Pixelated Shadows during Cutscenes?

No. However, this black screen is much more difficult to test. It only occurs maybe 10-20% of the time when I first start the game. Every since reverting back to the previous drivers with a clean install I have not had the black screen issue when firing the Agent's carbine ability. The main thing I'm wanting to confirm is whether or not you also experience the pixelated shadows. No rush, good luck in the transition!

I hope your move and transition has been going well. I'm still experiencing issues. I did encounter this forum post today that seemed to have an extremely detailed inside perspective regarding what might be happening with SWTOR and this graphics card:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/884991/?comment=4694763

Any thoughts?

@ObsidianVashti

Sitting a  hotel room , lucky for hotel wifi , I am very familiar with that thread you linked , will try and find the other that was made on a different forum

@ObsidianVashti

here is the other thread to the one you linked , I posted in it so certainly know it 🙂

thread is here

For the 980s I am aware EVGA released a firmware update, I haven't looked at this recently to see what was occurring with the 970's

to show you the widespread that issue with EVGA , see if this link works here

@ObsidianVashti

There is this hotfix driver here fixing some clocking issues , but still saw some reports with 900 series issues even on this driver ( the reports are not related to swtor )

See thread here

This problem is causing more of a headache than I thought it would. Now I'm starting to be concerned that this issue isn't limited to SWTOR alone. I've been primarily playing SWTOR but haven't played that many other games to notice in the long term whether I experience any issues. I can now confirm the following three problems were noticed when first using the graphics card in SWTOR.

1) Black-outs:
Upon launching SWTOR or inducing a visually intensive sequence (Carbine blast with the Imperial Agent, or a visually chaotic Warzone) the screen would black-out and would need to be refreshed by minimizing and then resuming the SWTOR application. In each scenario game audio will continue in the background, but the screen will remain black. Now with the latest drivers installed I have not noticed the issue when firing carbine blast (or visually intensive sequences). However, the screen may black out when adjusting Shadow settings or after a set period of time randomly blacks out with no patterns. This seems to coincide with a lot of the forums you linked in this thread that suggest the graphics card is doing a power reset of some sorts. It may also correlate with some of the shadow setting difficulties I have been having listed in point 2.

2) Shadows/Pixelated Shaders:

In-game shadows for environments during cutscenes are extremely blocky or pixelated. This seems to have been refined extensively in the latest (December 2015 driver update). However, the problem is still apparent here and there. This seems to be the only setting that casuses issues. I know you mentioned you had not been able to test this with your own 970. This would be helpful to know where the problem lies.

3) Framerate Lag/Stutter:

When updating my graphics card to the latest (December 2015) drivers stuttering became a problem. After following your suggestion to change the CPU pre-rendered frames to setting "1" in the NVIDIA control panel, this has been completely resolved.

None of these problems were affected by using the Debug mode in NVIDIA Control Panel.

I will update this thread with specific version numbers and better grammar when I have the chance. For the time being my concern is whether or not they are going to ever make the EVGA 970 graphics card stable. Why was this the highest rated card on Amazon if it has all of these problems? How does anyone deal these type of problems.

What would be different between the hotfix link you provided and updated drivers? I'm leery trying anything that isn't officially from NVIDIA or EVGA.

Once again, thank you so much for your assistance!

@ObsidianVashti

This here will explain the hotfix driver

Have you approached EVGA at all ? maybe there is a newer firmware etc to trial

I need to double-check with EVGA. Originally I thought the issue was isolated to SWTOR. However, now that I see it appears to be more widespread I may go back to EVGA. Additionally, I confirmed that the pixelated shadows still appear. I am running the December 21st 2015 driver (361.43). The way I understand it the hotfixes are basically beta drivers, correct? However, if this graphics card has been out for a couple of years now and the issues still aren't fixed, what are the chances of these issues ever being fixed? (Sorry, a bit pessimistic. None of this directed at you). Since you have a 970 also, am I correct in understanding that you also experience some of these problems?

@ObsidianVashti

I can give you more info next week hopefully, all going well .... hope internet is working (scheduled for Friday) after moving into house on Thursday.

I have a Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX970 but I do not recall having issues you have currently.

hot fix driver has fixes for 361.43 that they consider bad enough to patch before the next official release

I did some major tweaking within the NVIDIA control panel and applied the hotfix. For the last couple of days or so I have not had a black-out which seems to be a good sign. That could simply be coincidence as they didn't happen that often to begin with when December 2015 drivers were installed. If I look really closely (ie. if my character is standing still) you can notice the pixelation of shadows still creating some odd visual effects. It's nowhere near as bad compared to where I started, but it is still there. I'm going to be following the hotfixes, forums, and release notes closely to see how this situation evolves. Furthermore when I have the time I'm going to talk with EVGA support.

Best of luck getting your internet all set up, I was doing that not too long ago.

Ok, yesterday- with the hotfix applied- my game still booted to a black screen. It looks like I'm going to pursue this with NVIDIA and EVGA support. If you set your shadows to Very High do you experience any in-game issues? I know previously you mentioned that you had them turned to Low. Was there any reason for that?