Screen Flickering

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

I’ve since recently been experiencing some trouble in games. I must say I’ve only played 3 or so games recently, 2 of them running on the source engine. At first I though it had something to do with Windows 7 64bit and the Source engine, but after a while I also started experiencing the same problem in Torchlight. (Could it have something to do with the Steam platform altogether?)

I haven’t tried that many solutions yet. The first thing that came to mind was updating my graphics drivers, which works for 1 or 2 days, and then it starts all over again.

The ‘flickering’ is not a flickering of light, but more of the screen itself. It seems as if it’s trying to adjust the resolution or something. It just suddenly jolts, jumps around, resizes it maybe? It’s hard to tell exactly cause it’s only one flicker at a time, and it’s split second. Though it can occur rather often sometimes. The strange thing is, sometimes it happens a lot, and sometimes not at all.

I think I’ve had it in HL as long as I’ve had Windows 7, but I never had it in Torchlight until recently. I’m actually about level 31, just finished the final boss. And it only started flickering a small time before that. Bit strange after over 10 hours of gameplay when it never flickered, not once.

Here are my specs:
MOBO: Gigabyte X58-UD3R
CPU: Intel Core i7 920, standard clock, turbo boost
RAM: Corsair 4gb, DDR3, PC12800, 1600mhz
GPU: Club3D ATI Radeon 4870X2 2048mb
HDD : Western Digital Caviar Black 640gb
POWER: Cooler Master Real Power 700W
OS: Windows 7 64bit

Tell me if you need any more info.

Any help or suggestions are much appreciated, it’s really quite annoying.

EDIT: I just downloaded Serious Sam the Second Encounter HD. It’s really bad in this game.
It seems to be influenced by how heavy the game is. I enabled the FPS counter, and it seems that the flickering is also accompanied by a heavy framedrop.
And it also gets worse the heavier the game gets. It seems like the bigger the enviroment, the more objects, it flickers more.
I seem to run a perfect 60FPS with vsync when it’s acting normal, but the flickering drops it to sometimes around 40, but also around 20. Which is extremely annoying. It’s consantly switching between smooth, tacky, smooth, tacky. It’s just a pain in the ass and makes the game next to unplayable.

EDIT 2: Wowa! I think I found out what’s wrong. I just checked Catalyst Control Center. Thought it might have to do with the heat. Since it seems to only happen after a short while, this’d be logical. First it starts up and all’s fine, but after a while the GPU gets too hot and starts flickering. I check Catalyst, and during Torchlight it showed a whopping 105 degrees Celsius. Now I know the 4870x2 gets hot, but this is absurd. It’s also actually idle at 80 degrees. You can probably bake an egg on it. And note that the fan speed is at 100%! This might not even be hardware failure. It’s about 40 degrees celsius in my room right now, which could explain all this. It might just be a combination of hot weather and bad cooling.

#2

Dude this just started happening to me today in source sdk. I updated my drivers but it didn’t do anything. :confused:

#3

happened to me, faulty grapchics card. /thread

#4

I don’t think this is a /thread just yet.

Just because it was a faulty video card on your end, doesn’t have to mean mine’s defective per se. I’m sure there are more reasons this could be happening besides from hardware failure. It might be though, certainly not ruling it out. Would fucking suck though. Still well within warranty, but I don’t wanna be without my videocard for a month, which is likely if I have to get it repaired or so.

ge_freak: Sucks man. Only Source? Could you see if any other Steam games have it?

I need to check if it also happens to games outside steam.

#5

maybe install older gfx drivers?

#6

I agree with this. Download Driver Sweeper, uninstall your drivers using the Programs and Features, then restart into Safe Mode and run Driver Sweeper. Download the next-to-last (or the third-to-last) ATI drivers and try them.

If not, do you have another video card you can test?

Here are things you should try:

  • A game outside of Steam (which you mentioned)
  • An older graphics driver
  • A different VGA/DVI cable, and perhaps a different monitor
  • A different GPU altogether

Let us know how things go :smiley:

EDIT: How new of a build is this? If the card is within warranty, I would get on the horn with Club3D (have no idea what their customer service is like) and see what they say. Also, does it happen at any/every resolution?

