his own card
4) Replaced my motherboard and CPU, with multiple configurations of graphics cards
5) Changed DVI cable
6) Used a different monitor from within the house
7) Used a different power outlet and power cable
8) Tried a brand new monitor
9) Connected PC to living room TV via HDMI
10) Noticed that it was happening on our Xbox 360 as well
11) Bought our PS4 in January, issue occured, less noticeable than on Xbox 360
12) Began to believe it was somehow a problem with the electrics in our house
13) Coincidentally, we moved house in February to a nearby suburb, didn't solve anything
14) Ran out of ideas, once again tried different combinations of cables and reinstalled software multiple times
15) Built a PC for my cousin from scratch, in my house, with brand new parts. Problem STILL occured
This is just what I can think of off the top of my head. I'm certain I've tried many more things to try and resolve this. At this point I'm almost convinced there's some sort of electrical problem, but I have no idea what (maybe something faulty that has been connected at both houses?). I finally bit the bullet and decided to make this thread as I'm at my wit's end, and and hoping this is a problem somebody on the internet has encountered before, and knows how to resolve.
Thanks.
Basically, every video game I play on any platform in my house has very distracting and annoying flickering with lines/sharp edges/foliage/grass when they or the camera moves, almost as though anti-aliasing isn't functioning at all. Before I go into more detail I will give a link to an example that shows what I mean, a recording of the GTA V PC benchmark test. I chose this because it's a recent title, I'm using the AMD updated GTA V optimized drivers for my graphics card (full specs below, but as I say it's not just limited to this PC), and there are a few segments where it clearly demonstrates the problem.
Ignore the FPS, as this was recorded purely to show the issue I am having. I would also highly recommend watching it in 1080p as it makes it a lot clearer.
Pay close attention to:
The edges of the warehouses behind Franklin's house (0:41 - 0:51)
The satellite/radio towers in the background (1:04 - 1:08)
The railings on the railway bridge (1:54 - 2:02)
Road markings in the middle of the intersection (3:04 - 3:10)
These are just a few examples that are relatively easy to spot in a compressed YouTube video. It's VERY prevalent and distracting when playing, and is very noticeable. Please read the rest of this post before watching the video and responding with "turn MSAA on" or "probably faulty GPU". I will explain why I don't believe this is the problem later. I'd be very happy to give more examples via screenshots or recordings if needed.
As you can see, the problem SEEMS to be with anti-aliasing, with edges appearing jagged and blocky. This is true to an extent, with high levels of MSAA either through the game itself or CCC often somewhat masking the problem to make a game playable, however it is not possible for me to crank my MSAA up to 8x or 16x on most new games, and I never needed to do that before this problem began suddenly in November. The issue is most noticeable on objects in the mid/background, and tend to be less noticeable the closer they are.
My current PC setup is as follows
Windows 7 64-bit
Intel i5 760 @ 4.01ghz
Sapphire R9 280X 3GB
Asus P7P55D-E LX
16GB DDR3 RAM
2 x 128GB Sandisk SSD
2 x 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 HDD
However as mentioned before, I don't believe this is directly a problem with my PC. This is because the issue is also obvious on my brother's PC, in the same house, who runs an entire different setup to me, and Windows 7 32-bit. And here's the really strange part; it also affects our two Xbox 360's, and our PS4 that was purchasing in January (2 months after the issue began for us). I can also notice it when watching sports/TV, to a lesser extent, which I assume is due to the lower resolution. Strangely, it doesn't seem to happen on games played via mobile devices such as iPhone or iPad.
Here is the basic mental steps I've taken since November in trying to figure this out;
1) Problem started, assumed it was a problem with the game I was playing on my PC, re-installed, also re-installed fresh drivers
2) Began to believe my graphics card was faulty, tested a spare nVidia GTX 560ti I had lying around, the problem is still there
3) Believed that another component in my PC was faulty, tested both graphics cards in my brother's PC, the problem still existed, as well as on his own card
4) Replaced my motherboard and CPU, with multiple configurations of graphics cards
5) Changed DVI cable
6) Used a different monitor from within the house
7) Used a different power outlet and power cable
8) Tried a brand new monitor
9) Connected PC to living room TV via HDMI
10) Noticed that it was happening on our Xbox 360 as well
11) Bought our PS4 in January, issue occured, less noticeable than on Xbox 360
12) Began to believe it was somehow a problem with the electrics in our house
13) Coincidentally, we moved house in February to a nearby suburb, didn't solve anything
14) Ran out of ideas, once again tried different combinations of cables and reinstalled software multiple times
15) Built a PC for my cousin from scratch, in my house, with brand new parts. Problem STILL occured
This is just what I can think of off the top of my head. I'm certain I've tried many more things to try and resolve this. At this point I'm almost convinced there's some sort of electrical problem, but I have no idea what (maybe something faulty that has been connected at both houses?). I finally bit the bullet and decided to make this thread as I'm at my wit's end, and and hoping this is a problem somebody on the internet has encountered before, and knows how to resolve.
Thanks.
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