Problems with 4870..

[panzival]

Once again I am back... I posted a while ago because i had problems with my video card artifacting. Most suggested I get a new PSU and some suggested I get try using vista (had windows 7 installed). I still have the same problems, but it's not as bad as before. I have the latest drivers and I just built a brand new computer. Here's my specs.

Vista Ultimate SP2 32 bit

• G.SKILL F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ PC2-8000 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-1000 CL5-5-5-15 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit
• Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 Dual Core Processor LGA775 2.5GHZ 800FSB 2MB Retail Box
• Asus P5Q Pro Atx LGA775 P45 DDR2 2PCI-E16 Crossfire 3PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Sound Gblan Esata Motherboard
• Sapphire Radeon Hd 4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI-I Video Card
• Corsair TX750W 750W ATX 12V 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 140MM Fan

Here's a pic of what my problem looks like, although it's not as bad as that.
http://hem.bredband.net/bridah/BF2_77.50_AGP_D3D_00.jpg

[aviduser]

So you've checked the temperature while under load? have you tried under-clocking your card a little to see if that helps?

[TimTheEnchanter]

Suggesting this, maybe a cooling problem? Can it cause artifacting?

[panzival]

Weird thing is, I used the Artifact scanner in ATI Tool and I get no artifacts. Temperatures never got over 60C (I'm assuming this is normal, as my 8800 GTS got to 80C under load and it never had problems..) I haven't tried underclocking though, so I'll try that.

edit: Underclocked the GPU core to 500 MHz. I had less artifacts, but they were still there.

[CanadaRox]

Use GPU-Z (or Rivatuner I believe) and get the temperature of the VRMs because they get EXTREMELY hot and are likely the cause of your problems. You can also try running stock clock speed again and set the fan to 100% and see if that helps. If it does, there is some sort of temperature problem. I'm pretty sure that is what it is as the 4870's VRMs are known for getting extremely hot.

[panzival]

Originally Posted by CanadaRox

Use GPU-Z (or Rivatuner I believe) and get the temperature of the VRMs because they get EXTREMELY hot and are likely the cause of your problems. You can also try running stock clock speed again and set the fan to 100% and see if that helps. If it does, there is some sort of temperature problem. I'm pretty sure that is what it is as the 4870's VRMs are known for getting extremely hot.

Ok here's what I got from the GPU-Z. I don't see a VRM temp anywhere so I'll just post the sensor screen from GPU-Z. I've also noticed that putting the fan from anywhere to 60%-100% doesn't lower the temperature. It always stays at around 39C - 40C anywhere past 60%+

[Cranky]

Heat is definitely the major cause of artifacting. Your issue probably is not the card per se but your tower not being able to provide enough "cooler" air to your card's intake. My tower has a side intake fan and a top exhaust fan to help with keeping my pig cool. The 4870 series cards are notorious heat whores. That all being said, some games are "driver issue" driven to cause artifacting. STALKER was a particular finicky game for artifacting even though my temps were low.

[panzival]

Originally Posted by Cranky

Heat is definitely the major cause of artifacting. Your issue probably is not the card per se but your tower not being able to provide enough "cooler" air to your card's intake. My tower has a side intake fan and a top exhaust fan to help with keeping my pig cool. The 4870 series cards are notorious heat whores. That all being said, some games are "driver issue" driven to cause artifacting. STALKER was a particular finicky game for artifacting even though my temps were low.

I've got an Antec 900, so my tower shouldn't be the problem. And the games I've tried to test my 4870 out on are Far Cry 2, Crysis: Warhead, Age of Conan, and World of Warcraft. Only Crysis has major artifacts. The others have very little artifacts.

[cadaveca]

RMA that card, usually bad mem peice that causes those sort of artifacts, or very low ram voltage.


My cards hit 115c @ load, even to the point that they throttle...no artifacts. RMA for sure. The reason Crysis is the only other is most liekly to VGA ram use...try like GTA4 if you can, or crank up the AA and see what happens...and I do not see this in Crysis myself.

[Cranky]

I just noticed in your GPU-Z the core was at 760, isn't stock suppose to be 750? If that is the case, some cards just can't overclock no matter what, and that will definitely cause artifacting. If you still have artifacting at 750 then do as cadaveca says and RMA it. The rest of your hardware is more than adequate to run your card.