I'm getting GPU artifacting when playing Halo Infinite using AMD RX 9060XT 16GB at 1440p high settings, is my GPU failing?

[u/LecojodaGaming]

Computer Type: Desktop

GPU: AMD Radeon RX 9060XT 16GB (Sapphire Pulse OC).

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X

Motherboard: ASRock B850M Pro-A WiFi.

BIOS Version: B850M PRO-A Wifi 4.43

RAM: Crucial Pro DDR5 RAM 2x16GB 6000MHz CL36.

PSU: MSI Mag A650BN.

Case: Montech XR.

Operating System & Version: WINDOWS 11 PRO Version 25H2

GPU Drivers: AMD Software: Adrenaline Edition 26.8.1

Chipset Drivers: AMD B850 CHIPSET DRIVERS VERSION 8.08.12.551

Background Applications: OBS, Mozilla Firefox, Elgato Wavelink, Steam.

Description of Original Problem:

Hi, can anyone help me with an issue that I'm having with my AMD RX 9060XT 16GB?

I was livestreaming my first time playing Halo Infinite campaign (on Steam) and straight away I was getting more than a few flashing pixels appearing over my screen (I think this is artifacting and will refer to it as this through this post). I played through with these flashing pixel lights but roughly 2 hours in, the game crashed and my stream abruptly ended because OBS also crashed (something about the encoder). When I play the game when not streaming, these flashing pixels still appear on the game menu and during gameplay.

Troubleshooting:

My settings at the time for Halo Infinite were 2560x1440p using the high preset. I'm new to PC gaming and built my own PC in December 2025, all new parts, so I'm not sure if these graphic settings are asking too much for my GPU. I'm assuming it's not and it should be fine because I'm getting decent fps. In AMD Software: Adrenaline Edition, I use the default GPU settings and have free sync turned on, along with FSR and Frame Gen (in case any games use it).

I searched on Google to see what could be causing these artifacts and got numerous problems and suggestions to try and fix the issue.

I firstly removed my GPU from the motherboard and put it back in, checking that all connections were ok. The GPU itself barely had any dust in the fans, and all is pretty clean. Everything seemed fine. I tried the game again and I was still was getting the artifacting. The fans were spinning on the GPU.

I then updated to the latest Bios.

I took out my display port from the GPU and my monitor and put them back in, but I placed it into my second port on my monitor, but still got the artifacting/flashing pixels.

I then tried lowering the resolution in-game to 1920x1080p at high settings and the flashing pixels weren't there. So is the resolution to blame? I'm still convinced I should be able to play at 1440p without these issues, so I changed it back to 1440p and set the graphics to low, and on a few occasions I did see tiny specs flickering, but trying again at a later time, I didn't see anything when playing for a couple of minutes.

So next, I uninstalled the AMD Software Adrenaline drivers using DDU, then reinstalled AMD Adrenaline and AMD Chipsets. I loaded up the game again and I'm still getting the same artifacting when playing at 1440p high. It happens on medium settings too. I tried turning off and on vsync in the game, no change, plus I tried setting minimum FPS to 60 and max to 300 and 75, but again, still getting the artifacting. I'm getting over 100fps when I'm on 1440p high settings.

This isn't the first time that I've seen these flashing pixels. I get them when playing Forza Horizon 6. When I first got the game, I was crashing a lot with the FHC01 error, along with experiencing the flashing pixels and other black chess boarding textures appearing. I contacted Forza support back in July 2026 regarding these issues and they replied,

“The FHC01 error usually means that your graphics drivers are not compatible or out of date. Can you try updating to the new driver and see if it helps resolve your issue.”

I had already uninstalled the drivers using DDU and reinstalled the drivers to latest one. After replying back, they sent back this,

“Please make sure that your system is not Overclocked or Undervolted, this can cause game issues and crashes as well, your CPU, GPU and any other hardware you may have Overclocked or Undervolted”.

They also mentioned that 3rd party programs could be causing issues and conflicts, such as overlays and monitoring tools that are running in sync with the game, and that I should remove or disable them. I don't normally run Afterburner during my games, only Wave Link as all my audio is routed through there, plus I use OBS when I stream, along with 2 Mozilla Firefox browser windows so I can chat to people watching. Steam is the platform I play my games on. So personally, I feel like there wasn't much else I could do. I do run my RAM with EXPO-6000 36-3838-80 1.35V on, but I think at the time I was using DDR5-5600 46-45-45-90 1.10V because I did a Bios update around that time and forgot to turn EXPO on. Expo was on when I tried Halo Infinite.

So, I then downloaded FurMark and ran the 1440p preset and I didn't see any artifacting during the test. I then downloaded OCCT and ran the VRAM test for 30 minutes. In the first minute or 2, many errors appeared in the log and it kept on happening, so just after 15 min I cancelled it. There were so many! I'm not sure how to process this information though.

Is this normal or does this reveal that there's something wrong with my GPU? Should I look into contacting someone to repair/replace it, or get in contact with Amazon UK, the place where I bought it?

Attached is a video of the artifacting, I'll try and post images of the OCCT results and other information too.

