Radeon 6950 tessellation artifacting?

[Dankk]

UPDATE: The card has spent over three weeks being tested at an XFX service center, and they say the card is absolutely flawless. No issues, none at all, nada. But clearly something is still wrong. I've also realized that the errors may occur under different circumstances than I originally thought, but I'm still unsure. I've edited the original post to reflect any new information.

(I assume no one has helped yet because my problem is so bizarre. Is it really that isolated?)

UPDATE 2: Re-installing Windows did NOT fix the problem. I'm certainly narrowing down the possibilities here.

UPDATE 3: Contacted XFX. I wasn't sure if I should open a new support ticket or not, I decided to continue the current support ticket I've had with them since it hadn't been closed yet. Thanks guys.

UPDATE 4: After I shipped my card back to XFX for the second time, they reported back to me with this message: "We have performed extensive testing on the board you sent in and have not been able to find any issues with it. At this point I am confident that the product is fully functional and the issue you described is not related to the board. I have instructed RMA dept to go ahead and replace the card anyway so if you receive the replacement and the same issues persist, I would recommend to troubleshoot other parts of the system." Well, I installed the new card today, updated Windows, re-installed my drivers and everything. Guess what? Fired up Unigine Heaven, and... NO artifacts. None. Zip. Nada. The problem is gone now. More information in my latest post.

In short: I've had my XFX Radeon 6950 1GB for about three months now, and it's been a great card. To be specific, it's an XFX HD695XZDDC. Its runs almost all of my games flawlessly and it's quite powerful for my needs.

I've noticed a strange problem though: It displays artifacts, but it seems like the artifacts ONLY in DX11 games with tessellation. Here is the list of games I've seen it happen with:

- Metro 2033
- Unigine Heaven Benchmark
- King's Bounty: Legend (might be something different since it's not DX11, but who knows)
And now, the Battlefield 3 beta

The other weird thing is: The artifacts only last for a few seconds. It starts out really bad, then slowly, gradually lessens and lessens until they're completely gone and the graphics are completely artifact free.

So for example, when I start up Metro 2033, as soon as I get to the menu, artifacts are flying all over the place. I'll click the "load game" button, load the level, and the artifacts are still kinda there but some have gone away. Then a few seconds later and it's completely gone. Does this make sense?

As an example: Here's a youtube video of a guy with a 6950, running the Heaven benchmark, with terrible artifacting. Now imagine that, but only lasting for a few seconds as soon as the benchmark is started, and slowly dissipating until it's completely gone. After that, I can run the benchmark for as long as I want, with as high settings as I want, completely flawlessly. It's only when I START the benchmark, or when I START Metro 2033 when the problem appears for a few moments. Same goes for the Battlefield 3 beta, as soon as I connect to a server and the game opens up, I see artifacts, but they quickly go away.

So what do you guys think? Pretty bizarre, eh? It doesn't bother me a ton, seeing as it only affects a few games. And even then, it's not a big problem because it only lasts a few seconds anyway before completely disappearing and I can continue playing the game as long as I want with no problems.

It doesn't seem to be a temperature issue. Especially since the problem actually fixes itself during gameplay. My GPU idles at about 45 C, and maxes out at around 80 in most games.

It MIGHT be a driver problem, but seeing as I've always kept my drivers updated, I somewhat doubt it. It happened with 11.5 (I think), 11.6, and now 11.7. Same issues. Although when I got my new PC back in May and I first tested out Metro 2033 with 11.4, I don't remember any jarring issues... so who knows, maybe it IS driver related and they just haven't fixed it yet. (update: using 11.9, the driver version doesn't seem to matter. Still having issues.)

Should my card be RMA'd, or not? What do you guys think. Thanks in advance.

 

[EliteRetard]

Skynet is watching.

 

[Dankk]

I decided to take some screenshots of the issue. Here they are in chronological order, starting from the beginning of the benchmark and then going about 30 seconds in.

Here are the last two, took after the artifacts cleared up. It's as if nothing ever happened.

This probably means RMA, huh Good thing XFX has pretty good customer service. edit: I've spent plenty of time with XFX service now, they haven't helped with anything, besides telling me that my card is apparently fault-free)

 

[Dankk]

I've decided to revive this thread, it's been two months now, XFX has tested my card thoroughly (or so I was told) and they say my card has no issues. Updating my other posts accordingly. It's bothering me because I'm starting to see this problem in the Battlefield 3 beta.

 

[Shmee]

have you tried driver sweeper? windows reinstall? Looks like driver issue to me.

 

[Genx87]

I'd look at drivers as well. Was this card installed with a clean OS?

 

[nanaki333]

fresh install of windows, drivers, then try again. if it's not video driver related, could be something else causing a conflict.

