Best Artifact tester?

[Darkfalz]

I ran ATITool artifact tester for like an hour on 525/1050 and it was clean.

Then I ran 3DMark03, on Ragtroll test there were white dots all over the place. Lowered back to 500/1000 and no dots.

So I think Ragtroll test. Unfortuantely to play only the Ragtroll test requires pro version.

[jAkUp]

ATI tool seems pretty good, RTHdrbl is not very good at all for finding artifacts, 3Dmark06 seems ok...

[SlowJoeBlow]

Originally Posted by jAkUp

ATI tool seems pretty good, RTHdrbl is not very good at all for finding artifacts, 3Dmark06 seems ok...

How do ya use the ATI tool with an nVidia card? I have tryed, but everytime I launch it, it would crash my sys.

[crainger]

I use ATI tool. I also found that Nalu works well.

[Strages]

That's awesome. I was just going to post addressing the same issue . Anyhow...

It seems that ATI Tool is actually a very poor artifact tester for current and next-gen hardware. Unfortunately, GPUs are more sensitive to core overclocking now because as you increase the GPU core speed, the greater the chance that you'll run into inaccuracies in pixel/vertex shaders. Unfortunately, ATI Tool seems to only use shader of version 1.1/1.4 when it scans for artifacts, unfortunately, games are using less and less 1.1/1.4 shaders and more 2.0+. What that means is that intense 2.0/3.0 shaders are going to show artifacting due to core overclocks much sooner than the you'd see texture artifacting or pipeline artifacting (dots, weird colors, etc). You'll see shader blipping, which is due to miscalculations in shaders from frame to frame. So what we really need is a tool that uses intensive geometry and shaders, this will cover the bases. Sadly, shader artifacting will occur LONG before we get a core lock or memory thrashing. For instance, my 6800GT will core lock at ~440, but will produce shader artifacting as low as 415 under harsh conditions (ie, Oblivion on a hot day). However, ATI Tool remains to be a good test for texture thrashing - caused by GDDR3 pushed to it's limit. ATI Tool is still good for this because of the texturing it uses - texture, diffuse, and a few other texture maps to produce the square, "fuzzy" box.

Overall, ATI Tool seems to be the best test for texture thrashing (memory), but 3DMark05/06 or Oblivion will probably be the best shader artifact tests for some time.

[MaXThReAT]

Wow, I started this thread way back in Jan, when I was having problems with my P4 and AGP 6800gt. As you can see I have a little bit better system now.
At this point I use 3DM06 DeepFreeze test. I'm on my second 7900gtOCSC. First one would artifact like mad in Fear and 06DFreeze. The new card seems much better and I've attached a Vf-900 to it. I haven't even started OCing the card yet, I'm still working on the CPU and Mem. I'm going for 2.8 next time it cools off here. Been like 90f for the past week. It hasn't stopped me from hitting 2.6. Maybe I'll push the card this weekend. I'm little hesitant though. My last card was fine until I clicked detect Opt Freq, my last card locked up and then started having problems. I didn't even OC it. But I'm on new drivers now and maybe I'll be okay to push it a little. Maybe a Vmod.

Edit: Well I've updated my sig with my new scores with CPU at 2.6, gpu stock OC. I'm doing a 1.4 Vmod this week and see it I can get 650/1600 Artifact tester here I come.

[AdmiralHalsey..]

Did anyone ever find a good artifact tester? One that uses "intense SM2/SM3" effects and stuff. Or am I stuck with ATI Tool, which is a bit optimistic in its results.

[MaXThReAT]

Right now I use a combo of RTIBHDRL, HL2 and Fear for SM2.0 and DeepFreeze from 3DMark06 for SM3.0. Fear seems to be very memory sensitive. RTIBHDRL and DeepFreeze seem more GPU sensitive but will also start messing up if mem is to high, bit of both. I'm not OC this guy until they get the drivers strait.