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[Weltall]

The card is probably fine. Some AMD users also get these colorful flickers, lines and triangles when playing SS. Assume it's an issue between Starsector's OpenGL implementation, the driver and the kind of hardware used.

That I can confirm about the flickering and shapes. But I would find it weird if NVidia's OpenGL would give such problems. Anyway Gothars seems to have the same GPU and it does not have these problems.

[Euphytose]

The issue isn't limited to Starsector in my case. It's just the most annoying case. Any game that uses the same kind of transparency will give me issues. This can be as "small" as mining some rocks in Stardew Valley. If you play this game you will know what I'm talking about. When you mine, the sprites have "transparent" parts, like in any image using transparency. Some black lines can be seen when the sprite is moving, only on this sprite.

Something is definitely wrong on my rig, that much I am sure of. However, if something is wrong with my hardware, I find it really strange that the card runs perfectly fine otherwise. It's only the transparency stuff. Switching drivers didn't change anything, and since somebody else is using the same GPU, although a different version with more VRAM, and the same drivers, it's not the driver's fault.

This problem was here since the very beginning, right after I finished installing the OS I checked Starsector and the issue was here already. But it was in March so if the card is about to die surely it would have shown some signs, especially given that I can play demanding games with no issue, other than transparency if those games have some. It's not all transparency either, and it happens in directx games as well.

Maybe it's the mobo that has a faulty slot? I really have no clue at this point. I would know for sure if I had another card to test with.

Edit: Off-topic:

I will soon create another partition and install a second OS here for testing purposes, how safe is it to install it on the same drive but a different partition? I only ever did that on separate drives. Can I "shrink" my current drive with no issue, create a new NTFS partition of say 30gb, install the OS on it and choose which one to boot on startup? Can I also wipe it from the "main" OS by simply doing a quick format?

(using windows 7 for both)

[Schwartz]

I still don't think the card needs to be faulty. Faulty cards tend to either throw serious errors or show corruption in general and doing different things, not just one particular borked effect. Windows 7's Aero is hardware accelerated including transparency, and I gather that it works fine. Think 'software first' and save yourself some headache.

The first thing I would do is make a backup of your Windows 7 and try the same thing on a newer version of the OS. You're running a modern card with modern drivers on an almost legacy OS. Could be something isn't playing nice here. If the same thing happens on a test run of Windows 10, then I'd consider sending the card in for a replacement.

[Weltall]

If it was men I would not touch my HDD. I would look for another HDD, to do tests on him., Install windows, install the drivers and game and run it. I have seen Windows misbehave so many times and I have heard and said even more times "Oh, it was only that?".

It is so annoying when a piece of hardware though misbehaves under only certain circumstances. My GPU (Sappgire R9 280x 3GB) can not work under default settings. If I try to play games, it will start giving me artifacts and eventually get stuck. Anything else works fine. Thanks to some comments I saw some people suggesting for the R9 290 to up the voltage.. I upped the VDDC for like 0.028 and the GPU has been working flawlessly for two years now.. Then again, this is one of the most simple of the weird things my PC did..

[Alex]

We are talking about computers here Schwartz.. last times I checked, they made no "common" sense. I compare then to women because of how weirdly sometimes they act and yet most of the time is it static electricity that gives them a "period".

Ahem. Not funny and not cool.

I still don't think the card needs to be faulty. Faulty cards tend to either throw serious errors or show corruption in general and doing different things, not just one particular borked effect. Windows 7's Aero is hardware accelerated including transparency, and I gather that it works fine. Think 'software first' and save yourself some headache.

Yeah, this really feels like some sort of driver thing... but then Gothars has the same drivers, card, and OS, right? So that... well, that doesn't exactly rule it out, but still, I wouldn't necessarily be shocked if it's a hardware issue. Hm. I don't think I have anything useful to contribute, besides being just as confused as everyone else

[Weltall]

Ahem. Not funny and not cool.

There is no joke in this Alex, but I am sorry if it seems I am making one. I would try to explain how I meant it, but I feel it is better I leave it at that. My ex always told me that when I try to fix things I like this, I always make it worse and she was always right.

[Euphytose]

I still don't think the card needs to be faulty. Faulty cards tend to either throw serious errors or show corruption in general and doing different things, not just one particular borked effect. Windows 7's Aero is hardware accelerated including transparency, and I gather that it works fine. Think 'software first' and save yourself some headache.

The first thing I would do is make a backup of your Windows 7 and try the same thing on a newer version of the OS. You're running a modern card with modern drivers on an almost legacy OS. Could be something isn't playing nice here. If the same thing happens on a test run of Windows 10, then I'd consider sending the card in for a replacement.

Windows 7 is far from being "legacy". I will never install Windows 10. If it's really Windows 7 then I'll just switch to Linux.

As I already said, I also have doubts concerning the card because indeed when a card is dying it's a lot worse than this. However, drivers are already ruled out, somebody else is using the same. A friend of mine is using 7 on a GTX 980 and doesn't have those issues.

I searched everything I could on Google and nobody seems to have the same issue as me, so this seems really strange that it would be the OS. I'm not the only person using 7.

