HD5770 problem. Is it fixable?

wasabi-warrior

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I am definitely sure that this problem is with the graphics card, i have done a swap test. The card I have is an ATI Radeon HD5770.
On low intensity games and for standard desktop functions, it works fine. When I play graphic intensive games, it leaves trails of whatever is on the screen. It renders crisp, and with good detail, but like I said, as soon as the graphics begin to move it leaves trails. Sometimes it hits a point where it refreshes, and the trails disappear, but they continue to generate from whatever objects are on screen.

I dont have Crysis or HAWX anymore, so I havent tested with them. I have had this problem with Mount & Blade: Warband and Overlord 2. I've noticed, the problem isnt dependant on the level of quality (as far as i've noticed, could be wrong here). On M&B, on the map (for those who know what Im talking about), the trees, cities and units all leave trails, regardless of whether I have put the quality to lowest or to highest.

Hopefully thats enough detail for someone to tell me that it's well and truly stuffed or not. Is the GPU or the memory done for? Is there anyway to repair this kind of problem? Any kind of help would be appreciated.

PS. Sorry for the block of text :D Its just I know how anoying it is when someone doesnt provide enough detail.
 
Solution
The first thing I would do is check the GPU temps. Maybe take the card out and blow it out with a can of air (or vacumn it out). Once the card is completely clean, uninstall the drivers and install them clean again.

If the temps are 'normal' and you still have issues you should try the card in a different system to see if it behaves in the same way.

Have you tried reducing the resolution a little and setting the refresh rate to the monitors standard refresh rate.... most probably 65MHz.
Make sure that the games you play have the same setting and not changed refresh rates as the monitor.
 

wasabi-warrior

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This isnt a brand new HD5770, or a brand new system. I've been running it for a while. No settings have changed. It was working perfectly and now its not. VSync, screen reso and refresh rate are still exactly the same before my graphics card broke.

Sorry to sound like a broken record: The problem is with the graphics card. Ive run a whole heap of tests. Ive replaced the motherboard and the RAM, put the graphics card in a different working computer, run a known working graphics card in my own computer. I've run a bunch of different games and the problem seems only to happen in areas of the screen where the graphics seem too much for the card to bear.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, go ahead and tell me I'm wrong again if I am, and you really think its screen reso or refresh rate. But I'm close to 100% sure that its hardware related. I just want to know if it's repairable.
 

BusyRabbit

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The first thing I would do is check the GPU temps. Maybe take the card out and blow it out with a can of air (or vacumn it out). Once the card is completely clean, uninstall the drivers and install them clean again.

If the temps are 'normal' and you still have issues you should try the card in a different system to see if it behaves in the same way.

 
Solution
Try the monitor on the the rig that's working fine and see it the same things happens in the "the problem seems only to happen in areas of the screen where the graphics seem too much for the card to bear. "
And do give us a feedback, since you have tried many tests on the so called broken card, it'd be nice to see the results of the tests... and also know what tests have been used to check it out?
 

wasabi-warrior

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By "test's" i don't mean software stuff. I mean I have verified that its the card and only the card that is broken by various means. There is no results other than 'the card is broken'. I have run a check for artifacts with ATI CCC. I forget how long it ran for, but no errors.

I have swapped the broken card into a working machine. The card failed.
I have swapped another card into my machine. The new card worked.
I have swapped monitors, on both machines. The monitors work.

Again, sorry to sound like a broken record: Its the card. Not the motherboard, not the RAM, not the CPU, not the monitor. Not the connections. Just the card. It might be to do with the driver, which im going to reinstall now. I will let you know how it goes.

For the areas thing: In M&B, only where there is a lot of activity, such as over mountains that are near cities and such, do areas of the map tear. On Overlord II, anything that is supposed to cover something is transparent, and its not supposed to be. The tower on the menu is an example, I can see through its walls.

The temp is normal, even under load. The card is clean and has been reseated correctly.

Im sorry if I sound like an idiot. I might have made a mistake, so you can ask me to double check stuff, but I do know how to see if something hardware related is broken. And I apologize if I sound annoyed at any of you, I have no money and it took me ages to save for the card, so its worth a lot to me. It is annoying to have it fail.
 

wasabi-warrior

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Kinda weird since i tried the card in another system, but it turns out reinstalling the driver fixed my problems for now. Credit goes to BusyRabbit, i guess.
I was certain it was the card itself since my RAM died at the sametime as this problem from something I did. Shows how wrong you can be. I should have triple-checked. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and the help.