Texture flashing in games w/ 7970

[Ime]

Hey guys. I bought a sapphire 7970 OC w/ boost about a 3 weeks ago from Newegg.

Since I got the card some of the games I've played (Guild Wars 2, Skyrim, Rage) are having texture flashes, sometimes to the point of needing to restart. I did a clean install of the 13.1 catalyst drivers and it's gotten a little better but it's very jarring to be running along in GW2 and suddenly get a series of white flashing artifacts from the game. They clear in less than a second, but I kinda expect more from a nearly $400 video card.

Since the card is factory OC'd I went ahead and turned off AMD overdrive and installed sapphire's Trixx utility. I tried overvolting the card from 1175 to 1250 (in increments of 5) and setting the board power to +20. I still get the white texture flashes sometimes.

So I've done a clean install of 13.1 catalyst drivers, and tried overvolting the card.

Am I missing a troubleshooting step? Do I simply have a bad card? Or is my problem driver related?

If I can't figure something out in the next two days I guess I'll have to return the card to Newegg and then decide between getting another 7950/7970 or maybe switching to NV 670/680 if I have to. I've used ATI cards since the old x1900xtx series so it'd be a shame if I have to switch to NV. I can't stand the white texture flashing, though.

 

[Eureka]

Well, the interesting thing is that I'm getting texture flashing on my 670, but I don't play the same games you do, and for me it's shadows jumping, not white flashes. When I did have a 7970, I got shadow flickers (shadows would "jump") as well, but nothing close to white flashes. I would consider RMAing the card, Sapphire isn't known for having the best QC.

 

[Dstoop]

Hey guys. I bought a sapphire 7970 OC w/ boost about a 3 weeks ago from Newegg.

Since I got the card some of the games I've played (Guild Wars 2, Skyrim, Rage) are having texture flashes, sometimes to the point of needing to restart. I did a clean install of the 13.1 catalyst drivers and it's gotten a little better but it's very jarring to be running along in GW2 and suddenly get a series of white flashing artifacts from the game. They clear in less than a second, but I kinda expect more from a nearly $400 video card.

Since the card is factory OC'd I went ahead and turned off AMD overdrive and installed sapphire's Trixx utility. I tried overvolting the card from 1175 to 1250 (in increments of 5) and setting the board power to +20. I still get the white texture flashes sometimes.

So I've done a clean install of 13.1 catalyst drivers, and tried overvolting the card.

Am I missing a troubleshooting step? Do I simply have a bad card? Or is my problem driver related?

If I can't figure something out in the next two days I guess I'll have to return the card to Newegg and then decide between getting another 7950/7970 or maybe switching to NV 670/680 if I have to. I've used ATI cards since the old x1900xtx series so it'd be a shame if I have to switch to NV. I can't stand the white texture flashing, though.

Hey look, he listed three of the games that suffer the worst from this issue

Long story short: It's a known issue with many DX9 games and 7000 series cards. It's a driver-based problem that's been around since at least the 12.5 or 12.6 drivers and still hasn't been resolved. Your card could be defective, or it could be a bad OC, but odds are it's this issue. AMD says a fix is their "top priority" but they haven't exactly been making much progress.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2297073

 

[MrK6]

How often are they occurring? I might get one once every hour in GW2 or Skyrim, but it sounds like they're happening much more frequently for you. The definitive answer would be to open up a DX10 or 11 game and see if it still happens and with the same frequency. If yes, your card is probably the culprit (RMA it), if not, it's probably the drivers. You could then try another driver set, I'm having good function with the 13.2 betas.

 

[Ime]

13.2 betas are out? Wow I feel like an idiot.

So I did a clean install of the 13.2 betas and the artifacts are still there but have improved noticably in the last 30 minutes or so I played GW2.

So the 670 has texture problems too? I've never heard of the 6000 AMD series or the 500 NV series having these kinds of texture issues before.

Sounds like I'm stuck with texture issues no matter which brand I go with...

 

[vladicaris]

amd have lot of problems with latest graphic drivers... I got driver stop responding on win8 also random crash .. win8 32x

 

[Dstoop]

So the 670 has texture problems too? I've never heard of the 6000 AMD series or the 500 NV series having these kinds of texture issues before.

That's because they didn't :biggrin:

13.1 cleared up a lot of the flicker I was seeing when using 12.10, but it's still there. It's good to hear 13.2 clears it up even further. Maybe by christmas we'll be rid of it for good!

 

[Rvenger]

13.2 still isn't an official Beta right?

 

[Ime]

13.2 still isn't an official Beta right?

Not that I know off. I had to get them off Guru3d. Like I said they helped but did not eliminate the problem.

 

[Fx1]

How do you know your card isnt faulty?

When i clock past 1125mhz i get white artefacts in shadows when i overclock to far.

Voltage doesnt remove the white flashes

 

[Ime]

How do you know your card isnt faulty?

When i clock past 1125mhz i get white artefacts in shadows when i overclock to far.

Voltage doesnt remove the white flashes

Thanks for the tip about voltage.

Honestly, if I end up returning the sapphire 7970 I'll end up getting a 670 instead. I care more about stability and no artifacts more than performance.

I've owned a x1900xtx, a 4890, and a 6950 before and all of them were rock solid without any artifact issues. Just needed the occasional driver update for newer games that required it. I saw the threads about artifacting issues before I purchased the 7970, but assumed people were using older drivers, or were overclocking. I see now I should have paid more attention to those threads. I'm really disappointed in AMD this time.

 

[Fx1]

Thanks for the tip about voltage.

Honestly, if I end up returning the sapphire 7970 I'll end up getting a 670 instead. I care more about stability and no artifacts more than performance.

I've owned a x1900xtx, a 4890, and a 6950 before and all of them were rock solid without any artifact issues. Just needed the occasional driver update for newer games that required it. I saw the threads about artifacting issues before I purchased the 7970, but assumed people were using older drivers, or were overclocking. I see now I should have paid more attention to those threads. I'm really disappointed in AMD this time.

i once had a 7800 GTX that was artifacting at stock clocks.

Just a bad card, it happens. 670 GTX cant compete with a 7970 and they cost the same

 

[Dankk]

Hey look, he listed three of the games that suffer the worst from this issue

Long story short: It's a known issue with many DX9 games and 7000 series cards. It's a driver-based problem that's been around since at least the 12.5 or 12.6 drivers and still hasn't been resolved. Your card could be defective, or it could be a bad OC, but odds are it's this issue. AMD says a fix is their "top priority" but they haven't exactly been making much progress.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2297073

RAGE isn't a DX9 game though. I thought it was OpenGL.

 

[3DVagabond]

The OP has moved this to another thread.

 

[Dstoop]

RAGE isn't a DX9 game though. I thought it was OpenGL.

Huh, looks like you're right. I don't own it, so i'm not that familiar with it, but i've seen it brought up a lot in these DX9 artifact discussions previously.

Upon further research it just looks like Rage has all sorts of graphical and technical issues of its own that probably aren't related to this specific issue. Seems like it was just a buggy game.