Anti-Aliasing Causes Texture Corruption On ATI X800GT?

[Gar1ndan]

Hi all,

I recently built a new system for a friend as follows:-

ASUS A8N-E NF4 Ultra Motherboard, Bios 1008, latest nforce drivers 6.70
Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Core
512mb ddr400 Corsair ram
Sapphire Radeon X800GT 128mb, Catalyst 5.10
Thermaltake TR2 430W psu
usual 80gb sata, dvdrw etc

After a day or two i found that we were getting corrupt textures in both games that had been installed, F.E.A.R. and Guild Wars. Multi-coloured textures were showing up all over the place and sometimes in fear strange pointy textures, and very big errors such as half the screen blocking out would happen, and on one occasion the whole scene went multicoloured.

I had tried everything, such as fresh installing the drivers, checking card and ram etc were seated properly on the motherboard, psu etc, and all is ok. I was at the point where i thought the card was going to have to go back. All that can be seen in this post - Help with Corrupt Textures on X800GT

Then i made a discovery I went back to my friends last night and i decided to try playing with the settings on fear, one of the first things i tried was disabling anti-aliasing (it had been set at 2x), i played for about 10 minutes and there was no texture corruption! So i switched back to 2x again, and within about 2 minutes the texture corruption was back. So back to none, played a good while and it was fine!

So then i was confused as to why it was happening in guild wars aswell, i loaded the game, and sure enough guild wars was on 2x anti-aliasing aswell. I turned it off, played about an hour and not a single corrupt texture!

Right, so i know it's something to do with anti-aliasing but i'd now like to find out if its a driver problem or a hardware problem. I'm guessing its driver related but since i've done a clean install and tried both 5.9 5.10 and 5.10a i'm a bit worried. Surely if it was a driver problem there would be other people who had come across the same thing?

Has anyone heard anything? Or does anyone have a X800GT with latest cats and want to try it out?

 

[dug777]

it's overheating, the 2xAA is putting a higher load on the gpu/ram...at least thats what it sounds like...

try hl2 lost coast without AA, i bet you it overheats and does the same thing there (wander around the chapel for a good 10mins, HDR on full)...

 

[Gar1ndan]

Thanks for the reply. But i had checked out the temperatures in the first topic i had. Temperatures only get to about 65 under load when it happens!?! Surely that can't be too high? Unless the wrong temperatures are being reported? And i even tried it with the fan running at 100% and the same thing happened. I don't know what i'd be able to do about that

Does anyone know how/where the temperature is read on the x800gt? Surely it can't be the heatsink? I'm just trying to think whether it could be wrong, or maybe if the heatsink wasn't fitted very well??

 

[Gar1ndan]

Anyone have any thoughts? I'm slipping down the list

 

[Bartokomus]

bump for a weird one; to me it doesn't sound like temps. Are you frames alright even when the graphics are corrupted? Also, what happens when you do something crazy like bump A to 4x?

 

[dug777]

if it's drivers it should appear instantly, not wait a few minutes...which to me sounds like something is heating up, and it does it faster when 2xAA is on, whcih makes sense...

Did you try lost coast without AA? the AOE3 demo is pretty hard on temps i found too...how does it manage in rthdrible?

 

[Gar1ndan]

Thanks for replies.

I haven't tried it at 4x actually, will do later, but it's bad enough at 2x! Frame rate is still fine yeah, i did think if it was stressing the card that much it would show on the framerate and it doesn't appear to.

But then again as dug pointed out, for the first few minutes it seems fine, then they start to appear?!?

I haven't tried lost coast because my friend doesn't have hl2 yet, could try the age of empires demo i suppose, don't know wot rthdrible is lol.

If it was the card heating up then the same thing should happen any time it's under stress shouldn't it? At the moment she only has 512ram so settings were fairly low. I could try putting all settings at max and seeing what happens? Although the ram and cpu might bottleneck it?

 

[Kogan]

You possibly have a bad card. Try ATITool and run its artifact scanner. Also, if you're overclocking the card, put it back at stock settings.

 

[Gar1ndan]

Thanks for the suggestion, i'll try ATITool aswell. The card is running at stock speeds, was bought brand new and has not been overclocked at any time

 

[Gar1ndan]

Ok i did some more thorough testing tonight, and i have some EXTREMELY strange results to tell :shocked:

I had a much better look at temperatures first, and decided to see what happened at 4x AA and high graphics settings.

