Artifacting problems with games and the 4870x2

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Duo Joe

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 28, 2006
Messages
170
Can anyone help me with this problem? I have a 4870x2 and when I try and play high end FPS's I get these weird horizontal artifacts going right to left across the screen. Here are my specs.

Case: Silverstone TJ09
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage Extreme
Processor: Intel QX9650 @4.5GHz
PSU: Silverstone OP1000w ATX
Memory: 4gig Patriot DDR3 2000
Graphics Card: Diamond Oc'd 4870X2
HD: 4 WD Raptors in Raid0
Audio Card: Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
Operating System: Vista Ultimate

Its frustrating becaues I spent some bucks on this machine and I cant play the games I want.
 
Firstly, check temperatures during gaming. If they are high, simply increase the fan speed.
Hopefully all will be well once your temps are solid.
 
Either a.) Like mentioned above your card is overheating (usually nto likely, these Cards auto kick up the fan somewhere around 9*c.

Or b.) They sold you a card that can't handle the OC. Did you OC it more after you got it? If you overclocked it past what it came at, try turning it back down to the default the card came at. My card for example can't go much past stock on the memory without artifacts.
 
khanis said:
Firstly, check temperatures during gaming. If they are high, simply increase the fan speed.
Hopefully all will be well once your temps are solid.
Click to expand...


Well crap. Ive got a Koolance water jacket on it and a good water system kooling it and everything else. It's never gotten hotter than 40C. So, that isnt the problem.
 
Duo Joe said:
Well crap. Ive got a Koolance water jacket on it and a good water system kooling it and everything else. It's never gotten hotter than 40C. So, that isnt the problem.
Click to expand...

As I already stated above, did you try lowering your OC some? If you Overclocked it past what it came at, it is probably your problem, most likely the memory overclock.
 
Well using the Catalyst software (the card is a factory OC'd card from Diamond) the card doesnt appear to be able to be stepped down. Right now its running at GPU 840 and memory 1090.

Darn it.
 
I know the Koolance is a full cover block. So I have to ask are you sure it is making good contact with everything it is intended to cool?

Also did you test the card in these games before slapping a water cooler on it?

The other thing that catches my eye is that in your sig the card is listed as an overclocked 4870X2. Even if that is a factory overclock you may have gotten one that does not handle it and wasn't stress tested by the manufacturer.

Or maybe your CPU isn't as stable as you think it is a 4.5GHz. I have probably pointed this out every time I am speaking to someone with a potently unstable overclock but it was an eye opener for me at the time.

I had a system running windows XP that was overcocked and tested stable no matter what I threw at it in windows. This system would occasionally drop to desktop in a game or generate artifacts in a game that would force a shut down but since it was just games and not happening often I assumed it was just random gaming bugs that everyone has. I never even bothered to look in to the cause and it didn't bother me much. Then one day I decided I wanted to try Linux on the system but it refused to even install. It would crash with an error every time. I tried everything I could think of even installed XP on it again to make sure something hadn't happened to the system but XP again worked fine. Finally I disabled what I was so sure was a 100% stable overclock and what do you know Linux installed with out an issue. It was at that point I learned Windows or at least Windows XP is way to forgiving when it comes to testing overclock stability. Now these days I don't even bother overclocking my Core 2 Quad as I feel no need. But if I ever change my mind you can bet it will be done with a Linux live disk and not in windows. After spending 2 years with this system being 100% dependable with nothing odd happening there is no way I will give that up for any level of performance.

Now maybe Visa isn't as forgiving as XP when it comes to instability and maybe that is part of the reason some seem to have so many problems with it. I just know I am not willing to overclock this system and find out.

Anyway OP, I think I have pointed out a number of things you can check to try and narrow things down but in the end I think your going to find the 4870X2 you have is not agreeing with it's overclocked settings. Well that and in my opinion extreme systems, with extremely high overclocks equals extreme problems.

Good luck
 
Thank you for the information. The water jacket is infact installed correctly. It took a lot of time to get the water system installed correctly. Every temp program I am using is telling me that card is running at 34C. The card was running at 90C before the system was put in place. No I didnt try running the games before the water system was put in place. The trouble is I dont know how to step down that card. The Catalyst software has its starting points (that you cant go below) at the over clocked speed. Sure I can bios down my CPU. I guess Ill try that.

Thanks.
 
Well I never got in to overclocking my GPU, might have played with it a bit back when I had a GeForce 3 but my next card was a 9500 softmoded to 9700 and I was happy with the performance gain with out trying to overclock it to pro speeds. So I really can help you with getting around the problems with CCC. But if you Google you could maybe find a piece of software that will let you go below the factory BIOS settings. Or maybe someone will come along who can suggest something.

But yeah like the other guy said it is probably a memory problem with the card so if your 100% sure you got good contact with that water block. It either doesn't like the speed it's being clocked to or it is faulty or maybe took a static charge while you were swapping to the block.
 
Duo Joe said:
Well using the Catalyst software (the card is a factory OC'd card from Diamond) the card doesnt appear to be able to be stepped down. Right now its running at GPU 840 and memory 1090.

Darn it.
Click to expand...


Say what?

that means you are OC'ing the Diamond 4870 x2 more than it is OC'd by Diamond!!

IE

Diamond is 800mhz NOT 840mhz for GPU and 950 mhz NOT 1040 mhz for the RAM!!

This is per Diamond Multimedia themselves

http://www.diamondmm.com/4870X2PE52GXOC.php

More than likely you are pushing the vid card further than what it was ever intended for without some serious cooling in the realm of phase changing etc.
 
That is one insane memory OC. The card runs stock at 900.

That is definitely your problem.
 
Ok, thanks for all your help guys. I used Rivatuner to tone down the card to the proper specs and things are now fine!!!


Thanks again.


Tom
 
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