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Artifacts after months of no artifacts?

Footyslayer

Footyslayer

Footyslayer

Associate
Joined
16 Mar 2009
Posts
1,917
Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I've posted but I seem to have run into artifact issues on my overclock.

Back in February I overclocked my 7970 to...

Core Clock 1237Mhz
Memory Clock 1680Mhz

It was perfect, every stress test (Univalley, Heaven 4.0, Firestrike etc) had no artifacts. I recently played through Bioshock Infinite on maxed out settings with no issues too.

Upon running stress tests today I was getting a lot of artifacts. I've not given to PC a good clean/air blowout for a while. Could it be sonething as simple as that? Or is there something else to worry about?

Thanks for any help
 
You have to take into consideration that the warmer weather will increase the temps of your card. I would deffo look at temps and see what is being reported. It may pay to knock the OC down through the (supposed) summer months.
 
Temps got to 80c at it's worst which is the same as when I setup the initial overclock. My fans work harder whilst its warmer but the temps don't go any higher than before.

It's definitely a puzzler at the minute...
 
The artifacts are probably linked to the memory chips or VRM's getting too hot. If you have an external fan, get it as close to the gpu as possible and then run the same clocks. If it doesn't artefact, I would look at the ambient temps as the culprit but if it does artefact, it could be something else.
 
wazza300 said:
are you monitoring vrm temps if your card has the sensors? look in gpu-z/sensor tab
Click to expand...

No, I only checked maximum temps on MSI afterburner. I can't see VRM in GPU-Z's sensor area.

Gregster said:
The artifacts are probably linked to the memory chips or VRM's getting too hot. If you have an external fan, get it as close to the gpu as possible and then run the same clocks. If it doesn't artefact, I would look at the ambient temps as the culprit but if it does artefact, it could be something else.
Click to expand...

Good idea this. It's late now so tomorrow I will give the case and parts a good air blowout and then try this test. :)
 
Footyslayer said:
Temps got to 80c at it's worst which is the same as when I setup the initial overclock. My fans work harder whilst its warmer but the temps don't go any higher than before.

It's definitely a puzzler at the minute...
Click to expand...

If your card gets too hot, which yours is getting you will get artifacts. I used to get artifacts at 72c once i hit 1225 core on my 7970. Keep it well below 70 and you'll be fine. (assuming your vrm/vram temps are being kept in check
 
Hi again,

I've just give it a good clean and put it in a better ventilated area and it was better. However some artifacts but less and the card hit a max of 68C...

I've now knocked the core voltage down (how many volts is too much by the way?) and I have tried it with a house fan blowing on the graphics card and it was better again but I noticed the odd screen flash and occasionally a red screen flash.

Reduced the overclock to core - 1200 and memory - 1600 and the volts on 1263mV. This seems to have solved it. It's a little strange though that I have had to clock it down now though isn't it?

Lastly, I'm not too worried about the best overclocked scores, what I want is a machine which will play games maxed out (maybe anti-aliasing turned down) so should this clock of 1200 / 1600 be fine for that?
 
Best to use as little voltage as possible as that will keep temps down. 1200/1650 should be plenty.
 
Did you need that much voltage to get 1200 mhz. A lot of decent 7970's will sit at 1200mhz core with 1200mV. You should do some testing to see what the minimum volts needed are to get your everyday clocks stable.
 
No I didn't need that much for 1200 / 1650, I tried to push it further though :o

I'll settle on 1200 / 1650 and try to lower the voltage a bit further. Max temp's are now 67C under extreme stress and no artifacts :)

I appreciate all the advice too, thanks!
 
Last edited:
Hi this just a suggestion as it fixed a multitude of stuff for me. On the ATI site is a utility program that removes all drivers totally. Run that so you end up with a clean system on a low resolution screen. You might want to plan for that as the next thing you will need to do is re install you ATI 7970 drivers it's worth a try.
 
Hi all,

sorry for the bump but I found out that none of the artifacts were anything related to my rig.

I should have figured this out sooner but my problems started after installing the latest AMD beta driver 13.6. I was still getting these problems you see even after I thought I had fixed it.

Today I had that eureka moment and remembered I installed the new Beta, I uninstalled and went back to the last released version and all seems well.

Though I should share in-case any others were having problems, not only do my games perform better but they also look better,

Strange!
 
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