Guild Wars 2

I’ve had these problems off and on during my time with GW2. It’s never been a major issue all the time. And I can get rid of it by minimizing the game and bringing it back up. I am using an AMD 7870. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about this, but I haven’t found anything from an Anet dev about it. I guess the main thing I’m wondering is…

Is this a coding problem within GW2? Or is this an AMD issue (driver)?

I’ve seen people saying that the 7xxx series has this problem. I don’t run into these artifacts in any other game that I play.

P.S. This isn’t my picture. I found it online, but it shows the same issues I have. I also get a weird one a lot, where a shaft will be running from a player to a Waypoint. Very strange.

I’ve had 0 graphics artifacting on my 7850 with GW2, with drivers as old as 12.11 as far as I can recall. I’m using 14.1 Beta currently without problem too.

Are you overclocking your card, and/or have a factory overclocked card?

That sort of artifacting is usually a bad card, but for GW2 it seems to show up when the card is clocked too high/is unstable. Drop your clocks a bit and try again.

Personally, no issues on 13.12@1050/1450 with my 7850. I only ever had issues with the 13.8b drivers (they caused huge input lag and horribly low framerates) so I went back to 13.4 for a while.

No issues with my 7970s.

I have the issue and it has nothing to do with the card being overclocked or hot. My card is almost new and not oc. The card doesn’t go above 60c in gw2. This problem doesn’t happen in any other game. I’ve ran 3dmark like crazy and haven’t seen a single artifact.

Aza.2105:

I have the issue and it has nothing to do with the card being overclocked or hot. My card is almost new and not oc. The card doesn’t go above 60c in gw2. This problem doesn’t happen in any other game. I’ve ran 3dmark like crazy and haven’t seen a single artifact.

Same for me. My card isn’t OC’d. GW2 is the only game I have these issues.

Nat.4029:

Aza.2105:

I have the issue and it has nothing to do with the card being overclocked or hot. My card is almost new and not oc. The card doesn’t go above 60c in gw2. This problem doesn’t happen in any other game. I’ve ran 3dmark like crazy and haven’t seen a single artifact.

Same for me. My card isn’t OC’d. GW2 is the only game I have these issues.

What version of windows are you using?

http://www.overclock.net/t/1432035/official-amd-r9-280x-280-270x-270-owners-club/970

It’s a bad card, RMA it.

Seems that there are QA issues going on at some suppliers. I am seeing more and more reports of this issue for the R9 series card, across the board.

every since report ended in an RMA…that ultimately fixed the issue.

So, its a bad card, get it replaced.

sirsquishy.8531:

It’s a bad card, RMA it.

Seems that there are QA issues going on at some suppliers. I am seeing more and more reports of this issue for the R9 series card, across the board.

every since report ended in an RMA…that ultimately fixed the issue.

So, its a bad card, get it replaced.

I don’t think so, someone who had the same glitch rma his card and the new one did the exact samething. If this was a faulty card then problems would appear in games other than gw2. But they don’t.

And to top it off, the way you fix the problem is to alt tab and maximize gw2 again. The problem completely vanishes and it may or may not appear for the rest of the day.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/55463-graphical-artifacts/

Aza.2105:

sirsquishy.8531:

It’s a bad card, RMA it.

Seems that there are QA issues going on at some suppliers. I am seeing more and more reports of this issue for the R9 series card, across the board.

every since report ended in an RMA…that ultimately fixed the issue.

So, its a bad card, get it replaced.

I don’t think so, someone who had the same glitch rma his card and the new one did the exact samething. If this was a faulty card then problems would appear in games other than gw2. But they don’t.

And to top it off, the way you fix the problem is to alt tab and maximize gw2 again. The problem completely vanishes and it may or may not appear for the rest of the day.

cant speak for that guys RMA experience. As with all hardware, you can sometimes get a bad string of serial numbers.

But Alt/tabbing will cause your GPU to re-render the application, clearing Memory and the data in the GPU’s Core. That would be why alt/tabing ‘fixes’ the issue. Still points back to a bad card, IMHO.

sirsquishy.8531:

Aza.2105:

sirsquishy.8531:

It’s a bad card, RMA it.

Seems that there are QA issues going on at some suppliers. I am seeing more and more reports of this issue for the R9 series card, across the board.

every since report ended in an RMA…that ultimately fixed the issue.

So, its a bad card, get it replaced.

I don’t think so, someone who had the same glitch rma his card and the new one did the exact samething. If this was a faulty card then problems would appear in games other than gw2. But they don’t.

And to top it off, the way you fix the problem is to alt tab and maximize gw2 again. The problem completely vanishes and it may or may not appear for the rest of the day.

cant speak for that guys RMA experience. As with all hardware, you can sometimes get a bad string of serial numbers.

But Alt/tabbing will cause your GPU to re-render the application, clearing Memory and the data in the GPU’s Core. That would be why alt/tabing ‘fixes’ the issue. Still points back to a bad card, IMHO.

