Hardware GPU Artifacting?

[Lanlan]

So I switched my 6950's BIOS to unlock the shaders, making it basically a 6970. I use Sapphire Trixx to OC the core clock to 880mhz (6970's stock) from 800mhz (6950's stock) and the memory clock to 1375mhz from 1250mhz, 6970 and 6950's stock speeds, respectively. I get some crazy artifacting/flickering crap whenever I do something that refreshes the screen like opening a different window or quickly moving the mouse. So I restart and try again and increase the voltage by .5 volts, same result. So I try MSI Afterburner. Only lets me OC to 840 and 1325. No artifacting though, I even ran Furmark for 15 minutes. Any idea why this is?

 

[Rydian]

Extra shaders on cards aren't always disabled just to sell the same stock cheaper. Often with the first batches it's because they're defective or damaged. It's the later runs without defects that can often be safely unlocked (since by that time they're not being made with some cores defective).

That, or I could go with the simple answer of "Your OC is too high, Fucking Duh™".

 

[FAST6191]

Heh- did not know unlocking was still a viable method in graphics cards.

Though there are many cases of graphics card chips being locked down a bit to make stock of a cheaper model there is also the possibility that the chip did not perform at the required level to become the better graphics card and was locked down and stuck on the cheaper model instead. Barring something like the cooling, caps or other components being unable to handle the increased speed (it could still be the RAM) it looks like you have one of the latter.

 

[Lanlan]

The card is unlocked and running fine, Sapphire included the BIOS with the unlocked shaders. Tons of other people OC this card to the 6970's stock clocks without a problem, some even higher. I'm gonna mess around more with Trixx to see if I can't weed out the specific problem

 

[Lanlan]

This just in! Used Trixx to OC to 840 and 1325, same frequencies I OC'd to in Afterburner without problems, and still got the artifacts. So the problem is Trixx. That's as far as I've gotten.

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

Personally I would have checked all is fine after the flash and no overclock first, slow and steady sometimes does win the race after all

 

[Lanlan]

Personally I would have checked all is fine after the flash and no overclock first, slow and steady sometimes does win the race after all

Didn't flash it, the BIOS was already there. And the same OC works on Afterburner, it just screws up on Trixx.

 

[Lanlan]

Used Trixx to up it from 800 to 804, nothing else, still got the problem. The problem is definitely Trixx.

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

Didn't flash it, the BIOS was already there. And the same OC works on Afterburner, it just screws up on Trixx.

Flashed it or modded it same thing to me really its still messing with the GPU's bios and I would have still checked before doing any overclocking.

That said I have heard some peoples vram gets damaged after continued use with some methods of Unlocking shaders, Just take it easy with the overclock since you dont wanna end up with a busted card ya know

 

[Lanlan]

Flashed it or modded it same thing to me really its still messing with the GPU's bios and I would have still checked before doing any overclocking.

That said I have heard some peoples vram gets damaged after continued use with some methods of Unlocking shaders, Just take it easy with the overclock since you dont wanna end up with a busted card ya know

There was no flashing or modding of any kind. I moved the BIOS switch from position 1 to position 2. Nothing more.

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

Yes and what d.... *facedesk*

...Have fun mate, wish you all the luck with your card...

 

[Lanlan]

After some googlin', turns out there's a problem with Trixx and the card's drivers. But changing the screen resolution to something else and back to normal fixes it. So I'm good, gonna run Furmark at 880 and 1375 now and see how it does.

 

[Lanlan]

15 minutes of Furmark, and it's doing fine. I guess it wasn't actually "artifacting", just flickering due to the drivers or whatever. Thanks anyway guys.