AMD's real biggest issue, The DX9 Artifacts

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Shephard

Senior member
Nov 3, 2012
765
0
0
um is it possible people here have faulty cards? Because I don't see complaints like this on Newegg reviews.

My friend has Gigabyte Windforce 7950 and he has over 400 games on Steam. No problems.

Skyrim - no problems. Ultra settings 1080p with custom mods.
Borderlands 2 - ultra settings.
Metro 2033 - most ultra settings.
Starcraft 2 - ultra settings.
Diablo 3 - ultra settings.
CSGO - ultra settings.
Mass Effect 2 - ultra settings.
The Walking Dead - ultra settings.
XCOM Enemy Unknown - ultra settings.

no artifacts or problems?
 

KevinH

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2000
3,110
7
81
um is it possible people here have faulty cards? Because I don't see complaints like this on Newegg reviews.

My friend has Gigabyte Windforce 7950 and he has over 400 games on Steam. No problems.

Skyrim - no problems. Ultra settings 1080p with custom mods.
Borderlands 2 - ultra settings.
Metro 2033 - most ultra settings.
Starcraft 2 - ultra settings.
Diablo 3 - ultra settings.
CSGO - ultra settings.
Mass Effect 2 - ultra settings.
The Walking Dead - ultra settings.
XCOM Enemy Unknown - ultra settings.

no artifacts or problems?

That's a possibility but the AMD guy Thrack already confirmed that AMD has this as a priority among their concerns.
 

Shephard

Senior member
Nov 3, 2012
765
0
0
That's a possibility but the AMD guy Thrack already confirmed that AMD has this as a priority among their concerns.
maybe it's specific cards then?

The Gigabyte Windforce is the one I want but it's still priced too high. MSI 7950 is another choice.

I have heard complaints of the Sapphire 7870. No other cards though.

My friend has 0 problems and no complaints. He has had the card since October.
 

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
204
106
maybe it's specific cards then?

The Gigabyte Windforce is the one I want but it's still priced too high. MSI 7950 is another choice.

I have heard complaints of the Sapphire 7870. No other cards though.

My friend has 0 problems and no complaints. He has had the card since October.

Or maybe it's specific hardware/software/Dx version combos?
 

Hatisherrif

Senior member
May 10, 2009
226
0
0
maybe it's specific cards then?

The Gigabyte Windforce is the one I want but it's still priced too high. MSI 7950 is another choice.

I have heard complaints of the Sapphire 7870. No other cards though.

My friend has 0 problems and no complaints. He has had the card since October.

Did you even look at my post? I have the exact same problems with a Gigabyte Windforce edition card. It is a driver problem, not manufacturer related.
 

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
I can confirm GTA 4 suffers from the same artifact bug. I played muitplayer last night for a couple hours and artifacts were here and there. Wasn't too bad, but it's still a problem.
 

yepp

Senior member
Jul 30, 2006
403
38
91
Looks like the majority of the games affected, renders under the DX 9.0c path.
 

Dstoop

Member
Sep 2, 2012
151
0
0
Looks like the majority of the games affected, renders under the DX 9.0c path.

I've seen other evidence pointing to this as well. Really old DX8, early DX9 games, and DX10/11 games seem totally unaffected, it's only certain subsets of DX9 games that have the issue, and even then it may only affect specific games using specific API calls in a specific way, which could easily explain why XYZ DX9 game doesnt do it but it's really bad in ABC DX9 game. The game itself also has a lot to do with whether or not you notice it, it's much more prominent in a game like Guild Wars 2 or Skyrim that has a lot of bright colors and areas, but a much darker game like Alan Wake, most people aren't going to notice a flash of a black artifact running through a nearly pitch black room.
 

BababooeyHTJ

Senior member
Nov 25, 2009
283
0
0
I can confirm GTA 4 suffers from the same artifact bug. I played muitplayer last night for a couple hours and artifacts were here and there. Wasn't too bad, but it's still a problem.

