[Help] Graphical Artifacts while playing some games - using ASUS R9 280X DC2T

[Kratos47]

I need some help my friends.

I bought this ASUS R9 280x DC2T card few days ago solely for playing skyrim with some heavy mods but unfortunately i'm having some serious issues while trying to play some games.

It's quite complicated and i'm unable to figure out whether it's a driver problem or hardware, in which case i would RMA this card.

Card passes all the 3D benchmark tests like 3D mark firestorm, MSI Kombuster, AVP Benchmark, Stalker Pripyat benchnmark, Hitman benchmark etc.

I have also noticed that DX11 games, like Sniper Elite v2 and Hitman Absolution run absolutely fine where Hitman goes to use upto 2.5 GB of my VRAM but games which are DX9 based, like Skyrim, Witcher 2, Alan Wake etc are crapping out randomly. Where skyrim is the worst of them, most likely because it's an open world game.

Some screenshots:

My PC Specs:
MOBO: Gigabyte ex58 Extreme
Graphics Card: ASUS R9 280X DC2T
RAM: 6GB DDR3@2002 MHz - 9-9-9-24
CPU: i7920@3.8GHz
PSU: Corsair 750TX

Earlier i was using HD 5870 in crossfirex and i have checked that it still runs my games fine, so my PCIex slots are fine. RAM also passes memtest86+ and CPU can also handle prime 95 stress test.

I'm trying to figure out if it's some problem that i can fix on my end. Please help fellows.

 

[Jaydip]

1.Run the CPU at stock to see if it happens as well
2.Downlock the graphics card if its oced and repeat the test.

It seems like a memory artifacting to me, so ensure that you can recreate it while running all your components at stock.

 

[Shmee]

What drivers are you using? Which versions have you tried?

 

[Kratos47]

Thanks for the responses guys.

@Jaydip: Okay i will run my PC at stock settings and even though my card is factory OCed i will downclock it to 1000MHz and 6000MHz for memory. ASUS DC2T version on default runs at 1070 and 6400 Mhz. Although i have tried downclocking & Overclocking GPU to notice no effects. Not for CPU and RAM though, so i will check this as well.

@Shmee: I have tried 3 drivers. First was the 14.1 beta driver, then the 13.12 driver & 3rd was 13.11 betav9.5. Using DDU.

 

[Kratos47]

Jay my brother! I think this has finally fixed itself. Seems like my system memory or Overclocked CPU was causing this in DX9 games but the very same profile responded well when i had 2 HD 5870 plugged in CrossfireX, so that's why i never suspected that my RAM or CPU will be doing this.

I rode my horse in skyrim's open world for 15 minutes now and the screen is not going crazy like in the above screenshots. Although far distant mountains do flicker for some reason, maybe because i'm using ultra settings or due to AMD driver. Skyrim does detect my graphics as ultra settings worthy though with everything maxed out. Anyways it seems my major headache is gone.

I will play some alan wake and skyrim once a couple of HD texture packs are downloaded and report back. I pray system RAM or CPU was the issue and that on stock settings i won't have any issues. I was very sad about this since it's an expensive card and i bought it for 430$ which is a lot in my country.

Me and my horse salute Jaydip.

 

[Jaydip]

I am glad it worked for you.Our PC is a funky business, sometimes it just needs a little sanity(read no oc) check

 

[Rvenger]

I would stay on the 13.12 driver until they release another WHQL certified driver. I was having big issues with the 14.1 drivers.

 

[RaulF]

I would stay on the 13.12 driver until they release another WHQL certified driver. I was having big issues with the 14.1 drivers.

This.

14.1 are buggy for a bunch of people.

And yes OC sometimes causes problems, even factory OC.

 

[Gloomy]

I rode my horse in skyrim's open world for 15 minutes now and the screen is not going crazy like in the above screenshots. Although far distant mountains do flicker for some reason, maybe because i'm using ultra settings or due to AMD driver. Skyrim does detect my graphics as ultra settings worthy though with everything maxed out. Anyways it seems my major headache is gone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-fighting

Not an AMD problem

 

[Kratos47]

Yeah it seems setting my system RAM to command rate 2T was causing that, while in 1T it's not happening. Strange though since it worked fine with HD 5870. Different hardware, different behaviour i guess.

I would stay on the 13.12 driver until they release another WHQL certified driver. I was having big issues with the 14.1 drivers.

Yes i have also felt that 14.1 beta is pretty wonky, and proper support for R9 280x needs to be done with new driver. I hope they release it by the end of Feb.

And yes OC sometimes causes problems, even factory OC.

I have downclocked my RAM to 1600 MHz and my G.card is in the default factory OC state and it seems to be behaving well...for now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-fighting

Not an AMD problem

Yes, i watched Gopher's video about it and reading this guide to fix this issue. It says lower graphics card with 1GB memory won't see this and that's why my old HD5870 was alright and new R9 280x wasn't.
http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Z-Fighting

Alan Wake is also running pretty good now and so is Sniper Elite v2.
=====================
Btw can anyone suggest me some better way to run skyrim without small hiccups that i usually encounter? It first happens when Alduin first appears when protagonist's head is being chopped off. My fps drops from 60 to 40ish something i think.

Some say that only a SSD would fix this issue? Is the game loaded from HDD directly on some occasions and doesn't uses system RAM?
Also some are telling me to install the game on a different HDD not the OS one? How can i do that on Steam games? I have 4 HDD attached so i can do that not sure how to do that for steam games though.

Also my skyrim doesn't seems to be using more than 2GB of system RAM i think. And my game is fully updated v1.9.32.0.8. I haven't check properly though since i'm not running any heavy mods as of yet. How can i check this in-game? system RAM usage that is?

Is there some way to load more data directly onto system RAM, which might increase loading times but once loaded it will run perfectly? Is there some ini tweak for this? I can bear long loading times but i don't like these small hiccups in-game.