I think we can safely say it is NOT temperatures now. I started by opening the Sapphire TRIXX utility (its for overclocking and monitoring) and found the following:-

The idle temperature is around 45 degrees, when nothing is happening and the trixx utility is minimised, and the fan is at 54%. It continues to monitor temperatures on the task bar so i tested it during games aswell. Does anyone know if the fan speed adjusts itself on X800GT when the temp rise? I would expect so but there is no way of monitoring it
When the utility is open it has a spinning 3d sapphire logo, and for some reason when its animated the temperature rises slowly and settles at 64 degrees, then only fluctuates a degree either side. I tested this for some time and its constant.

Upon minimising it returns to 45, then i ran FEAR at the normal settngs i had (fairly low) without AA for about 20 mins, then took a look at the temps. When FEAR was started the temps went to 55, then stayed at that level throughout playtime. Only fluctuating by one degree again.

Then i tried FEAR at the same settings with AA at 2x. As each time before, corrupt textures appeared after a minute or two. I played for some time. And i checked the framerate, it is still running really well, no problems, but the corrupt textures are there. Then i exited and checked temps. As with the first test they rose to 55 degrees........and then remained at 55 degrees the whole time!! So it really doesn't look like a temperature thing. After returning to the desktop after the 2x AA test, the sapphire logo on the utility was also corrupted! With spikes sticking out of it.

Then here's the strange part. I tried FEAR on the same settings next but at 4x AA as Bartokomus suggested.........everything ran fine, framerate was still really good...... and there wasnt a single corrupt texture!!! Not one!!! I repeated all the tests and it showed the same! I returned to the desktop and again the temps were stable at 55 during the whole test.

Right, then i decided to push the card by repeating all the tests but running FEAR on very high settings, i knew it would be a slideshow.

First started with no AA but very high settings - no texture corruption, but as expected the game ran very slow. Temps were still at 55 degrees the whole time.

Then tested at very high settings with 2x AA - very slow frame rate obviously, corrupt textures were there practically straight away, and seemed worse, but not by too much. At the same time a black/grey checked horizontal band was flashing every few seconds in the top third of the screen, i think this might have something to do with running the game at much higher settings than the card can handle though? You'll see why in the minute. Apart from that it was much the same, texture corruption at 2x AA. I returned to the desktop and temps were still 55 degrees, had rose to about 57 in a couple of places, as is to be expected given the much higher settings. After the 2x AA test this time, the sapphire logo had now completely gone and was replaced by just a bright green circle!

I then tested on very high settings at 4x AA. The horizontal bar had been there since the last test and since then, and now, was also present on the FEAR menu screen. I ran the test, and again the frame rate was extremely low. The horizontal bar was also there during that test, thats why i think it might be something to do with having all the settings at maximum. Because also, apart from the bar, there was not a single bit of the multicoloured texture corruption i keep getting at 2x!!! Everything was still fine!!! I could tell, the bar was something different, but the multicoloured textures were not there. I went back to 2x and there they were again!!

Returned to the desktop and temps were again at 55-57, no different! After turning off 2x AA the sapphire logo was back to normal.

Right, finally i got the ATI Tool and tested. At stock speeds (475/350) the temperature was identical to the sapphire utility, it started at 45 but with the ATI Tool 3D window showing it rose to 63/64/65 and it stayed there throughout the entire test. I ran the artifact test at normal settings and there wasnt a single artifact error, i left it going for 30 minutes then got bored, lol.

So..................very strange isn't it!!! Any thoughts now? It's clearly not a temperature thing. Still maybe drivers? Or some really strange hardware problem? But i can't see how?

 

[filho]

Im having the same issue with my sapphire x800gt 128.
Anyone had any news about this problem or how to solve it?
Its exactly the same , texture corruption with AA.

 

[Gar1ndan]

Hi filho, have you tried yours at 4x? Do you still get corruption or is it just at 2x? Strange that we both have Sapphire X800GTs isn't it? Or maybe coincidence.

 

[filho]

I will try with 4x and see what happens

 

[Gar1ndan]

Have you tried it yet? Anyone else have any thoughts? This is a really weird problem, i would have thought people would be more interested

 

[filho]

Now it gives me that corrupted textures even without AA

And another strange thing is that sometimes while playing CS Source, some spikes appear on the screen at 3d models, and some objects dissapear.

While playing FEAR, when i try to use AA i have lots of black dots on the screen.

Do u have those issues or only texture corruption?

PS - sorry for my bad english

 

[Gar1ndan]

Hi filho, yeah i have the same spikes on player models, though not as often as the texture corruption, and yes i also have black dots on FEAR!! So far though i have not had it when AntiAliasing has been off. Have you also checked the temperatures on your card? If you have installed the TRIXX utility you can leave it minimised on monitor, whilst running games.

If your temperatures are fine too then it is quite a strange problem and i'm lost.

