I might have issues affecting my drivers, please help

[Dubnoman]

Here is something I wrote on another message board:

I started a new game on a new computer. Clean install. I have about 55 to 60 mods installed right now. I have noticed that I've had minor issues ever since I installed about 50 mods at the start of a new game, but it isn't stability issues. Sometimes, for a fraction of a second, I'll see a glitchy display of imagery on the screen. Usually, it is black or white, covers only a portion of the screen, and covers it in a random array. They have straight edges and it is a random array, no conventional shapes. It lasts for only what seems like a few hundredths of a second or so. It'll occasionally pop up on the screen for a small fraction of a second. Most times, it happens in the outdoors. It may have happened indoors before. I'll have to keep an eye out for that; make note of it if it happens indoors.

I've been a little worried since I've seen things like this since the beginning of this game. I did decrease the frequency of this by tinkering with some mods. I installed one and then installed another and it asked me to replace files. I uninstalled both mods, and installed one before the other, and then did not replace files, and this seemed to improve things.

But I'm just wondering if I should be worried. This flickering on the screen doesn't happen all that much. I'm just wondering if I should be worried about corrupted saves. Should I be worried about that or anything else? The game runs real stable. However, the game has done sudden CTDs before. I'm at about level 27 or 28 now. At around levels 18-20 (I forget where), I had a sudden CTD while running down a path, and today I used a feature from a mod (which was classified as a power and you hit the dragon shout button to activate it) and right after using the mods feature, the game CTD.

What do you guys think? Should I have some concerns, or am I likely to be fine?

Here is the reply I got:

Sounds like artifacting.
Have you checked the temps of your drivers while running the game? Dusted out your computer?
Artifacting indicates a fairly serious driver problem, usually--many times this can be fixed by reducing the demands on your driver by decreasing the game's graphic settings, using less-taxing graphics mods (have you tried not using ENB?), etc. Sometimes the problem is with a driver download--- have you tried updating/rolling back your drivers?

In any case, over time if you do not address the problem, you might end up killing your drivers, especially if you are overheating. I would stop playing, personally, and focus on fixing this problem, even if it means starting a new game.

I'd like input from other people. Is that poster right in their conclusion? Do I have those issues? What can I do to get rid of the issues? I use an AMD GPU (a Radeon HD 7950, the Gigabyte GV-R795WF3).

That person implied that this issue might be because of intensive graphic processing. I had everything on ultra, full AA and AF and I had FXAA on. Is FXAA really intensive? Would all I have to do is take off FXAA?

I have an AMD GPU and I hear their drivers aren't as good. Do these problems happen less with Nvidia cards?

 

[Dubnoman]

Does anyone have any input on my problem? If you read the problems I described and then read the forum poster's opinion on what my problem may be, does that sound correct to anyone? I didn't get any more responses in that thread. Does anyone know what my problem may be? Can I really ruin my drivers? If anyone wants to try and help me but needs more info, please, ask some questions and I'll try to help others as much as I can.

 

[excella1221]

While I agree it sounds like you're getting artifacts, I don't really see how it would "kill" any driver, lol.

I'm assuming the game in question is Skyrim?

nVIDIA has their fair share of driver issues, but they release driver versions more frequently.

What Catalyst version are you using? I'm on a 7950 as well but from PowerColor, and I haven't had any problems with Skyrim. Though granted, I didn't do any mods.

 

[Supernova1138]

If you're playing Skyrim, roll back to Catalyst version 12.8 or use the latest 13.2 Beta driver. I've found that all driver revisions between 12.8 and 13.2 Beta have had problems with causing artifacting in Skyrim.

As for your game crashing issues, there is probably something wrong with one of your mods, or some sort of conflict that has arisen from running so many of them at once. You may have to start uninstalling some mods and putting them back in one by one to figure out which one is causing you trouble.