OC 2500k causing random video artifacts?

[amirp]

System:
i5-2500k
asus 6850 (have overclocked it)
asus p8p67-pro
corsair tx650
etc.

Is it possible that overclocking my 2500k is causing video artifacts?

These come only in the form of tiny pixels of light flickering randomly, visible during youtube playback and during gameplay in dragon age 2 (thus it's happening in both 2d and 3d mode of my graphic card).

I had my i5-2500k OC to 4.5ghz at 1.36v, ultra high LLC, and PLL overvoltage turned off. I dropped it down to 4.2ghz at 1.3v and it's now fine, but it didnt always happen at 4.5ghz anyways.

Thanks

 

[o1die]

Yes it is possible that you reached the limit of your overclock. I would drop the 6850 overclock first.

 

[amirp]

yea i had dropped the 6850 because I dont keep it overclocked outside of games, plus it would have been on its 2d clocks anyways outside of gaming.

I guess it was the cpu i dropped it to 4.2ghz at 1.3v now and it seems fine.

 

[Twoboxer]

Seems you have solved the problem - but I wonder if what you call "artifcats" is really video tearing.

Too high a frame rate can cause issues, and with the OC you may have reached it. You might check if the game has a vertical synchronization option, and try using it.

Long shot, but just thought I'd mention it.

 

[amirp]

Lol na it's not that - I use vsync for all my games, I know when it's off. And my problem was happening in youtube also.

it's just random little pixels flickering, it's definitely not normal.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

cpu OC shouldnt have caused pixel flashes.
i can think of two easons though:
1. overheating from cpu making the gpu hotter.
2. somehow the mobo increased the pcie frequency too with the cpu oc.

that said, 4.5 on a 2500k is not too high.

 

[amirp]

Thanks for the reply.

Okay to visualize what's better happening to me , watch this video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xAuCIgeI54 ) at 1:30 is what mine looks like, however it's less random (only happens in localized regions) and it's much less pronounced. Best described by the words "sparkling pixels" lol.

This means either
1) my monitor is messed up, which is highly unlikely since when I move around the picture (ie. by moving the window youtube is running in in my monitor) the sparkling also moves meaning it's attached to the youtube playback and not certain pixels of the monitor.

2) my graphic card is messed up. There is definitely no overheating in my computer, i check hwmonitor all the time, cpu overclocked and full load never goes past 60 degrees when overclocked, and gpu idles around 35 degrees. Case is large and cpu is far away from the gpu. And the problem is there even in idle where everything is cool around 30 degrees.

3) Motherboard is messed up. How can I check for this? I haven't touched any thing in the bio other than cpu overclocking options and memory frequencies.

 

[amirp]

So I reverted my motherboard to full stock settings (except for setting ram to 1600) and the problem has gone away.
When overclocking the only things I change are:
-the turbo ratio to 42,
-Vcore to manual setting of 1.30
-Load Line Calibration to Ultra High Setting (negates vDroop I hear)
-and PLL Overvoltage to disabled

Can ANY of these settings possibly cause "sparkling pixels" problem?

I am going to now one at a time put these settings on and see if one of them causes the problem to re-appear.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

we ll would like to know what was causing the problem
do post all your findings here.

 

[amirp]

sorry I lost track of the thread. I have since seen the problem once even on stock CPU settings so I really don't think it was the overclock. I have had two of these Asus 6850 cards and the last one I had to return in 13 days due to the same thing. This one I suspect is having the same problems (as it looks exactly the same). The only difference was that with my previous card there were "display driver / hardware has failed errors - like what happens in a bad GPU overclock" and this one hadn't had that until last week.

Im just going to use it until it dies as I have a 3 year direct replacement plan on it.

 

[jimmysmitty]

I would imagine that you didn't get a new one. Probably the same one. Asus return is strange. They will test it and unless they run into the issue, they will send the same one back.

Srtifacting like that could be caused by bad VRAM and unless their test detected it, they wouldn't know.

I love Asus but in ATI GPUs, I always go Sapphire. Sapphire makes the stoPCB and heatsink design for ATI and as well is probably the best after market ones to go for.

 

[amirp]

Yea I really regret going with ASUS... i had just heard of how "good" the directCU was supposed to be, but really it's awful, it sounds like a vaccuum. I regret giving away my gtx 460 768mb to my friend because that think I had overclocked 30% without any issues, noise, or heat.

Also I just checked the windows 7 problem reporting page out of curiosity, and noticed several video hardware errors... it's the video card.

Also it's not the same card since I used replacement plan at the store and they gave me another unopened one. I am waiting until they run out of stock on this card then I will go and use replacement plan and at that point they will be forced to give me one of different brand.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Yea I really regret going with ASUS... i had just heard of how "good" the directCU was supposed to be, but really it's awful, it sounds like a vaccuum. I regret giving away my gtx 460 768mb to my friend because that think I had overclocked 30% without any issues, noise, or heat.

Also I just checked the windows 7 problem reporting page out of curiosity, and noticed several video hardware errors... it's the video card.

Also it's not the same card since I used replacement plan at the store and they gave me another unopened one. I am waiting until they run out of stock on this card then I will go and use replacement plan and at that point they will be forced to give me one of different brand.

You could just get uppity with the manager and demand a non Asus one. Honestly I am suprised but as I said, as much as I love Asus mobos I will stick with Sapphire for GPUs.

 

[FALC0N]

cpu OC shouldnt have caused pixel flashes.
i can think of two easons though:
1. overheating from cpu making the gpu hotter.
2. somehow the mobo increased the pcie frequency too with the cpu oc.

that said, 4.5 on a 2500k is not too high.

I have seen video artifacts from an OC. Couldn't tell you exactly what the cause was, but if definitely came and went with clock speed. And heat was not an issue for me. PCIE maybe, but I really didn't make much of an effort to troubleshoot it.