5870 help

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GriMReapeRAK

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
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I just bought a Diamond 5870 today. Everything went fine with installing the drivers (I tried 9.10 and 9.11), but when I start up any game I get what I assume is artifacting. Small black squares flash all over the screen when the games are started. Doing anything else, the display is fine. I'm using Windows 7 Pro x64. I haven't used an ATI card in a long time, so any help would be appreciated.
 
I am using Win 7 Pro 64-bit as well...When I installed my 5870's I did nothing more than install the ATI Catalyst software (which obviously also includes all the drivers, etc.). Did you keep all the settings in the CCC stock?

Can you download GPU-Z (free util) and on the sensor tab it will tell you what your Core/Memory freq. are at...At the desktop you should be seeing about 150/300 (ATI's powerplay feature) and then when the game starts it should ramp up to the 850/1200 settings. If you start the game in window'd mode you should be able to follow the graphs on GPU-Z.
 
Is this a clean OS install?

If not, did you uninstall, then use something like Driver Sweeper to remove the old Nvidia drivers?
 
No, it's not a clean OS install. I'll try driver sweeper though.

All the settings are stock on CCC. At least, I didn't mess with anything after driver installation. I noticed that overdrive is ticked by default?

I'll also try GPU-Z to see what it's running at.
 
GriMReapeRAK said:
No, it's not a clean OS install. I'll try driver sweeper though.

All the settings are stock on CCC. At least, I didn't mess with anything after driver installation. I noticed that overdrive is ticked by default?

I'll also try GPU-Z to see what it's running at.
Click to expand...

Overdrive is "ticked" but the bottom section should be grey'd out
You should see a little picture of a lock just above Overdrive. You have to click that lock and accept the warning message to unlock Overdrive. There is a tick by default but it's misleading because Overdrive itself isn't truly enabled by default...sounds confusing but I hope you understand.
 
I understand. I tried GPU-Z and everything you said checks out.

I also used Driver Sweeper to remove the old nvidia stuff and reinstalled the ATI drivers, but I'm still having the problem. My roommate told me about a driver hotfix for the 5870. Can anyone point me to it if there is one?
 
GriMReapeRAK said:
I understand. I tried GPU-Z and everything you said checks out.

I also used Driver Sweeper to remove the old nvidia stuff and reinstalled the ATI drivers, but I'm still having the problem. My roommate told me about a driver hotfix for the 5870. Can anyone point me to it if there is one?
Click to expand...

You should not need any hotfix. When the new 9.11 officials came out, I simply used the ATI Install Manager (it installs as part of Catalyst suite) to uninstall the old version, I rebooted, and I installed the 9.11's...There is no hotfix that I know of.
 
When I got my 5870 I tried installing it without a reformat/clean os install - many issues.

A fresh install of Win7 X64 fixed all of them.....just sayin...
 
Yeah...I might try that as a last resort. I've finished all my homework and whatnot, so I've got some time anyway.

I did find out that the "artifacting" isn't happening in all games. I tried Counter-Strike: Source, Street Fighter IV, Borderlands, and ARMA II and both work without any artifacting. The other two games that I've been playing lately, Dragon Age and Modern Warfare 2, both have artifacting problems.

Is there any way to save my settings before reformatting? I really don't want to go through the hassle of resetting everything to the way it is now...unless I really have to.
 
Oh yeah, have you tried updating the mobo BIOS?

Some people had issues that updating the BIOS fixed right up. Worth a shot.
 
GriMReapeRAK said:
Yeah...I might try that as a last resort. I've finished all my homework and whatnot, so I've got some time anyway.

I did find out that the "artifacting" isn't happening in all games. I tried Counter-Strike: Source, Street Fighter IV, Borderlands, and ARMA II and both work without any artifacting. The other two games that I've been playing lately, Dragon Age and Modern Warfare 2, both have artifacting problems.

Is there any way to save my settings before reformatting? I really don't want to go through the hassle of resetting everything to the way it is now...unless I really have to.
Click to expand...

Use the Windows 7 backup "System Image" feature... If you do a reinstall and you still have the problem...you can easily roll back to the exact setup you have now.
 
I reformatted and updated the BIOS, but it's still giving me problems. Anything else I can try? I really don't think it's a problem with the card since it doesn't happen in all the games.

Edit: I just figured out what the problem was. The artifacting was caused by Anti-Aliasing being enabled in the game. Once I turned AA off, the game ran without the artifacts. However, forcing AA from the CCC gives artifacts as well. Is this some sort of driver issue? At least I found the solution to the problem.
 
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GriMReapeRAK said:
I reformatted and updated the BIOS, but it's still giving me problems. Anything else I can try? I really don't think it's a problem with the card since it doesn't happen in all the games.

Edit: I just figured out what the problem was. The artifacting was caused by Anti-Aliasing being enabled in the game. Once I turned AA off, the game ran without the artifacts. However, forcing AA from the CCC gives artifacts as well. Is this some sort of driver issue? At least I found the solution to the problem.
Click to expand...

Glad you found out what it was. Make sure to use the Windows 7 Backup feature in the future..it's really great

All I can say is that I am using 5870's in Crossfire with the official 9.11 drivers and Modern Warfare 2 with ALL settings as high as they can go in game and no artifacts. Sounds like you have a little gremlin you have to hunt down.
 
TechloGoblin said:
Overdrive is "ticked" but the bottom section should be grey'd out
You should see a little picture of a lock just above Overdrive. You have to click that lock and accept the warning message to unlock Overdrive. There is a tick by default but it's misleading because Overdrive itself isn't truly enabled by default...sounds confusing but I hope you understand.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I assumed my card was a 'limited locked edition' lol :eek:
 
Thanks for the tip about the W7 backup. I'll be sure to use it next time. I backed up all my essential files to an external HD, though. One odd thing I noticed with Dragon Age. The artifacting happens at 2x and 4x AA, but when I crank it up to 8x AA everything is just fine. Go figure...
 
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