Fixing Artifacts in softmodded Radeon

[skattrd]

Ok, I've got a 9800se AiW, sorry to start another threa about this card but in the poll theres quite a few people saying they had artifacts but fixed them ..... how ?

My card seems to mod fine, but has artifacts on dvd playback, I haven't got 3dmark 2k3 to test how succesful my mod is (I'm on 56k and dont fancy a 178MB dl) but it runs 3dmark 2k1se perfectly (18 000) and nothing noticeable in gameplay either (NFSU, Max Payne 2 etc.) so it appears to be a minor problem, fixable ???

Thx.

[Russ]

is it only in dvd play badck it happening? what dvd prog u using?

[SilentDeath]

what sort of artifacts do you get?

theres checkerboarding type which covers hole screen
theres white or black dots that appear randomly in random places but can be hard to notice
and in games, shapes can get messed up for example in 3dm2k1 car chase, thre is a bridge accross the road where somehting got misshaped.
(ive got 9700np btw)
it might help if you under clock your card, or vmod the gpu or mem. also touch the heatspreader at back of card to see if its getting v hot and put a heatsink onto it if it is
whats rest of your spec? id like to know how you get a better score than me in 2k1 - i get 17.5k last time i benched

[skattrd]

I've tried Powerdvd and Ati's DvD player and both have the same problem, so I assumed it wasn't software related.

The first kind of artifact I was getting was large green blocks flashing across the player screen, then the player screen flashing all green, but now its changed and is small black squares over half of the player screen, but the odd thing is it doesn't happen all the time, sometimes it will play a dvd for 15-20 mins before it occurs, but it does eventually. This only ever affects the dvd player part of the screen. I thought this might be because of overheating so checked the card and everything is quite cool on the card itself, and my case is well ventilated, 6x 80mm case fans, one blowing directly onto the gfx card.
The TV has no problems at all, and I know the tuner generates alot of heat.

I didn't quite get 18k in 3dmk2k1, it was 17990 and I didn't change any settings in 3dmk or on my pc, I just ran ALL tests @ 1024x768 32bit, and I didn't notice any problems in any tests. However this might not be the correct way to benchmark it, possibly giving me a slightly false score (I don't really believe in benchmarks, I just use them occasionally to test stability).

Brief specs:
Epox 8RDA3+
Barton @ 220x10.5 (2330mhz)
2 x 256MB Corsair pc3500 (11,2,2,2.5)
ATi 9800se AiW default clocks - omega 2.5.0.4

If you could give a link to how to do the vmods I might have a try

Thx.

[Russ]

ur using omega drivers?...

http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/download.php

[skattrd]

Would those drivers be much different to the omega's ?
bah, I'll give em a try, only 2hrs to download - gotta love 56k

[Russ]

these are what i softmod with. great drivers

[skattrd]

Ok, problem still happening
I thought I'd post a quick screenshot of what I was trying (badly) to describe.

Sometimes its like this, sometimes its more of a black and white checker board effect.

Ne1 any ideas how to solve this, as I said its only (so far) occurred during dvd playback.

Thx.

[dawson]

Have you tried dropping the core and gpu clock speeds by 50mhz? Then if that helps, slowly increase till problems start, then back off a little and leave it like that.

[skattrd]

Ok, thx for the advice guys I've got it sorted now, by lowering the clocks.

I lowered both memory and gpu clocks and worked back upwards, the highest memory setting it worked on without artifacts was 310mhz (default 337). However it works fine with the gpu clock at default (378mhz) so it was only the memory causing the artifacts. I'll actually try and o/c the gpu later, for now I'm happy with a slightly lower memory clock and 8 pipes working

[SilentDeath]

that is strange...
before softmod the mem was at same speed.
after softmod it is only the core that is changed - no probs there.
it may be that SE cards use lower voltages on vref or something - if you have a multimeter you could measure the measuring points and compare with another card. that would point to a needed volt mod.

also that pic doesnt look like normal artifacting - infact it reminds me of playing a divx film with an early xvid release.
as it doesnt happen at all in games i think its the codec your using tbh. first try to find out which codec you have - your dvd soft might say.
try opening a film (dvd or svcd or mpeg2) in media player (eithr 6.4 or MPC) and goto propertys.
if your happy with the lower clocks and it works fine then may aswell just leave it. that mem clock wont affect performace THAT much

[dawson]

Glad you got a 9800 Pro working (abeit with slighty slower ram)

[Lisandrea]

It seems that I have similar artefacts with my softmodded herc 9800se aiw. I have tested the original ATI driver (3.10) vs. the OCfaq softmod, and scattered black dots (which are really always only little dots) in TV, file player, and DVD/VCD playback are only seen with softmod. Strange thing is that I have also no artefacts at all in 3dMark01, 3dMark03, or Aquamark. It may be worth to fiddle around with the clock and memory speeds!? Which tweaker is the one to use? Some advise?