MSI 7870 Hawk Weird lines and leds?

ChordMelody

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Dec 20, 2012
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10,510
Hey guys, I believe I've been having problems ever since I've gotten the MSI 7870 Hawk.

I'm not sure if it's the drivers, the card itself, or maybe just my computer setup in general.

But usually when I'm in a 3d application, I get these weird transparent horizontal lines across the screen. It really bugs me :(.

And I notice that the end of the card (near the I/O shield) It has blue Leds, when idle, it only has 2 on, and when it's in game, it has about all of them on. I'm not sure what it means, but it flickers when all of them are on (the ones near the end). Maybe it was intended for it to be like that, not sure if it is, if someone has some info on that, it'd be nice :).

but anyways, there's also been some bad fps drops. It randomly drops here and there and causes the fps to freeze while in games. Without consistent fps, I find it very hard to game.

Lastly, I am running on the latest beta drivers, and CAP.

EDIT: Also I'm wondering if it could be the DVI -VGA into VGA into my monitor. Or if the lines are my monitor's fault.

Hope someone can help :)!
 
The LEDs on your card are normal, so nothing to worry about there.

It would probably help if you could take a screenshot or video of your problem and post it. It sounds sort of like you might have screen tearing going on, which happens when you don't have Vsync enabled in your games.

It would also help to know which games are causing you problems. The 7870 won't give you a constant 60FPS if you try to max out certain games.
 
I agree monitor your temperatures GPU-Z does this as well as many other programs. Also, it wouldn't hurt to uninstall the driver plus use driver sweeper to clean your registry settings for the drivers out.
http://www.guru3d.com/content_page/guru3d_driver_sweeper.html

2 possibilities

Screen Tearing:
wowscrnshot051907201239db0.jpg


Artifacting:
817C07EB4B324771964659D8EFB110CD.jpg
 

ChordMelody

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Dec 20, 2012
18
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10,510
Okay guys! I just realized now that it happens in my browser and desktop too, I usually notice it during dark colours.

I think it might be closer to artifacting?... but it doesn't really look like that... I've had artifacting in dying GPUs before, and this doesn't look like it :(.

Idle it sits at like 28-30 degrees celcius, and under load I don't think it goes past 40-45. Depending on ambient temp.

Yes, I should try to sweep the drivers and reinstall, I'll try that :)!
 
Yea try that and what you need to do if it happens again and you want us to see it is press print screen. Open up paint and paste it save it as a png, or jpeg and upload it to img shack or photo bucket and give us the link here or use the image code and it will display the picture on the forums.
 

ChordMelody

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Dec 20, 2012
18
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10,510
Okay! So, I uninstalled the drivers from uninstall a program, and then I ran driver sweeper in safe mode, and uninstalled the remaining files.

After that I went back and booted it back up in normal mode and then I installed the latest beta drivers with CAP 2.

Still has the weird lines.

Weirder thing is that when I take a screenshot or record a video, it doesn't show up on either.

Other things I'm thinking of is...

RMA the card? Resitting the card? Trying it out on a new build when the rest of the parts get here? Trying a diff monitor? and maybe even trying a different cable.

 

ChordMelody

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Dec 20, 2012
18
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10,510
Okay, so I tested it out the monitor on my brother's computer. Keep in mind, that he's using a GTX 550Ti (my old graphics card). My monitor is the exact same model as his, and there's no weird lines on my monitor. Only when I use it with my computer.

Strange :(...
 
No what you should do is connect your computer to his monitor and try and duplicate the issue. What the goal is, is to find out whether its your monitor or your card. So by narrowing down your computer working and showing the lines on both screens you have eliminated that. And it is the card at that point.
 

ChordMelody

Honorable
Dec 20, 2012
18
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10,510
It was strange, I did it on my brother's monitor, using my computer, and I don't believe it showed lines. Now I have a new computer setup with the same graphics card, and the lines are barely noticeable, but is very noticeable in certain games past 60 FPS (with vsync off). With vsync on, only sometimes I can see it, depending on the game.

Going to test it more with this setup :(.

My old computer specs were

ASUS M5A97
AMD Phenom II X6 1035T
MSI Hawk 7870
Some Corsair ram
HX850

New setup is

Asrock Extreme 4
Intel I5 3570K
Same Corsair Ram
MSI Hawk 7870
HX850

:/...

Could it be a driver issue?