To be honest it's really starting to get on my nerves. And it's probably a really stupid thing too. I don't even think wasting time reinstalling an OS would work seeing as the problem was here day one, with no other programs except Steam.

Recently I've been playing Titan Quest for as long as 8 hours straight and again, not a single problem. If the card is dying then it's the strangest death I've ever seen.

[Weltall]

You do not have to worry about Windows 7 for now.



If anything, wish until 2020 that their end will come, Windows 10 will change.. be it by their own or with the help of users that will suggest solutions. At least I know I will not be switching to 10 on my main machine until then.

When you say day 1, you mean the first day you have had a clean install of Windows? Because if you had another GPU before and different drivers and then upgraded the GPU, the problem could be easily existing before that. If you still feel like trying something, you can always try to uninstall your drivers and also use Display Driver Uninstaller. Maybe that could clean out whatever is giving a bug to your drivers?

[Alex]

Yeah, I was actually going to suggest a clean driver (re)install too. That's been known to make a difference, not for Starsector specifically but in general.

[Euphytose]

When I get a new PC I pick my parts, and then I ask them to build it for me because I'm really lazy for some things, then it's shipped. When I receive it, the drive is empty, I then install my OS. This is what I mean by "day one". I didn't upgrade this PC, everything was changed from my previous one. Even though only the GPU died, it was time for a complete upgrade anyway, the previous rig was from 2011 and then I would have had to switch the CPU, which would mean switching mobo, etc etc... Might as well replace everything.

This problem was here right after the installation of the OS and the drivers is what I meant.

These "driver cleaners" usually create a lot more problems than they solve, that's actually the case for a lot of "cleaners", for the registry, "unnecessary files", etc... Nvidia installer wipes the previous drivers correctly as long as you tick "clean install" in the advanced options. On the previous system I changed drivers like 15 times and had no issues after finding a stable version.

I tried the oldest, tried the newest, some in-between, same issue. Safe to say that's not it.

I may try to reinstall an OS either on a partition or another drive. I would prefer another drive because I would also use it to test some stuff and I wouldn't want to infect the main drive. I could use a VM for this though. But for actual testing like full 3D apps I need the real thing.

Honestly if I knew 100% that buying another card would fix the issue I'd probably do it, but since I'm not sure and I'm not rich, wasting money like this would really annoy me.

And I really don't picture myself saying "Hey this card is kind of dying, just boot up any game that uses a specific kind of transparency and you'll see." to the support guys. The card is cool, passes benchmark tests, basically it seems fine. It could be the GPU, the mobo, hell even the PSU that doesn't send enough juice, or too much, I don't know. The voltages are in the norms.

The only other GPU I have is in a PC from 2000 with an amazing 256mb RAM stick, somehow I doubt it'll fit. Rest is either completely fried or fried enough that it only produces the most basic image possible.

I could also try to borrow a card from a repair shop but usually they won't let you do that unless you bring your whole rig to test it right here, and it costs something.

[Schwartz]

I'm not saying Windows 7 is bad in any way. You're talking to someone who tried Win10 twice and couldn't make it work for longer than half an hour before going back to 8.1.

What I mean with legacy is that you can't expect recent hardware to work flawlessly on it. The EOL has nothing to do with this, btw. EOL is how long Microsoft guarantees to keep an OS up-to-date with fixes (mainstream support) and security patches (extended support). Driver manufacturers can play their own game.

Unless you can exclude a software fault, getting more hardware to test will only lead you down the wrong path here.

[TJJ]

What I mean with legacy is that you can't expect recent hardware to work flawlessly on it.

If the hardware is sold with support for operating system X, Y & Z, then yes, you absolutely can/should expect flawless operation.

[Schwartz]

And how many flawless graphics drivers have you gotten your hands on lately?

[Weltall]

I more like meant that at least up to 2020, people will be expecting companies to do "bother" with Windows 7. Soon after the icon and name of Windows 7 will disappear from "supported operating systems".

Also TJJ said that people SHOULD expect them to work flawlesly... even if forums are full of people complaining, about how they bought new hardware/software that boasted that it supported their system and it definitely did not.

Still though GTX 900 is from 2014 and Windows 7 up to a couple of months before, when I read an article, is the main system of over 50% of computers, where Windows 8.1 and 10 had each a 15%. What? Companies do not care for the majority of their users? I doubt they want to make most of their customers unhappy, by not fixing bugs that would affect a wide group of them.

[Euphytose]

And how many flawless graphics drivers have you gotten your hands on lately?

Flawless graphic drivers don't exist, they're flawless with a list of specific games. Nowadays you'd almost need different drivers for different games you want to play.

However, the drivers I'm currently using are used by a lot of people, and one other person on this forum, also using the same GPU, although a more powerful version with more VRAM.

Also, the fact that the same exact issue appears in all the versions available for my GPU means it can't be the drivers or tons of people would be complaining.

But again, I also agree that a hardware issue seems less likely considering what the issue is, and me also having experienced several GPU failures before and knowing what they usually look like. This one is very specific and doesn't have any other issue linked to it.

Then again, the problem was here on a fresh system with no software that could interfere, which also means that a hardware issue isn't completely excluded.