White dot artifacts on XFX 5870

Strange problem with my XFX 5870. About 50% of the time when I boot my computer, little white dots appear on the desktop. They also appear in videos and games. I've only seen one other instance on the internet where this has happened to someone else. Here's a screenshot

http://img24.imageshack.us/i/94278467.png/

I'm running a C2D E8400, 4 gb of DDR2 800, the XFX 5870, and a 750 watt Corsair power supply on Vista 64.

At first, I thought it was my power supply, so I replaced my 500 watt Thermal with the 750 watt Corsair, but the problem persists. The white dots appear whether my CPU is overclocked or not. I've tried two different sets of Catalyst drivers, and that hasn't made a difference. I haven't overclocked the videocard.

My previous card was a 4850. I didn't do a fresh format when I installed the 5870, but I uninstalled the old Catalyst drivers. This problem never appeared on my previous card.

I am reluctant to RMA the card, thinking it's a driver problem, but I haven't really heard of this happening to other users.

The white dots are visible immediately upon booting to the desktop, so I don't think it's a heat issue.

I have seen white dots on certain textures in Crysis, but not in Warhead, any other games, or desktop, so I assume this is a driver issue. If you are always seeing them, then it may be a hardware problem.

Um, this is when the video card memory starts to error, thats usualy caused by it overheating.

Have you overclocked your card? If so you've pushed it too far. If it's at stock speeds then you need to RMA it for a replacement.

+1 for defective or overheating video card memory.

Its a driver issue in DX10 it will be fixed in the next driver release.

Thats my screenshot BTW

Yeah, grabbed from you at nvnews! (It so perfectly captured the issue, heh) Where did you hear about the upcoming fix? It seems strange it'd be DX 10 issue when it appears on the desktop and in web browsing.

nin_fragile14 said:

Yeah, grabbed from you at nvnews! (It so perfectly captured the issue, heh) Where did you hear about the upcoming fix? It seems strange it'd be DX 10 issue when it appears on the desktop and in web browsing.

Click to expand...

A DX10 driver issue alone, wouldn't cause white dots on the desktop. Problems with DX (is it driver or DX itself) can cause artifacts during media (movies) playback though, but desktop is most likely related to the hardware itself. I'm also with those that mention artifacts caused by overheating memory or simply a bad card.
Nevertheless, you should obviously try out the newest drivers, along with temperature checking and see what happens. If the problem persists, RMA the card.

nin_fragile14 said:

Yeah, grabbed from you at nvnews! (It so perfectly captured the issue, heh) Where did you hear about the upcoming fix? It seems strange it'd be DX 10 issue when it appears on the desktop and in web browsing.

Click to expand...

Yeah the desktop issue only happened with one of my Sapphire cards and in Crysis it was both....so I RMAed them.

Now I have two MSIs and I only have the issue in Crysis.

Someone posted in this thread about the driver fix.
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=139608

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=120030&highlight_key=y&keyword1=crysis

Here is another thread looks like its and old issue thats come back.
http://www.rage3d.com/BOARD/showthread.php?t=33927092

I feel pretty dumb RMAing the Sapphire cards...but there wasn't any info about this issue at the time. I really think that one of my cards was bad.

Just wanted to revive this thread instead of creating a new one...

I'm having the same issue even with Catalyst 9.11. 3d games run perfectly (including Crysis). Most anything 2D (especially darker areas and flash videos) produce small blue/green pixel-sized dots randomly on the screen. It's ridiculously annoying and I'm about to return the cards and wait for Fermi.

I've now wasted about 4 hours of my life troubleshooting with no progress. I'm not OC'ed at all, but that shouldn't matter since the 2D clocks are fixed. It's definitely not a heat issue since the cards are running 41c idle/58c load after several runs of Vantage. The cards are Powercolor liquid cooled versions so it's a SOB to move any of the hardware. I've done the following with no fix:

Switching between single card and Crossfire
Changing resolutions (2560x1600, 1900x1200, 1650x1080)
Ensured my DVI cable (which works flawlessly on other cards) is secure between card-monitor
Switching PCI-E power cords between the cards
Switcing the DVI cord to another DVI port on the cards.
Changing the two "DVI reduction/enhancement" options in Catalyst
Changing the Crossfire connector and its placement
Re-seated the cards
Reinstalling Catalyst 9.11

It has become apparent the 2D dot issue is different from what was happening in Crysis as that seems to have been resolved with a driver. Apparently, many people are still seeing this with 58xx cards, even after the supposed driver fix... Here are just a fraction of the threads with this complaint:

http://www.3dgameman.com/forums//showthread.php?t=58810
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...s&id=20091102123113906&page=1&SLanguage=en-us
http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=168846&st=36&start=36
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1459287

I have a hunch ATI got a bad batch of DDR5 modules and have been serving them up to meet demand....

Never had the white dot issue on the 5870 I had. But there were times it would 'brown out' when playing back videos. That's the only reason I RMA'd it (well besides the fact it flickered when OC unless I overvolted). I'm wondering if it was just driver issues now. Oh well, 5970 coming to replace it. =)

Not seeing any brown outs or flickering on my cards, but sorta wish I was. That way I'd know it was a hardware issue instead of wondering if there is a software fix.

These blue dots are driving my insane.

Never had flickering or white dots with my 5850. Only thing I would complain about is the AA would be broken in some games...like Batman(even when forced), and cod5 waw of all games. It's like some textures...AA just wouldn't be applied for some reason. That's just a driver issue though, because other games were fine.

here is the same screenshot posted earlier as it looks like on my 5870 system =/:

http://www.overclockers.com.au/pix/vkthh

As you can see, i've been bitten pretty hard by this issue. Mine is a gigabyte 5870 which has 3 yr warranty afaik so i'll be rmaing soon. Any idea roughly how long it takes to get your cards back after RMA? I'm in australia so it'll probably take longer then usual...

Just to confirm, this is prevalent mainly on videos/photos/flash banners but is also on the normal desktop screen to a lesser degree.

Thought it was my psu but luckily had a 5970 on hand to test with which ran fine so it's definitely the card.

P.S. On an unrelated note, my psu was a red herring coz it was squealing like a pig from hell. i fixed this issue by simply disabling c1e in bios like i had read in a few places. just giving this method a thumbs up for anyone who is affected, worth a try!