Major artifacts on GTX 760

[Kelthar]

Hello,

My 10-month-old GTX 760 has started acting up, yesterday, with some pretty massive artifacts. I have never OCed it.

Yesterday afternoon, some images on my browser started showing up with artifacts. I ignored it, assuming it was a browser glitch since it was fixed on browser restart. But it would only get worse.

A few hours later, playing CS:GO, I spot an artifact. Image
A few minutes later, after being killed, I see another one. Image
While playing League of Legends, smoke was showing full of artifacts (all pink/purple squares).
Today, it was artifact-free, until this happened: Image
About a minute later, it was already at this stage: Image

At this point I've lost pretty much all hope and am getting ready to RMA, but I have a few questions to ask.

• ■ It shows up on screenshots, and remains when moving from one monitor to the other. Is it safe to assume this means it's the GPU, and not the monitors or monitor cables?
  
  ■ Sometimes the artifacts change. For example, I noticed that with the league of legends client (last picture) if I had paint open in my 1st screen, I could change the color of the artifacts by painting everything white, green, etc. It was like it was mixing both things. Is that normal?
  
  ■ It is fine most of the time, but then suddenly specific programs start acting up. Is that common artifact behavior? For example, League of Legends became fine about 20 minutes later, after playing a game on full screen, and back to it.

What should I do before RMAing? Anything to try? Any benchmarks to run? Furmark (from Kombustor) looked weird, I think, it looked pinker than I remember it.

I have restarted my computer 30 minutes ago, after shutting it down and reseating my GPU, as well as cleaning it.

Any help is extremely appreciated

Thanks guys,
Kelthar

 

[COLGeek]

What make/model of PSU are you using? Also, are your video drivers up to date?

What are your CPU and GPU operating temperatures at idle and under load?

 

[Kelthar]

I am currently running on a Corsair TX850 V2, non-modular.

My video drivers have been up to date for a month and a half, so I exclude drivers being an issue.

My CPU is OCed to 4.2GHz, but at idle it runs at 37ºC and my GPU at 31ºC, with ambient temperature of roughly 20ºC. Maximum load temperatures never exceed 70ºC, not at this time of the year. Highest I've seen my GPU running is at 72ºC, last summer.

 

[COLGeek]

It could very well be a defective GPU. Power and temps should be good. Before RMAing, I would recommend you set your CPU back to stock speeds to see if the artifacts go away.

 

[Kelthar]

Will do. One thing I've also noticed is that these artifacts don't really spread. For example, the League of Legends artifacts (that are visible in those images) didn't affect anything else, and they'd "follow" the window. Is that normal behavior?

 

[COLGeek]

No, that is not normal. What type of cable do you use to connect your PC to your display (VGA, DVI, HDMI, or DisplayPort)? Is it tightly connected at both ends?

 

[Airm3n]

If you have another video cable to try I would do that as well. Also if you have another pc you could try the graphics card in I would do that. Trying to narrow it down first is better than waiting for an RMA.

 

[COLGeek]

Also, since your system also has an integrated video controller, you can remove the 760 and use the on-board video to verify that the problem goes away.

 

[Kelthar]

I've "safely" excluded cables and monitors as an issue, since I have two monitors and the artifacts show up in both screens.

I'm using HDMI on one monitor, and DVI on another. What a friend of mine suggested is that it could be damaged video memory, which would explain why it doesn't "spread" (only that application's memory got corrupted), and would also explain why restarting would fix it (since the memory was flushed).

I haven't had any more artifacts since I reseated the GPU (took it out, cleaned, put it back in), but I haven't played any games as intensively as before. Today should be enough to conclude whether the issue was "fixed".