4870x2 snow artifacts

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Promii

Weaksauce
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Dec 23, 2007
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I started a thread about this a few days ago but after some testing I don't think the title of the original thread was accurate so I apologize for making a second thread about it.

I upgraded from dual 3870s to a 4870X2 and I'm getting very subtle snow-like artifacting. It's only really visible on off-white colors and on thin lines (such as the thin red lines used in the design of the [H] front page). At first I though this was limited to 2D as games appeared to play great but I've found I can see the same sparkly snow effect by staring at the overcast sky on cp_granary in TF2.

Some odd things I have found: This is only noticeable on my 30" LG W3000H. I can't see it when hooked up to one of my older 21" displays. It does also not occur with only the basic windows display driver running and no ATI driver installed (I have tried the 8.54s, 8.8, 8.7 and 8.6 hotfix, they all have the snow).

The card's temps are fine, running mid-40s at idle. I am using a 6 to 8-pin adapter for power as my PSU has no 8-pin, but it is a very high quality power supply and I don't see this being an issue.

I guess the question comes down to should I RMA the card or is something else at fault?
 
Its not the the card :p

Its your monitor. Many LCD's have a special type of Anti-Glare coating, some more annoying/noticeble than others, the LG Panel is one that is used in many monitors, and has a particularly bad(ie noticeable) coating.

I know because I notice the same thing on my 30" Dell when I used an 8800, at first I thought maybe it was the card, but then I compaired it to my Samsung 30", none on the samsung. You'll notice it with movement on the LG Screens, even on default drivers.

Same thing when I upgraded to the 4870x2, it didn't go away, its a panel issue. Looks almost like I got a jean patter impressed into my monitor and its annoying as fsck, but what are you gonna do? :(
 
Did you have the 3870's on the same monitor? Do they show the issue? If not it would imply something specific to the new card (which might only show up when in combination with the particular monitor).
 
Doesn't happen with the 3870s, nor with the windows default driver on the 4870x2. I know what the screen's coating looks like and this isn't it. It's not that it looks grainy, it is rapid dancing snow, not a static pattern. I notice it most on flat off-white areas. Movement, in fact, makes it much harder to see.
 
I'm not sure if it's the same but I had something like that with my 8800GTX, white spots showing up on the thin red line on [H] homepage, got it fixed using a different driver.
With a bit of luck it's gone in the next driver release (fingers crossed).
 
I see this "snow like Effect" only in crysis, and only when Im really really close to walls or other objects.

So I have to be looking for it to see it.
 
Hrmm... So I RMA'd the card and my replacement is acting the same way. How irritating. I hope they didn't just send me the same card back.

I'm not sure what else I should try. It seems like I've eliminated any single piece of hardware as being the problem.

3870 CF + 30" LG + ATi drivers = fine

4870X2 + 21" LG + ATi drivers = fine

4870X2 + 30" LG + Windows default display drivers = fine

4870X2 + 30" LG + ATi drivers = snow/noise artifacting

I'd like to test on another high-res monitor that uses dual-link DVI but I unfortunately don't have access to any others, only smaller 1680x1050 ones.

Wishing I went with a GTX280. I blame Dan and his persuasive 'why not get the best?' argument ;)
 
That guy's artifacts are much worse than mine and pretty different as well. I doubt mine would show up in photographs. It's also not random at all like his seem to be.

If it fire up Photoshop and make a near full screen image of a black to white gradient, the snow is visible from about 2% to 25% black an most prominent at about 6% black. Colorizing the gradient yields the same pattern, while being slightly more visible in the purples and reds and slightly less in the greens and yellows.
 
It's the 8.8 drivers.

I had the same problem with 3 different cards (2 at work, 1 at home).

I upgraded to the 8.9 betas, you should find the post on the front page of this forum. They fixed crysis, but be warned, other games may not be so friendly.

I also found a hotfix on the game.amd.com site that seemed to improve overall performance with the 8.8 drivers. I haven't tried it with crysis, but might be something to try.

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=35298

I can tell you warhammer is 20 Xs better since I applied this hotfix. Good luck!
 
I JUST started getting this problem when i run the ping pong demo, i get little snowy effects on the balls (man that sounds dirty) but i dont get it in any other game (yet) i think i am going to install the 8.9 betas and try that

EDIT: that did the trick no more snow
 
I'm using the 8.9 betas currently. They have the problem, and so does the 8.8s, 8.7s and 8.6 hotfix drivers. So it's not just the 8.8s for me.
 
Ste said:
I see this "snow like Effect" only in crysis, and only when Im really really close to walls or other objects.

So I have to be looking for it to see it.
Click to expand...

ME TOO!!!

Been driving me crazy. I have been switching my cards out installing and re-installing drivers.........................Only in Crysis and only when I look at walls.

Stalker was fine (except for random fps drops) Bioshock played like a dream, CS:S is cool as hell, TF2 the same....................Grid runs great........thats all I can think of for now.
 
Yah, I have seen that snowy effect on my 4870's in Crysis, I see it in some shadows.
 
new drivers FTW. hah. ati releases card w/o finished drivers. then again, they're never finished.
 
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