Should I be seeing artifacts?

I bought a new EVGA 1080 graphics card and artifacts pop up and disappear a few times per day.

Nothing major but noise here and there. Never happened with my old graphics card (EVGA 660) on the same computer (I upgraded my graphics card recently).

The only change (which is a big change) is that I added a larger monitor. Before I had a 30 inch and 24 inch monitor. But I upgraded the graphics card and I'm now using a 30 inch and 32 inch monitor.

Are these artifacts normal? Should I just deal with it? Is there a way to test to see if the graphics card is defective? Should I return it and get another one? Maybe something that is not EVGA?

Really appreciate any help on this one. Thanks.

Describe the artifacts? lines? dots? green? red? white/black noise? Graphics cards shouldn't give away artifacts and it's not normal, unless it's an application bug or driver issue particular for your device and setups you use. I assume this happens on Windows and regardless of app used? Your I/o cables, monitor, graphics card or power supply are your likely suspects. As swarfega mentioned, begin with the cables and check the mounting of the GPU. Then try unplugging your second monitor.

I'll try to re-plug in the graphics card. I am definitely using the cables that came with the monitors.

I've never had artifacts before but I thought it was normal for high end graphics cards like the 1080. But I guess you're telling me that I'm definitely wrong. It doesn't happen often. Like 2-3 times a day. Like a little blip. Sometimes, it's like the TV noise you used to see back 30 years ago when you didn't tune into the right channel.

I didn't think much of it since it only happened so infrequently and it only occurred for half a second. But, reading online, it seems that it's a sign that the graphics card isn't going to last that long. And, EVGA cards from Amazon are kinda' notorious for these artifacts. They said to order the EVGA cards directly from EVGA, which never have a problem but they are like $100 more!

I'll see how the new card turns out from Amazon turn out. Thanks for all your help.

swarfega said:

There shouldn't be anything abnormal being displayed on the screen. The 1080 should be able to cope with anything you throw at it.

Check to make sure everything is seated and plugged in correctly. What cable are you using, is it one that came with the card/monitor?

It's hard to describe the artifacts because they happen so quickly. It only happens for about half a second. And, the artifact seems to be always different. Sometimes, half the screen just blinks. white/black noise other times. I can't seem to remember because they happen so quick and they are always different.

I'm going to try to replug the card to see if that's the problem.

I might be wrong because my memory is hazy but it seems like the artifacts always happen on just one monitor.

Faith said:

Describe the artifacts? lines? dots? green? red? white/black noise? Graphics cards shouldn't give away artifacts and it's not normal, unless it's an application bug or driver issue particular for your device and setups you use. I assume this happens on Windows and regardless of app used? Your I/o cables, monitor, graphics card or power supply are your likely suspects. As swarfega mentioned, begin with the cables and check the mounting of the GPU. Then try unplugging your second monitor.