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New HD4850 and a problem!

Tical

Tical

Tical

Associate
Joined
19 Nov 2002
Posts
2,020
Hey guys, yesterday went out and got a "512MB Asus HD4850 Top, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 2100MHz GDDR3, GPU 680MHz".

Installation went fine, i'm getting no crashes/reboots etc during gaming, everything is great except i'm getting random black/blue square artifacts on screen.

The card is running at 57-62c under load, from what I can tell its normal for this card.

Has anyone got any suggestions or ideas? The artifacts on screen can be really annoying, and happen no matter what settings ingame or in the catalyst control center I use.
 
This card was apparently overclocked in the factory to 680MHz, I lowered it to the normal 625MHz and still had the same problems. I'll try a little lower.

This is my first ATI card, is that 57-62c normal for being under load? Is there anything else I can try?

I can take it back tomorrow to get a replacement, but its a bit of a long drive so i'd like to try whatever I can before I get a replacement. :p
 
Also, could it be a problem with nVidia drivers? Before I installed the new card I uninstalled the nVidia drivers then used Driver Cleaner to clean up what was left. Like I said i'm having no other problems at all in games, no errors or slow downs, just the artifacts, so I don't think its that.
 
Managed to snag a screenie of the problem.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/8717/zao029.jpg Shows at the top right on the tents, the faint blue squares, its the best I could capture but its a lot more prominent most of the time, bright squares flashing over textures etc. Its happening here in Warhammer Online, but happens in every other game i've tried also, at differing degrees. In this example I set the GPU Clock speed down to 550MHz.

RMA or something else I can do to fix it?
 
Try dropping your memory clocks to 1000MHz. If it goes away then the memory is bad and the card is faulty
 
In the ATI Overdrive the memory clock is on the lowest setting of 1050. It can't go lower than that. :(

Will turning it higher have a worse effect so I know its the problem?
 
Yeah I did that, been playing about 3 hours and i've seen no artifacts or anything, games are working perfectly.

So I assume bad memory and get it replaced?
 
I had that kind of problem with an 8800gt, i sent it for RMA and got a replacement in a week. I assumed that it was bad memory but they didn't tell me what it was.
 
i had a similar problem with my 4850 and blue artifacts on buildings in empire total war. No longer a problem, although since then I have installed Windows 7 and the game has been updated and am running most recent ati patch.

I would suggest checking your drivers before going down the RMA route....
 
Looks like a memory issue to me, but sometimes problems like this do go away after a fresh install of windows.

To be honest, I do a fresh install of windows when ever I install a new graphics card.

It makes it impossible for there to be errors relating to old drivers that don't want to let go.

I install windows so often anyway that it's very quick for me, I keep most of my stuff on a separate drive. I've only got to back up a few things like my outlook pst file, firefox profiles and any application configurations I want to keep hold of. I can usually get windows back to the way I like it in under an hour.
 
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