Radeon 6950 tessellation artifacting?

[Ralphing]

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:


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

I'm not convinced our video card problems are unrelated. One of my 6950s has the exact same symptoms as your XFX. It runs many older games without a hitch, but in some newer games or benches it starts with massive amounts of artifacts that disappear over the course of thirty seconds to a minute or so... then it runs fine.

When I fired up Crysis 2 during lunch today I had artifacts for about thirty seconds before they disappeared (which is faster than they normally disappear). I checked Deus Ex:HR as well and artifacts were present there too and stayed for quite a bit longer. Artifacts are also present in BF3.

I downloaded the Heaven DX11 bench so I could compare your card to mine and my screen looked identical to your screenshots. Same type of artifacting, same color, etc. Oddly the artifacts only lasted about 10 seconds before disappearing.

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.

I fear you'll find the card to be at fault when you test it out in a different system. I just finished installing my replacement card (identical card) a few minutes ago and the artifacts are gone.

Btw last night I played Civ 5 for a couple of hours without a single artifact, so I might be mistaken on that one. Today I did verify artifacts in in BF3, Crysis 2, Deus EX: HR, and the Heaven Dx11 benchmark.

Anyhow, good luck on finding a solution.

 

[Dankk]

I'm not convinced our video card problems are unrelated. One of my 6950s has the exact same symptoms as your XFX. It runs many older games without a hitch, but in some newer games or benches it starts with massive amounts of artifacts that disappear over the course of thirty seconds to a minute or so... then it runs fine.

When I fired up Crysis 2 during lunch today I had artifacts for about thirty seconds before they disappeared (which is faster than they normally disappear). I checked Deus Ex:HR as well and artifacts were present there too and stayed for quite a bit longer. Artifacts are also present in BF3.

I downloaded the Heaven DX11 bench so I could compare your card to mine and my screen looked identical to your screenshots. Same type of artifacting, same color, etc. Oddly the artifacts only lasted about 10 seconds before disappearing.

Wow. Yeah, you've un-convinced me that our problems are unrelated, and convinced me that our problems, are, in fact, related.

Those are precisely the same symptoms I'm having. Right down to the fact that the artifacts show up for a varying amount of time; sometimes they'll only appear for 10 seconds, and other times they'll last for an entire minute before completely disappearing.

I fear you'll find the card to be at fault when you test it out in a different system. I just finished installing my replacement card (identical card) a few minutes ago and the artifacts are gone.

Out of curiosity, who did you get your replacement card from? Was it MSI themselves, or a retailer like Newegg?

If I have to go back to the manufacturer, I guess that'll be another 3 weeks without my computer. That's ok though, I have tons of games to play on my little laptop.

 

[Ralphing]

I bought my card from Tigerdirect and the RMA was pretty painless.

 

[The Ultimate]

Or try to update your motherboard and videocard BIOS.

 

[Dankk]

Or try to update your motherboard and videocard BIOS.

Do you think you could maybe point me to where I could download the BIOS for my particular model of card?

As far as I know, XFX doesn't have a downloads section for BIOS's. The only place I know of where you can download video card BIOS's is TechPowerUp, and they have two BIOS's for an XFX Radeon 6950 1GB card. One of them is for the XFX HD-695X-ZNFC (which I don't own), and the other is for HD 6950 1 GB XXX (?).

My model in particular is the XFX HD-695X-ZDDC.

 

[apoppin]

i wouldn't go that far so as to update the BIOS of the video card (and only use XFX for warranty purposes if you feel you have to try it).

Definitely try your card in another PC; if it fails, then contact XFX and tell them that it failed in two PCs. If it works, switch it back after a few hours of using it.

Good luck.

i am building what will probably be my new flagship PC; that will solve my problem with my X58 MB (if there is one any longer) with my HD 6990.

 

[The Ultimate]

I had similar issues with my MSI HD 4870 1GB Cyclone, where it would artifact sometimes with corrupt polygons and restarting the PC would fix them. I flashed the videocard's BIOS with a newer version and worked like a champ afterwards.

