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2D artifacts - what causes?

J

jamsomito

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
3,202
Check it:

MSi R6870 Twin Frozr II OC edition

dotsa.jpg


dots2y.jpg


There's been times where the dots are pretty severe and extremely distracting, and other times when there's just a few. I've only been able to get a screenshot of a less-dense occurance, but it's a good example. EDIT - got a better one while posting this.

It's usually worst right after booting up. Also, whenever I start a video game the dots get wild for a while with the addition of strange geometric shapes and then calm down. They are not stationary, rather it's like they change with every frame or every 10 frames drawn.

My only guess is because it appears to "fix" itself under load, that my card is ramping down during periods of low utilization, and perhaps an under-volt or slower GPU / VRAM clock are what's causing this. Anyone have any ideas?
 
What have you tried to resolve it? When did it start happening? Anything change on your system recently?
 
I had this exact issue with a Sapphire 6950 of mine. Only happened when the card downclocked itself. As soon as the card was being utilized enough to raise the clocks it would go away. About a month ago it got so bad I just ended up RMA'ing it.

I tried every cat from 12.8 and up, always the same.
 
Also come to think of it, a friend of mine had an 8800GTS 320mb that did that with DVD's. But only DVD's. In any PC with any drivers we tried. EVGA RMA'd it.
 
Thermonuclear said:
What have you tried to resolve it? When did it start happening? Anything change on your system recently?
Click to expand...

Tried a few different sets of drivers, tried changing some afterburner voltage / clock settings (though I don't remember changing any power saving features), and tried changing fan profiles for better cooling.

Started happening with the installation of this card - I'm 100% positive it's the graphics card.

Been happening ever since. Had the card about a year now.

Joe_B_Me said:
I had this exact issue with a Sapphire 6950 of mine. Only happened when the card downclocked itself. As soon as the card was being utilized enough to raise the clocks it would go away. About a month ago it got so bad I just ended up RMA'ing it.

I tried every cat from 12.8 and up, always the same.
Click to expand...

Is there a way to change it's downclocking settings? Seems like that's the issue... makes sense to me anyways.

This card was a learning experience for me with MSi's warranty - it never got registered in the appropriate amount of time, so I might be stuck with no RMA support. Registered my MSi mobo right away though.
 
Haven't had to RMA any MSI stuff in like 6 years... Cause I stopped getting MSI stuff. lol Have you tried new motherboard BIOS/settings? Does it have another PCI-E slot? I had a Gigabyte board that would only post about 25% of the time with the main PCI-E slot. The secondary one always posted.
 
Thermonuclear said:
I had a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102185 Radeon 8500 that did that, but only with the Cat. 4.2's... I think. Even did it in the BIOS. Was really strange. Mine was a 128mb I think...
Click to expand...

I don't recall seeing it when I've been in the BIOS, but I haven't spent a long time there either (saving up for a water cooling kit, then I'll be in there a lot for overclocking settings).

My PC is busy formatting some HDD's currently so I won't be able to check until this evening.
 
Thermonuclear said:
Haven't had to RMA any MSI stuff in like 6 years... Cause I stopped getting MSI stuff. lol Have you tried new motherboard BIOS/settings? Does it have another PCI-E slot? I had a Gigabyte board that would only post about 25% of the time with the main PCI-E slot. The secondary one always posted.
Click to expand...

I have tried different slots - same thing.

May I ask why you stopped with MSi? I want to like them, so I try giving them a chance whenever I can. I like my mobo so far (MSi Z68A-GD65 (G3).

EDIT - I should mention I've tried the card in different mobos and tried the mobo with a different card. The issue stays with the GPU.
 
I had a 478 board with a 2.0 northwood in it. And it died in a week. I swapped it for another MSI board, and... it died in a month. One was VIA one was Intel. Previously I had a gigabyte board which rocked, and it died cause I O/C the hell out of it. lol
 
I checked my Newegg history, and it's not on there... must be more like 8 - 10 years. Must be in my Mwave history... lol
 
jamsomito said:
Is there a way to change it's downclocking settings? Seems like that's the issue... makes sense to me anyways.
Click to expand...

Maybe that radeon bios editor could work for you. I'm pretty sure you could increase the idle clocks / voltages using that.
 
Joe_B_Me said:
Maybe that radeon bios editor could work for you. I'm pretty sure you could increase the idle clocks / voltages using that.
Click to expand...

I'll have to try that.

I had some more time to play around with some stuff this morning. I turned on the OSD with CPU/VRAM utilization, temps, and clock speeds. The MSi afterburner OSD is showing full speeds (CPU core clock 920MHz, memory clock 1050 MHz) when exhibiting this behavior.

The only other thing I can think of is perhaps it's messing with the voltages coming from low utilization?
 
AE2398FC2CEFFE3D0F01B7917F6D2681D4A49447


in-game artifacts w/ OSD showing status. These artifacts change with every frame and "dance" all over.

The dots appear in 2-D applications and the geometric shapes appear in 3-D applications.

They still get better and go away over time, just when I'm switching between game and desktop, or just firing up a game it does this.

EDIT: actually, I see the dots overlayed on 3D applications too.
 
Last edited:
Bad memory module is my guess, that us usually the culprit.

I have fixed this in the past by ocing the memory, which is just temporary.
 
Update:

Looked up my S/N and found there was about 1.5 years left on my warranty, so I decided to send in the card for RMA. If it was only going to get worse until its eventual death, I figured I might as well send it in and see if I could get a replacement.

Package tracking showed it was received 12/24, MSI informed me they got it on 12/27.

Meanwhile, I've been reading some horror stories about RMA's on EOL parts (is the TwinFrozr II 6870 EOL?) like this... maybe it's time to start praying I get anything back at all. Anyone have experience with MSi graphics card RMA? Any idea what I can expect as far as communication / turn-around time / product returned?
 
Just got my RMA back today. Sent it in on Dec 19, got it back Jan 15. Took almost a month, but I suppose I should be grateful I got something back at all.

From the looks of the box, they replaced the card. They listed the model and S/N's on the box.

Old model number: 602-V245-10S (mfg'd August, 2011)
New model number: 602-V251-01S (mfg'd February, 2011)

I can't open this till I'm at home tonight... anyone know enough about MSi model numbers to tell if it's the same factory OC'd Twin Frozr II?

Also, I've heard that MSi will pay for warranty labor up to 2 years, then the 3rd year of warranty they will accept the card, but make you pay labor, then after 3 years won't accept it at all. I sure hope this goes from my original card because there's only 2 weeks left before the 2 year timeframe is up on the new card. Kind of a dirty trick if they go that route...

Hopefully this new one doesn't have any issues.
 
Ok, so good news. Looks like the replacement card was a 6870 Hawk, so it's got the TwinFrozr III cooler and a slightly further OC'd core. Also it has a few more bells and whistles like voltage measuring pins, a couple more power phases, a switch to change the fans from silent to performance mode, and an active phase switching LED readout similar to my mobo. Sweet.

Everything is working, except I can't get MSi's APS program to work. It installs fine, but when I run it, it gives the error "Could not find function ATIDL_xxxx!" Is there a switch on the card I need to physically throw to get APS to work? Looks like there's a tiny switch for OCP unlocker - could that be related?

The RMA didn't come with any documentation.
 
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