Read the link I provided when I edited my post.

I’ve used both NVidia and AMD cards. In fact my last cards were Radeon HD 5850. Loved them, but these types of issues are why I returned my AMD Radeon 7950 for an overpriced (at the time) GTX670. Had a similar thing to this. Sometimes polygons on the ground would flash black, sometimes white flickers.

I saw a lot of similar posts on forums about the 7xxx series of cards. It’s either the terrible drivers or it was an issue with the 7xxx chips themselves and they can’t handle the clockspeeds they are being shipped with.

The issues I had were visible in Guild Wars 2, Skyrim, and Lord of the Rings Online, but not Battlefield 3 (this was back when I had the 7950). I think it had something to do with the direct x version the game was developed for. Direct X 9 games had the glitches more so than direct x 11 games.

Sir Kaboomski.1508:

I saw a lot of similar posts on forums about the 7xxx series of cards. It’s either the terrible drivers or it was an issue with the 7xxx chips themselves and they can’t handle the clockspeeds they are being shipped with.

Or it’s just specific to the user’s own hardware. I hear of plenty of issues with AMD cards in-general, meanwhile, I don’t experience majority (90-95%) of those problems. I have a 7850, and have tried drivers as low as 12.11, all the way up to 14.1 Beta.

If the problem was tied to AMD, there would be a lot more people reporting a similar problem I would think. But in any case, I haven’t seen such a thing happen with GW2, on both my 7850 and 7660G + 7670M laptop, on Windows 7, 8.1, and Linux.

Espionage.3685:

If the problem was tied to AMD, there would be a lot more people reporting a similar problem I would think. But in any case, I haven’t seen such a thing happen with GW2, on both my 7850 and 7660G + 7670M laptop, on Windows 7, 8.1, and Linux.

It could have been that there was a problem physically with the cards that has since been resolved. This was at least a year ago for me and at the time there were quite a decent number of posts about the same sort of issue across many of the 7xxx series (even vids on youtube about Radeon 7950 or 7970 flickering) though there were also people stating they had no issues so I don’t doubt there are those that work fine. Really don’t know. Bad batch maybe?

Everything I was reading made it sound like the issue had already existed for a while and people who had RMA’d their cards got ones back that did the same thing. I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle so I decided to just jump back to NVidia. Really liked the card though if it worked. The price/performance ratio was WAY better than the NVidia line at that time. I believe the GTX 670 cost me about $200 more than the Radeon 7950.

My buddy actually bought a 7950 at the same time and he said he does see the issue occasionally as well but he never RMA’d his.

I have a HD7790, R7-260x, and R9-270 that show none of the issues reported. And each of those cards are pushed to their max Core/Mem clock speeds.

I really think the issue isnt driver, as there would be ALOT more reports on these issues. I still think its hardware related (or maybe even the 12v Rail on some of the PSUs).

sirsquishy.8531:

I have a HD7790, R7-260x, and R9-270 that show none of the issues reported. And each of those cards are pushed to their max Core/Mem clock speeds.

I really think the issue isnt driver, as there would be ALOT more reports on these issues. I still think its hardware related (or maybe even the 12v Rail on some of the PSUs).

I’m using a Antec 750w PSU. So I don’t think that could be the issue, but possible. The problem with all the theories that the card is defective doesn’t go well with the fact that its perfectly fine in every single other games. Games often more gpu intensive than gw2. So what is making gw2 so different?

If its a hardware issue then the problem should show up in all graphical applications in some way, but so far I nor others have noted this happening.

That’s why I brought up the direct x thing. If I remember correctly guild wars 2 was built around DX 9 and when reading up on the issues it seemed to be specific to DX 9 games. Games like BF3 and BF4 that were built around DX11 don’t have the issue (or at least the issue I had with my 7950).

The issue I had also didn’t ever show up in 3DMark/benchmarks, or Artifact checkers that I ran for hours upon hours at a time.

Sir Kaboomski.1508:

That’s why I brought up the direct x thing. If I remember correctly guild wars 2 was built around DX 9 and when reading up on the issues it seemed to be specific to DX 9 games. Games like BF3 and BF4 that were built around DX11 don’t have the issue (or at least the issue I had with my 7950).

The issue I had also didn’t ever show up in 3DMark/benchmarks, or Artifact checkers that I ran for hours upon hours at a time.

Possible, but most games on the market are dx9 related and most of the games I play use dx9 and I have no issues in them what so ever.

Aza.2105:

Nat.4029:

Aza.2105:

I have the issue and it has nothing to do with the card being overclocked or hot. My card is almost new and not oc. The card doesn’t go above 60c in gw2. This problem doesn’t happen in any other game. I’ve ran 3dmark like crazy and haven’t seen a single artifact.

Same for me. My card isn’t OC’d. GW2 is the only game I have these issues.

What version of windows are you using?