 

[Dankk]

Here's what I wrote to XFX.

I am opening this ticket back up because the problems I've had with my 6950 have remained persistent, and I've confidently and conclusively deduced that my card is, in fact, faulty.

After XFX shipped my card back to me (supposedly fault-free) and I re-installed it a month ago, I have been seeing the same artifacts with the exact same symptoms as before. The artifacts occur in the following applications:

-Metro 2033
-Battlefield 3 Beta
-Unigine Heaven Benchmark

The problem exhibits itself in the exact same fashion in all three games, which I will reiterate:

- Dozens of artifacts appear on the screen, in the form of large triangles (blue colored in the Heaven Benchmark; and mostly pink/red colored in Metro 2033. They are less prevalent in the BF3 beta.)
- Artifacts only appear for the first 10 seconds to 1 minute after starting the application, then gradually disperse until finally disappearing
- Artifacts only appear in the specific games mentioned above
- Card and the rest of the computer is 100% stable otherwise
- Temperatures remain cool in acceptable operating range (45 - 80 C)

I have taken screenshots of the artifacts as evidence. Here you can see a few images of Unigine Heaven Benchmark running on my 6950, in chronological order (5 seconds into the benchmark; 30 seconds in, and finally, 1 minute in):

http://i.imgur.com/0B3AX.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yXCEf.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lumA8.jpg

Here are the steps I've taken to determine the source of the problem:

- Performed a clean, thorough, re-install of the newest drivers
- Re-installed Windows 7
- Turned off power saving features in BIOS and Windows, changing other power settings
- Using different PCI-E power connectors with card
- Using the card in a different computer

Trying the card in a different machine was the last test I tried, and after seeing the artifacts manifest again, it has become clear that the card itself is at fault. I have posted an extensive discussion thread in a tech support forum full of knowledgeable people, and we have deduced that I have a bad 6950. There is also at least one other person with a 6950 who had the exact same symptoms as me, appearing in the exact same applications (so I know that while my problem may be uncommon, it is not isolated). His problems also occured in Crysis 2 and Deus Ex: HR (which also happen to be DX11 titles).

I am asking that you take this card back and inspect it again. I do not take this issue lightly. The occurrence of artifacts in the new Battlefield 3 beta is concerning, and has prompted me to update this support ticket again. I don't know what you use in your service center to test your video cards, but if you could try running an application like Unigine Heaven Benchmark to confirm/deny any faults (at 1920x1080 fullscreen + DX11 + high shaders + extreme tesselation + 16xAF + 8xAA), it would be appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

 

[The Ultimate]

Do you think you could maybe point me to where I could download the BIOS for my particular model of card?

As far as I know, XFX doesn't have a downloads section for BIOS's. The only place I know of where you can download video card BIOS's is TechPowerUp, and they have two BIOS's for an XFX Radeon 6950 1GB card. One of them is for the XFX HD-695X-ZNFC (which I don't own), and the other is for HD 6950 1 GB XXX (?).

My model in particular is the XFX HD-695X-ZDDC.

If you can't get your card fixed (again), try to use one of those two BIOSes, I didn't use an MSI bios to flash my card, I used the generic AMD HD 4870 BIOS and worked better than the stock BIOS, and the card wasn't reference, but oh well, hope you get your card fixed soon.

 

[Dankk]

Well, it's been a whole week now, and still no response from XFX. Any ideas? Usually they only take a few days at most to respond to a ticket, but since I submitted that last message, it's been an entire week, and still nothing. I don't want to open up a new ticket altogether because that might piss them off, so I'll be patient for a little longer. Maybe I'll call them.

If you can't get your card fixed (again), try to use one of those two BIOSes, I didn't use an MSI bios to flash my card, I used the generic AMD HD 4870 BIOS and worked better than the stock BIOS, and the card wasn't reference, but oh well, hope you get your card fixed soon.

