So I've had my 4870 for a good 3 years now without problem, however just recently it's been on the fritz (at least I think it's the video card). Basically what's been happening is that I've been getting random sorts of artifacts in games recently (by random I mean sometimes they look like VRAM artifacts, i.e. texture stretching, and other times they look like GPU artifacts, and sometimes both), and then very soon after, ~3-5 seconds, my computer will black screen and crash.
Now after this happens, I will artifacts on boot up. These artifacts are always exactly the same though and are white lines or blocks. How they act is dependent on what is on the screen during boot up. So if there is any color, the white lines get pixelated with green/blue, and if there is any sort of animation (i.e. cursor blinking), some of the white blocks/lines will appear and disappear. This happens all the way till windows loading after which i get a blue screen and I have to boot up again. Typically I get artifacts on boot up for about 5 boot ups after crashing, though I've had it be as many as 20 and as little as 0. I haven't been able to figure out any pattern.
The second issue is that sometimes (particularly after booting up successfully into windows after a number of blue screens) I get pixelated black lines across my screen. This doesn't appear to cause immediate crash, but the lines slowly appear as I open and close various windows (i.e. changing the colors on the screen). These lines don't show up in screenshots either, but they are not a monitor issue as I've tested the monitor with other computers. It could be the dvi cable which I haven't gotten around to testing, but I think it's unlikely considering I have other (apparent) GPU problems as well.
I have tested my RAM, HDD, updated drivers and ensured adequate cooling for the video card. My graphics card isn't overclocked and hasn't been for the past 1-2 years. I OC'd it intially (as you can see in my sig), but dropped that when I was annoyed at having to run the fan at a high speed to keep it cool (it's loud). I downclocked my CPU as well after this started to see if that was the issue, but it's not.
I have warranty for this card and will send it in, but I'm a little hesitant since these issues arise often, but sometimes my card will work perfectly fine for hours on end, and then crash at random moments, so I'm confused as to if the issue is actually with the graphics card, or something else I'm not considering.
Maybe some of you could shed some light? Thanks.
Now after this happens, I will artifacts on boot up. These artifacts are always exactly the same though and are white lines or blocks. How they act is dependent on what is on the screen during boot up. So if there is any color, the white lines get pixelated with green/blue, and if there is any sort of animation (i.e. cursor blinking), some of the white blocks/lines will appear and disappear. This happens all the way till windows loading after which i get a blue screen and I have to boot up again. Typically I get artifacts on boot up for about 5 boot ups after crashing, though I've had it be as many as 20 and as little as 0. I haven't been able to figure out any pattern.
The second issue is that sometimes (particularly after booting up successfully into windows after a number of blue screens) I get pixelated black lines across my screen. This doesn't appear to cause immediate crash, but the lines slowly appear as I open and close various windows (i.e. changing the colors on the screen). These lines don't show up in screenshots either, but they are not a monitor issue as I've tested the monitor with other computers. It could be the dvi cable which I haven't gotten around to testing, but I think it's unlikely considering I have other (apparent) GPU problems as well.
I have tested my RAM, HDD, updated drivers and ensured adequate cooling for the video card. My graphics card isn't overclocked and hasn't been for the past 1-2 years. I OC'd it intially (as you can see in my sig), but dropped that when I was annoyed at having to run the fan at a high speed to keep it cool (it's loud). I downclocked my CPU as well after this started to see if that was the issue, but it's not.
I have warranty for this card and will send it in, but I'm a little hesitant since these issues arise often, but sometimes my card will work perfectly fine for hours on end, and then crash at random moments, so I'm confused as to if the issue is actually with the graphics card, or something else I'm not considering.
Maybe some of you could shed some light? Thanks.
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