AMD's real biggest issue, The DX9 Artifacts

[BababooeyHTJ]

I don't know how this isn't getting more attention. I've been a 7950 owner for a few months now. I've noticed those frame latency issues that people are all up in arms over in one game (Stalker Clear Sky). Even then there is a work around, a framerate cap which I generally use anyways.

The issue that has been irritating the heck out of me and quite a few other people on the forums is the DX9 flicker or artifacts. This issue seems far more common and is far more irritating. There is nothing more immersion breaking than random black or white flashes on your screen.

Here is a four month old thread on Guru3d about this issue with a couple of videos. I know that I've seen this in quite a few games over the months.

 

[Dankk]

Ugh... don't remind me.

I made a huge thread about this a while back. I wish someone would've told me that it was purely a driver flaw, so I didn't have to waste weeks troubleshooting my PC for nothing.

I agree that it's AMDs biggest issue. Funny how there's all these threads with people arguing about micro-stuttering, yet everyone is ignoring the outright CORRUPTION that is going on in a lot of games.

 

[Homeles]

It's not been picked up by the media... that's why.

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

I guarantee that you aren't alone. I'm sure that other people have sent their card in for an rma over this issue.

I know that I sent in a card for the desktop flicker issue. I can live with that one.

Still, I don't understand how so many sites can test Skyrim yet not one reviewer picks up on the artifacts. I know that I've seen the DX9 artifacts on several 7950s on two different pcs.

It's not been picked up by the media... that's why.

Thats exactly why. Its as if they wait until people make a huge stink before fixing an issue. Just like with the 5870 GSOD and the recent frame latency issues.

 

[Skurge]

Is it only on 7 series cards? Didn't read the thread you posted yet. I will do so later.

 

[Red Hawk]

Tell me about it. My 7870 artifacts in Skyrim and Mass Effect 3, but also Arkham City and Dragon Age II (DX11 games). I think it might be a combination of this flickering issue and just a defective card. I sent the card in for RMA, which alleviated most of the flickering in Skyrim, but there is still flickering in the other games. Hoping that 13.2 betas address it...

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Is it only on 7 series cards? Didn't read the thread you posted yet. I will do so later.

Yeah, it seems to be only with GCN.

 

[Rvenger]

I love the black flickering textures I get in Dishonored. Happens on all drivers 12.10 and up.

 

[3DVagabond]

In the 13.1 release notes they do mention flickering in some games in Dx9. Seems like it's not a general fix and is game by game with certain settings, but they are working on it. Maybe you should read the release notes and see if any of your concerns are either addressed or are being worked on.

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 13.1 software suite.

• A sporadic system hang encountered with a single AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series GPU seen on X58 and X79 chipsets.

• An intermittent hang encountered with AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series GPUs in an AMD CrossFire + Eyefinity setup.

• Missing fonts in XBMC

• No video found in Media Player Classic Home Cinema when using full or half floating point processing

• Skyrim lighting (missing a lighting pass) for the AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series

• Skyrim cloud corruption experience in various in game locations

• A hang playing Dishonored on the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series

• Engine and memory clocks running too high when the GPU is idle.

• GPU activity runs at lower values than expected seen on the AMD Radeon HD 7870.

• Corruption seen in Darkness 2 and Carrier Command when using AMD CrossFire configurations

• Adobe Premier Pro CS6 may fail to launch

• Hang experienced with AMD Crossfire and Eyefinity enabled on X58 and X78 chipsets

• Corel PaintShop Pro X3 – Hangs at the “Initializing Command Manager” window

• Company of Heroes 2 – display corruption experienced when AA is enabled in the AMD Catalyst Control Center

• Cyberlink Powerdirector 10 crashes intermittently.

• Company of Heroes : Tales of Valor – Flickering experienced when AA is disabled

• Max Payne 3 – Flickering experienced in DirectX 9 mode with forced AA enabled

• Cyberlink PoweDVD 10 – crashes intermittently

• VLC - Green texture corruption seen in 720p MPEG2 video clips

• Black screen encountered when “Alternate DVI mode” is enabled in the AMD Catalyst Control Center

• Green display corruption seen in Skype webcam video

Known Issues

The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced with the AMD Catalyst 13.1 software suite.

Known issues under the Windows 8 Operating System.

• Sleeping Dogs – game may fail to launch in certain configurations

Known issues under the Windows 7 Operating System.

• Shogun 2 – Total War : flickering experienced when game is run in medium quality mode

I don't know if that helps or not with any problems you are having.

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

No thats a different issue sadly. Also AFAIK 13.1 is just 12.11b11 with a whql signature.

I love the black flickering textures I get in Dishonored. Happens on all drivers 12.10 and up.

I was wondering why I never had an issue in that game. I was using 12.8 when I played it.

 

[SolMiester]

WOW, thats a lot of fixes for a 12mth old product...Is it any wonder people still deride AMD for their drivers?

