Artifacts in full screen 3d games but not in non-full screen mode?

First off, card is a HD5970.

So, I had originally thought that my card was defective given it all of a sudden started having the typical crazy artifacts in games that you might expect from a burnt chip.

However, I'm noticing that when I'm running programs out of full screen mode, I'm not having this issue. For instance, when I run furmark v1.6.5, out of full screen mode, no matter what resolution it's at or settings (including 2560x1600, the max res of my monitor, essentially making it full screen with full AA, basically these settings:

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/403/gfx1.png )

it's able to run fine and artifact free.

See: http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/2962/gfx2.png

with msi afterburner, I'm watching both GPUs on the card run up to a high percentage (as the screenshot displays). No artifacts.

However, once I enable full screen, like in these settings:

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/7627/gfx3.png

even at 640 x 480 I'm experiencing ridiculous artifacts.


I've also tried this in an actual game. For instance, when I start up starcraft 2, I can see small artifacts dotting my screen throughout the loading screen (since it's in fullscreen mode). Once it actually gets into the game where it's prompting me to login, it begins to run fine with no artifacts since I run the game in a windowed fullscreen mode. I can continue playing the game fine like this without any problem.

Ideas?

very good sleuthing, i think after that description you actually do have it down to a distinction between being a "screen" or a "window"
so
what would be different about a screen vrses a window?
The way that 2 GPU items are utalised?

what operating system, and do you have any desktop virtualiszation stuff, areo glass stuff on or off Desktop shell changers , any thing that makes the desktop anything more than the most simple 2D display item?

The artifacts though sound very consistant with a cooling issue :-(
so i still have to ask if you cranked up the fan 100% and still got the same issue?
if you have the clocks to Normal AND the fan cranked up and still got the issue

Are any of the artifacts consistant with any interleaved rendering of parts of the frame by second gpu item?
if you do overclock are the timings on both GPU items still the same?

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/11/28/taking-apart-the-ati-radeon-hd-5970/2
(Pics of it apart.)

By the way i have seen (passing on the web) at least once, another user with the same problem, and his gpu was a doubble too.
.

Psycogeec said:

very good sleuthing, i think after that description you actually do have it down to a distinction between being a "screen" or a "window"
so
what would be different about a screen vrses a window?
The way that 2 GPU items are utalised?

what operating system, and do you have any desktop virtualiszation stuff, areo glass stuff on or off Desktop shell changers , any thing that makes the desktop anything more than the most simple 2D display item?

Click to expand...

Win 7 64 bit, nothing special about my desktop. I haven't modified it at all since installing Win 7 about a month or two back.

Psycogeec said:

The artifacts though sound very consistant with a cooling issue :-(
so i still have to ask if you cranked up the fan 100% and still got the same issue?
if you have the clocks to Normal AND the fan cranked up and still got the issue

Click to expand...

I would think this too, but the monitor in afterburner shows a pretty consistent 35 degree c idle, and I've never seen the card hit over 65 or maybe 70 degrees c under full load. I've always had the fan manually running between 80-90%.

Psycogeec said:

Are any of the artifacts consistant with any interleaved rendering of parts of the frame by second gpu item?
if you do overclock are the timings on both GPU items still the same?

Click to expand...

I don't have it overclocked, just running the stock clocks. The artifacts themselves are pretty much all over the screen.

Psycogeec said:

By the way i have seen (passing on the web) at least once, another user with the same problem, and his gpu was a doubble too.
.

Click to expand...

Interesting.

I mean, I'm still really leaning toward one chip being burnt out, I guess. I just think it's interesting how I'm able to run things like furmark in windowed mode, see both GPUs working, and be artifact free. Don't really get it.

It isnt likly to be other things is it? you probably have ample power.
one quick test would be to put a Voltmeter on the connector going to the GPU card and see if it was close to 12V under your full screen load.

it isnt likly to be a card seating problem, because the PCIe Lanes it speaks through would be all of them. and the majority of the power is on the back connector.

and it isnt like this happend on your card that you have had for 3 years i would want to change it for another one. i wouldnt put up with that stuff for that kind of costs, even if it was some ram cooling issue. not right after purchase , it will only get worse.

the other user indicated that he would just play games in window mode, and it wouldnt effect much for him. No way ,not me, sure i could easily cope with playing games in windows mode, i could not cope with there being a piece of expencive hardware in my machine that poops on itself.
.

Hey bud, should be a simple fix. I have a dual 5970 setup at my office, and I had the same problems. I used driver cleaner and removed all ATI related drivers, rebooted, installed latest drivers, rebooted. Went into CCC, changed AI to "Standard" , Smoothvision to "Use application settings", same with AA, and then go to the tab for ATI overdrive, and manually turn the fans to a minimum of 65% constantly. It seems like the fans don't turn on until the card is way hotter than it should be.

On my home setup, I set all fans to 100%, its loud but kinda have to do it otherwise they get hot as heck too.

How I figured this out was I had the same artifacts, and so I turned the fan on max, and within 15 min, all artifacts were gone.

let me know what happens

I'm having the same issue with an HD 6990. In windows mode all works great, but in full screen artifacts everywhere. GPUS are really cool, 55ºC. I uninstalled drivers, fresh install with the latest ones.. and nothing. I'm a bit desperate

Anyone can help?

Thanks