Graphic artefacts in The witcher 3

[fykkgg]

Hello. Immediately sorry for my English.
I have a problem, when i minimize the fullscreen game "the witcher 3" and reopen, i get artifacts while the game has a black screen, as soon as the image appears, the artifacts disappear.
this only happens when the game unfolds. in windowed mode, the game unfolds so fast that there are no artifacts.
I tried to record video using the application, but no artifacts are visible on it, there is just a black screen
a little later I will show you the video from camera, how I will be at home.

I tried to offset the frequency to -200 MHz and -100 MHz memory, it had no effect.
my temperatures are maximum 75 degrees on one videocard and 65 on another.
cpu have max. 77 degrees

My config.
x2 1080ti ftw3 evga in sli mode
cpu ryzen 9 3950x
motheboard gigabyte aorus x570 ultra
CPU Cooler Noctya d15
x2 m.2 nvme ssd.
x1 sata ssd
x1 sata hdd
I have a large computer case with 7 fans installed (pure wings 2)
Power Supply, enermax revolution 87+ 1000w
And i have 2 monitors with 4k resolution

Is the video card dying or is there a software bug?

I recently installed a clean Windows 10. and I installed the latest nvidia driver.
Today I will record a video on my camera. while the problem is only in this game, I did not have time to try other games.
this problem does not interfere with playing, but it is when deploy the game
I also tried running furmark, there are no problems
for example, if make the resolution of the game 1920x1080 then the game unfolds faster, and artifacts disappear, I think they just do not have time to appear

 

[SigilFey]

Hello. Immediately sorry for my English.

You're English is great! No worries!

I have a problem, when i minimize the fullscreen game "the witcher 3" and reopen, i get artifacts while the game has a black screen, as soon as the image appears, the artifacts disappear.
this only happens when the game unfolds. in windowed mode, the game unfolds so fast that there are no artifacts.
I tried to record video using the application, but no artifacts are visible on it, there is just a black screen
a little later I will show you the video from camera, how I will be at home.

Quite simply, the game does not like it when focus is taken away. Whether or not it comes fully back at all is up to the resources available on your system. In this regard it's a, "Doctor, it hurts when I jump!" / "So, don't jump," situation.

In general, task-switching from Fullscreen will either suspend the program (which is enough to effectively hang the program completely in some cases), or it will switch it to a windowed mode. Even in windowed mode, I'd recommend against task-switching out of the game, but if you have to, just use either Windowed or Borderless (which is a "windowed" mode).

I wouldn't worry about the artifacting at all unless you're seeing it during standard play. Such glitches are exactly the type of weirdness that can result when taking focus away from programs. Different drivers may give you different results.

I tried to offset the frequency to -200 MHz and -100 MHz memory, it had no effect.

I'd strongly recommend against altering the factory specs of your hardware to solve problems. One should never need to fudge with clock speeds or voltage in order to get their PC running stably.

If that is the case, then it's indicative of a deeper issue with the system, likely a hardware issue, and needs to be sorted out. That stuff, if not addressed, can become very expensive very quickly.

And in general, whenever trying to troubleshoot any sort of issue, step one is to ensure that all hardware and software is running at factory or "vanilla" defaults. Overclocking or underclocking can introduce their own issues.

my temperatures are maximum 75 degrees on one videocard and 65 on another.
cpu have max. 77 degrees

GPU is alright, but the CPU seems a bit on the hot side. Getting up to 77° is okay occasionally, but what's the average temperature? (I wouldn't want my CPU or GPU living in the 70°-80° range.)

And i have 2 monitors with 4k resolution...

...for example, if make the resolution of the game 1920x1080 then the game unfolds faster, and artifacts disappear, I think they just do not have time to appear

And what resolution are you normally running the game in? This could be the bulk of the problem right here. The game was made to run in 1080p. Anything above or below that may have issues. The amount of RAM and GPU power needed to run in the 2K - 4K range may simply be too much for the system to keep up with -- especially if focus is yanked away then shoved back into place.

Is the video card dying or is there a software bug?

Nah, I doubt it. But it is obviously causing something, likely the GPU to struggle and create errors. That alone not a good thing, but it seems wholly avoidable.

All things considered, if you must task-switch:
1.) Set the display to Windowed / Borderless.
2.) Do not overclock or underclock.
3.) Ensure your frames are limited to something your system can maintain with a little overhead, even in taxing areas of the game. (e.g. If I good performance in most areas, but it drops to 55 FPS in the swamps and cities, then set the frame limit to something like 52 or 54. Use user.settings and edit LimitFPS=xx to set a manual frame-cap. [It will show "Unlimited" in-game, but I assure you, it works.] Give the system a few extra FPS to work with.)

 

[fykkgg]

You're English is great! No worries!




