Shadow artifacts in 3DMark05 Firefly Forest with XFX 7800GT

[Djizus]

Can anyone tell me why these (how to describe this?) interlaced shadows appear on the smaller leaves all over Firefly Forest

Click to view in full size (1280x1024):


They also appear a bit on the stones in the same test, and also some on the cliffs in test 3.

I run the latest nVidia drivers at the moment.

Questions? Suggestions? Help!

 

[the_guru]

Could be a result from overheating. Is the card overclocked? Another possibility is a poor PSU.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

"I run the latest nVidia drivers at the moment."

I don't have your nvidia card specifically, but if I use the Forceware 81.xx drivers my card is nearly half the speed it is when using version 77.77. I think you have to use the 80 series version but try the OEM drivers that came with your card and see if that makes a difference. The advice about the power or overheating problems could be correct as well.

 

[Djizus]

Could be a result from overheating. Is the card overclocked? Another possibility is a poor PSU.

Well, it is factory overclocked at 450MHz with a probably just-enough sufficient stock cooler. Going to buy an Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5 (Rev. 3) later on. Maybe I should "Riva-tune" it down a notch and se if they go away...

And the PSU is a Tagan 420W, I'm not at home with PSU's, but a well renowned store owner at the best place in town said he put together a high-performance SLI-rig with one of these PSU's.

The drivers are the 81.98 ForceWare release.
My CPU is an Athlon64 "San Diego" 4000+ and I have two S-ATA Seagate's at 250Gb each. This running on an MSI nForce4 Neo4 Ultra motherboard with two 512MB medium valued Corsair XMS'.

Btw, nVidia have some driver issues with shadows over the weapon in Far Cry which to my knowledge a LOT of ppl have problems with.
But this issue is unheard of it seems.

 

[Djizus]

BUT!.. I have no other problems in other games that I have noticed!
This card runs everything like a charm. - Which is weird considering this only ugly thing I've come upon.

 

[Djizus]

Nope, I tuned the card down to 405Mhz (From 450Mhz), with the same result.
The thing is, I have seen artifacts once when I overclocked my Radeon 9800 Pro for fun, and once when I ran the same card without the power plugged in properly. (Then I could see Doom 3 having chessboard-positioned squares with white pixels going nuts inside them.)
Point is, I hardly believe this is artifacts, I just said so in lack of a better word. I would rather think it's a driver thing, and I will test that later on, maybe tomorrow. (It's 1am now)

Btw: I ran the test with color mipmaps just to see how it would look, and it came out like this:



You can still see the strange shadows on the leaves.

 

[the_guru]

Have you tried any games?

 

[Djizus]

Have you tried any games?

Yes, you missed the post where I said I have. Read above.

 

[the_guru]

Have you tried any games?

Yes, you missed the post where I said I have. Read above.
Ok, are the "artifacts" blinking? I had similar blinking artifacts when I unlocked a broken pipeline on my 6800LE.

 

[Djizus]

Ok, are the "artifacts" blinking? I had similar blinking artifacts when I unlocked a broken pipeline on my 6800LE.

I haven't overclocked this card at all (i.e. not messed with pipelines), if that makes any difference.

And yes, the "interlaced" shadows move and flicker as the light fly around.
Actually, about using the word interlaced; the weird patterns on the leaves I call shadows, are actually half-shadows, since it's only about each other black line showing. I would imagine that it would look alright if the other lines where filled in.. maybe.

 

[Djizus]

Or actually no, it need to be more than just filled in lines to fix it. =(
They're not as easily explained as interlaced.
I shall try other drivers tonight.

 

[the_guru]

Ok, are the "artifacts" blinking? I had similar blinking artifacts when I unlocked a broken pipeline on my 6800LE.

I haven't overclocked this card at all (i.e. not messed with pipelines), if that makes any difference.

And yes, the "interlaced" shadows move and flicker as the light fly around.
Actually, about using the word interlaced; the weird patterns on the leaves I call shadows, are actually half-shadows, since it's only about each other black line showing. I would imagine that it would look alright if the other lines where filled in.. maybe.

The flickering artifacts is usually could be caused by several things: Damaged card, overheating or just a software problem.

If I where you I should try the card in another computer. If the problem persists the card is probably defect.

 

[Djizus]

Is there any program out there to test for artifacts or software bugs by running all the functions the card has?
Pixel shaders, vertex shaders, etc etc. (I don't know the names really)

 

[Djizus]

bump

 

[the_guru]

Is there any program out there to test for artifacts or software bugs by running all the functions the card has?
Pixel shaders, vertex shaders, etc etc. (I don't know the names really)

I don't know of any, I think 3dmark tests most of the functions.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

Did you try the different driver versions yet?

 

[Djizus]

Nope. I forgot!
Shall try soon.

 

[Djizus]

Now I have tried the drivers that came with the card (78.something) . No improvement.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

Now I have tried the drivers that came with the card (78.something) . No improvement.

Well...at least now you know it's not driver related :? Sorry it didnt work

 

[Djizus]

I saw it in another application today, when I tried the Tenebrae engine for Quake:

 

[the_guru]

Test the card in another computer. If the problem persists the card is most likely broken and you should use the warranty to get a new one.

But it could also be a result of poor case cooling since this card runs very hot.

So shut down your computer and let it cool for a while then run 3dmark the first thing you do...

 

[Djizus]

Now I'm 99.98% sure this has nothing to do with overheating.
Besides, below 40's idle and around 60 under load is kinda good with stock cooling, I assume.

In the Tenebrae engine, at the same place as in the picture above.
I got even worse results with my Radeon 9800 (in a completely different machine!)

In addition to that, I could barely see the same things on the Firefly
leaves with same card mentioned.

Well, should I be happy that the 7800 does it better than the
9800, or should this be resolved by nVidia (or ATI..) drivers?