5870 overclocking and two monitors, flickering.

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Wazooty

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 21, 2009
Messages
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I suspect it's a driver issue, I see people on other websites getting the same thing but figure I'd ask here.

I have my 5870 overclocked to 925/1275. Good overclock, safe, worked well. I hooked up a second monitor, but I'm not using it for eyefinity, its just the traditional additional space monitor.

Whenever the card is overclocked (even mild overclocks) the second screen flickers whenever moving between different windows, or just about any time the mouse moves over anything new. This is exclusive to the second monitor, and exclusive to when it's overclocked.

I have no problem waiting for drivers to mature to overclock since I suspect that's the issue, but I would like to know if any others have the same issue, make sure my card isn't a dud.
 
I've been having very similar issues :/ Check my thread.
 
I have the same problem and mine is stock, except its a Sapphire 5870 Vapor-X which has a mild overclock, and it doesn't matter if its XP Pro or W7 RC with the latest drivers. I took out a Nvidia 8800gts (G92) and never had this problem.:(:mad:
 
I have the exact same issue with my 4850's in Crossfire.

The issue has to do with the idle clocks. For some reason when they are overclocked and one of the cards drops to idle clocks, it can't handle it with dual monitors.

I was able to use Rivatuner instead of the built-in overclocking and it seems to force 3d clocks at all times.
 
Same issue here. Just unlocking overdrive in the CCC (not even overclocking) causes the second monitor to flicker in my setup. Very annoying.
 
Indeed, I was looking at the idle clocks, and when not overclocked, the idle when using two screens is 400/1200. When using one screen its 157/300 or so. When overclocking, it idles at 157/300 even when using two screens. So it would appear there is fault on ati's part. The proper setting aren't applied to overclocked cards.
 
Had the exact same issue with my xfx 5870 and eyefinity setup. Whenever overclocking via CCC or msi afterburner, idle clocks the card too low and the are graphical issues in windows 7 (flickering, tearing).

My solution has been: not to even unlock overclocking utility in CCC. MSI afterburner didn't work either since it also caused idle clocks to drop to very low levels. I now use AMD GPU clock tool to oc my 5870. I can confirm that idle clocks no longer drop to those very low levels (drops to 400/1200 vs 157/300). Verified the idle clocks using afterburner. No more tearing/flickering.

Guess we'll have to wait for new AMD drivers, along with fixes for eyefinity w/crossfire, screen bezel compensation etc. Come on already AMD!!!
 
Wazooty said:
The card has nothing to do with it...just amd.
Click to expand...

Just got done with Sapphire about my Vapor-X flicking on the second monitor on extended desktop, the guy said he set a 2 monitor setup and didn't have any problems and I should RMA the card in, the deal with mine it was flicking before I even unlocked overdrive and really flickers worse when unlocked and that is at stock speed! I wonder how long I'll be without a new card....MONTHS!
 
fvbounty said:
Just got done with Sapphire about my Vapor-X flicking on the second monitor on extended desktop, the guy said he set a 2 monitor setup and didn't have any problems and I should RMA the card in, the deal with mine it was flicking before I even unlocked overdrive and really flickers worse when unlocked and that is at stock speed! I wonder how long I'll be without a new card....MONTHS!
Click to expand...

On my RoG Gene Having the card in the bottom slot caused flickering. Put it in the slot 1 (Top)and flickering stopped. Saw it somewhere on the web.
 
Had the same problem after I installed my 3 Dell 27" monitors. Major tearing and flickering with the DisplayPort cable supplied with the monitor. I tried another cable from the second box and tearing went away, but flickering persued when overclocked. I think Dell supplied cheap cables so I ordered a higher end DP cable as when I hooked up my Accell DP to DVI adaptor and the flickering went away about 95% of the time.

I guess the only resolution for now is to not overclock while on desktop, then overclock for games as it doesn't affect as it does on desktop.
 
SereLaw said:
On my RoG Gene Having the card in the bottom slot caused flickering. Put it in the slot 1 (Top)and flickering stopped. Saw it somewhere on the web.
Click to expand...

I have it on the top slot on my MB and I put a new dvi cable to the second monitor but still have the flickering. I even changed to a different resolution no difference. Check out this post from Newegg on the same card I have....

Card Is Fast But Fails For Dual Monitors

white Reviewed By: varment on 11/8/2009
Rating + 3
Tech Level Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Fast but you all know this already...
Cons: Does not seem to support Dual Monitors correctly. When running a single monitor all is OK. When I activate Dual Monitors there is a intermittant flickering on the Primary Monitor 1 on the lower half of the screen. It is random (intermittant) and appears to be a sync issue while the top half of the screen is rock solid as is Monitor 2. I ran these two monitors from a 4870 and they were perfect (Dell 2408WFPs). Not sure if this is the card or driver issue. The issue does go away when I switch back to a single monitor. And yes the single monitor is the same monitor as in the Dual Monitors.
Other Thoughts: This is a new product and not everyone is running Dual Monitors at 1920x1200. Hope this is a driver issue.

My review is just above his!
 
I couldn't take the stupid FLICKERING anymore, RMA back to Newegg for a refund, put my 8800GTS (G92) back in and no more flickering just works, you know its 2009 and you would think ATI could make a card for 2 monitors where it would work!!!!!!!:mad:
 
Why are peeps RMA'ing their cards for this? It is a driver issue AND is not even a problem unless you overclock the card. Just put the clock speeds back to stock and the flickering stops. Sure it sucks that if you use multiple monitors that u cannot OC at the moment but bugs like this happen with immature drivers. Hell just change the clock speeds when you are gaming and it is not an issue. I am more hopeful that they can find a lower idle clock speed than 400/1200 when using multiple monitors. They can do better than this.....

As a side note if you use AMD clock tools there is no flickering issues as stated above. Go that route untill the drivers are mature
 
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