Experiencing Weird Artifact Symptoms

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

Hey guys so it's been like 3 Months now since I got my Sapphire R9-280X
Toxic.
Before we move on here is my settings on my GPU and GPU related programs that I run during gaming

Driver13.12
MSI Afterburner 3.0.0 Beta 19
RivaTunerStatisticsServer 6.1.0
CCC

My GPU setting it's all Stock , except Fan Profile
1150 Core , 1600 Memory
PowerLimit 0%

So here's the thing, everything works fine and all. But it's been 3 cases so far, all sudden while gaming I experiencing Artifacts.
But get this , strange thing bout it is because , it's all fine most the time , for example I was playing Wticher 2 , SC II for hours and hours, days then all sudden one day, bang while half way in game It just started showing Artifacts.
Rather serious too , but when I turn off the game and restart playing again it's gone and no longer show up or maybe till sometime in future randomly , but so far nothing.

My most recent case was rather serious , was in Metro Last Light , there's like an intro animation whenever you startup the game , so when I got to the Main Menu , which you have to click Start / Press any Key , I've already experiencing Artifacts , and for first time , it was very laggy too and my CPU Usage was very high 90% ++ when I click Start / Press any Button to enter further into the menu. My PC totally lock up , CPU Usage at 100% , I can't
Alt + Tab , Alt + F4 can't even Ctrl + Alt + Delete nothing.
Had to do a restart my PC. But after that I try entering the game again and it's all fine , no problems at all.

I do saw some people posting that they have Artifacts when gaming with a 280X Toxic , but I think for their cases , it's more like a constant one , while mine it's like a totally random one , and sudden more likely , as I said I was like gaming for hours one time , all sudden the Artifacts just kicks in out of nowhere.

People claim tweaking the Clock speed might fix it or even increasing the PowerLimit

I've experience Artifact before , back then it's because of AMD's Driver , you guys should know that. But that happen in all the games and constantly too.

This is very strange and worrying , do you guys have any idea ??

 

[Woomack]

I would ask support what to do in this case as card is not working correctly but can be hard to diagnose it if you make RMA.
Sometimes it's driver issue but sometimes it's hardware. I had issues with most high end AMD cards in last 2-3 years and it was generally everything from driver issues to overheating and memory errors.
Sometimes artifacts are happening when driver is crashing but game is still working, then performance is dropping/gets laggy etc.
Check if the same is happening on the latest official drivers and stock clocks.

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

I would ask support what to do in this case as card is not working correctly but can be hard to diagnose it if you make RMA.
Sometimes it's driver issue but sometimes it's hardware. I had issues with most high end AMD cards in last 2-3 years and it was generally everything from driver issues to overheating and memory errors.
Sometimes artifacts are happening when driver is crashing but game is still working, then performance is dropping/gets laggy etc.
Check if the same is happening on the latest official drivers and stock clocks.

Ok will do.
But the biggest headache is now that we can't be sure of anything lol.
As for it doesn't happen often....and nothing serious actually just showing up Artifacts in games.
But overheating of GPU , definitely not , my GPU never over 80 C , I know since as I mentioned I have OSD on 24/7 whenever I game. To monitor what's going on with my GPU.

But there are such cases which the Driver is crashing while the game still runs ?? This is new to me indeed

But for the Metro Last Light , PC locking up , thinking it back....could not be Artifacts or GPU related...I wasn't very sure , because I went to toilet while it loads , so I got back I do feel its laggy as I said the Intro for the game startup have animation basically things are moving and such , so it's in a tunnel , it could be the light flickering that makes me think it's Artifacts since it goes dark and bright. Will have to put this problem aside for now.

 

[Woomack]

But there are such cases which the Driver is crashing while the game still runs ?? This is new to me indeed

It's something like when error happens then driver is recovering what you often won't see when you are playing. Often it's like ~5 second lag and it backs to normal/default 3D settings. Sometimes there are artifacts and everything freezes.
Most users can see more often driver error and program shutdown but I'm just saying it's one of the options that I saw in the past.

