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New R290 - Black Screen

WiZZyWiGG

WiZZyWiGG

WiZZyWiGG

Associate
Joined
16 Mar 2010
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1,173
Location
UK
I have just installed my R290, this one:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-341-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

All seemed to be fine, then during writing an email my machine black screens and crashes... I had to hard power off to get back to Windows, when I did my desktop was all over the place as it the graphics drivers had died.

I had a quick look around and can see a number of black screen related issues around, should I be worried?

Oddly it seems by PCI-Express lane only seems to be running at x8 when I think the card needs x16, would this make a difference?

Cheers.
 
Could be an issue.

I've been experiencing black screen issues with my R9 290, usually after 15-20 minutes in certain games. The solution was multifold.

Firstly, I uninstalled the drivers and did a sweep with driver sweeper before doing a clean install of the latest drivers.
I've lowered the maximum temperature (in CCC) to 85C and upped the maximum fan speed to 65%.
Rather than using a single PCI-E power cable, I've run two power cables from my PSU to ensure the card is getting enough power.
Finally, I've down clocked the memory by 100Mhz. A pain, but I've not had any issues since.

Hope this helps.
 
Bonjour said:
Could be an issue.


Rather than using a single PCI-E power cable, I've run two power cables from my PSU to ensure the card is getting enough power.
Click to expand...

This was something I wondered when putting the card in, wasn't sure if I should use the power cable that did both or do separate ones? Went for the first option as I assumed it would be ok.
 
Depends largely on your PSU as to whether it makes a difference or not. If your PSU has multi-rails then you might find attaching two different PCI-E power cables might spread your GPU load over two rails, easing the burden on one. It will also mean you don't have the full power required going down one cable from PSU to first connector, as you would if you use two connectors on the same line.

That said, if your PSU cabling can't handle the power draw then it shouldn't have two connectors on the one cable. Equally, if they want you to spread the load over multi-rails then the PSU should have a single 6+2 wired from each rail rather than offer enough cables from one rail to potentially overload it.

What PSU are you running? Do you know if it's a single rail or multi-rail (should say on the sticker on the side if it's 12V1 (18A) + 12V2 (12A), etc or just 12V (30A) for example)?
 
All over the forums for years now are GPU issues mainly amd but also Nvidia with Gigabyte Mobos.

The 1st port of call is to get latest Bios even Beta for you Mobo as this fixes it for many if its not the GPU or PSU or anything else to blame.

Failing that it could be simply the R290 (R290x mainly) issues again and AFAIR it may be down to the VRAM manufacturer but cannot remember all the details. and someone can correct this if that not the cause of blacks screens.

GPU-Z will tell you who makes the VRAM if you hover over the little box, you ideally want 1st Samsung or 2nd Hynix but not Elpida
 
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In addition to the above I have noticed an odd occasional flicker at the top of my screen when just using Windows.

I guess I will juts have to wait and see if it black screens anymore?
 
FYI the reason your card shows as only being PCI x8 is because the card is a PCIE-3.0 card and your board is only a PCIE-2.0 slot, its going the max of the socket which equates to the same bandwidth of PCI-3.0@X8 mode.

It seems some people have got unlucky with the 290 series, myself included, I would keep an eye on it and if it blackscreens more send it back for RMA.

I was also able to reduce the number of black screens significantly by using radeon pro to force 3d clocks during gaming sessions, especially older less demanding titles.
 
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Just had another while just doing desktop stuff and having VLC playing a video.

I guess I am going to have to RMA... sounds like this is common with 290s should I look at another card?
 
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