Artifacts and flickering primarily in the sky

[afx777]

Hi

 

I've upgraded my video card from a Radeon HD 5770 to a HD 7870 and have been experiencing sporadic flickering and artifacts around Skyrim.

 

• 
   
  
• I've done a total clean install of Win 7 64 with 12.11 beta 4 drivers.
  
• Disabled all mods.
  
• Tinkered with .ini perferences.
  
• Turned off AA in catalyst settings.
  

 

... but still have fail to solve the problems. So, am wondering if anyone has a possible fix I have yet to come across? Any suggestions and solutions appreciated, thanks.

Edited October 31, 2012 by afx777

[Georgiegril]

Artifact can be a sign of driver failure. Check your temps. Turn down your graphics settings. Completely remove ENBs or other graphics mods (not just disable). When you get it working better, you can start reintroducing things, but dial it back again if the artifacting returns. You might also check to make sure your fans are working properly.

[afx777]

Thanks for the reply, I've seem to of solved the problem purely by chance when browsing the mods just now.

 

I used this http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/26225 and the texture flickering/artifacts have stopped *fingers crossed* - But, the mountains in the distance still flicker, is there a fix for that?

 

Ah, I've just come across Z-fighting fix...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjHt-4Z6PwI

Edited October 31, 2012 by afx777

[Ellwood]

I have an HD7870 and also have this issue with 12.10 WHQL and 12.11 betas.

 

Using 12.8 rarely shows flickering and artifacts but no where near to the extent of the previously mentioned drivers.

 

Still the mountains way off in the background do flicker.

[Tom2681]

Yup, confirmed.

It's a Catalyst driver issue.

I have a 7850 and I'm seeing all kinds of flying trees, flickering mountains and flashing scenery with anything from 12.9 to 12.11.

12.8 works fine.

Z-fighting is another issue (one that won't be solved anytime soon).

[Elysarian]

and people wonder why I gave up on ATI after my X1950XT...

 

I have been considering going back when I upgrade in a couple of months but if there are still driver issues then I think I'll stay on the green side for now ;)

 

This post is not a bashing of the red team by any means (nVidia have released some flaky drivers too, I just seem to have suffered less than others in this regard) - just voicing my dissapointment that AMD seem incapable of producing consistant drivers for their hardware.

[Fury5]

Just upgraded my video driver to 12.10 and began experiencing similar problems. Any idea how to switch back to the older 12.8 version? I am starting to despise automatic updates!

 

Thanks.

[courierttf]

Same here.

I just started experiencing flashing trees (LOD), flying trees (which also flash) and black artifacts on the sky.

Happens only in some areas.

I thought it had to do with mods, specially the one I'm doing (lol tree LOD issues).

So I disabled them all.

Still having problems I tried a fresh install.

Yet there still where artifacts.

 

HD 7850, using the 12.11 beta drivers.

And guess when the flickering / artifacts started?

 

Guessed right, after driver updates.

[Jnaathra]

I had to go all the way back to 12.6 in order to resolve the flickering.

 

 

All of these caused flickering.

 

12.10

12.11 beta

12.8

[regaverse]

Just wanted to add my experience to the mix.

 

Im using a Sapphire HD 7850 2 GB at high to ultra high settings. Ive loaded all the latest ATI/AMD drivers. Im currently on v12.10.

Ive been driven crazy by the tree flickering problem and other graphic artifacts for a week or so in December, when I decided to add ENB to my graphics mods. I was ready to blame Vurts Flora., High defintion LODs, ENB and Realistic Color and Customization mods and have tried all sorts of tweaks. Ive reloaded almost everything EXCEPT the ATI Catalyst driver. Once I googled others with the same issue I was led to this 'ATI Shadow Hotfix by prOPA ' fix.

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/26225/

 

Its almost completely removed the problem. Who would have thought a fix for 'shadow' problems with an earlier ATI driver was still a valid fix? Apparently the core .DLL file in the fix is from AMD driver 12.4.... So a windback to the earlier drivers before v12.8 is justified.

 

However, who wants to downgrade just for one game? I have other games I play and dont want to compromise playability and performance. The fix does whats needed for Skyrim.

Tags: ATi Radeon trees flickering flashing graphic artifacts distant terrain sky.

Oh its not a magic fix-all - I still have texture popping and z-fighting in the distance. But those are unrelated to this driver issue. And no, I dont regret upgrading from Nvidia to a Radeon. I originally had an Nvidia 275GTX - the double-barrelled card. It also comfortably ran Skyrim with max settings and mods. But the Radeon does it so much quieter and cooler.