 

[3DVagabond]

WOW, thats a lot of fixes for a 12mth old product...Is it any wonder people still deride AMD for their drivers?

You must not read driver release notes very often. This is pretty much par for the course.

 

[SolMiester]

You must not read driver release notes very often. This is pretty much par for the course.

No, TBF, I dont game that often nowadays, however it was rare that I had too when playing.
Are you saying this is par for the course for NV & AMD or just AMD, cause I just checked the latest release drivers for NV, and there isnt half the number of fixes there, and most of them are related to SLI profiles or fixes, NOT single GPU.

 

[MTDEW]

You should change the thread title to say "7xxx" series cards.
That will cut down on the 4xxx,5xxx,6xxx owners chiming in that they see no issues because they don't.

And good luck with having any civilized discussion about this issue on these forums.

On a regular basis you see people on these forums asking what GPU to buy.
And the people mention games like Skyrim and FC3 as important games they play.

And all the "AMD parrots" come on and say get an AMD 7xxx card and post the same links to show how great the 7xxx FPS numbers are.
And NEVER mention the AMD 7xxx card artifact issues in Skyrim or the fact that on AMD hardware you'll need to run a frame-limiter or borderless window to play Skyrim normally.

Nobody mentions FC3 issues when traveling to safe-house in first town and you exit you see artifacts with the latest AMD drivers. (doesnt do it on 12.10's, just 12.11 and later that include the FC3 performance enhancements)
And that is just two of the MANY games with artifact issues on 7xxx cards.
People just flatout lie on here and say it doesn't exist on their 7xxx hardware/drivers and recommend the hardware to others.

So be ready for all the worthless replies stating the issue must be your hardware, to you must be a Nvidia fanboy.

But don't expect any rational discussion on here.

BTW: An AMD rep has mentioned they are working hard on a fix for the issues, but the simple truth is AMD doesn't know exactly why it happens in random games, the driver re-write that they are working on is an attempt to address the issue.
Because nothing AMD has tried in the last 13months has yet to squash the issue completely.
And that's the REAL truth.

 

[tigersty1e]

herd mentality.

when these problems first came up, everyone and their mother said to rma. rma was the answer.

 

[3DVagabond]

You should change the thread title to say "7xxx" series cards.
That will cut down on the 4xxx,5xxx,6xxx owners chiming in that they see no issues because they don't.

And good luck with having any civilized discussion about this issue on these forums.

On a regular basis you see people on these forums asking what GPU to buy.
And the people mention games like Skyrim and FC3 as important games they play.

And all the "AMD parrots" come on and say get an AMD 7xxx card and post the same links to show how great the 7xxx FPS numbers are.
And NEVER mention the AMD 7xxx card artifact issues in Skyrim or the fact that on AMD hardware you'll need to run a frame-limiter or borderless window to play Skyrim normally.

Nobody mentions FC3 issues when traveling to safe-house in first town and you exit you see artifacts with the latest AMD drivers. (doesnt do it on 12.10's, just 12.11 and later that include the FC3 performance enhancements)
And that is just two of the MANY games with artifact issues on 7xxx cards.
People just flatout lie on here and say it doesn't exist on their 7xxx hardware/drivers and recommend the hardware to others.

So be ready for all the worthless replies stating the issue must be your hardware, to you must be a Nvidia fanboy.

But don't expect any rational discussion on here.

BTW: An AMD rep has mentioned they are working hard on a fix for the issues, but the simple truth is AMD doesn't know exactly why it happens in random games, the driver re-write that they are working on is an attempt to address the issue.
Because nothing AMD has tried in the last 13months has yet to squash the issue completely.
And that's the REAL truth.

Strange, but until you posted this there was nothing flame worthy in the entire thread. Now that you've come in here calling out "AMD parrots" and calling people liars, and such. Maybe you should just delete everything after the first sentence since that was actually constructive.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

And NEVER mention the AMD 7xxx card artifact issues in Skyrim or the fact that on AMD hardware you'll need to run a frame-limiter or borderless window to play Skyrim normally.

Let me guess you've turned off vsync in skyrim and have water mods running?

Two things that cause problems basically no matter what.

 

[MTDEW]

herd mentality.

when these problems first came up, everyone and their mother said to rma. rma was the answer.

In their defense , the artifacts look and act exactly like faulty GPU memory issues, so the advice to RMA is sincere and normally would be accurate.
Hence the memory re-write AMD is trying since going by their previous driver experience, the issue shouldn't be happening.
Which it isnt on all previous GPU's b4 the 7xxx series, so it has had them kinda baffled.

I know the AMD reps comments don't help the frustration that early adopters have since they have been waiting on a fix for awhile now.
But at least the AMD rep is being honest.
And we KNOW AMD is really doing their best to solve the issue.

Let me guess you've turned off vsync in skyrim and have water mods running?

Two things that cause problems basically no matter what.