Quite simply, the game does not like it when focus is taken away. Whether or not it comes fully back at all is up to the resources available on your system. In this regard it's a, "Doctor, it hurts when I jump!" / "So, don't jump," situation.

In general, task-switching from Fullscreen will either suspend the program (which is enough to effectively hang the program completely in some cases), or it will switch it to a windowed mode. Even in windowed mode, I'd recommend against task-switching out of the game, but if you have to, just use either Windowed or Borderless (which is a "windowed" mode).

I wouldn't worry about the artifacting at all unless you're seeing it during standard play. Such glitches are exactly the type of weirdness that can result when taking focus away from programs. Different drivers may give you different results.




I'd strongly recommend against altering the factory specs of your hardware to solve problems. One should never need to fudge with clock speeds or voltage in order to get their PC running stably.

If that is the case, then it's indicative of a deeper issue with the system, likely a hardware issue, and needs to be sorted out. That stuff, if not addressed, can become very expensive very quickly.

And in general, whenever trying to troubleshoot any sort of issue, step one is to ensure that all hardware and software is running at factory or "vanilla" defaults. Overclocking or underclocking can introduce their own issues.




GPU is alright, but the CPU seems a bit on the hot side. Getting up to 77° is okay occasionally, but what's the average temperature? (I wouldn't want my CPU or GPU living in the 70°-80° range.)




And what resolution are you normally running the game in? This could be the bulk of the problem right here. The game was made to run in 1080p. Anything above or below that may have issues. The amount of RAM and GPU power needed to run in the 2K - 4K range may simply be too much for the system to keep up with -- especially if focus is yanked away then shoved back into place.




Nah, I doubt it. But it is obviously causing something, likely the GPU to struggle and create errors. That alone not a good thing, but it seems wholly avoidable.

All things considered, if you must task-switch:
1.) Set the display to Windowed / Borderless.
2.) Do not overclock or underclock.
3.) Ensure your frames are limited to something your system can maintain with a little overhead, even in taxing areas of the game. (e.g. If I good performance in most areas, but it drops to 55 FPS in the swamps and cities, then set the frame limit to something like 52 or 54. Use user.settings and edit LimitFPS=xx to set a manual frame-cap. [It will show "Unlimited" in-game, but I assure you, it works.] Give the system a few extra FPS to work with.)

thank you very much for the answer

I just undervolt the frequency, by default it is 1860 mhz I made 1660mhz
I play with ultra settings in 4k resolution, and i have 60 fps all time.
I also limited the number of frames through a special utility for all applications. because my monitors do not give out more than 60 frames.
Ryzen 3950x has a very strange default overclocking system, even in idle time it raises 1.5 volts on the cores. from here the temperature jumps constantly like mad. avg temperature i have around 70 (60-77)

 

[SigilFey]

I just undervolt the frequency, by default it is 1860 mhz I made 1660mhz

Not a good idea. RAM needs to operate at a very specific frequency to work correctly and remain stable.

If using the wrong type of RAM for your motherboard, then this is technically a workaround, but I would still avoid it if possible. It shouldn't "harm" anything, but it can still result in stability issues. If it happens at the wrong moment, then it's possible to generate file system errors.

If it's the right type of RAM for the mo-bo and you're underclocking it, it will almost certainly be working inefficiently.

What was the reason you underclocked it?

Ryzen 3950x has a very strange default overclocking system, even in idle time it raises 1.5 volts on the cores. from here the temperature jumps constantly like mad. avg temperature i have around 70 (60-77)

Hm. It's not unusual for modern cards to come with "Factory Overclocking" or "Performance / Boost" software. Most manufacturers know what they're doing, so it's probably safe. However, you'll be increasing the lifespan of your hardware as well as steadying the performance by disabling stuff like this.

One thing I don't like about this is the temp jumping up and down constantly -- even while idle. That certainly doesn't sound right. Rapidly heating and cooling pretty much any material is inherently stretching and flexing it repeatedly. Obviously, do that enough, and anything will weaken and break, physically.

Tell me a bit more about your system, if you wish. Did you buy it or build it yourself? Any funkiness you've noticed on the BIOS / firmware end? Are you certain everything (GPU, RAM, slave boards, cables, etc.) is fully seated?

 

[fykkgg]

Not a good idea. RAM needs to operate at a very specific frequency to work correctly and remain stable.

If using the wrong type of RAM for your motherboard, then this is technically a workaround, but I would still avoid it if possible. It shouldn't "harm" anything, but it can still result in stability issues. If it happens at the wrong moment, then it's possible to generate file system errors.

If it's the right type of RAM for the mo-bo and you're underclocking it, it will almost certainly be working inefficiently.

What was the reason you underclocked it?

