Radeon 7870 Driver Causing Graphics Glitch

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I had this issue before formatting my hard drive, figured it was just a conflict with my old graphics driver.

The problem I am having is nothing major, but it is enough to bother me. The issue I'm having is with the mouse cursor. Whenever the arrow changes (to the link cursor/typing cursor,etc), it displays two small black bars, then back to being a normal cursor. It happens very quickly. I tried to record my screen using Fraps, but it didn't display in the video. I had to record my monitor using my camera. Also the other problem it presents, sometimes Firefox will have some "tearing" in the upper right corner, displaying black lines across the browser. It seems to be only these two things.

I know it's a problem with the graphic driver, I rolled back my driver and the glitches were no longer present. I am currently using AMD Catalyst 13.4. I also had the driver installed by going to AMD's site and having them automatically detect the driver for me.

Not sure if I have the wrong driver installed or what. Like I said in the beginning, this was happening before I formatted my hard drive. It was a lot worse then. The graphic glitch doesn't seem to be as persistent now. But still annoying.

I included a picture of the arrow glitch, not the greatest picture quality since it came from a video I took.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Arrow glitch:
a2_zps683cff1d.jpg


Driver info:
a1_zps66dc4649.jpg
 
I did that, and the problem still persists. It's not just a Firefox issue, the arrow glitch also happens on Internet Explorer. Not sure about the tearing, never seen that.

I think it's the driver, but not entirely sure. I don't have any problems else where, games play fine. Just this problem I'm having.
 
Perhaps your card is lowering it's voltage and speed to unstable levels in 2D mode.

You could go into the AMD VISION Engine Control Center and create a preset which you can then modify the clock speed for the RAM and GPU, as well as the voltage. A slight bump might be all you need. My 7870 was taking the system down altogether until I did that.

My problems were also, only present at the desktop, not while in games.

GPU-Z can show you what your graphics card is clocking down to if you click over to the Sensors tab page:

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

Haha, you posted before I finished my follow-up. 🙂
 
I downloaded GPU-Z, not sure what I am looking at. Here is a screen shot:

ab11_zps9aec554b.jpg


Do you think anything needs to be adjusted? If so, can you walk me through it?
 
To create a profile, right mouse-click your Windows Desktop, and select the AMD VISION Engine Control Center link to open the program of the same name.

For the profile to contain all of the values you will want to look at, you will first need to enable Graphics OverDrive under the Performance button on the left hand column. Click Performance, then Graphics OverDrive, then Apply, after agreeing to the disclaimer. Once you have enabled Graphics OverDrive, creating a preset will contain the clock and voltage values from the Graphics OverDrive page, whether or not you've changed any of the values on that page. You may wish to uncheck the manual fan control button, or you may find your card stuck on a fixed fan speed when playing 3D games.

Next, click the Presets button on the left hand column, and select Add Preset... Give the preset a name such as "2D voltage increase," and click Save.

Once you create the profile, you will be able to locate the actual file created on your hard drive here:

c:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles\profile_name.xml

The values inside are fairly self-explanatory. For each category you will find a "Want_0" and a "Want_1" value. Want_0 is for 2D mode while Want_1 is for 3D mode. I recommend bumping the Want_0 (2D) clocks up to perhaps 500 MHz and the core voltage to perhaps 1080. I don't recommend adjusting the Want_1 (3D) clocks, as those are working fine, nor do I recommend bumping your 2D settings any higher than your 3D settings. Also, temperatures will go up at idle, just so you're aware.

Save the changes to the .xml file, then in the AMD VISION Engine Control Center again, you can select your preset and it should then be applied. Verify the new settings have been applied with a program such as GPU-Z. 🙂

While this worked for my instability issues, your mileage may vary. If this doesn't help, there's no reason to keep the card running in this way, and you can simply delete the preset.
 
I did that, and I still see the problems. I was also able to take a photo of the "tearing" in firefox:

vb5_zpse370ae3f.jpg


From a message board, the holes appearing in the forum. That and also the black tearing that appears at the top of Firefox (Which I haven't seen as significant.)

Even if the problem is low voltage, nothing seems to have changed since my format. The problem isn't nearly as bad before I formatted.