Whats wrong with my GPU?

[666_Pounder]

Nearly a month ago now I noticed a a drastic change in my 3D performance on my PowerColor HD4870 1GB, in short, pop up, everywhere.

I everything I never had pop up before in things like TF2, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2 etc, its actually worst in COD4, every step I take brings trees, building, textures, shadows, you name it ... It pops up.

Its not my CPU as my new Q9550 arrived today and its exactly the same, its not the powersupply, that was recently changed to a OCZ ModXStream 780w, its not the motherboard, again recently changed to a P5Q-E and its not the RAM as all my sticks show the same results. Not the HDDs either as I borrowed one from someone and again, not a sausage difference.

So, whats it likely to be? I'm going to try and RMA it anyway so I can sell it on but I'd like to try and find out whats up with it.

 

[Mr Paul]

Pops up?

 

[666_Pounder]

Yeah, um, like textures and shadows all appearing as I move forward instead of being there already, I can see objects in the distance but details etc all pop into place as I get close to them. I'll try and find a video or take one using xfire.

 

[doiks14]

he means the view distance is bad.. like low AF, except that instead of just texture detail missing.. you don't see the object at all.

 

[666_Pounder]

Its this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T857VIjgDU4&feature=related

Only on a much closer distance, I don't find that my FPS is much if any lower than it used to be though.

 

[VonScar]

Are you testing the temps on your GPU with a program at all?

A good way to check is use GPUZ, perhaps the card is overheating in games and the card is ramping performance down to cool down. Is the fan getting loud?

Have you tested it with a program like ATI tool? I bought a faulty GTX 260 216 55 nm from a certain online retailer this year. It was not until I used the above program that I found that my card had artifacts galore.

GPUZ could also indicate as to whether the rated specs of the card match as advertised.

 

[666_Pounder]

ATITool doesn't open for me :/

GPU-Z reports an avg of 68 after playing TF2 for a while.

 

[VonScar]

You need to let it install its driver and then run as administrator. ATI Tool, has issues with Vista but it is still great to check for artifacts.

Your GPU temp seems really good if that measure is done after immediate game playback.

Double check GPUz to see if it is using the full 16 lanes of the motherboard and the results match the recommended speeds for that card.

 

[666_Pounder]

Its set on 16x.

In checks out ok in SiSandra on all tests. Still no luck with ATITool but I'll have a reboot in a minute.

 

[Mr Paul]

Uninstall drivers, reboot, install the 9.8's.

See if it's changed as you may have some setting enabled/disabled in the CCC thats causing this.

 

[666_Pounder]

I've tried every different driver I can find, I've reinstalled windows 2x and its always given me the same results no matter what I used.