I'd like to hear if anyone else has had issues with an X800GT? Surely there can't be some problem with the Sapphire cards? Unfortunately i emailed sapphire about 6 days ago and still haven't had a reply

 

[filho]

The temps are fine i think( i live in a hot country):

51C idle
71C full load

Do u sometimes has problems when restarting the computer?
When i restart sometimes i get "VGA test failed" message from my motherboard.

 

[filho]

Hey Gar1ndan ive noticed that u use nforce 6.70, like me.
Maybe thats the problem, what u think?

 

[Gar1ndan]

The temps are a little high but should be fine.

The 'failed VGA test' however is the board failing a test during the system POST. I haven't had this, but it suggests their is something wrong with the board. Try checking yours is seated properly, or remove it and put it back in, and then try your system out. You could have a bad board?

Which means it's more likely that i've got a bad bored too? If we are having similar symptoms. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Edit: I'm not sure about it being NForce 6.70, i originally had the previous nForce drivers installed and only upgraded when trying to solve the problem But it's definately strange that we both have similar systems, and there might be something there? Or it might be that we've both ended up with bad boards? I don't know. I'm hoping someone else might have some thoughts but i think they've stopped reading this thread lol.

I might also put a post up on the Sapphire forums later, and link back to this one and my previous one, and see if anyone on there has similar problems? If i do i'll put the link here too so you can find that one.

Edit again: You'll never guess what - theres another post on these forums, alizee having the exact same problems! ANNNNDDDDD he's also got a Sapphire X800GT!!!

I wouldn't have thought it before but i cant find anyone else with this problem and we all have sapphire, maybe theres something wrong with their cards??? I already tried emailing them and got no response, i'm not sure what else could be done?

Here's the other post - Is my video card dead?

 

[filho]

Gar1ndan
i was thinking about the possibility of the issue been related to PSU.
Whats yours?
Im using a seventeam 350watts, with atx 20 pin connector.
Im not sure about the A number at the 12v.

 

[Gar1ndan]

filho - your PSU is a little low, and not enough power can cause problems with graphics cards so if you had started your own thread someone might have told you to try a higher powered psu. However, the x800gt is not meant to take too much power, and both azilee and i have 430w psu's, i have looked into mine and its fine, so i would suggest your problem is not going to be the psu either.

 

[filho]

My PSU has 15A at 12v.
How much does your PSU has?

 

[Gar1ndan]

My PSU is 18A on 12v, some people say 15A is as much as you need, some say 18A is, so you could do with a new PSU but i really don't think thats the problem.

Edit: I have also started a thread over at the Sapphire forums now, it can be found here - Problem With Batch Of Sapphire X800GT's???

 

[alizee]

bumping/merging the topics

my original post (most of it)

Sapphire Radeon X800GT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102572

It usually seems to work fine, but during Battlefield 2 it started giving me some wierd artifacts on the clouds and also another wierd black thing on a different map. This was when I moved it up to 1280x960 and 2x AA. I haven't tried a higher res or AA, but everything works fine at 8x6 and 10x7 w/ no AA. I did get a screenshot of the wierd black thing, but I haven't really been able to reproduce the artifacts on the clouds, though.

http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/8527/black0qx.jpg

It also started to happen in Call of Duty 2, but only during the loading menus, and, again, only when it's at 1280x960 w/ 2x AA (as well as 1280x720 when I accidentally set it wrong).

http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/3254/cod219am.jpg
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/4386/cod9nx.jpg

It hasn't happened on any other games at the same res, Rome:TW, Civ4, CoD1, AoE3. I tried it with AA running on all of them.

System Specs:
Pentium 4 2.4C northwood @3.2Ghz (267FSB)
2x512MB OCZ Premier pc3200 @ 216Mhz 2.5-3-3-7
Albatron PX915P4P Pro MoBo, socket 478 i915 PCIe
Sapphire Radeon X800 Pro 128MB
Seagate SATA HD
430W Thermaltake PS

Driver info
Driver Packaging Version 8.152-050629m-024086C-ATI
CATALYST? Version 05.7
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 6.14.10.6553
2D Driver File Path System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{903B7248-6C28-4729-B85C-B96EA0CB83B1}\0000
Direct3D Version 6.14.10.0327
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.5220
CATALYST? Control Center Version 1.2.2006.286

 

[alizee]

New Stuff

I tried CoD2 again, and before I changed the settings, it started to give me the same wierd artifacts on the menu. Then, I changed it to 4xAA at the same res, and no artiffacts at all.
I got some artifacts during BF2 again, but only for a quick second. I turned up AA to 6x to see if that would make more artifacts show up and it didn't. I'm going to try higher resolutions next, and we'll see what happens.

Could it be a problem with the 2xAA algorithm?