Question What is the cause of these graphical artifacts?

[Simo606]

Recently I have noticed various types of graphical artifacting in a few games. They range from the stretched models seen in pictures 1 and 2, to small pixelated squares scattered over the screen, to smearing blotches/glow on the screen when moving the mouse seen in picture 3.

I suspect it to be the GPU VRAM dying but would like to confirm this is the case as the parts are still covered by warranty so can work on getting a replacement.
Could other parts cause this or is it purely a GPU issue?

I haven't overclocked any hardware past it's out of box settings, the system was professionally built almost 2 years ago using new parts
I've tried reseating the GPU, reinstalling Windows, and have the latest drivers

Intel Core i7 13700K
Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 4070 Ti MASTER 12G
Gigabyte Z790 AORUS ELITE AX MB
Kingston FURY Beast 32GB (2x16GB) PC5-48000 (6000MHz) DDR5
Samsung 1TB SSD, 980 PRO
Corsair RM850x 850W Power Supply,

Thanks!

 

[helpstar]

check with your integrated Intel graphics
try the GUP in a different system
but most likely GPU faulty

 

[QyInvoLing]

This is almost an VRAM fault, but I doubt that whether your cpu is fine too. Maybe the cpu is dead together with the graphics card.

 

[Chriztopher521]

Hi There,

Is there any chance that you have different GPU card that is live and kicking so you can check your system with it?

Just to make sure that this is GPU card issue.

What is more, what was the last time you have changed your thermal paste? It maybe be degraded.

I would strongly advise check all the temperatures for the system as well because not properly working cooling system may be an issue as well.

Hopefully it will help.

 

[Simo606]

The errors are intermittent and some gaming sessions I don’t see them, when they do happen I can usually make them go away by changing the graphics settings, tabbing out and in few times

I ran a gpu memory tester and the gpu throws hundreds of error immediately upon running the test, in then tried the same test with the integrated graphics and there are no errors.

System is water cooled and idles around 30c and under max gaming load averages 60c - 70c max (cpu intensive games like battlefield) which seems reasonable

I may have another gpu lying around to try but first I might try gaming with the integrated graphics first

Thanks all!

 

[Eximo]

It could very well just be the card needs to be reseated in the slot. Give that a try first.

 

[Richj444]

This is almost an VRAM fault, but I doubt that whether your cpu is fine too. Maybe the cpu is dead together with the graphics card.

I agree with the vram fault, but what gives you any indication that the cpu is bad?

 

[Simo606]

It could very well just be the card needs to be reseated in the slot. Give that a try first.

I tried that and issues persist

I agree with the vram fault, but what gives you any indication that the cpu is bad?

I was thinking that also, seems unlikely two high end components would start failing at the same time like that

 

[Simo606]

To try and rule out the CPU I fired up Black Ops 6 using the integrated graphics and immediately seen these crazy looking colourful textures

 

[QyInvoLing]

I agree with the vram fault, but what gives you any indication that the cpu is bad?

Using an 13/14th K-ended cpu for a long time.

 

[Simo606]

I ran some VRAM tests with OCCT and the default setting of 80% VRAM was giving errors. After some trial and error I dialed back the % until I got to around 60% and no more errors. Could this mean some of the VRAM is defective and isn't being used when only 60% or less is being used thus no errors, or is there something else going on?

 

[Unolocogringo]

Check system memory with memtest.

 

[Simo606]

Check system memory with memtest.

Ran both memtest64 and memtest86 and got no errors

Here's the VRAM test I did from my last message

 

[Unolocogringo]

Confusing????
The errors also appear on IGPU.
I would check the disk for errors or reinstall the game.

 

[Simo606]

Confusing????
The errors also appear on IGPU.
I would check the disk for errors or reinstall the game.

That test is for the dedicated GPU, the CPU info at the top is just live statistics and not part of the test.
It's a fresh windows install with fresh game installs and the artifact persists.

Funnily enough the errors could have been present since I got my computer now I think of it but I never used more than the threshold of about 8.9GB VRAM (game+system) in which errors happen past that amount.
The game in which I first noticed artifacting uses about 9.5GB VRAM which is above the threshold, I dropped the textures down a notch and VRAM usage is now about 5.5GB. Will try with the lower VRAM usage from now on and see if the artifacting stops.

 

[Richj444]

Using an 13/14th K-ended cpu for a long time.

Possibly, I hadn't thought of that because I've never seen anything about graphic artifacts being a symptom. But definitely other seemingly graphics related errors are known symptoms so it's not a bad idea to check it. Doesn't intel have a CPU test that supposedly checks for the issue?

 

[Simo606]

Possibly, I hadn't thought of that because I've never seen anything about graphic artifacts being a symptom. But definitely other seemingly graphics related errors are known symptoms so it's not a bad idea to check it. Doesn't intel have a CPU test that supposedly checks for the issue?

Didn't realise there was an Intel tool to test so gave it a run