7970 - Artifacts and Red/White dots on screen while in game

[NLTech]

Hi all,

I'm facing some issues with my 7970 graphics card. It's a Club3D card with an Accelero cooler on it. While in game (NBA 2K16, iRacing) I see very big artifacts over the whole screen and white/green/red dots. I'm thinking about throwing away the 7970 card, sell the rest of my system and buy a PS4 Pro or buying a new graphics card.

Facts:
- Builtin GPU of CPU works fine by using the DVI port on the motherboard.
- Tried a different PCI-E port on my motherboard.
- Did a memory check with the Windows built-in tools. (No errors)
- Removed the Accelero cooler and attached the original cooler. No difference.
- Put the fans on full speed and tried to quickly open a game after a long cool down. No difference.
- Card is like 4 years old, always used the Accelero cooler.
- Cleaned my PC every 2 months with pressured air.
- I'm using multiple monitors, so it's not linked to one screen.
- This came out of the blue. The issue occurred a couple of days ago.
- Did a complete reset of my PC in Windows 10. Also freshly installed Windows 7.
- Tried multiple drivers - the newest to the oldest.
- Tried to underclock my GPU by 30 % or something. Never did any overclocking with this GPU.

Specifications:
- CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K
- Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme6
- Memory: 2x Corsair Vengeance White 8GB DDR3L-1600 CL9 kit
- GPU: Club 3D Radeon HD 7970 3GB
- SSD: Crucial MX100 256 GB
- Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced
- PSU: Cooler Master V-Series Semi-Modular 550W
- CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B
- GPU Cooler: Arctic Accelero Xtreme 7970
- Monitor: 3x Dell U2312HM

Do you have any idea what I can try as well? Maybe I forgot to mention something because I already did a lot of troubleshooting.

Thanks!

 

[ASOT]

Many amd gpus have many issue,errors and artefacts..had them since hd 7770 to 280x are faulty

Try reinstall driver or windows,best will be to sell it and move to green side.

 

[JayCan73]

I get a similar issue on my club3d 7950 if I make any attempt to oc the memory, have you tried lowering the memory clocks to see if that corrects the issue? When I first got the card it could do 1100mhz without increasing the voltage, but over time I've had to up the volts to keep the oc stable without artifacting. Needs a 10% voltage boost now, after having to increase little by little over the last couple years

 

[NLTech]

Many amd gpus have many issue,errors and artefacts..had them since hd 7770 to 280x are faulty

Try reinstall driver or windows,best will be to sell it and move to green side.

Thanks ASOT, already reinstalled Windows and tried different drivers. Hmm, don't think it's fair if I sell a GPU with artifacts, right? Or is it possible that the GPU doesn't have artifacts in another system?

Thanks.

I get a similar issue on my club3d 7950 if I make any attempt to oc the memory, have you tried lowering the memory clocks to see if that corrects the issue?

Ah bummer.. %@!#$ AMD... I never did overclocking with the GPU. I tried to underclock it, but didn't help. Maybe I used the wrong values. Which values can you recommend? I'm not familiar with overclocking and tried to use MSI Afterburner and divided the values like memory clocks by 40 % or something. Is it safe to only lower the memory clock?

 

[JayCan73]

If you haven't oc'd the card, just go into amd control panel, think it's the global gaming tab now, and see if applying a few % voltage increase resolves your problem.

 

[NLTech]

If you haven't oc'd the card, just go into amd control panel, think it's the global gaming tab now, and see if applying a few % voltage increase resolves your problem.

Could find that one, but from MSI Afterburner and the older AMD driver (non-Crimson) I'm currently testing, my default settings are:
Power Limit % = +0
Core Clock MHz = 925
Memory Clock Mhz = 1375

What can I try?

 

[Ebo]

Try and lower the Hz on your vram, try with 5Hz first.

 

[NLTech]

Try and lower the Hz on your vram, try with 5Hz first.

Tried to lower the Memory and Core Clock but no luck there.. I kept NBA 2K16 open and couldn't see any difference.

 

[Aquinus]

white/green/red dots

I've found this to be a very common failure mode for VRAM. Your GPU could be on its way out. Does it do this when the GPU is at idle or only under load?

 

[ASOT]

Thanks ASOT, already reinstalled Windows and tried different drivers. Hmm, don't think it's fair if I sell a GPU with artifacts, right? Or is it possible that the GPU doesn't have artifacts in another system?

Thanks.

Yes u can sell it,at a decent price and advise the new owner just to know about that.

 

[P4-630]

Yes u can sell it,at a decent price and advise the new owner just to know about that.

Just wondering... Who would be interested in buying a dying GPU?..

 

[ASOT]

He can try atleast if nothing works...sell it for parts,or fans ..or for repair

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Try the BIOS switch, Im pretty sure it has one.

 

[JayCan73]

If lowering the clocks isn't having any effect, try upping voltage limit 1% at a time, works on my c3d card anyway, it's seems like the power delivery on my card has been becoming less efficient over time, but may be only a matter of time before it finally gives out.

 

[Aquinus]

Removed the Accelero cooler and attached the original cooler. No difference.

I missed this. Were the VRAM chips at minimum, passively cooled with anything on them? If you didn't have any heat sink on the VRAM chips after swapping out coolers, you probably did this to the GPU yourself.

 

[NLTech]

I think it's strange that the artifacts start while in the main menu of NBA 2K16. They show a video during the startup of the game and I can see that without any artifacts or dots. Strange, isn't it?

I've found this to be a very common failure mode for VRAM. Your GPU could be on its way out. Does it do this when the GPU is at idle or only under load?

Mostly under load, but could see it also in Windows 10 when opening the settings menu. If I remember correctly, the blue monitor was full of white dots. I'm now running under Windows 7 and I couldn't find a screen with dots.

He can try atleast if nothing works...sell it for parts,or fans ..or for repair

Lol

Try the BIOS switch, Im pretty sure it has one.

Switched from 1 -> 2 and no difference unfortunately.

If lowering the clocks isn't having any effect, try upping voltage limit 1% at a time, works on my c3d card anyway, it's seems like the power delivery on my card has been becoming less efficient over time, but may be only a matter of time before it finally gives out.

That's a good one. Didn't work for me unfortunately. I tried adding a percentage until 10 %. Can I go further or is that too dangerous?

I missed this. Were the VRAM chips at minimum, passively cooled with anything on them? If you didn't have any heat sink on the VRAM chips after swapping out coolers, you probably did this to the GPU yourself.

Yes of course. The Accelero cooler comes with small heatsinks. It worked fine for over 4 years. Switched back to the stock cooler just to check if it has something to do with that. And that was also after I found these issues, so I think it has nothing to do with it. Temps looked okay with HWMonitor. I also wanted to try the other PCI-E port and with the Accelero fan, the GPU becomes too big to try another port.

 

[JayCan73]

Sadly, if none of these fixes are having any effect, you should probably start saving for a new card, or the ps4 pro you wanted, You could still try the card in another machine just to be sure the problem is with it and not something else like your psu.

 

[eidairaman1]

Sadly, if none of these fixes are having any effect, you should probably start saving for a new card, or the ps4 pro you wanted, You could still try the card in another machine just to be sure the problem is with it and not something else like your psu.

Probably needs to stick to consoles...