XFX 7970 Gone Bad? Anything but MS driver Artifacts Bad

[primetime]

Getting ready to throw in the towel and box up my card for rma, but figured i get some opinions to see if i missed anything. Have tried Win 10 and Win 8.1 and what i originally figured was just a beta os/ AMD driver issue turns out to give the exact same problems in Win 8 as well so there goes that idea. Actually tempted to bake this thing cause i travel for work and i love to get a game in after a hard days work (when i not spending money on women)
Looking back i remember now it actually went bad in the middle of running Valley Benchmark just sorta testing out a new driver...Guess i didn't want to accept my card went bad just like that, but then again i never seen one work with generic driver fine but not work at all with real driver.....first time for everything...and truthfully i babied this thing
Here what the display looks like with driver installed

Guess ill take it out, pull it apart and see if i find anything visually wrong

 

[XFXSupport]

Hello,

Is it just a constant yellow shade that's disrupting the image? or is it artifacting and crashing along with it?

Did you try a different cable, adapter or monitor? Could you swap the video card?

I would rule out the simple signal issues first before sending in the RMA.

 

[pendragon1]

looks like a bad cable or screen dying...

 

[primetime]

Hello,

Is it just a constant yellow shade that's disrupting the image? or is it artifacting and crashing along with it?

Did you try a different cable, adapter or monitor? Could you swap the video card?

I would rule out the simple signal issues first before sending in the RMA.

Well i primarily use an hdmi cable to my newest display (and i only have the one).....BUT it also has d-sub so i used a vga cable and adapter and got the same exact result....I also tried a different display all together since at first i figured the display was going bad and for a while the other display looked fine...it didn't last more than half an hour and the screen got all messed up the same using different port, cable and display....so that sorta rules out a few things...I was already prepared just to use my older display since at first it seemed ok

I know the picture doesn't show it and screen shots wont capture it but its alot more than just yellow stripes...if you look close there's artifacts kinda swirling around and very pixelated....I can say the problem only occurs after loading the amd driver as the Microsoft one doesn't really use the gpu at all

Now if your like me you might suspect software.....but like i said 2 brand new installs (win 10 and win 8) trying several different drivers from a fresh image each time...no dice

So i have tried multiple cables, displays, operating systems (new installs), and drivers and same result each time....Also keep in mind it went out in the middle of unreal valley test and never came back

 

[primetime]

Heres the way it acted in the beginning, and also why i had a hell of a times sorting this out...it really looked like a bad display or cable but only for a little while cause the other display went out after a while

The screen would go from perfect to messed up the instant the driver loaded in

This is using the vga cable and adapter since card has no d-sub

This is using same vga cable and adapter on my old nvidia card on same display ( which now i have to use since the old card has no hdmi)

As you can see its perfect

 

[primetime]

The image above has some yellow shifted areas which are most clearly visible in the sky. You can still see the sky image but it just appears more yellow than it should be. Images are made on a computer by adding the red, green, and blue component parts of an image together to make the final color. Those areas in the sky are shifted yellow because the bad video RAM in this case holds the blue component and too little blue results in a shift to yellow. You can see other kinds of color shifts depending on which parts of the video RAM are not working. The color shifts can be subtle or obvious depending on which parts of the video RAM have died. This kind of artifact can appear for both 2D mode or 3D mode graphics.

According to this article its bad video ram

 

[XFXSupport]

Yeah, if its not the signal carriers or monitor, its probably going to be the graphics card.

in order to get it replaced under warranty, make a ticket at xfxsupport.com and PM me the ticket #. once i have the ticket #, ill get you setup for warranty servicing.

Thanks

Mark
XFX Support
800 880 3225

 

[primetime]

Much appreciated Mark......Your office should have it Monday-ish.....Maybe i get lucky an get back up in running by the following Monday...stranger things have happned I have my old as hell, warranty replaced nvidia card to hold me over till it gets back

 

[ITSTHINKING]

I think you answered you own question a few posts back. Bummer man. The good news is the rest of your system is plenty fast and then some. What are you thinking for the replacement?

 

[primetime]

I think you answered you own question a few posts back. Bummer man. The good news is the rest of your system is plenty fast and then some. What are you thinking for the replacement?

Well I have to wait for the card to come back...

 

[stevelopez91]

Just picked it up and failed it for artifacting in the MDPort. First time we've seen that. Very rarely do we see unique card failures.

The replacement will be going out tomorrow as long as en email with information regarding the replacement and a tracking #.

Thanks for all the positive support, much appreciated.

Mark

XFX Support
800 880 3225

I may be mistaken, but I think this reply was intended for you. Considering I just received my replacement unit, and you had an issue regarding artifacting, I'm fairly certain this means you have a replacement unit headed your way ;P Enjoy the new card, brotha.

 

[XFXSupport]

Yep. this is Primetime's card

 

[primetime]

Sweet....Just might get it back for the weekend.....another very quick turn around since i didn't even get it mailed off till monday

 

[primetime]

Extremely impressed how XFX handled my rma. Took them only 24 hours to test and ship out a slight upgrade from a 7970 to R9 280x and received it only 4 work days (form when they got it from me)
All together different card...seemed a bit longer/ heaver and seems to have very good vrm and gpu temps (no way to even check vrm temps on last card)

Everybody talks how well evga is but let me set the record straight....my previous card before i went amd was evga and it also went bad. It took at least 5 weeks to get a replacement card from them...not saying i was unhappy with them but xfx got me back up and running in less than a week.

 

[Araxie]

40C@70% fan speed seems a bit high to me unless you are in a 30+C room temp and even I think its kinda high.. what about load temps?

 

[primetime]

40C@70% fan speed seems a bit high to me unless you are in a 30+C room temp and even I think its kinda high.. what about load temps?

i have no ac on at all.....so keep that in mind but ill test load temps in a bit..think the temp is maybe 81f at most in this mountain area i live in currently

 

[Araxie]

i would keep an eye in heavy load temps. you probably have to re-paste the cards which a common to do thing in some cards..

 

[jojo69]

hmmmm

XFX support noted

 

[primetime]

i would keep an eye in heavy load temps. you probably have to re-paste the cards which a common to do thing in some cards..

well got to looking around and noticed afterburner some how had disable ulps checked. temps lowered a good 10 degrees after i unchecked it (just a beta os/afterburner glitch) somehow it defaults to it being checked.....anyways thanks for the tip...i might not have noticed had you not said anything