Windows 7 64 bit

sirsquishy.8531:

It’s a bad card, RMA it.

Seems that there are QA issues going on at some suppliers. I am seeing more and more reports of this issue for the R9 series card, across the board.

every since report ended in an RMA…that ultimately fixed the issue.

So, its a bad card, get it replaced.

If RMAing it is the solution then I’m probably going to just smash the card into tiny bits. The original 7870 I ordered came in DOA, so I already had to wait another 3-4 weeks to get it’s replacement. I had been thinking about crossfiring with another 7870, but since these issues continue, I don’t know if I want to invest the money in AMD products anymore.

Just RMA it anyway. It’s free. For someone to waste a free opportunity like that is just stupid, no questions asked.

And don’t jump to conclusions, this sort of thing happens with Nvidia too.

Avelos.6798:

Just RMA it anyway. It’s free. For someone to waste a free opportunity like that is just stupid, no questions asked.

And don’t jump to conclusions, this sort of thing happens with Nvidia too.

Do these cards have lifetime warranties? Because it’s not new. I bought it in September 2012. Had some of these issues with GW2 then, but I stopped playing for over a year, and since the problem never occurred in other games, I didn’t worry about it. Until now…that I returned to GW2.

Nat.4029:

Avelos.6798:

Just RMA it anyway. It’s free. For someone to waste a free opportunity like that is just stupid, no questions asked.

And don’t jump to conclusions, this sort of thing happens with Nvidia too.

Do these cards have lifetime warranties? Because it’s not new. I bought it in September 2012. Had some of these issues with GW2 then, but I stopped playing for over a year, and since the problem never occurred in other games, I didn’t worry about it. Until now…that I returned to GW2.

Depends on the brand you got. Find out what maker (Sapphire, DIAMOND, XFX, etc.) Then check the manufacturers web site. I think XFX has a decent warranty, some are like 3yrs.

Looking at this more and seeing other threads about it kind of makes me agree that it isn’t the card itself. This isn’t quite the same issue of old, this is different. It’s probably a driver bug with GW2 and those cards. Like you said every other game is fine.

I have had issues on my GTX 670 where some parts of some maps would literally go crazy if I stood in a certain area. The ground/objects would disappear/skew and such, but would go back to normal if I walked a few meters back from that area. It has since resolved itself after a few NVidia driver updates.

Sir Kaboomski.1508:

Nat.4029:

Avelos.6798:

Just RMA it anyway. It’s free. For someone to waste a free opportunity like that is just stupid, no questions asked.

And don’t jump to conclusions, this sort of thing happens with Nvidia too.

Do these cards have lifetime warranties? Because it’s not new. I bought it in September 2012. Had some of these issues with GW2 then, but I stopped playing for over a year, and since the problem never occurred in other games, I didn’t worry about it. Until now…that I returned to GW2.

Depends on the brand you got. Find out what maker (Sapphire, DIAMOND, XFX, etc.) Then check the manufacturers web site. I think XFX has a decent warranty, some are like 3yrs.

Looking at this more and seeing other threads about it kind of makes me agree that it isn’t the card itself. This isn’t quite the same issue of old, this is different. It’s probably a driver bug with GW2 and those cards. Like you said every other game is fine.

I have had issues on my GTX 670 where some parts of some maps would literally go crazy if I stood in a certain area. The ground/objects would disappear/skew and such, but would go back to normal if I walked a few meters back from that area. It has since resolved itself after a few NVidia driver updates.

It’s XFX. I’m not going to RMA it. I’d rather just deal with the issues. Mainly because I don’t have a back up video card anymore, so I’d be without gaming for 3-4 weeks or however long it takes. (I’d get the shakes) If this were happening on other games, then I would definitely RMA it, but I have a strong feeling it will just happen again and I will have done all that for nothing. I play a lot of games too. I don’t even get graphical issues with buggy Skyrim with 50 mods running.

Might not really be helpful, but something interesting to try would be to see if the issue happens in GW2 on both Windows XP and Linux (through Wine with fglrx).

Also I want to add. This can’t be a issue with the card itself. Another reason is this: When the problem happens, if you turn in a different direction its no longer there. And if you face the direction were the problem occurred then it returns. It seems like its a rendering issue, but I can’t tell if its the fault of the drivers or the engine itself.

Have you tried disabling Catalyst A.I. in the AMD Vision Control Center?

abomally.2694:

Have you tried disabling Catalyst A.I. in the AMD Vision Control Center?

Yes I have, the problem still occurs.

One thing I also noticed is the bug appears on the point of a object. It looks a lot like a vanishing point in art. I’ve seen it appear on characters faces, arms and sometimes the tip of their weapons. Its definitely not a video card issue, because the whole screen isn’t affected. Like I said when you turn around, the issue is gone. If you turn back and face the direction it occurred, then it reappears.

The only way to fix it is to alt tab and make the game full screen again.