Oh, its bad in GTA4. Almost as bad as the age old performance issues that I don't think AMD will ever fix in that game.
 

Shephard

Senior member
Nov 3, 2012
765
0
0
Did you even look at my post? I have the exact same problems with a Gigabyte Windforce edition card. It is a driver problem, not manufacturer related.
um he has 0 problems and loves his card.

Do you play any of the games I mentioned in my post?

Maybe it's your drivers.

He's using the 'golden' drivers. The ones that came out a few months ago that gave a huge fps boost.

HE doesn't update drivers every time a new release comes out. Neither do I.
 

Jstn7477

Member
Jun 1, 2012
25
0
76
I've always had the artifacts with both of the XFX 7950s I owned (first one was returned because a fan died 3 weeks after purchase). Been through all the recent drivers (12.8+) and Far Cry 2 and DE:HR look perfect, but games like Tribes: Ascend had big black artifacts once in a while and Far Cry 3 occasionally gets this full screen "checkerboard" artifact even at stock. Looking forward to what Cat 13.2 brings.
 

KevinH

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2000
3,110
7
81
um he has 0 problems and loves his card.

Do you play any of the games I mentioned in my post?

Maybe it's your drivers.

He's using the 'golden' drivers. The ones that came out a few months ago that gave a huge fps boost.

HE doesn't update drivers every time a new release comes out. Neither do I.

Which ones are these? Gonna give it a crack myself.
 

Silver Prime

Golden Member
May 29, 2012
1,671
7
0
Was the forum just temporarely down 10 minutes ago or so?

I could browse the internet but it would say connection gone when I tried getting in here, maybe its my com...cant wait get a new one. ^_^
 

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
204
106
Was the forum just temporarely down 10 minutes ago or so?

I could browse the internet but it would say connection gone when I tried getting in here, maybe its my com...cant wait get a new one. ^_^

I couldn't connect to either the forums or the main site myself.
 

boxleitnerb

Platinum Member
Nov 1, 2011
2,605
6
81
Just because person A doesn't have the problem doesn't mean it is the same for person B. No offense, but I don't find these "but everything is okay here" posts particularly helpful, because they mean exactly nothing. Just because I never win the lottery doesn't mean no one does ;)
 

Silver Prime

Golden Member
May 29, 2012
1,671
7
0
I couldn't connect to either the forums or the main site myself.

Oh? Hmm...probably technical problems with the forum, awesome they got it back running. Reguardless, I still have to get another Pc, this old gal has hit her breaking point. Maybe a 1,000-1,600 invesment in a solid brandnew com would be something to look foward to. I'm not much of a computer wiz but I'll probably ask around when I do.

I had an awesome one last year but it crashed for some odd reason, I fooled around with the main memory bank and I erased alot of requried boots on accidents so down the dain she went. lol But man, the search engine plus via new softwares they have now are mucho mucho powerful, this old gal is so limited even the basics like blogs/videos an certain sites dont boot up...in fact only a handful of only a few boot up now, no emails, no safari no nadda. Oh wells, I'll get another a little later....... Say la vi. ^_^
 

Dstoop

Member
Sep 2, 2012
151
0
0
um is it possible people here have faulty cards? Because I don't see complaints like this on Newegg reviews.

My friend has Gigabyte Windforce 7950 and he has over 400 games on Steam. No problems.

Skyrim - no problems. Ultra settings 1080p with custom mods.
Borderlands 2 - ultra settings.
Metro 2033 - most ultra settings.
Starcraft 2 - ultra settings.
Diablo 3 - ultra settings.
CSGO - ultra settings.
Mass Effect 2 - ultra settings.
The Walking Dead - ultra settings.
XCOM Enemy Unknown - ultra settings.

no artifacts or problems?

With all due respect, newegg reviews mean jack shit unless there's a serious flaw with the item. If I have a problem with artifacting six months after I build a rig, or only in one particular game, i'm not running back to newegg to post a smear review of the product, i'm going to troubleshoot the issue and go to enthusiast forums to discuss.