 

[Dankk]

have you tried driver sweeper? windows reinstall? Looks like driver issue to me.

I do a thorough uninstall with Driver Sweeper everytime I update my drivers. Doesn't seem to help.

I'd look at drivers as well. Was this card installed with a clean OS?

Yeah, the card was installed along with a new OS back in late May.

fresh install of windows, drivers, then try again. if it's not video driver related, could be something else causing a conflict.

It'd stink to have to entirely re-install Windows, especially if it doesn't help anything. Maybe there is some piece of software that is conflicting... but the thing is, I'm extremely stubborn and OCD about what I install on my machine. I keep my computer very clean. I have no idea what it would be, since I don't really have anything on my computer (except a bunch of games) so I have no idea what would be conflicting.

Worse comes to worse though I will re-install Windows.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Well looks like I'll be avoiding XFX when it's time to buy a new card here in a month or so. It looks like a gpu issue and I'll bet they never even installed the card to check it.

 

[MarkLuvsCS]

I think it's worth the day out will take tip backup and reinstall windows. I know out it's amount setting up your favorites and everything just right but it's the easiest way to ensure it's a video card problem. Banking up your user folder should keep almost all the settings for programs you use. Goodluck sir.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

 

[Ralphing]

LessThanDan,

I've had the exact same problem, I believe the XFX card you bought is defective.

I bought a MSI 6950 Twin Frozr ii a month ago and it runs everything flawlessly. Last week I got another Twin Frozr ii so I could run the two in crossfire. I took the old card out and put the new one in to test it individually and I experienced the exact same artifacts your XFX exhibited. I tested two identical cards in the same slot on the same system and one of them ran perfectly while the other had artifacts exactly like you describe (even down to the artifacts disappearing after a while).

Some affected games were:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Crysis 2
Civ 5
BF 3

My replacement card arrives tomorrow.

Edit: Btw I'm running a corsair TX850W that has 70 amps on a single 12v rail.

 

[The Ultimate]

Since it gets fixed as time passes, it could be related to power delivery, like taking too much time to increase voltage or power, resulting in weird artifacts, or it might be related to a BIOS bug regarding the voltage table. Also AFAIK, when polygons are distorted like that, they tend to be VRAM related while white/color dots tends to be GPU related, I think that I will also avoid XFX in the future.

 

[notty22]

Since it gets fixed as time passes, it could be related to power delivery, like taking too much time to increase voltage or power, resulting in weird artifacts, or it might be related to a BIOS bug regarding the voltage table. Also AFAIK, when polygons are distorted like that, they tend to be VRAM related while white/color dots tends to be GPU related, I think that I will also avoid XFX in the future.

I agree. I've read posts that were resolved from power issues.
Imo, your card could be pulling the most power it does when processing tessellation. I find it's a good stress/stability tester.
Is that the psu , you are using in your signature ?
It has 4 12v rails. where you have multiple (4) pci-e connectors try using a combination of different ones, in case they pull from the same rail.
Even a old powerstrip, caused issues like you are reporting in one case.

 

[Dankk]

I think it's worth the day out will take tip backup and reinstall windows.

I'll probably do this, but not before trying a few other things. I'll do some checks as other people have suggested, and if nothing works, I'll start backing up tonight, and then tomorrow I'll start the reformat.

I've had the exact same problem, I believe the XFX card you bought is defective...

...Some affected games were:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Crysis 2
Civ 5
BF 3

I can't say anything about Crysis 2 or Deus Ex: HR, since I don't own them. I do have Civ 5 though, and I can't say I've ever had a single issue with it's graphics. I may try running it again tonight, but I've played it enough on my machine that I would've noticed any familiar artifacts by now. Also, this:

Btw I'm running a corsair TX850W that has 70 amps on a single 12v rail.

You have a better PSU than I do, so there is a possibility that your problems are unrelated to mine. Which brings me to...

Since it gets fixed as time passes, it could be related to power delivery, like taking too much time to increase voltage or power, resulting in weird artifacts, or it might be related to a BIOS bug regarding the voltage table.

I'm betting this is what's causing the problem.

My knowledge of power supplies is extremely sparse, so I can't say I know for sure. However, another symptom of my problem is that usually when I shut down a game and start it up, the artifacts remain gone, until much much later after the computer has been idling or after rebooting the computer. Basically, I can quit Metro 2033, start the game back up again 5 minutes later, and the artifacts that appeared during the first run remain nonexistent. Artifacts most typically appear after the computer has been idling for some time, or after boot up my computer for the first time during the day.

Here are the specs for my current power supply, in case anyone's wondering. This particular model of PSU seems to have disappeared from Tech NPS's main website, which is a bit concerning.