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

It's something like when error happens then driver is recovering what you often won't see when you are playing. Often it's like ~5 second lag and it backs to normal/default 3D settings. Sometimes there are artifacts and everything freezes.
Most users can see more often driver error and program shutdown but I'm just saying it's one of the options that I saw in the past.

I see this is really new to me indeed lol.
The Artifacts Im experiencing it's something like this , this is consider Artifacts right ?

 

[Woomack]

Since it's not overheating then can be or too high clock or drivers. As I said better check stock settings and latest official drivers.

 

[EarthDog]

+1... try swapping drivers around. If that doesn't work, try adding .05v to the core and see if that prevents the artifacting. If it does, its RMA time as the card does not work at stock speeds.

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

+1... try swapping drivers around. If that doesn't work, try adding .05v to the core and see if that prevents the artifacting. If it does, its RMA time as the card does not work at stock speeds.

Ok will try to patch the latest Driver see how it goes.
But I don't think I can increase the core voltage can I ?
Any difference between PowerLimit % on the MSI Afterburner and increasing Core Voltage ?

Also I think this isn't the actual stock clock , since this is a 280X Tahiti XT Chipset , I think the actual clocks are lower lower.
The Toxic 280X is sort of Factory OCed if not mistaken.
Is it possible Factory OCed settings aren't stable ??
But I think I will least just change the Drivers first before playing around with my clock speed. Since I stress test on Unigine Heaven 4.0 , games etc before there's no Artifacts most the time.

One more thing, VRM Temp , I used HWiNFO64, during games like Metro Last Light which really burns my GPU , it goes high as 78 - 80 C ( maximum 80 but only stays on 80 for a few sec depending on the situation in game ) , my VRM is around maximum 86 C I remember , is this ok ??
In CS : GO less stressful game ,it's only mere 66 C maximum

Ok for Metro Last Light , we can scratch that. I think the game is broken.
Happened again today, I always have my 360 controller plugged in , so when I start the game , it detected my controller instead of keyboard.
So I click " Press Start " button , then it goes into the Menu etc , and it lags etc but it's not Artifact Im sure of it , was something else. GPU Usage throttling high , 90% ++ then I just Alt + Tab to Desktop , goes back in move my mouse and keyboard , and it goes back to mouse and keyboard mode and all it's fine. No PC lockup etc.

 

[EarthDog]

I mean, you have to look. I don't know off hand if your card can adjust voltage or not. Make sure in MSI AB that you enable it (look for it in the settings.. its a check box).

Power limit is NOT voltage. Power limit is just that a power limit. You need to raise that when overclocking or raising the voltage, just in case.

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

I mean, you have to look. I don't know off hand if your card can adjust voltage or not. Make sure in MSI AB that you enable it (look for it in the settings.. its a check box).

Power limit is NOT voltage. Power limit is just that a power limit. You need to raise that when overclocking or raising the voltage, just in case.

20% should be enough right ? everyone usually tells me that just increase 20% even some of the people having constant artifacts on their 280X they said to do that might fix it

 

[EarthDog]

Try it ghost.. we can't move the slider for you...

 

[Mandrake4565]

Gh0sT-NoVa, as said above it could be drivers or too high of an OC. Yes even if it is OC'ed from the factory it could be too high. That said when I have had card go in the past, the cards started having artifacts randomly then proceeded to get worse over time. It may be RMA time if drivers do not fix it.

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

Sadly will still take some maybe even more or longer time to actually get the results , as I said it's like super rare...so far only been 2 cases , and one is in Wticher 2 and another in
SC II lol...and yet so far still nothing happened after the first case in these games.
Also there been 0 cases in other games.
One of the main goal I created this thread too its to discuss this weird symptom as I claimed and maybe have a better understanding for me what causes artifacts in games.

One more thing I heard, does sometimes DirectX 9 and 11 have affect to this , I heard something about there are situation maybe you will see artifact in DirectX 9 games while not in 11 if there are such possibility what's the explanation to this ??