Likewise, secondhand information from your friend who is admittedly using older drivers is pretty much useless.

We've gone over this about a dozen times in this thread now. Hundreds of people don't have faulty hardware. It's a real issue, AMD representatives from a reputable source have confirmed its a real issue, and it's been proven time and time again that drivers have a considerable impact on the issue. We've done the RMAs, we've done the testing, we've tried different brands and models of cards. They all do it, it's not the hardware, honest.
 

Rikard

Senior member
Apr 25, 2012
428
0
0
A small addition is in order: I noticed one artifact in Skyrim the other day after playing for 3-4 h. So yes it is there, though hardly a major issue if they are that rare.
 

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
10,337
5,397
136
A small addition is in order: I noticed one artifact in Skyrim the other day after playing for 3-4 h. So yes it is there, though hardly a major issue if they are that rare.

Your graphics card is stock overclocked, I'm not surprised that it glitched once in a 4 hour play session.
 

Rikard

Senior member
Apr 25, 2012
428
0
0
Your graphics card is stock overclocked, I'm not surprised that it glitched once in a 4 hour play session.
Actually, I ran it OC'ed to 1100/1250 MHz... I get stability issues and artifacts at 1200/1500 MHz, but it is the first time I see an artifact at that low clocks.
 

KevinH

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2000
3,110
7
81
Which ones are these? Gonna give it a crack myself.


Just an fyi, new beta patch is out as of yesterday.

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst132BetaDriver.aspx


Did a 2 hour Borderlands 2 marathon. No flickering. I usually averaged one every few minutes before this patch.

Looks like Thrack from AMD wasn't kidding when he said it was their #1 priority. In any event, it was definitely a driver issue in my case.


I am happy as a clam right now. I grabbed my reference 660 ti back from my brother because of these flickers but the thing was just too loud at idle. Now I'm back on the 7850 DirectCU and couldn't be more pleased :). Was afraid I was going to have to shell out another $40 bucks for a quiet cooler for the 660.
 
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VulgarDisplay

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2009
6,188
2
76
A small addition is in order: I noticed one artifact in Skyrim the other day after playing for 3-4 h. So yes it is there, though hardly a major issue if they are that rare.

Running any mods on skyrim? I've noticed that I get tons of glitches just from poorly made mods.
 

Lonbjerg

Diamond Member
Dec 6, 2009
4,419
0
0
Just an fyi, new beta patch is out as of yesterday.

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst132BetaDriver.aspx


Did a 2 hour Borderlands 2 marathon. No flickering. I usually averaged one every few minutes before this patch.

Looks like Thrack from AMD wasn't kidding when he said it was their #1 priority. In any event, it was definitely a driver issue in my case.


I am happy as a clam right now. I grabbed my reference 660 ti back from my brother because of these flickers but the thing was just too loud at idle. Now I'm back on the 7850 DirectCU and couldn't be more pleased :). Was afraid I was going to have to shell out another $40 bucks for a quiet cooler for the 660.

This should settle the arguments, from your link:


AMD Catalyst 13.2 Beta Release Notes

FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AMD CATALYST 13.2 BETA 3 DRIVER

AMD Catalyst 13.2 Beta 3 for Windows

Improves performance up to 15% in high MSAA cases for the Crysis 3 beta release
Future updates will be made to AMD Catalyst 13.2 Beta to further improve performance in Crysis 3 for both single GPU and CrossFire configurations
Significantly improves latency performance in Skyrim, Boderlands 2, and Guild Wars 2
Improves single GPU performance up to 50% for DmC Devil May Cry
Improves CrossFire performance up to 10% for Crysis 2
Resolves Texture flickering seen in DirectX9.0c applications.

Now we can re-read the thread....and see who will sufffer from foot-in-mouth syndrome ;)

Kudos to AMD for fixing this issue....despite some people trying to pretend this wasn't real.