Is my GPU failing? Weird grid of dots appearing over transparent objects.

[panoptikon.party]

I'm currently getting an odd grid-like effect in my games with transparent objects. For better insight on this, I took a few screenshots from MGSV Ground Zeroes and The Witcher 3 http://imgur.com/a/LtEgf .

I am able to run both titles at a smooth 60fps. My GPU tends to idle at around 33-40C, and reaches a high of about 60-70C with the Witcher 3. I am currently using AMD's 15.8 Beta, the latest available, but I was experiencing these issues prior to installing this.

As you can see, when foliage in these games fades in or out, these ugly "dots" appear on the object on a grid that matches the object shape.

In the Witcher 3, this effect is temporary and quick, as the object either fully renders or disappears from the screen. However, it happens to all objects as the game renders them, in both cut scenes and during normal game-play.

In MGSV Ground Zeroes, the dot grid is far more persistent, as objects, especially foliage, in that game tend to stay transparent much longer.
Besides this issue, my system runs these two titles fine. I've only noticed this recently, and these are currently the games I'm hooked on, so I'm not sure if the effect is happening in other games.

What I'm primarily worried about is if this is a sign that I have a defective graphics card, or one that is soon to fail on me.

Anyone have a similar issue / insight on how to fix this?

Parts List:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor

Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

Memory: Team Elite 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit)

[panoptikon.party]

Not really, unfortunately. At this point I've kind of learned to live with it since I'm only seeing the issue in Ground Zeroes and Witcher 3.

Probably going to get a 1070 when it comes out in the near future.

[race_79]

Hi! i have the same issue with Witcher. My Card crashed every 20 minutes and i needed to RMA it..it came back,seems to work now,but with that strange effect. This could indicate a hardware issue.
i will troubleshoot on it and keep you posted :)

[koko b. ware]

i (r9 380x nitro) am noticing the same grid-like-issues in "the witcher 2" and "dirt rally". haven't had any crashes so far (except in "Dark Souls II". and i read that "Dark Souls III" is not really playable with this card too).
i will try different settings and keep you updated.

[koko b. ware]

after DDU (display driver uninstaller) and latest amd driver installation the problem (raster) is still there in TW2 and dirt rally. the witcher 3 runs perfectly fine though (except for some audio bugs). (system: i5 6500, 16gb, win 8.1/64bit)

[race_79]

i found out something...it seems to be the new screen I am using because: i have the same issues when connecting my PLAYSTATION 4 on that screen!!!! which one do you have?
HP Envy on my site..before i had a NEC

[Revelene]

All the titles mentioned do this normally.

That is just how objects render. Nothing wrong. Enjoy.

[koko b. ware]

@ToTTo: I use an old viewsonic-screen. i doubt it's related to the screen.
@bill: well, there are many fellas describing the exact same problem (the majority plays on AMD-graphics). there are screenshot comparisons - it's definitely not normal.

[Revelene]

Początkowo opublikowane przez shizzle:

well, there are many fellas describing the exact same problem (the majority plays on AMD-graphics). there are screenshot comparisons - it's definitely not normal.

The grid or dot like matrix phase in of objects is completely normal.

I very much doubt that there is actually an issue, unless you are not describing it properly. With what you describe, it's just the phasing in of objects. Completely normal.

In the mentioned games, a faster drive can help alleviate the issue. This is why the PS4 is also affected, as it uses a slow mechanical drive. The PS4 may not be able to take advantage, but on PC it can be alleviated by using an SSD and/or separated drive from OS (drive dedicated to games only).

[koko b. ware]

all my games and programs are running on a dedicated ssd. yesterday i was able to reproduce the issue using unity-engine, making a scene, adding standard tree models, turning fog and image-effect ssao(!) on.
would you mind telling me what you mean by "phasing in of objects"?
in the mentioned games it happens when textures are partly transparent, sometimes in the shade (witcher).
it's happening for objects/textures which are close as well as distant ones.

[Revelene]

Początkowo opublikowane przez shizzle:

all my games and programs are running on a dedicated ssd. yesterday i was able to reproduce the issue using unity-engine, making a scene, adding standard tree models, turning fog and image-effect ssao(!) on.
would you mind telling me what you mean by "phasing in of objects"?
in the mentioned games it happens when textures are partly transparent, sometimes in the shade (witcher).
it's happening for objects/textures which are close as well as distant ones.

Phasing in is exactly as it sounds... the loading/unloading of textures.

A failing GPU, it is clearly not.

You can always reproduce this effect in MGSV. Simply crawl through foliage slowly and you can observe the effect up close when the foliage phases in and out of the camera view.

In short, you are worrying about nothing as there isn't any isssue.

[Void]

Finally a thread where someone else has this problem. I have this problem in Shadow Warrior 2 now on a GTX 1070 (mobile). In Witcher 3 I experience similar issues. The weird thing is: When I watch some gameplay videos on youtube the people don't have these transparency issues.

Back in 2010, Crysis had the same "problem".

So, what causes it?

[koko b. ware]

i think its related to SSAO. i just read a forum-thread http://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/6678858061 i'm not quite shure if its the same error, but worth trying to disable SSAO in graphics card settings and games.

[Yamete Kudasai]

That's just the way transparency is rendered.

I currently am on a 980 Ti but I had this on every card I ever owned (ATI Radeon HD2400, GTX 570, R9 290, 980 Ti).

Higher resolutions can fix this.

I'm taking FFXIV as an example here:
1024x768:
http://i66.tinypic.com/28tz2he.png

1920x1080:
http://i64.tinypic.com/jt7wao.png

4k:
http://i63.tinypic.com/b4gm4k.png

Tbh tinypic makes 4k look worse than it actually looks. You can't see the effect @4k unless you're looking closely.

[FunkeXMix_SC6]

So you mean this is normal? Peoples hair, eyebrows, eye lashes beard (foliage) look totally messed up as you can see in the image link below (press F11 for full screen) to see the problem properly:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zVBhq29Gg55Fh_BfyCIAddF4bvXTwnt_/view?usp=sharing

Only way to alleviate it that I have found so far is to smudge it out with TAA antialiasing or some other heavy smoothing antialiasing which make games look very unsharp. FXAA does not help unfortunately.

Got a pretty clear answer over at Reddit:

'irabonus

The technique is called Screen-Door Transparency and it is commonly used because actual transparent surfaces pose a bunch of issues during rendering. For example, you'd have to sort every surface by their depth back to front and render them in that order. Additionally, deferred shading by default only handles opaque surfaces.

Screen-Door transparency lets you get the illusion of transparency while every individual pixel is still opaque. Of course, it leads to artifacts like the ones in your screenshots so it's generally only used on small objects like hair or foliage. TAA helps, because you can vary the pattern over time and TAA will average out the non-opaque/opaque values.'

[MA☝Omgwtfbbqstfu™]

That's funny, its just a game mechanic so you can see your character with a quick and dirty solution.