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4870 screen flicker

eyetrip

eyetrip

eyetrip

Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2006
Posts
9,237
New 1GB 4870 arrived yesterday and I am experiencing an annoying problem - the screen flickers a hell of a lot on the desktop.

Initially I thought it was a driver bug with Catalyst 9.4 and Windows 7 (might still be), but having done a little googling, seems that this problem has plagued people with overclocks on the GDDR5 memory, and once set to 900MHz the problem goes away.

Obviously, this is less than ideal and could affect resale value of the product if I had to tell someone they would need to underlock the memory.

I do not want to go anywhere near updating BIOS for the cards.

Is this a problem which driver updates have fixed on Vista, but are still present in Windows 7?

What might I possibly do to fix it?
 
Nobody have any input on this?

Isn't anyone out there experiencing, or experienced, this problem with a 4870 when the memory is overclocked?
 
Well, removed Windows 7 and put Vista on. Doesn't appear to be doing it any more.... so maybe just problem with drivers in Win 7.

Pity, as I was hoping not to fork out for another licence jsut yet. At least my internet is back to normal with Vista.
 
When the card switched between different memory clocks there are flickers. Its not a bug or anything but a design problem.

The hd 4890 when overclocked now maintains the overclocked memory settings to avoid the flicker.
 
So what would you guys do? Send them back stating they had problems running at their "default" clocks, flash BIOS, or just underclock them?

Have to say, every time I upgrade for gaming these days it makes me like my Xbox more and more. Got a mobo which is a quite rubbish it seems (won't even run RAM at rated specs, bad for overclocking), plus, recently ordered GTX 260 which died within hours, ordered 2 4850's from a place which sent the wrong stuff, and now got these 2 4870's which are annoying me with this flicker, and don't seem to be scaling for squat in Warhead - and I mainly did the upgrade to finally play Crysis and Warhead with all the bells and whistles (minus AA). Not had time to test anything else.

It's so depressing :(
 
Can you explain what you mean by "flicker" as I think I may have the same issue on my new 4890.
Again this is Windows 7 with Cat 9.4, I have also tried the beta Cat 9.5 drivers.

With my system I am experiencing the following:

Totally randomly the screen will flick off (totally black screen) and then return almost immediately.
There is no pattern and it doesn't happen under a particular application.
I can be in Outlook, Word, browsing the web or playing a game.
It might happen soon after the machine is switched on and then again numerous hours later.
This is not because of something on screen forcing a change - I can be doing nothing more than writing an email in Outlook and it might happen.

Now I wasn't having this problem with my 4870 under Windows 7, only when I installed my 4890.
I also did a fresh Win7RC install with my 4890, so it isn't an "old driver" issue.

If you're experiencing the same then maybe I'll try running Vista too and see if the problem goes away.
If so I'll assume a Win7 issue and allow ATI time to fix it.
 
Yes, that sounds like exactly the same issue. I thought it had gone away completely in Vista, but it is still there, just not nearly as frequent - happens a lot in Crysis Warhead when it is loading a map for example, but not so much on desktop.

Is the memory on your 4890 overclocked? And was your 4870 running at stock on memory?
 
Both cards are "at stock" - although I notice that the 4890 seems to default to slightly faster speeds in the ATI CCC?
The 4870 was one of the originals - an old 512MB card.
I don't remember ever having the problem with this card at all - even when I was running Windows 7 Build 7000.
I then removed the 4870, installed a Sapphire 4890 1GB and then did a fresh install of Windows 7 RC and noticed the issue almost immediately.

I've got a spare LCD panel, so I'll give that a go over the weekend.
I have also still got my 4870 - so I guess the ultimate test will be to put that back in my machine and see if the same issue is there.
I hate having to do it - but I think putting the old card in is the only real way of testing and then I may have to arrange an RMA to Sapphire.

The fact you're still seeing the problem under Vista would indicate this isn't OS/Driver related.
 
I had the same issue with my 4870, but after modding the bios to set both load and idle clocks to the same overclocked speed, I no longer get the flicker :)
 
uv said:
I had the same issue with my 4870, but after modding the bios to set both load and idle clocks to the same overclocked speed, I no longer get the flicker :)
Click to expand...

I know I can do this, but I really shouldn't have to. And if the card gets bricked during a flash? Warranty isn't going to cover that....
 
I'm not in front of my PC at the moment.
It's a standard 850/4000 clocked card, although I'm sure that in the ATI CCC the core is for some reason set higher than that.
I'll have a check this evening - however I've not intentionally done any overclocking on my card.
I only want it to run at stock correctly.
 
Note that when I said flicker, its a very subtle flicker. The screen doesn't go black or anything.
 
stoofa said:
I'm not in front of my PC at the moment.
It's a standard 850/4000 clocked card, although I'm sure that in the ATI CCC the core is for some reason set higher than that.
I'll have a check this evening - however I've not intentionally done any overclocking on my card.
I only want it to run at stock correctly.
Click to expand...

Just looking at the settings on my card now.
Under the ATI Overdrive tab, "Enable ATI Overdrive" is ticked.
However the settings have defaulted to:

GPU Clock - 850MHz
Memory Clock - 975MHz

Temperature is reading 63oC and the fan is at 30% - Screen is still doing it's flickering.

I'm going to refit the 4870 tomorrow and confirm if it is the card and then arrange an RMA.
Only issue is that Sapphire seem to insist you return the card via your supplier and that is just awkward :)
 
OT but my nvidia card flickers in vista with certain menu's ( winrar ) for example. It's because its in 2D mode , if you put it in 3D mode it won't do it anymore.
 
Reinstalled my old Sapphire HD 4870 512MB.
No flickering at all - everything working 100%.

Have dropped retailer an email and will arrange an RMA.
Card was bought on the 16th of April, so well outside 7 days and outside 14 so it could be a bit of a wait while they sort this one out.

Oh well.
 
Did you manage to get your card replaced? I have just bought a 4890 and installed it and its doing the same annoying flickering... going to return it as cant find anything useful to resolve it
 
I bought my card from a rival and it took a little while.
However I got my refund through yesterday, so now I'm on the look out for a new card.

Think I'll go for the £165 4890 here - seems to offer best bang for buck.

Saying that - I'm now worried that I'll buy another 4890 and have the same issues.
 
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