So I currently have a Sapphire R9 280x Toxic edition, its the second one I've had, had to send the first one back due to artifacting too.
I sent this one back a month ago for a refund due to it crashing in games and artifacting and over heating but they sent it back and told me after 12 hours of testing they didn't have any crashes or overheating (no mention of artifacting).

I decided to upgrade my PSU to a Superflower Leadex 750w gold rated edition and this has seemed to cure the crashing but I am still getting artifacting like crazy, even after a full system format and fresh install. I have tried all the recent beta drivers and have gone back to the official drivers but its still happening. I emailed OCUK to see if I could send it back for testing again but the guy just said that they would have picked up on any problems last time, which leaves me in a bit of a predicament, is it something else in my system or am I just being fobbed off?

My system specs are
CPU - FX8350 4.0ghz (running at about 65'c in games)
Cooler - Corsair H60
Mobo - Gigabyte 990FXA UD3 rev 1.0 F8 bios
PSU - SuperFlower Leadex 750w Gold Rated
RAM - 16gb Avexir Core Series 1600mhz Ram
GPU - Sapphire R9 280x Toxic Edition with the standard factory overclock of 1150mhz and 1600mhz on the memory.
SSD - Corsair Force GS 128gb (bought this to try a clean install, was previously on what is now my secondary Samsung 830series 240gb)
The graphics card rarely ever goes about 60'c even at full load as I have plenty of fans in there and the average system temp is about 40'c.
The artifacting happens at random, from first loading a game anywhere upto not happening at all for days and suddenly in the middle of a gaming session appearing. I have also noticed bleed over after gaming that sometimes causes it to appear in browsers too and my open windows/games often "jump".

BF4-

Web browser-

Guild Wars 2-

Running out of ideas now.

Artifacts are normally caused by a problem with the memory on the card, you could try downclocking the memory speed to see if that helps at least then you'd have something to go on.

Definitely a graphics card issue, nothing else could cause that. Have you got another system you can try the card in? May not solve your issue, but it's a start! What are the clock speeds?

Can you try it in another PC, as this would confirm whether its your PC at fault or its the GPU?

Um this is most prob a GFX card issue, But someone has to say it, Have you checked that the DVI cable is in correctly ? As someone was getting the same sort of issue and he just plugged his cable back in and it disappeared.

I switched cables completely from a DVI cables to a HDMI to DVI cable, still same issue

Haven't tried Downclocking though, how does one go about that?
Also no access to a second system at the moment but I'll ask friends if they know anyone who happens to have a PC capable of handling the card.

Seems like the same problem as my 7970 mp. Factory overclocked memory too high on mine for the chips. Some chips could do it and some can't.

I have hynix chips on mine and the only way to get rid of artifacting is to lower the memory clock to 1500 mhz.

Try doing the same.

Edit: Just saw your post. If you only want to test then just use the amd ccc panel by right clicking an empty space on your desktop and the using overdrive to reduce the clock making sure you tick the enable overdrive box and apply. Restart your pc as well just for good measure.

Downclocked the memory to 1500 mhz as suggested and thrashed GW2 for a few hours and so far its been looking good. Noticed the odd ground texture issue and weird lines buts nothing quite as extreme as I was getting.



I'll have to give it more time before I can tell how effective it is and test it in other games but I've not had any wild screen covering artifacts which would suggest lowering the clock has somewhat worked, right?

i had the same problem with my first 7970 lightning in december. i think there is a problem with amds memory on there cards.

AkiraZero said:

Downclocked the memory to 1500 mhz as suggested and thrashed GW2 for a few hours and so far its been looking good. Noticed the odd ground texture issue and weird lines buts nothing quite as extreme as I was getting.

I'll have to give it more time before I can tell how effective it is and test it in other games but I've not had any wild screen covering artifacts which would suggest lowering the clock has somewhat worked, right?

Click to expand...

Keep at it with different games. Anymore severe artifacts then get rid of the card. You should be ok at that speed though which if so suggests the ram not handling the factory overclock.

I would have gotten rid of my matrix but there wasn't any 3gb cards from Nvidia in the same price range so I kept it at the lower ram speed as it didn't make much difference to the frame rate.

Well last night I had this happen -
blue panel that literally blanked out the screen.

And today

This is with the memory at 1400mhz. Whilst it isnt happening near as often as it was, the fact it is still happening at all is a bad sign right? This is aside from all the weird lines in games and browser still happening from time to time too.

The fact it means it's not as bad almost certainly points to the memory on the card being the issue and you need to get it RMA'd again and get them to test it properly.
If you post in the CS section on the forum 5ub will probably pick it up and help.

Thanks guys, hopefully OCUK can sort something out, these Toxic cards have been nothing but trouble for me!

I have had 3 Sapphire cards, and all 3 artifacted badly. Clearly, it was a series of bad coincidences in my case, but it does suggest perhaps they use inferior memory. I have pretty much decided Sapphire are a brand I will stay away from from now on, which is a shame as they make some decent looking kit and are, by all accounts, 1 of the premium AMD board partners.

Five.Stars said:

I have had 3 Sapphire cards, and all 3 artifacted badly. Clearly, it was a series of bad coincidences in my case, but it does suggest perhaps they use inferior memory. I have pretty much decided Sapphire are a brand I will stay away from from now on, which is a shame as they make some decent looking kit and are, by all accounts, 1 of the premium AMD board partners.

Click to expand...

Very much why I forked out the extra for the Sapphire Toxic in the first place, figured they were quality cards and Id have no trouble with them, I'm half tempted to try nVidia next just from fear of the sheer amount of 280x's that people are having trouble with lately!