Sapphire R9 290 - faulty? Or PSU issue?

[bobal]

Hi All,

I've been having intermittent issues with my Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X OC (https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-341-SP), which I bought back in Feb. I'm not sure if the card is faulty or it's something to do with my set-up (perhaps PSU isn't powerful enough).

I think what I'm seeing is artifacts on the screen - basically a section of the screen (seems to always be a single rectangular portion - but different positions and sizes) becomes corrupted. So far it's happened in 3 different games (COD: Ghosts, COD: Black Ops 2 and Battlefield 3). I haven't seen it happen outside of 3D games.

Specifically in Ghosts, it's crashed out 2 or 3 times with a Direct3D error (driver not responding). And then after this all games appear to run with much lower frame rates than normal until I reboot (I tested this with the 3 games mentioned).

I've used various drivers, originally was using 14.x stable, then moved to 14.4 beta then 14.6 beta and finally back to 14.4 stable last night. The artifacts have been appearing on all drivers, however I only saw the Direct3D crash whilst on the betas.

Does anyone know if an underpowered PSU could cause these issues? I have an OCZ 600W PSU by the way? I did a bit of Googling and some people reported PSU's could be the cause of video card issues, but I'm not sure if it could cause what I'm seeing.

I was running a GTX 570 prior to the 290 (same hardware minus video card), and had no issues, so don't think it's a problem with any other component.

I was able to capture a screen shot of the artifact issue in Ghosts:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-y0vrE9XFp1ZGk2eklGLWFKN0E/edit?usp=sharing

Hope someone can help, it's really appreciated .

Cheers,
Al

 

[flame696]

I don't think it's the PSU causing the issue.

Do you have another PSU or could you borrow from someone to rule it out?

 

[BaDBoY_uK]

RMA it. That isn't a PSU issue

Is it the EXACT same location every time? Tried another gcard in your system to rule out - crazy idea - the monitor itself?

 

[Marine-RX179]

Few sugguestions:
- Try re-sitting the card
- Try unplugging and replugging the cable to of both ends
- Try 13.12 driver

 

[NoobCannon]

Sounds like not enough voltage to card. Rma it if its not overclocked

 

[bobal]

Hey, thanks for all the helpful feed back guys . Sorry for the late response btw, was in work this afternoon and only just sat down at my PC.

I don't think it's the PSU causing the issue.

Do you have another PSU or could you borrow from someone to rule it out?

Unfortunately not. However my current PSU on is getting on a bit now, so might be worth considering getting a new one.

RMA it. That isn't a PSU issue

Is it the EXACT same location every time? Tried another gcard in your system to rule out - crazy idea - the monitor itself?

No it's different places on the screen. Plus if a flick back to desktop it usually disappears. Hadn't considered that it may be the screen, but now you mention it, hmmm...

I swapped this card into my PC back in Feb, suppose it could be unlucky and my monitor started developing a fault at the same time. Will see if can try on another monitor to rule it out.

 

[bobal]

Few sugguestions:
- Try re-sitting the card
- Try unplugging and replugging the cable to of both ends
- Try 13.12 driver

Cheers for that, will try all of these, and see if it makes any difference. I think i started with the 13.12 driver, but can't be sure. Will re-install them just in case.

Sounds like not enough voltage to card. Rma it if its not overclocked

It's factory overclocked, and I haven't changed any of the default settings. Do you think my PSU may be causing this, if it's not got enough power?

 

[NoobCannon]

I would add a couple more mv to the ram and core in afterburner (assuming you know how to do this ofc) and make sure you are +20 on the power slider (maybe try the +20 first) and if it fixes the artifacts and your happy to keep it then your fine.

I personally would still rma it tho as even if it does fix it as its not doing what its supposed to do and if you do ever decide to oc then its likley to be a poor clocker. But at least you will know its not thr rest of your system