Sapphire HD3870x2 noise

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pascal
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Pascal

I bought a "Sapphire HD3870x2" video card.
It seems to work fine, but some times (expecially when playing a game) some
purple lines, red and green points appears on the screen.
Like noise.
I tried to change many settings, but no results.

My configuration is:
- mb: Asus P5KC
- processor: QuadCore Q6600
- ram: 2GB DDR2
- Power Supply: 750W
- Win XP Pro SP2
- Latest Driver Catalyst 8.2

Any ideas?

Tnx.
 
Pascal said:
I bought a "Sapphire HD3870x2" video card.
It seems to work fine, but some times (expecially when playing a game)
some purple lines, red and green points appears on the screen.
Like noise.
I tried to change many settings, but no results.

My configuration is:
- mb: Asus P5KC
- processor: QuadCore Q6600
- ram: 2GB DDR2
- Power Supply: 750W
- Win XP Pro SP2
- Latest Driver Catalyst 8.2

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Try different drivers. If it's happening across the board this may be it. If
you're unluckly, it could be a flaky DDR4 module. You could try backing off
on the memory clock if the driver doesn't do it.
 
Pascal said:
I bought a "Sapphire HD3870x2" video card.
It seems to work fine, but some times (expecially when playing a game)
some purple lines, red and green points appears on the screen.
Like noise.
I tried to change many settings, but no results.

My configuration is:
- mb: Asus P5KC
- processor: QuadCore Q6600
- ram: 2GB DDR2
- Power Supply: 750W
- Win XP Pro SP2
- Latest Driver Catalyst 8.2
Click to expand...

I have a similar setup (Q6600 OC'ed to 3.0GHz, 750W, XP Pro SP2, my board is
Intel Bad Axe 2). Using CCC 8.2, I never had any issues when playing games
(CoD 4, FEAR, Bioshock)with a Sapphire 3870 X2. I sold the X2 because it was
an overkill for a casual gamer like me. FYI, I got around 16,000 in 3D Mark
06.

It sounds like you are having a driver-related problem or a memory module is
faulty.
 
1. Do you have utilities like ATiTool installed?
2. Do you see this in multiple games?
3. The card could be overheating. From the Newegg user reviews, the default
fan schedule seems to be set too low:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16814102723
As a result, the card gets hot enough to even unpeel the logo sticker after
some use. Set the fan speed manually to 100% duty cycle (could be loud) with
Rivatuner and see if the image noise disappears.

If nothing helps, the card is probably defective.
 
Thanks everyone for the hints.

About the artifacts, it seems to be solved.
I really don't know how the problem has solved but after an "auto-tune"
launched from ATI CCC Overdrive panel everything seem ok.

So, while playing "Crysis", after about 10 minutes, the screen became black.
No way to come back to windows.
After rebooting I started to monitor temperature with RivaTuner:

- Idle: 56 - 60 °C
- After 5 minutes of playing: 100 - 115 °C

Following your hint, I set the VGA fan speed to 100%, but no changes.

Should I hear a significative change of fan noise? I ask it because I heard
no noise change... (even if RivaTuner monitor show 100% speed).

Are these values "normal"?
 
Pascal said:
Thanks everyone for the hints.

About the artifacts, it seems to be solved.
I really don't know how the problem has solved but after an "auto-tune"
launched from ATI CCC Overdrive panel everything seem ok.

So, while playing "Crysis", after about 10 minutes, the screen became
black. No way to come back to windows.
After rebooting I started to monitor temperature with RivaTuner:

- Idle: 56 - 60 °C
- After 5 minutes of playing: 100 - 115 °C

Following your hint, I set the VGA fan speed to 100%, but no changes.

Should I hear a significative change of fan noise? I ask it because I
heard no noise change... (even if RivaTuner monitor show 100% speed).
Click to expand...

When you boot the PC, the fan of the X2 should initally run at 100% as a
self-check and slow down. At 100%, the fan is loud. Yes, you should be able
to hear a significant change in the noise level.

When I had an X2, the idle temp was around 55C and it never went over 75C
when I was running 3D Mark 06. Your fan seems faulty.
 
When I had an X2, the idle temp was around 55C and it never went over 75C
when I was running 3D Mark 06. Your fan seems faulty.
Click to expand...

The card was defective and has been replaced by the shop.
Thanks everyone
 
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