Absolutely not, i play all games with v-sync on because i hate screen tearing, and Skyrim is tested with a clean install of windows and clean install of the game with no mods , just the official texture pack.
I'm not a newb, been building pc's for 30yrs, i keep a clean image of windows that has never had any previous GPU drivers installed for testing to ensure a clean install of drivers and games with latest patches when testing new drivers.

 

[Homeles]

herd mentality.

when these problems first came up, everyone and their mother said to rma. rma was the answer.

It's rather difficult to diagnose these issues on your own.

 

[badb0y]

I have had HD 7970 for like a year now and I haven't had issues with any of the following:

Diablo 3
The Walking Dead
Dead Space 2
Batman AC
BF3
Torchlight 2
Path of Exile
Skyrim
Mass Effect 3
WoW: MoP
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
CS: GO
Borderlands 2
Alan Wake
Guild Wars 2
Dota 2

and many more...

Basically I have played a mix of new, old , and even unreleased games over the past year. If you are having artifacts roll back your OC or RMA your card.

 

[3DVagabond]

I have had HD 7970 for like a year now and I haven't had issues with any of the following:

Diablo 3
The Walking Dead
Dead Space 2
Batman AC
BF3
Torchlight 2
Path of Exile
Skyrim
Mass Effect 3
WoW: MoP
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
CS: GO
Borderlands 2
Alan Wake
Guild Wars 2
Dota 2

and many more...

Basically I have played a mix of new, old , and even unreleased games over the past year. If you are having artifacts roll back your OC or RMA your card.

Different setups, different hardware, different applications, even different in game and driver settings. There are so many possible combinations that could trigger a problem. First it has to be isolated before it can be addressed. It seems like AMD is having difficulty isolating it.

 

[tigersty1e]

In their defense , the artifacts look and act exactly like faulty GPU memory issues, so the advice to RMA is sincere and normally would be accurate.
Hence the memory re-write AMD is trying since going by their previous driver experience, the issue shouldn't be happening.
Which it isnt on all previous GPU's b4 the 7xxx series, so it has had them kinda baffled.

I know the AMD reps comments don't help the frustration that early adopters have since they have been waiting on a fix for awhile now.
But at least the AMD rep is being honest.
And we KNOW AMD is really doing their best to solve the issue.

Absolutely not, i play all games with v-sync on because i hate screen tearing, and Skyrim is tested with a clean install of windows and clean install of the game with no mods , just the official texture pack.
I'm not a newb, been building pc's for 30yrs, i keep a clean image of windows that has never had any previous GPU drivers installed for testing to ensure a clean install of drivers and games with latest patches when testing new drivers.

It's rather difficult to diagnose these issues on your own.

it was painfully obvious to me that i only artifacted in cod black ops and not in any other game.

i knew something was up.

 

[MTDEW]

Different setups, different hardware, different applications, even different in game and driver settings. There are so many possible combinations that could trigger a problem. First it has to be isolated before it can be addressed. It seems like AMD is having difficulty isolating it.

Exactly, i wish we had rep points here, i'd gladly give you some. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

The best you can do right now to help AMD is submit a bug report to Thracks on the Overclock.net Forums.

IMO, he is honest and will help pass along any legit info that can help AMD solve the issues.

The ONLY reason i even mention Thracks, is that he is good at his job and doesn't rely on bullsh*t to defend AMD.

He has been honest and will honestly tell you simply "we made changes to the drivers to fix a certain issue, which ended up causing anther issue that should in no way be related to the driver changes we made, so we have no idea why the flickering occurred with those changes".

I still stand by AMD simply because of their honesty in dealing with their customers.
So if you really want to help, please submit any bug reports to Thracks, and give as much accurate info as possible.

We can argue back and forth all we want on this forum.
But posting frametime graphs and whatever doesn't do near as much at helping AMD as submitting a real useful bug report info to Thracks.

 

[Arachnotronic]

My biggest problem with AMD cards?

Not one has allowed me to play Return To Castle Wolfenstein without significant (and I mean game-breaking) performance issues.

I also like PhysX, but could live without it.

 

[MTDEW]

I have had HD 7970 for like a year now and I haven't had issues with any of the following:

Diablo 3
The Walking Dead
Dead Space 2
Batman AC
BF3
Torchlight 2
Path of Exile
Skyrim
Mass Effect 3
WoW: MoP
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
CS: GO
Borderlands 2
Alan Wake
Guild Wars 2
Dota 2

and many more...

Basically I have played a mix of new, old , and even unreleased games over the past year. If you are having artifacts roll back your OC or RMA your card.

If you're not having any issues with a clean install of windows and games drivers, that info can be just as useful to AMD as people having issues.
So please consider sharing your info to the AMD driver team.

My biggest problem with AMD cards?

Not one has allowed me to play Return To Castle Wolfenstein without significant (and I mean game-breaking) performance issues.

I also like PhysX, but could live without it.

Wow, gotta admit i havent played that game in awhile, if you can be specific with your issues and specs, i'm sure someone could at the very least try to help.