Here are the steps I will try today (in this order):

• Us a different power strip, or plug the computer directly in the wall (this will take basically 2 seconds)
• Use different PCI-E power connectors for the graphics card (I have 4 of them)
• Look at BIOS settings to see if there's anything funky going on with the power.

I know that my BIOS has an "EPU power saving mode" that's currently turned on, and it's set to Auto. I'm thinking I'll try turning off power saving mode, and enabling the "High Performance" power plan in Windows to see if it makes any difference.

Other than that, I really don't tinker much at all with my BIOS. When I get a computer, I always set the boot order, IDE mode, DRAM voltage and timings, along with very basic stuff, but that's it. I don't mess with anything else. It would be nice if the problem was as simple as a BIOS tweak though, as long someone actually told me what it was.

Thanks for the help guys. If anyone wants to enlighten me a little more on how and where to check if it's a PSU power problem, please do.

 

[Desin]

I dug up my username/pass just to post in this thread. I have a MSI 6950 that does the same thing in BF3. The Heaven benchmarks artifacts badly, but I've never it let it run for very long. I have the same proc and MB chipset as you.

I switched over from a Nvidia GTX260 and did not reinstall Windows.

The card will NEVER crash the system or the driver and is 100% stable in every application.

Oddest things I've ever seen.

 

[apoppin]

I do a thorough uninstall with Driver Sweeper everytime I update my drivers. Doesn't seem to help.

Maybe that is the problem. You should never - ever - have to use driver sweeper. Try a clean install. Switch your PSU/power cables out perhaps also.

And of course, if all else fails, try your video card in another MB
-- AMD's advice to me when my HD 6990 began artifacting (and it works now)
:whiste:

 

[Dankk]

Maybe that is the problem. You should never - ever - have to use driver sweeper. Try a clean install.

What do you mean by "clean install?" If you mean a clean install of the video drivers, then, well, yeah; that's what I've been using Driver Sweeper for. (Unless your idea of a clean install is to NOT using Driver Sweeper, and somehow using Driver Sweeper makes it "unclean"). If you're saying to just re-install the 11.9 drivers without any Driver Sweeper, I'm not sure how that would make any difference now.

If you're talking about re-installing Windows, then yeah, I have this on my list of things to try. (Albeit it's further down the list.)

Switch your PSU/power cables out perhaps also.

Unfortunately I don't have another PSU that is powerful enough for testing in my system. I will try swapping the PCI-E power cables though, since I have 4 of them, and 2 are plugged into my video card.

I dug up my username/pass just to post in this thread. I have a MSI 6950 that does the same thing in BF3. The Heaven benchmarks artifacts badly, but I've never it let it run for very long. I have the same proc and MB chipset as you.

The card will NEVER crash the system or the driver and is 100% stable in every application.

Oddest things I've ever seen.

Glad to see I'm not the only one with problems.

I sincerely appreciate the help guys, and I apologize since I won't be able to try anything for another hour or so. As soon as I get home I will start on looking at possible power issues with my cables and then with BIOS/power settings.

 

[apoppin]

What do you mean by "clean install?" If you mean a clean install of the video drivers, then, well, yeah; that's what I've been using Driver Sweeper for. (Unless your idea of a clean install is to NOT using Driver Sweeper, and somehow using Driver Sweeper makes it "unclean"). If you're saying to just re-install the 11.9 drivers without any Driver Sweeper, I'm not sure how that would make any difference now.

If you're talking about re-installing Windows, then yeah, I have this on my list of things to try. (Albeit it's further down the list.)


Unfortunately I don't have another PSU that is powerful enough for testing in my system. I will try swapping the PCI-E power cables though, since I have 4 of them, and 2 are plugged into my video card.



Glad to see I'm not the only one with problems.

I sincerely appreciate the help guys, and I apologize since I won't be able to try anything for another hour or so. As soon as I get home I will start on looking at possible power issues with my cables and then with BIOS/power settings.

No - never use driver sweeper. It is archaic, unnecessary and it may screw up an otherwise perfectly good system. Nvidia provides for a "clean install" of its own drivers and AMD has Catalyst Install manager which will "remove all ATI software" before you install your new drivers.

You can use two PSUs together. Use your regular PSU to power everything but the video card and hook up another just to power the card separately. If you need directions how, LMK

And i had similar issues with both a HD 6770 and a HD 6990 that suddenly started to artifact in my X58 MB - although 30 other cards run in that same system with no issues. AMD said. "it happens .. switch your card into another MB"
... a couple of times doing that and these cards work fine again in the original system

(AMD Black Magic)
:whiste:

 

[nanaki333]

you could just put some old hdd you have laying around in there, install windows (don't even bother activating), install said game and give it a go. if it is still screwy, then there you have it. you wouldn't have wasted very much time at least for the test.

