Requesting Input: HD7870 defective?

Genesis · *Last edited by Genesis; 07-13-2012 at 11:17.*

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a Sapphire HD7870 and apart from the blackscreen-bug I also get strange random flashes in Unigine Heaven 3.0 and rarely in games. So my question is if this definitely is a defective card and if I should send it back immediately or if this could be a driver/configuration issue.

My detailed specs:

CPU: Intel Q9550 @ 2.8 GHz
Motherboard: MS-7502 (PCIe 1.1)
4 GB DDR2 RAM
GPU: AMD HD 7870 Ghz Edition from Sapphire
PSU: Corsair TX650
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
Driver: 12.7

I uploaded a video of the flashes, you can see them at 3 and 6 seconds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7k9aAhTSDE&feature

This issue was present right out of the box, any input would be greatly appreciated.

kevsamiga1974 · 07-13-2012, 14:35 | posts: 705 | Location: England

Heaven's always flashed randomly briefly and anomalied on ATI cards, even on a lowly 4870x2 here but it always completes the run however, doesn't matter what driver used, and that's with a bigger driver range to choose from compared, nothing to worry about. Daft as it sounds it's perfectly normal behaviour across many different cards so it's not defective, no.

However unigene tropics or sanctuary shouldn't definately flash...try those.

As for the black screen bug, not my area of knowledge but since it's happening to many others within this series ( some videos on youtube ) I would suggest a bug rather than a broken card. 5870's had gray screen of death with early 10.1's until it was also fixed IIRC. Just have to wait for the drivers to mature enough I guess.

Genesis · 07-13-2012, 16:13 | posts: 73

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevsamiga1974

Heaven's always flashed randomly briefly and anomalied on ATI cards, even on a lowly 4870x2 here but it always completes the run however, doesn't matter what driver used, and that's with a bigger driver range to choose from compared, nothing to worry about. Daft as it sounds it's perfectly normal behaviour across many different cards so it's not defective, no.

However unigene tropics or sanctuary shouldn't definately flash...try those.

As for the black screen bug, not my area of knowledge but since it's happening to many others within this series ( some videos on youtube ) I would suggest a bug rather than a broken card. 5870's had gray screen of death with early 10.1's until it was also fixed IIRC. Just have to wait for the drivers to mature enough I guess.

Ah good to know, thank you

. I'm playing saints row 3 at max right now and I don't see any issues whatsoever. I will try the tropics benchmark and see if there are any flashes!

rumpltumpskin · 07-23-2012, 10:31 | posts: 36

i have the black screen bug on my 7878 and have since i got it last month.
i upgraded everything in the system except my CPU and i still get the same bug. my old 5770 runs fine in both systems.

this is the number for US sapphire tech support: 909-594-2830

clarence12 · 07-23-2012, 19:56 | posts: 6 | Location: austria

I also get the flashes/flicker in Heaven 3.0 and even more so in Dead Island. I DO NOT get them in Crysis 1+2, Skyrim or others.

I tried 12.4/5/6 and now the 12.7 beta without luck. The temperatures are all below 60° and I do not overclock anything.

I had a 5850 before, which didn't give me any troubles.

si9973 · 07-24-2012, 15:22 | posts: 3 | Location: London

Don't know if it's any help but I've had similar issues with all drivers until I turned off XMP in the bios, effectively downclocking the RAM from 1600MHz to 1333MHz. Not had any issues since.

clarence12 · 07-24-2012, 22:28 | posts: 6 | Location: austria

My RAM is only 1333mhz anyway.

rievhardt · 08-01-2012, 18:02 | posts: 92

Pls. also go in AMD forum, I created a 7870 Black Screen issue thread there so AMD would know about our problem.
http://forums.amd.com/game/messagevi...&enterthread=y