This is not operative ram. I mean the video cards, I undervolt its frequency to check if artifacts remain.
about CPU, i read that for such processors this is normal, as intended. everyone has it https://www.reddit.com/r/AMDHelp/comments/eb0g9f

Post automatically merged: Jan 29, 2020

Tell me a bit more about your system, if you wish. Did you buy it or build it yourself? Any funkiness you've noticed on the BIOS / firmware end? Are you certain everything (GPU, RAM, slave boards, cables, etc.) is fully seated?

i'm built my pc. and everything is set correctly, I'm sure of it. BIOS updated to the latest version and everything works on default

Post automatically merged: Jan 29, 2020

recorded video with artifacts

 

[SigilFey]

Oh, and you're using SLI. The game has never worked reliably with SLI for a lot of people. That's definitely part of the equation, I'll bet.

No, in short, I don't think there's any issue. The fact that the game is recovering and playing so well despite the rapid switching is great, actually. It just won't come back at all for some players.

So, I'd say your solution is: don't task-switch. If you must, I'm not really sure what could be done to stop the brief artifacting, but I don't think it's an issue. Likely just the cards syncing up again, as the second card probably goes idle when you switch to Windows.

This is not operative ram. I mean the video cards, I undervolt its frequency to check if artifacts remain.
about CPU, i read that for such processors this is normal, as intended. everyone has it

Hm. Still should not ever be necessary. Lowering it to test something is okay if you think it might be a voltage or overheating issue, but if it's not, I'll recommend again that you just return it to default clock speeds.

Frankly, everything that I saw on the video looks like things are running really, really well. Especially at 4K.

 

[fykkgg]

Oh, and you're using SLI. The game has never worked reliably with SLI for a lot of people. That's definitely part of the equation, I'll bet.

No, in short, I don't think there's any issue. The fact that the game is recovering and playing so well despite the rapid switching is great, actually. It just won't come back at all for some players.

So, I'd say your solution is: don't task-switch. If you must, I'm not really sure what could be done to stop the brief artifacting, but I don't think it's an issue. Likely just the cards syncing up again, as the second card probably goes idle when you switch to Windows.




Hm. Still should not ever be necessary. Lowering it to test something is okay if you think it might be a voltage or overheating issue, but if it's not, I'll recommend again that you just return it to default clock speeds.

Frankly, everything that I saw on the video looks like things are running really, really well. Especially at 4K.

I installed 442.01 drivers, and now the game unfolds for a whole minute ! along with artifacts. I am attaching a video on YouTube

Post automatically merged: Jan 29, 2020

do not understand why. But a rollback to past drivers did not work. now when I deploy the game I have 1 minute delay in sli mode

 

[SigilFey]

I installed 442.01 drivers, and now the game unfolds for a whole minute ! along with artifacts. I am attaching a video on YouTube

Post automatically merged: Jan 29, 2020

do not understand why. But a rollback to past drivers did not work. now when I deploy the game I have 1 minute delay in sli mode

You would probably be better served at this point bringing this up on the Nvidia forums. Also, Guru3D is good spot to go. Lots of people there that do customized drivers and such. (Just be careful with some of the suggestions that you may get.)

I don't personally use SLI, so I can't help much there. As for official support, I also doubt there's much they can do. You're most likely to get the "avoid task-switching" response. (SLI is not officially supported.)

If I may ask, what do you need to tab out for? Are you trying to stream or something like that?

 

[fykkgg]

Tested different games, I have no problems with artifacts. but there is another problem. I have a freeze games every 20 seconds, but my fps all time 60. what could it be ?

 

[SigilFey]

Tested different games, I have no problems with artifacts. but there is another problem. I have a freeze games every 20 seconds, but my fps all time 60. what could it be ?

Likely CPU activity. There are a fair few games that seem to be having problems with CPUs that have 4+ cores. Not sure where it's coming from, but it does seem to be more prevalent as time goes on.

You can often work around it by managing your frame-timing:
1.) Fullscreen vs. Windowed / Borderless
2.) Vsync ON vs. OFF (vs. Half-Refresh Rate for monitors that can do 120 Hz and up)
3.) Pre-rendered frames 3 vs. 2 vs. 1
4.) Frame Cap between 30-120 (making the value divisible by 8 is a great way to start fiddling) Also, try various methods of capping the frames: in-game options vs. NVInspector vs. RTSS.
5.) Refresh Rate 59 Hz vs. 60 Hz vs. 120 Hz, etc.

...though exactly which combination of all of the above will work best for your system on a given game is up for grabs. Normally, I find what works well for one title will work well for most, but there are always exceptions. That's the order I normally tweak in.

Another thing it could be is background activity. If you've installed the game to a protected directory (like the Program Files / Program Files(x86) defaults,) then Windows may be interfering. Anti-virus / 3rd-party Firewalls can wreak havoc with games. If you have a very full HDD or SSD, that could be a problem (always aim to keep a minimum of 20% free space on all drives).

