Let me start by saying this is my observation with using the 310.xx series (310.70 and 310.90 as of this post date) of nVidia drivers on my 570 GTX. The issue that I address (and have seen in earlier drivers) relates to textures being displayed with quality issues, relating to specific objects.
My video card model is MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr II, running default clocks and reaching a full load (in-game) of 65 C. I share this, since some of these issues sound similar to old school video overclocking issues.
I do have my CPU overclocked to 4300 MHz. This is on default voltage with only modifier being changed. I did however confirm the issues still occur at stock CPU frequencies.
By reading that, you could guess this is pretty enigmatic to confirm… until drivers 310.xx came along. Reading the summary release notes on the download page, you will see the % performance increases for some newer games. I have come to my own conclusion that this comes at the cost of disabling, less commonly components to boost the overall FPS output in certain games.
My control for tying this to the 310 series of drivers is thanks to the Final Fantasy XIV Benchmark. (FTB Download Link) The telling indicator is at the end of the 1st custscene, where it puts the camera behind the standing character model. You want to look at the goldish-yellow bottle on the table.
If you see it flickering, check to see if you are on 310 series drivers. I was able to downgrade drivers back to 306.97 and the flicker has gone away.
I will try to do a fraps rip to give a visual on this issue. Far Cry 3 seemed to also suffer from a little of this, and what was prompted me to roll back my video driver to 306.96. The signs I was seeing here were some odd object pop-in, that looked like mis-rendered objects, that shortly afterward corrected themselves.
Another fairly recent game that also has similar issues, is Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The HR issue tended to show up with awning like models. What I would see is kind of like a broken reflection on the texture. Only came up in certain areas on specific objects.
Anyone else able to reproduce or at least confirm some of these theories is welcome to share feedback. I’ll try to gather more information, as I’ve gathered enough info to semi-intelligently track these issues.
Video rip by phone of flicker, as I mention in next post that Fraps video rip doesn’t capture flicker.