 

[Mandrake4565]

It is possible that the older games may not run well on newer drivers. If it only happens in certain games and it doesn't get worse, it's most likely and issue with the game/drivers. If you find it getting worse then it's probably the card.

Example, I have found when using my Radeon 5850 that it doesn't like the newer drivers especially when playing older games. I find that I have flickering and some artifacts when using drivers newer then catalyst 12.3.

 

[wagex]

my 280x was doing this with 14.xx drivers weird thing was 13.12 drivers fixed my issues... my screen would flicker all the time though weather in game or not.

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

It is possible that the older games may not run well on newer drivers. If it only happens in certain games and it doesn't get worse, it's most likely and issue with the game/drivers. If you find it getting worse then it's probably the card.

Example, I have found when using my Radeon 5850 that it doesn't like the newer drivers especially when playing older games. I find that I have flickering and some artifacts when using drivers newer then catalyst 12.3.

Yeah I think I had the same experience before , before my HD 7870 was giving me the Black Screen of Death , I think you know of this famous problem with the HD 7870 , so I had to RMA it , also at then the Drivers was plague with Artifact ! Worst time for AMD users back then.
So I had to pop back in my old HD 5830, strangely least 80% of the games I play has no more Artifacts compared to the HD 7870 ! But there are some games the HD 7870 didn't have Artifacts on while the HD 5830 did lol...it's really strange

The PC World is just so much headache yet it's interesting

A few questions about Overclocking or Clock speed causing problem. If Im not mistaken, it's possible that maybe for example

If maybe I set to Core Clock
1150 Core Clock - Causes Artifact

So I increase the Core Clock or maybe even decreasing
1200 Core Clock - No more Artifact
1100 Core Clock - No more Artifact

Because what I heard when playing around with the clock speed there's always like a " magic number " for it , you can't just set them as the number you like it won't be stable , am I right?

my 280x was doing this with 14.xx drivers weird thing was 13.12 drivers fixed my issues... my screen would flicker all the time though weather in game or not.

Wao that sounded bad lol , btw what's your clock speed on your 280X ?
And your still using BETA Drivers ? Or the latest Official one , there's a new Driver , Official one , 14.4 now.

 

[wagex]

Wao that sounded bad lol , btw what's your clock speed on your 280X ?
And your still using BETA Drivers ? Or the latest Official one , there's a new Driver , Official one , 14.4 now.

im using 13.12... 14.xx would cause my issues im also at the default clocks
1080 core
1600 memory
xfx black edition
its the new official drivers that were crashing it.
overclocking the ram much past 1600 gives me artifacts in game pretty hard.

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

im using 13.12... 14.xx would cause my issues im also at the default clocks
1080 core
1600 memory
xfx black edition
its the new official drivers that were crashing it.
overclocking the ram much past 1600 gives me artifacts in game pretty hard.

Hmm your default clock and mine are quite different , my Core is 1150 , quite lot more. While Memory is same , 1600
But any reason why they left it on a strange number like 1080 instead of 1050 or maybe even 1100 ? Which this relate on my previous question above I mentioned.

 

[EarthDog]

Of course they have different clocks. Its a different card. Not all cards come with the same clockspeeds or can reach/be stable at the same clockspeeds...

This has ZERO relationship to your previous question on artifacting and not at certain clockspeeds.

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

Of course they have different clocks. Its a different card. Not all cards come with the same clockspeeds or can reach/be stable at the same clockspeeds...

This has ZERO relationship to your previous question on artifacting and not at certain clockspeeds.

But isn't his also a 280X , this is why I don't understand lol , reason I was asking previously.
As I asked previously ,is it possible if I were to set 1100 Core ( Default is 1150 ) it will end up unstable , maybe instead I set it maybe say 1050 or 1200 or whatever other , it will be stable either ways whether is higher or lower than my default clock.

Specifically Im asking why cant we set to any numbers we like even it is
" not too much overclock "