#7

the only things i can really think of is this
#1 only happens with games in steam? (could be a result of something stupid like the steam overlay
#2 could be directx related (try running source under dx7 or something/do a dx update)
#3 bad monitor/videocard (could be a power issue aswell)

#8

buy a new pc ! Its a bulletproof fix.

#9

Thanks for the tips guys, sadly, still no fix. Afraid this might be a broken GPU after all.
I tried the whole thing with the driver sweeper, didn’t work.

I doubt it’s anything monitor related. Wouldn’t it have to be constant for it to be monitor related? I don’t think a monitor can tell if it’s playing a game or not.\

I sadly don’t have another (alteast PCI-E) videocard in my possession, so I can’t try that. I guess I should just try contacting Club3D.

EDIT: Wowa! I think I found out what’s wrong. I just checked Catalyst Control Center. Thought it might have to do with the heat. Since it seems to only happen after a short while, this’d be logical. First it starts up and all’s fine, but after a while the GPU gets too hot and starts flickering. I check Catalyst, and during Torchlight it showed a whopping 105 degrees Celsius. Now I know the 4870x2 gets hot, but this is absurd. It’s also actually idle at 80 degrees. You can probably bake an egg on it. And note that the fan speed is at 100%! This might not even be hardware failure. It’s about 40 degrees celsius in my room right now, which could explain all this. It might just be a combination of hot weather and bad cooling.

#10

oh man 105 degrees ? your gpu is a probly half dead by now ;f

#11

Allright, installed a new fan. Will post results later. On a lighter note, my pc has a nice blue light now. Got one with LED’s. hehe.

And Blue: It’s not as bad as you might think. It sounds like a lot, and it IS too much.
But 4870X2’s are known for having extremely high temperatures. On full load they can get 90+ degrees. In fact, I don’t think I ever saw it idle out below 70 degrees. And this is well known about the 4870x2.

#12

Holy Jeebus. You’re running a PC (and living?) in a room that’s 40°C? And then running a system with a GPU that’s running at 105°C?! Cripes. You must sweat a gallon an hour haha. You’re right, the 4870X2’s run hot, but your temperatures are WAY too hot. I’d shoot for 60°C idle and 80°C load, as opposed to 80°C idle and 100°C load. See how the fan works, maybe consider selling the card and getting a 5850 or 5870. You could also try removing the GPU cooler and putting on some better thermal paste (unless it has one of those thermal pads). Is this your card?

#13

Yeah but still, all games are completely different. Anyway, we’ve established that that’s not the cause of the problem anyway.

It’s slightly better with the cooler. In Torchlight I haven’t seen it flicker yet. Will update.

And yeah I am fucking dying here. It’s hot as holy hell in here. I got some vent but that’s more pushing the warm air in my face. It’s like riding a bike.
I’m not too much of a sweater though, haha.

I think getting an 5870 is a bit of a waste, particularly since the 4870x2 and the 5870 are pretty evenly matched performance wise. Sometimes the 5870 has a slight advantage, but it’s only marginal and not by far worth upgrading for, spending 200+ euros on. 4870x2’s go for about 175-200 euros. And a new 5870 is around 400.

And yeah that is my card by the way.

#14

Wtf. now I’m hear this clicking noise coming from my tower everytime i run a game no matter if its source or not… For some reason i think its because i got windows vista lol

#15

faulty HDD?
something stuck in a fan?

#16

Idk about the HDD. But i just cleaned the fans this morning… so its not the fans. Atleast i don’t think so.

#17

Having Windows Vista would not make your tower emit clicking sounds.

If I remember correctly, there’s a term like “hard drive clicking of death” or something like that, which has a fairly self-explanatory meaning.

#18

Well that just great :frowning: Can i fix it in anyway? Cause i really don’t feel like buying a new one…

#19

If I were you I would backup important files, just in case.

#20

seeing someone else’s GPU temps made me happy about mine D:
67/68 degrees Celsius idle, 80/81 degrees Celsius when at 100% use.
I’m happy about that because my PC only has heat sinks, there’s only 2 fans for CPU and PSU, everything else is heat-sink’d up to high heaven (I hate fan noise).

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