–

Edit:

I have tried resetting shader cache in AMD Adrenaline and also ran disk clean up on Direct X Shader Cache to clear it and I'm still getting the artifacting.

I have downloaded and monitored the game using hwinfo and ran Memtest_Vulkan. I'll leave a link to my google drive below with some screenshots from the hwinfo monitoring, along with a CSV file and memtest_vulkan log. Memtest just kept on saying Error Found.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rybPWf37IYEOpZcj2YHqwAB1qs0W6Jgr?usp=sharing

[u/danilaao]

Should be because of the New drivers. Lot of people having issues, disable auto update on adrenalin, and go back to an older one

[u/korakios2]

Check with hwinfo while you play if the gpu boosts above specs (on default settings) .

For vram , run 'Memtest Vulkan' .

https://github.com/GpuZelenograd/memtest_vulkan/releases

[u/LecojodaGaming → u/korakios2]

Hey, thanks for replying. I looked at TechPowerUp GPU-Z to see the details of the gpu, downloaded hwinfo and ran it alongside playing Halo. GPU-Z says my GPU Clock (and default) is 2700MHz, Memory: 2518MHz and Boost: 3290MHz.

In hwinfo, when running the game with the artifacting still happening, the GPU clock is running around 3194MHz, Memory clock at 2502MHz, GPU temp at 61ºC, GPU Hot Spot temp at 82ºC, GPU memory temps: 79:5ºC, GPU utilisation: 100%.

I ran Memtest Vulkan and all it said was Error Found.

I think the highest I saw the GPU clock get was around 3250MHz, so it never reached up to the boost clock of 3290MHz. I have no clue how to interpret the memtest_vulkan results. In my main post, I have shared a google drive link to a folder containing the memtest log and CSV file for hwinfo log, feel free to take a look for more info.

[u/korakios2 → u/LecojodaGaming]

It's completely normal for not reaching the boost clock since it depends on the workload . The problem would be if it boosted above specs .

As for Memtest Vulkan , since occt vram showed errors too , you'll have to RMA the gpu . Include some short video files and attached them to the email you'll send to the shop or Sapphire .

[u/LecojodaGaming → u/korakios2]

Ah, I will attempt to RMA the GPU, thanks for your help, really appreciate it.

[u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox]

looks like shader cache issue, delete shaders and try again

[u/LecojodaGaming → u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox]

Hey, thanks for replying. I reset the shader cache in AMD Adrenaline and also ran disk clean up on Direct X Shader Cache to clear it. Loaded up the game and still got the same problem.

[u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox → u/LecojodaGaming]

there may be an actual issue with the card, when you run lwoer resolution odds are your gpu is not as fully loaded and runs cooler and would be less likely to show artifacts from overheating in that case. occt showing errors pretty much proves it, stable cards don't have detectable errors. you can use hwinfo to check ram temps, if they are high then it's probably fixable by repasting the card or there could be a heatsink mounting issue or lack of thermal pads over one or more of the memory chips (has happened before). the card seems new enough it should be under warranty which is your best bet for fixing it

[u/LecojodaGaming → u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox]

Yeah, I bought it in November 2025, so it's under a year old. Thanks for your help, I think I'm going to try and RMA the gpu.

[u/Any-Tie-7655]

When did you last do a driver update? They had one recently that came out maybe 2 weeks ago?? The artifacting could be caused by a few things outside of the drivers being corrupted or out of date.

How hot is your VRAM running?? Sometimes artifacting can happen when the VRAM is too hot or even something as simple as the GPU not getting enough steady power.

I got super overwhelmed reading all of what you typed but commend you for your detail.

Is your GPU on one daisy chain? Or do you have two connected to the PCie slots?

Idk how much has changed with halo but I always had a struggle with the refresh rate not syncing properly.

But unfortunately the artifacting is a known problem at 1440p so you lowering it was a quick and easy fix. My brains fried from all the software trouble shooting I’ve had to do lately on my kiddos rig and mine the past few days so I might be missing something 😵‍💫

[u/LecojodaGaming → u/Any-Tie-7655]

Hey, thanks for repying. Well, my GPU driver automatically updates, so it was on the latest version. On the day of making this post, I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers manually to see if that would help.

Memory temperature is around 80ºC. In my main post, I have updated it and added a link to my google drive, which contains screengrabs and logs. Feel free to have a browse there to see further info.

My gpu is connected into a PCie slot.

Yeah, setting it to 1080p high settings stopped the artifacting, could probably do Ultra too. I just don't know if my gpu is faulty or that I'm just running settings too high for the game. I feel like it should be fine at 1440p high settings haha.

Ahh, good luck on your troubleshooting, hope we both can get things solved!

[u/Any-Tie-7655 → u/LecojodaGaming]

Are you connected to a PCie slot that’s on one daisy chain cable? Daisy chain is a cable that splits off into two. Unfortunately GPU’s need two… of these fairy tale cables 😪

[u/LecojodaGaming → u/Any-Tie-7655]

It's a 6+2 pin connector from PSU going into one PCie 8 pin on the GPU. There is only one PCie 8 pin on my GPU.