ViRuS2k

well i have figured out what is wrong with my 9800 XT 256
and it is infact the internal pixel shrader 2.0 thats the problem.


its not the memory after all. thats what i thought it was but it is infact the shrader 2.0 power of the 9800 XT.

to test this out startup 3dmarks 2003 with max ati control pannel settings. AA and AF/ and Quality.

then do a loop 5 times of the Pixel shrader 2.0 Elephant test.

What i see when i do this test and this is on DEFAULT CLOCKS. if you look at the elephants FEET. and legs for artifacts.
what i notice is Flickering and missing white pixel dots and any game out there that uses Pixel Shraders for its engine is going to have problems.

try it out and let me know you 9800 XT owners findings becuse i definatly have a pixel 2.0 problem.

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UPDATE:

ok here is something intresting aswell

if i go into my ati control pannel and set the AA and AF quality to minimum settings
and run the elephant test again the errors and missing dots VANISH :/

this still does not solve the pixel errors on some games i have though EXAMPLE : splinter cell in the court yard on mission 2 there are loads of flickery white sprites or dots like i call them ......

i would like to know if splinter cell uses pixel shraders ??? if it does then im correct in saying my pixel shrader 2.0 is borked.

pRAyNz

I`ve got a Radeon Pro 256 MB and i get those dots too. - And only in programs which use PixelShader 2.0... (for example "ATITool 0.0.15" and "rthdribl" (in which the errors are most obvious)). For me it doesn`t change anything to play around with the AA or AF config - but reducing the core clock by 15+ MHz below stock helps. Other than that I have no artifacts in other games (or I don`t see them).
I think it`s a matter of temperature and not of a driver- or hardware-bug because of the successful downclocking solution.
I guess the resulting heat because of the usage of pixelshading V2 is too much for the stock cooling or something...
This disappoints me, because I bought the card only because of it`s performance with upcoming games that use those shaders, the other games run good enough with my old GeForce4 4600.

Edit:
But there seems to be another problem in the 3DMark-test - downclocking helped with everything other than the dots on the feet of the animals (without downclocking I get those white dots all over both animals but less on the elephant)...
BTW "Artifact Tester V5" doesn`t detect any artifacts at stock clocking

ViRuS2k

Yeah i dont get any Artifactmarks in artifact tester 5.

only with pixel 2.0 shaders i get the problems.

if i was you i would RMA that card ASAP. becuse im doing the same even if i down clock to 320 on core and memory i still get White dots on the feet and elephants tails and trunks.

i dont think its a heat ishue. "?

pRAyNz

Yep I think I`m going to RMA my card too, but I hope it doesn`t last too long to replace it
(BTW what do you think should I RMA it by the manufacturer, or the (online-)shop?
Edit: I just decided to RMA it with the shop because they will send me a replacement before I have to send in the defective product )

griswoold

i can confirm this. I've seen such white dots in some games where pixelshaders gets used. I have a iceq r9800pro default clock and get such white dots in halo in a specific scene. It doesn't happen with older drivers and i think atis shader optimizer causes this. In halo i have no such white dots when i disable the shader optimizer and have them if enable it .


VirusS2k:

in what other games to you get those white dots? There might be solution but i want to do some more testing first

craig588

Its because of ATIs crappy drivers. They use a bad AA method, that is faster but completely screws up shader effects. Disable all forms of AA (You can leave AF at max) and it will work fine.

ViRuS2k

Griswoold try splinter cell 2nd mission your on top of a building your about to shimmy down the side of the building and in a window. look from the top of the building into the court yard with the big statue ! YOU WILL SEE LOADS OF PIXEL ERRORS white sprites and dots flickering all over the place. ! this is one reason why i rmad my card yesterday. ! pRAyNz let me know the shop you used LOL Edit: I just decided to RMA it with the shop because they will send me a replacement before I have to send in the defective product LOL i would like to know becuse that sounds great :P the shop i used required me to send it mine first :/

pRAyNz

BTW Just got a new BIOS from the manufacturer (dated 2003/11/04) but this doesn`t fix the errors. (But I can`t complain about Sapphire`s support, they replied pretty fast )

"www.com-tra.de", my absolute fav. (Even when I didn`t know about this nice offer to send replacements first )

ViRuS2k

hehe didnt bother checking the link by the looks of the .de its a denmark shop hmm i wonder if there is a new hercules 9800 XT bios released :o