Green/Red squares on HD 5970

[RobertJ 10]

I have the latest drivers on my 5970 and I get 5x5 blocks of rectangles on different surfaces. Sometimes they are on the sky sometimes on the ground, they tend to be flickering and green/red in colour. I checked the temps and they are perfectly fine (maxed at 70 celcius) and the GPU load never went about 50% on either GPU.

BF BC 2 never gets artifacts like these, nor does any game I own. BF BC2 gets the GPU load to 100% and the temps up to 80-83 celcius and I still don't see any artifacts. This is a weird issue.

[Dwarden 1103]

please post screenshot, also what drivers You use?

latest are http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATI-Catalyst-Hotfix.aspx

[RobertJ 10]

I have the latest drivers installed, I actually didn't have this problem in December 09/January 10 when I was on beta drivers.

---------- Post added at 05:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:35 PM ----------

Drivers are the 10.5

More pictures of the 'corruption'

http://img696.imageshack.us/i/arma22010052917220347.png/

http://img13.imageshack.us/i/arma22010052917165083.png/

http://img696.imageshack.us/i/arma22010052917220347.png/

[Dwarden 1103]

please try 10.5a hotfix

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATI-Catalyst-Hotfix.aspx

but IMHO this looks really like some hardware issue (VRAM error)

does this happen with disabled 2nd gpu

does it happen with -winxp command (if you on vista/windows 7)

does it happen in any resolution?

[RobertJ 10]

Well, set it on -winxp and turned graphics up to full with no mods and span around with 4x time speed on cherno in the middle of the forest and the FPS didn't drop one bit. No artifacts at all.

Then I set the 3d resolution to 200% and instantly got artifacts.

I seriously doubt that it is a VRAM hardware error as I would expect it to artifact in all games, especially so in games that stress the GPU even more yet I only see the artifacts in Arma 2. The game barely puts the GPU above 30% load. Also the hotfix is only for 4xxx, 3xxx or 2xxx cards.

[Dwarden 1103]

the notes about/in changelog drivers never cover the 'real amount'of changes ;) ...

anyway Your card is dual GPU , from which driver You using the application profiles ?

because in some rare situations manual removal and reinstall with latest was neeed (driver app profiles affect mainly crossfire users)

[RobertJ 10]

For 10.4 I totally uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled CCC with the 10.4 update. I assume it's something to do with the 3D res because there was serious artifacting on 200% 3D res yet it was fine at 100%. Perhaps mods are affecting it too since I didn't see a single artifact running Arma 2 on winxp mode no mods all settings highest (10k VD, max AA, max AF, Very High all settings). However I haven't tried -winxp with mods so I'll have a look at that.

I did send ATI Radeon a support request containing artifact pictures and a small description and they gave me a reply telling me they are having a look at it.

I do have the latest crossfire profiles, catalyst AI is also enabled ( I checked).

Perhaps this could be a result of the latest ATI fix which made the 2nd GPU switch off when it's not being stressed, at points in the game the GPU usage drops to 0%, perhaps the graphics cards are downclocking to their 137mhz Idle mode and it's causing problems.

---------- Post added at 07:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 PM ----------

Here is an example ARMA 2 barely uses 1/4 of the GPU in game, this was on quite a stressful play as well (flying very low over chernorus)

http://img135.imageshack.us/f/afterplayingarma.jpg/

[bangtail 0]

For 10.4 I totally uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled CCC with the 10.4 update. I assume it's something to do with the 3D res because there was serious artifacting on 200% 3D res yet it was fine at 100%. Perhaps mods are affecting it too since I didn't see a single artifact running Arma 2 on winxp mode no mods all settings highest (10k VD, max AA, max AF, Very High all settings). However I haven't tried -winxp with mods so I'll have a look at that.

I did send ATI Radeon a support request containing artifact pictures and a small description and they gave me a reply telling me they are having a look at it.

I do have the latest crossfire profiles, catalyst AI is also enabled ( I checked).

Perhaps this could be a result of the latest ATI fix which made the 2nd GPU switch off when it's not being stressed, at points in the game the GPU usage drops to 0%, perhaps the graphics cards are downclocking to their 137mhz Idle mode and it's causing problems.

---------- Post added at 07:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 PM ----------

Here is an example ARMA 2 barely uses 1/4 of the GPU in game, this was on quite a stressful play as well (flying very low over chernorus)

http://img135.imageshack.us/f/afterplayingarma.jpg/

That looks like a VRAM problem and the fact that it disappears when you change the settings makes it even more likely.

Of the first 2 480s I bought, one of them was doing a similar thing and when I changed the fillrate from 125% to 133% it went away in A2 but whenever I put it back to 125% it always came back. Returned that card and received a new one and never saw that problem again.

I know it's not what you want to hear but unfortunately, that's what it looks like :(

[rexehuk 11]

Hey m8y.

I have the same issue here, and I believe it's down to a card error (I run two 4890s). Occasionally I get the exact issue you have shown here, just I haven't bothered to troubleshoot the cards yet.

I would run a few benchmark progs (3d Mark / Furmark) and see if you also get these artifact errors, if so it's RMA time.

[RobertJ 10]

Ran it on 3dmark06, Had no issues/artifacting. It ran smooth and there were no funky green/red squares.

TBH I think it's a driver issue, the drivers don't really support the 5970 as it's a pretty rare card and most of the effort goes into the 5870 or 5770

[Dwarden 1103]

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=win7/windows-7-64bit

there are new 10.5 Catalyst Crossfire application profiles, make sure you update them

[bangtail 0]

Ran it on 3dmark06, Had no issues/artifacting. It ran smooth and there were no funky green/red squares.

TBH I think it's a driver issue, the drivers don't really support the 5970 as it's a pretty rare card and most of the effort goes into the 5870 or 5770

TBH, that means nothing. I never saw the corruption in Vantage. I only saw it in A2 and GTA which is why I wrote it off as a driver problem at first. After a while it annoyed me so much I RAM'ed the card anyway and as I said, the problem was gone.

It is possible that it's a driver issue, but I've seen that kind of thing many times and if it doesn't go away after a reboot or several driver changes, it's hardware.

As I said, probably not what you want to hear but it does happen. The 5970 is not rare anymore, they started to show up in a lot more volume as soon as the 480 appeared (for obvious reasons).

I hope you get it sorted at any rate :)

[kklownboy 43]

RMA the card.

[RobertJ 10]

Ugh FFS, I got one of the first 5970's. I heard they were pretty faulty, probably got shipped with some buggered RAM. Anyone got any ideas about how long RMA will take?

[bangtail 0]

Ugh FFS, I got one of the first 5970's. I heard they were pretty faulty, probably got shipped with some buggered RAM. Anyone got any ideas about how long RMA will take?

I feel your pain mate, I hate RMAing stuff, it's a f**king ballache.

Not sure how good/fast Powercolor's RMA turnaround is these days.

Edited May 31, 2010 by BangTail

[RobertJ 10]

Should I remove the overclock on my processor and see if that clears it up.

[bangtail 0]

Should I remove the overclock on my processor and see if that clears it up.

No harm in trying it but I doubt it will help.

[RobertJ 10]

Well I've got non-overclock and overclock profiles saved on my BIOS so it's a 10 second job to turn it off and on, may as well try :)

[manzilla 1]

Wow that's an expensive buy to not work right. I hope you find a fix. I was thinking about picking one up but not if it doesn't run A2 perfectly. That's the only reason I'd buy it, to play A2.

Good luck.