 

[Dankk]

You can use two PSUs together. Use your regular PSU to power everything but the video card and hook up another just to power the card separately. If you need directions how, LMK

That's a smart thing to do, I have no idea why I never thought of that. So... can I take my 550w Antec PSU I'm currently not using for anything, plug the PCI-E connectors into my GPU (while the rest of my computer runs on it's original PSU), turn everything on, and it will work? I assume I need to switch on the auxiliary PSU first before I turn on my computer? Is there anything else I need to know?

And i had similar issues with both a HD 6770 and a HD 6990 that suddenly started to artifact in my X58 MB - although 30 other cards run in that same system with no issues. AMD said. "it happens .. switch your card into another MB"
... a couple of times doing that and these cards work fine again in the original system

That's nuts. I wonder how that even works. I might try it, but again I'm going to check some other things first.

 

[apoppin]

That's a smart thing to do, I have no idea why I never thought of that. So... can I take my 550w Antec PSU I'm currently not using for anything, plug the PCI-E connectors into my GPU (while the rest of my computer runs on it's original PSU), turn everything on, and it will work? I assume I need to switch on the auxiliary PSU first before I turn on my computer? Is there anything else I need to know?


That's nuts. I wonder how that even works. I might try it, but again I'm going to check some other things first.

Yes. i do this with 2 - 775w Thermaltake PSUs when i run GTX 580 SLI or HD 69x0 TriFire-X3. Just make SURE you have it so the auxiliary PSU can turn on and don't forget to turn it OFF!!

Here is the article if you have any questions.
http://www.directron.com/2powersupplies.html

Yes ... moving it to another MB is the *weirdest* thing that i have ever done (besides bake a video card or put my HDD in the freezer to recover data from it)


UPDATE:

You might also consider *watching* your temps on the second display or while running your artifacting games in a window. That way you can see the temps working with the fan profile and that it is spinning up properly in response to increasing temps.

 

[Dankk]

Alright, here's what I've tried so far:

- Not using a power strip, plugged the computer into another outlet and into another wall (this did nothing)
- Turning off EPU Power Saving in the BIOS, and changing Window's power plan to "High Performance" (this did nothing)
- Using different PCI-E power connectors in different slots on my power supply. My PSU is actually modular; what I did is I unplugged the PCI-E cables from their current positions in the power supply, as well as disconnecting them from the GPU. Then I used two entirely different cables and plugged them into different slots. Like this:

Originally, the two red 8-pin connections on the left were being used. 8-pin PCI-E to 8-pin PCI-E cables were being used, even though my GPU only has two 6-pin connectors, not 8-pin. I decided to use the 6-pin PCI-E-to-6-pin PCI-E cables I wasn't using, and plug them into the two red slots on the right instead of on the left. This didn't do anything.

I considered using two different red connections on the PSU, combining a 6-pin connection and an 8-pin connection going from their respective slots on the PSU and into the GPU, but I wasn't sure if that's bad. If it won't hurt to try then I'll try it though.

I'm gonna look around in my BIOS some more to see if there's anything else in there that could solve the problem. If anyone knows of any BIOS tweaks that might help with a power issue, then let me know.

After that I might just throw the card into my other computer to see what happens. Maybe it really is a defective card and XFX was wrong.

 

[Dankk]

you could just put some old hdd you have laying around in there, install windows (don't even bother activating), install said game and give it a go. if it is still screwy, then there you have it. you wouldn't have wasted very much time at least for the test.

This is a good idea too. Will definitely keep this one in mind.

 

[Desin]

The PSU isn't the problem. I swapped that out from a 550W to a 850W when I had time to mess with the issue. I'm betting it is driver related since the card is 100% stable otherwise.

 

[Dankk]

Welp, I installed a fresh copy of Windows this morning (my 4-hour class was canceled, so hey, why not). Re-installing Windows is actually pretty easy for me. Turns out, pretty much all of my important data is stored on my secondary data hard drive, so I just left the HD untouched while I re-installed Windows on my SSD.

Bad news: It didn't work. Downloaded and started up Unigine Heaven Benchmark, still get plenty of artifacts. The only thing I installed on my computer is Windows itself, and most of the basic drivers (audio, video, wireless, USB 3.0, etc). Unless there's another driver I installed on here that's somehow conflicting with my graphics driver, I can safely say that re-installing Windows was unsuccessful in fixing anything.

I guess the only thing left to do now is simply to test the card in another machine. If I see artifacts, then I'm gonna grab XFX by their tail and ask for some explanation.