[SOLVED] GTX 1060 - Flickering and strobe lights ?

[Giskard91]

Hello! After many years of laptop gaming, I decided to gift myself a second-hand PC. Work applications are fine. However, what happens in basically all games is some flickering, that can go from annoying but not unbearable with older games (e.g. Rising Storm 2) to severe with relatively newer games. In many cases, besides texture flickering, after a few minutes I start getting strobe-like coloured flickering. See screenshot for reference

https://imgur.com/a/LgVqMV5

View: https://imgur.com/a/LgVqMV5
, it's hard to catch them in the act but the spots can get quite intense. From time to time, the screen goes completely black and I need to shut the game off. In a way it's similar to this user's problem

https://imgur.com/6yIrDo8

View: https://imgur.com/6yIrDo8
.
FPS are around 40-70 and the temperature doesn't climb above 80 °C.
Troubleshooting: I tried to do a clean install of the GPU drivers, both the most recent and older ones. Also applied the NVIDIA colour settings.
Thanks in advance!

Computer Type: Desktop
GPU: Geforce GTX 1060 6 GB
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1225 v5 @ 3.30GHz 3.31 GHz
Motherboard: 0MWYPT BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. 2.18.1, 09/07/2021
RAM: 16 GB
Operating System & Version: clean install Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Version 10.0.19043 Build 19043
GPU Drivers: Geforce 511.79, clean install

 

[vov4ik_il]

I would try running MSI Kombustor with artifact scanner or otherwise test videocard memory.

 

[spentshells]

It needs a cleaning and new thermal paste, its that time.

Also look for a used Xeon with hyperthreading, a lie press will have a 6 code Xeon for ya for 80 bucks cdn. 3.5 ghz and 6 cores will make this right fpr ya After ya fix that card.

 

[Giskard91]

Hello,

thanks for your suggestions. The Kombustor stress test peaks at 81 C but then it's stable, I know it might be a bit high but still within range. Another sign that it just needs thermal paste and a good cleaning? If that so, I will get to it next weekend.

 

[vov4ik_il]

The Kombustor stress test peaks at 81 C but then it's stable, I know it might be a bit high but still within range. Another sign that it just needs thermal paste and a good cleaning? If that so, I will get to it next weekend.

I would not touch it. There are so many cases where people damage otherwise good cards by tinkering, you do not want to be a part of this army.

As for the test itself, did it show any errors? Artifact scanner checkmark was checked, and the value was 0, right?

 

[Giskard91]

Yep, no artifacts or any error detected in over 10 minutes. Any other suggestion, besides the cleaning?

 

[vov4ik_il]

10 minutes is not long enough for it to run... Try 1-2 hours for realistic results. If still error-free and stable - I would leave it alone.

 

[Giskard91]

So, I did one hour of stress test today: temperature was stable, no errors. However, by running the artifact scanner for 30 minutes or so, it detected 400 artifacts, which I honestly couldn't notice while it was running. Should I downclock the gpu?

EDIT: tried to run Mafia DE for 10 minutes, at some point the FPS dropped (before I could see any of the flickering) and I had to shut it down via task manager.

 

[vov4ik_il]

So, I did one hour of stress test today: temperature was stable, no errors. However, by running the artifact scanner for 30 minutes or so, it detected 400 artifacts, which I honestly couldn't notice while it was running. Should I downclock the gpu?

EDIT: tried to run Mafia DE for 10 minutes, at some point the FPS dropped (before I could see any of the flickering) and I had to shut it down via task manager.

Remove overclocks if any. If still getting memory errors - defective...