Screen flicker issues since switching GFX card

Kiant

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Dec 8, 2011
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Hello internet!

I recently made a purchase to upgrade from my 5850 ATI Sapphire 1GB to a 580 GTX Phantom 3gb. However since I've installed the card I've noticed more flickering on my screen (If I even had any before, which I'm positive I didn't).

Now I do have my brightness quite high and I thought that maybe the settings were causing some clipping white colours - as I notice this problem more on whites and greys. But to my knowledge my monitor settings were the same on my old GFX card and I didn't have this problem.

So is it possible it's just settings that need to be adjusted or is it something else? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. As I'm at a loss for what is causing this issue. The only other areas I could think of are:

1. ATI drivers not correctly being removed for some reason.
2. Not enough power, the card is 600W min and my power supply is just at 600W
3. Defect card

With the 3rd choice being the big one, if it does turn out to be that I would like to get it RMA'ed sooner rather than later due to Christmas coming up and such.

Also my system specs are as follows:

Motherboard - GA-X58A-UD5
Processor - i7 950 3.06ghz
RAM - 6GB


 

dannoddd

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Try giggling your monitor signal cable, see if it flickers.
Shake it at both ends as well.
(This tests if it's a short in the signal cable)

Try to reset your monitor to default settings.
Try another monitor (or hdtv).
(This tests if it's your monitor)

Put the 5850 back in and see if it's there.
(This tests if it's your card)

If it passes all of those tests, it's probably the card.
 

Kiant

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Okay will give that a go tomorrow when I have more time. You don't think it's possibly the power supply? the only reason I ask is because my 5850 was 550W requirement so there was a lee way of 50W, whilst for my new Gainward card it's just the minimum requirement. Not sure if that really effects or can cause the monitor to flicker.

 

Kiant

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Oh also, just to note, on say a grey background i.e - Steam. I'm noticing green looking lines. Not sure if that is relevant in any shape or form.
 

Kiant

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It's a Thermaltake 600W.

I've had a look, at testing everything and such. The cable didn't effect anything.

I switched to another monitor and the problems persisted with the flickering, not as bad as it was a HDTV 50HZ but it was still visible and causing discomfort with eye strain.

I've put the 5850 back in and thankfully it's still causing the problem so I won't have to RMA my new card which I am happy with performance wise.

So is it possible it's a problem with the power supply?
 

dannoddd

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Try the cable shaking test, but it probably is a PSU.
You could have been running perfectly strong on the 5850 but then upping the requirement was the straw that broke the camels back, or so.

If you've got another one, or a friend's to test, I'd test the PSU.
 

Kiant

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Hm right, well no luck with any friends having a spare PSU. At least not nearby or a higher wattage.

Dannoddd your probably right with that, especially considering I didn't notice it before I changed my card, unless I was completely blind :p

I'll look into buying a New PSU since I wanted to up my wattage anyway's. I'll let you know what happens - hopefully it will fix it, if not then I'm totally lost as to what is the problem.
 

Kiant

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Got an XFX 750W, although the only problem is it didn't fix the problem. My screen is brighter and more colourful overall but yeah no luck on the issue.

However I was able to talk to someone who had a monitor like mine and he reported the same sort of problem I was getting. I.e these lines on grey backgrounds, the flicker being more noticeable and no issue on video playback and gaming. Seem's the Capacitors on these certain panels start to go after a while. So hopefully I'll be able to get a replacement in the January sales.

Thank's everyone for your replies with helping me on this, shame I wasn't able to get hold of a proper PC monitor and save myself the issue of changing my PSU but with the picture quality improved - every silver lining.
 

monsta

Splendid
Have a look on the Gainward website and see if there a bios update for your card, it may be worth giving it a try as I had some flickering problems with my cards and updating the bios fixed my problem.
 

Kiant

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Will do, but I double checked my card today and found it pretty interesting. Due to my display being clearer on the new 580 I've noticed the flicker more. However on my 5850 although it flickers still, it's more grainy therefore I didn't notice it, which probably explains why I only noticed it after changing my card. What is seen cannot be un-seen :p.
 

monsta

Splendid
I would be so curious to try another monitor on your system, could you borrow a friends monitor just to test it out. Best to try every option to narrow down the problem.
Also can you try different outputs , try vga and see if it does it , try HDMI and DVI, all of them and see if it does it still.
 

Kiant

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Yeah I will try and get hold of another pc monitor, problem is most of my friends have laptops preferred to Desktops so make's it trickier to compare. I did try a DVI cable on the monitor at the moment however the problem was still there. Generally though it does seem like this problem is common on this panel of Samsung Monitors from what I've been able to find on Google searches.

Luckily on Video and Gaming it's non-existent.