x800 weird artifacting...

It's quite disconcerting, but it's very... odd. here's the story

Just a few days ago, I decided to see how high it was able to overclock, so I used ATI Tool's overclocking thing where it automatically finds the highest clock possible before artifacting. Of course, I was smart enough to watch it myself for artifacts in case it didn't catch anything. But ooooh boy was it bad. After a while, the window started being filled with artifacts. it was blatantly obvious, and ATI tool didn't see it at all. I immediately stopped it and dropped it 20mhz. Everything returned to normal... but not really

after a few minutes, i was on the internet looking at a site with a black background. I noticed some green and white pixel flashing all over the place. Immediately went back to ATI tool to lowe the clock speed; now it's underclocked. It still didn't go away, but after a nice cold reboot, it slowed down a little... but not really. I then enabled the secondary monitor so i can do my stuff online while watching a black screen to my right. to my surprise all artifacting (and i mean all) went away. no more. nada. So I was happy and i left everything as it was.

I *just* installed beta 4.6 drivers so i can see the core temperature. unfortunately, it wasn't available so i just went back to playing farcry. for some reason, it started on my secondary monitor, so i shut off secondary so it would be forced to open on the primary. that worked, but i saw the artifacts again. i then reenabled the secondary, but the artifacts are still there. i did some cold reboots, but it's still there.

Over time, i noticed that the artifiacts have started to disappear some and diminishing, but it still worries me what the heck is going on. I mean, i open up MS paint and fill the screen black. the window is maximized, and the artifacts are there flashing, but when i restore it, there are more artifacts compressed in that window.

to make things more confusing, you can only see the artifacts (probably due to contrast) on dark black backgrounds, mainly black and primary colors (except green, of course); not anything else, so the dark gray next to this text box is artifact free

Um... so what happened? I'm pretty sure it's a hardware problem, but i've never seen hardware problems get progressively BETTER before; only worse even if you don't touch it, so i'm not so sure anymore. drivers? computer compatibility problems?

Thanks

ADDENDUM: I've never seen it on a post screen before, and for some reason, my secondary monitor is free of artifacts as far as i can tell (this primary one is riddled with them)

btw:
2.8E (overclocked or not it still artifacts)
Abit IS7
X800 Pro
Audigy 2 ZS
2x Seagate 160gb SATA
1024MB PC4200

RMA the card. You probably fried something on the card (ATITool is known to kill cards with it's artifact tester).

I know ati had some issues like with far cry that went away when the quality was moved down to low. Try changing the 3d settings down and see if it goes away. Even if it works you may need to rma it. I am just curious myself.

I would RMA the card too. My 9800se was nearly killed by AtiTool. The memory finder is horrible. I started getting crazy lines all over my monitor and ATItool just kept on cranking. That's why I'm back to manual OCing.

Timdog said:

I would RMA the card too. My 9800se was nearly killed by AtiTool. The memory finder is horrible. I started getting crazy lines all over my monitor and ATItool just kept on cranking. That's why I'm back to manual OCing.

Click to expand...

a wise choice.

manual OCing, and fearce testing is the best way not to hurt you new toys.
why else do we keep saying, "take it slow" when OCing?

mica

erm. A: I can't RMA the card because it's been overclocked. I gotta keep it honest, you know.
And B: i can't believe it, but i think found the answer. When I looked inside the display properties, i noticed an option for "alternate dvi operation mode", i ticked it and all the artifacting went away. no more. nada. Weird... maybe someone can confirm that on some dvi monitors, "artifacting" will occur if it's not enabled?

I'd still RMA it, OC or not..

There will always be a bad apple here or there in the crop.

Did you put a check in the box or remove it? I've wondered what "Alternate DVI operational mode" is for, what affect it has. Which version of ATITool have you been using? I think only the latest release has support for X800. ATITool has been working well for me so far, but PowerStrip doesn't. Any attempt to change clock speeds with PS causes immediate artifacts that won't stop until I reboot. Scared the heck out of me - won't use PS until they release a new version with that issue resolved.

i put a checkbox on it, because i forgot which site says it's pointless and should be unchecked (maybe that's why and i never noticed until then... coincidence?) but now it's checked and everything's running fine. i put it back at stock speeds and no artifiacting whatsoever.

BTW, it's the newest version of atitool

i'm going to talk to my lcd manufacturer about this right now.