Trouble with ATI 4850 graphics

[martino]

About two or three weeks ago I bought a Sapphire HD4850 (512MB version) to upgrade from a 7600GS, in order to be able to play some newer games without having to look at blocks all the time.

Anyway, it all worked fine for about a week, when during playing Fallout 3 for a while I got some very strange graphic output (look below for a clue). I closed the game, and after a while it was back to normal. However this was just the start. After a while it started getting out of hand. It was happening too often, and now it took even longer for it to settle down to normal. Thus I decided to update/downgrade my drivers a few times, which didn't resolve anything. I updated my motherboard's BIOS too just to see if it wouldn't have something to do with it, nothing changed either. And today it seems like it just decided to give up completely. The problem is now always there. I even had problems with booting into Ubuntu; I had to drop in to recovery mode and repair x just to be able to see the logon screen (I haven't tried reloading xorg.conf with ATI's settings yet). Also this problem can be seen just during POST, as there are red dots all over the black screen with white text, although this doesn't happen on every screen, strangely enough.

I didn't do any overclocking on the GPU. I have my CPU overclocked, and I did try disabling that (as well as loading factory defaults), but nothing changed either. I can also assure that temperatures were all fine. I don't think I remember the GPU going over 70C.

Here are some screenshots:







1, 2 and 3 are from games (Fallout 3 and CoD: WaW), 4 and 6 are from the ATI CCC while 5 was just something where you could see some artefacting too, although now thinking of it you won't see it unless I'd use a camera to take the picture.

So at this point I'm thinking that I have been unlucky again (I don't have good experience with PC parts; RMA'ed PSU, mobo and RAM before -- all from one system) and that this GPU is fubared. However I'd like to ask some of the gurus here whether they think the same, or whether there is something that I can still try before I decide to look for return details...

Thank you.


P.S. Forgot some specs if it helps...
Asus P5K Deluxe
Intel E6750 Core 2 Duo
3GB (1+2) Corsair XMS2 DDR2-6400 RAM
2 SATAII HDDS
DVD-RW/RAM Drive
~2-3 USB devices plugged in
HIPER 530W PSU
Kubuntu 8.10 x86_64 / Vista x86_64

[Epyon9283]

Maybe an issue with the RAM on the card.

[problemedchild]

You could try reinstalling the drivers, but I think you'll most likely need to RMA the card. At least it broke during the warranty period. =P

[hobbes_fan]

Try updated drivers but seeing as its consistent its RMA time IMO.
I had odd issues with fallout 3 - black streaks randomly appearing (dissapointing end btw) but I updated drivers and they worked. Also o/c d but fairly mild (710/1100). I run vista 64 with catalyst 8.11

[martino]

Thanks all for the help. I was fearing that was the outcome, but I guess I knew myself a bit that's the only option now.

Well, back to good old nVidia... properly working drivers under Linux and strange fonts rendering... At least I won't be distracted with games just before my exams. :P

[Tiberium Wolf]

Like you said... red dots during POST. Card defective. During POST there shouldn't be any driver problems... everything should be displayed correctly (since everything there is simple anyway). If not then the card is defective.