On the whole, you're not the first person that's posted about insurmountable stuttering on a Ryzen chipset. My guess is it's just going to take time for AMD to iron this stuff out. Keep up with any BIOS updates. (Don't be flashing the ROM every few days -- just read up on each version. If something is released that deals with performance / stability with gaming, grab that one.)

 

[fykkgg]

with video cards 100% everything is fine. I checked each card individually, and in different pci-e connectors.

Post automatically merged: Feb 1, 2020

please see my results. they are good ? or are there any problems?

my result 3dmark http://www.3dmark.com/fs/21696726
[Edited -- SigilFey]

 

[SigilFey]

Note -- we don't allow direct download links in posts.

And yes, your results look fine. That's not the issue.

Whenever games are built, they're built on hardware that was standard at that time. Eventually, new hardware and firmware will be released that handles things in ways an older computer program doesn't really know how to deal with. Nor does the "state-of-the-art" hardware know how to deal with the things the game is trying to do. It may work, but not without issues.

For many games, such as simpler games that don't try to do anything outrageous, or for games that use established, widespread, highly customizeable engines (like Unreal or Gamebryo / Creation Engine), these issues can be avoided or more easily worked around. For super-intensive, complex engines that are highly specialized, like RED Engine, the problems can be much more difficult or simply insurmountable. The more unique and complex the title, the more quickly it will become completely unplayable on present-day hardware. (That's not where we are yet, so workarounds can still be found, I'm sure.)

But one thing that all PC players need to understand is that having "a super powerful / expensive rig" is not a ticket to smooth sailing with gaming. Gaming seas are in a constant storm state. Waves all day long, lightning all night. We just learn to enjoy the roller coaster ride.

Your situation is not something that you can get "official support" with, as it's not an officially supported feature.

• Task switching is not a good idea for the game. Pulling focus away from any program is not a great idea. Just because lots of games will cooperate with it doesn't mean that other games won't have an issue with it (especially if trying to switch out of true Fullscreen -- definitley use Windowed / Borderless if heavy task-switching is your goal.)
• SLI / Crossfire is not officially supported by pretty much anything. Both techniques (Nvidia and AMD) are proprietary, user-end tweaks. I'm aware of only a handful of titles since the '90s that touted SLI or Crossfire as a feature. If it won't cooperate with a title, users are kind of on their own. (Communities like this or Guru3D, or the official Nvidia Forums, are your best bet. [Again, I don't use SLI, so I'm personally not the person to ask about this one.])
• You're using a CPU chipset that did not exist when the game was created and therefore is not officially supported. I don't think it has any bearing on your issue...but it may! It's a good idea to keep up with the news from AMD in that regard.
• All PCs are unique. What completely solves the issue on one PC may only offer minor improvement on another, do nothing on the third, and introduce whole new issues on a fourth machine. Solving this will almost certainly require you to learn some of the nuances of your, unique, system config.

And it's more or less a non-issue in terms of gameplay -- the game seems to be running brilliantly unless you intentionally task-switch. So, the solution is not to task-switch. Again, if you must, perhaps run the game on only one card (lowering the graphics to 1440p or 1080p). If you have another monitor, maybe set up a dual display and ensure that one monitor is a dedicated window for the game. Just ensure that you're testing things systematically and taking notes -- it certainly does not seem to be a performance issue. My guess is that it's primarily an SLI issue.

 

[fykkgg]

I think I found the cause of the artifacts.

when the game is minimized and I’m on the desktop if the load goes to the video card in the second pci e slot then there are no artifacts, but if the load goes to the first video card, then they are. when deployed

I found a regularity for this.
in my BIOS the first pci-e slot is in 1.0 mode and on the second x8 3.0 mode. the problem is what settings I did not set, the first slot always works in 1.0 mode. while the second slot can normally work in 3.0 2.0 1.0

Why can't I install the first slot and the second slot in 3.0 mode at the same time?

https://ibb.co/bLbPfgN
https://ibb.co/tLKVYmD
https://ibb.co/KWhjwt5

 

[SigilFey]

You should really check that out with Nvidia's Support, rather than here.

I don't know how to configure SLI, but what you're describing doesn't sound right. Different generations of PCIe will have an associated "mode". As the physical slots got bigger, the maximum bandwidth increased. It is, however, possible to use an older video card in a newer slot (leaving empty space in the slot). At that point, you would configure the slot in BIOS to ensure that it matched the card being used. (e.g. You would need to install a PCIe 2.0 card in a PCIe 5.0 slot, then go into BIOS and set the 5.0 slot to run in 2.0 mode.)

I would imagine that two 3.0 cards should both be running in 3.0 mode.