I actually just tried flashing a few different BIOS's to my card using ATIWinFlash. Bad idea. They all came up with an error saying "Subsystem mismatch" or something like that, and one of them actually made my entire computer hang up, after which I had to hard-reboot my computer. I thought my GPU was borked for good. Not trying that again.

 

[badb0y]

Well, it's been a whole week now, and still no response from XFX. Any ideas? Usually they only take a few days at most to respond to a ticket, but since I submitted that last message, it's been an entire week, and still nothing. I don't want to open up a new ticket altogether because that might piss them off, so I'll be patient for a little longer. Maybe I'll call them.



I actually just tried flashing a few different BIOS's to my card using ATIWinFlash. Bad idea. They all came up with an error saying "Subsystem mismatch" or something like that, and one of them actually made my entire computer hang up, after which I had to hard-reboot my computer. I thought my GPU was borked for good. Not trying that again.

Goddamn you are patient I would have been on a plane with my 6950 in hand to smack them with if they didn't respond to me in a week.

 

[Dankk]

Coincidentally, I finally got a response just a couple of hours after that last post^. They've authorized an RMA for me. Wish me luck. :thumbsup:

 

[7earitup]

Coincidentally, I finally got a response just a couple of hours after that last post^. They've authorized an RMA for me. Wish me luck. :thumbsup:

Keep us posted. I am thinking about buying an XFX card in the coming weeks and I would like to know that I am investing my money wisely.

 

[Dankk]

Ok, so my GPU has gone through the rounds again at the XFX service center. After I shipped my card back to XFX for the second time, a couple days later 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."

I got the new card in the mail today. I installed it, updated Windows, did a fresh re-install of my graphics drivers, and started up Unigine Heaven Benchmark. And, what do you know; NO artifacting. None whatsoever. As if I wasn't completely certain earlier, my previous card was, in fact, faulty. This new card? No issues whatsoever. Exact same model and everything; just a different card.

And yet, XFX still couldn't figure it out. I have no idea what they mean by "we've done extensive testing"; they've never told me what software, what configurations, or what methods they use to test their cards. Whatever it is they do, they overlooked the problem. The only reason why I have a perfectly-functioning card now is because they were nice enough to send me a new one anyway.

I will write XFX a short message, letting them know that the new card works perfectly, and my previous card - which they now have in their hands - still has some sort of problem with it. I know if they end up sending it to someone, most people probably won't know any better and be fine with it, but I know there is someone else out there who may very well recieve the card, and go through the same trouble I did because they saw the indisputable artifacts.

I'll update if the problems arise again, but seeing as I was just able to start up Unigine Heaven with absolutely 0 errors, I'm thinking we're probably fine now.

 

[Ralphing]

Ok, so my GPU has gone through the rounds again at the XFX service center. After I shipped my card back to XFX for the second time, a couple days later 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."

I got the new card in the mail today. I installed it, updated Windows, did a fresh re-install of my graphics drivers, and started up Unigine Heaven Benchmark. And, what do you know; NO artifacting. None whatsoever. As if I wasn't completely certain earlier, my previous card was, in fact, faulty. This new card? No issues whatsoever. Exact same model and everything; just a different card.

And yet, XFX still couldn't figure it out. I have no idea what they mean by "we've done extensive testing"; they've never told me what software, what configurations, or what methods they use to test their cards. Whatever it is they do, they overlooked the problem. The only reason why I have a perfectly-functioning card now is because they were nice enough to send me a new one anyway.

I will write XFX a short message, letting them know that the new card works perfectly, and my previous card - which they now have in their hands - still has some sort of problem with it. I know if they end up sending it to someone, most people probably won't know any better and be fine with it, but I know there is someone else out there who may very well recieve the card, and go through the same trouble I did because they saw the indisputable artifacts.

I'll update if the problems arise again, but seeing as I was just able to start up Unigine Heaven with absolutely 0 errors, I'm thinking we're probably fine now.

Grats on your new card.