Did I get a bad card?

Graphics / Linux Linux
#1

I have a GTX 970 from EVGA, and I’m having some strange issues with it. On the DVI output, I get green dots all over any dark surface. I originally chalked this up to a Linux driver issue since the card was brand new, and the HDMI output works fine, so I figured it wasn’t a problem. However, I recently ran into another issue with the card. Every time I reach the main menu of a game called Ziggurat, the video output drops completely (screen goes to “No Signal”, GPU has fallen off the bus in dmesg). This led me to trying Windows with the 344.16 drivers to see if it was a Linux or driver issue, and I discovered that both the green dots and video output dropping occur there too.

I managed to reproduce the video output drop issue in one other Unity game as well, but it’s somewhat inconsistent. It takes sitting at the menu for much longer than in Ziggurat. I also discovered that if I run a game which works fine for a while then open Ziggurat, sometimes I can get past the main menu and load the game. Once I’ve loaded a game, it works fine indefinitely. It’s just the menu in some Unity games that causes this issue.

Does this mean I have a bad card, or could this be a driver issue which exists in both Windows and Linux and 343 and 344 drivers? I’ve seen it suggested that the green dots could be a bad connection, but I’ve tried re-seating the card at least 4 times now, and the connectors look immaculate on both sides, so I don’t think it’s that.

#2

If by green dots you mean a checkerboard pattern, then it’s probably the driver. There is a known checkerboard problem with the current drivers on Windows in Final Fantasy XIV. I’m not sure if it was reported against any other games or platforms.

I would register the product with EVGA for any future warranty service just in case.

#3

No, it’s just single pixels being bright green scattered across dark surfaces in varying degrees. The surface renders normally except for the green pixels. I can probably take a screenshot later. It’s starting to seem like the issues go away or are lessened when the card heats up, which would definitely point to a hardware issue.

#4

Turns out the problem was my power supply. It’s a 750W, so I figured it should be plenty, but it’s probably 7 years old, so I suppose it finally met its match in the 970.