Pixel Artifacts Already?

[apocalypsing]

So recently I've come into a problem where large white or grey pixel artifacts (usually about 2x2 or 4x4 pixels in size each) cover certain parts of webpages that are displayed in Firefox... The problem only started sometime yesterday, and my graphics card is nothing of age: an XFX HD 7870 I've had since November '12 (part of a new PC I built).

I did recently update my graphics drivers, from Catalyst 12.11 beta to the stable Catalyst 13.1. But I also updated Firefox from version 17 to 18. I also use Google Chrome too, and haven't seen the artifact issue there. Played some Battlefield 3 and I didn't notice any artifacts (I had the game running at the Ultra preset with 50-70 FPS, and GPU temperatures were hovering at around 65*C). The card is factory overclocked, with the core clock at 1.05GHz and the VRAM clocked at 1.25GHz. I'm just hoping the card isn't showing slight fault signs. If somebody could shed some light on this, it would be great.

 

[c627627]

I just hit your thread using Search, I can confirm that I also get Catalyst 13.1 artifacts in Firefox 18, Windows 8 64-Bit.

ATi Radeon HD 7870 XFX


EDIT: Both AMD ATi and Mozila Firefox are aware of this bug and appear to be blaming each other.

Official thread is here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=837489


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[apocalypsing]

So I recently tried disabling hardware acceleration and the problem seems to be gone now. Very weird since pixels artifacts are almost usually caused by unstable overclocking; or a defective card. It's a shame since hardware acceleration does speed up page rendering.

By the way, before I upgraded to the 13.1 stable drivers, I was running the 12.11 beta drivers which, even though were beta quality, were very stable and I had no issues with them. I would downgrade if I didn't have to go through such a painful process to remove the drivers.

 

[c627627]

Can you post why the process is painful. I simply went to Control Panel and uninstalled AMD Catalyst Install Manager > Express removed all AMD Catalyst programs.

Then simply installed the previous version Catalyst 12.10's Setup .exe file.

Problem was resolved.

 

[c627627]

It appears that the upcoming Firefox 18.0.2 release may resolve this issue appearing with Catalyst 13.1 & 13.2Beta.

EDIT: It does not. It appears it resolves it but you can only tell after using it for a few days.

 

[apocalypsing]

The process is painful (well, annoying actually) because there is no entry to uninstall the drivers in Add/remove Programs, so I have to go into safe mode and use something like Driver Sweeper to uninstall the drivers. I found it more tedious to get into safe mode under Windows 8. in Windows 7 and earlier it was easier. The traditional and quick F8 shortcut no longer works in Windows 8 apparently. I'm glad Mozilla may have it resolved quickly though.

 

[apocalypsing]

Best answer selected by Apocalypsing.

 

[c627627]

18.0.2 is officially out and in my experience solutions to this problem tend to reduce the number of appearances of the problem rather than completely eliminating it.


Just for your information, when I once could not find AMD Catalyst Install Manager inside my Control Panel > Programs and Features:

I started the Catalyst installation program of the the Catalyst I wanted to remove, and instead of installing/modifying it. I simply selected the uninstall option without rebooting into safe mode. That removed the already installed Catalyst.

 

[BradF1979]

Found this thread using a Google search. I recently got my 7870 and noticed these. They don't appear to happen very often or in many other programs... And I've never seen them while gaming. Is it a concern?

Running Firefox 20.0.1 and Catalyst 13.4. Just saw them on twitter.com.

 

[c627627]

Both AMD ATi and Mozila Firefox are aware of this bug and appear to be blaming each other.

Official thread is here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=837489

 

[dadyal]

I have same problem and i have 2x Asus 7870s