The RX Vega 64 Owners Thread

subbytna · 29 Dec 2019 at 20:32

I bought a Vega 64 Strix from Clovis but this thing heats up like a mofo. Hotspot was hitting 105 before shutting down during Superposition Benchmark

I need to reset the thermal pads and put new paste on too. What size is the best for the thermal pad replacement? 3mm thick? Is there a bundle deal with new paste and pads that will do the job?

Also anyone with the Strix 64 that can show me your wattman undervolting stats?

Nasher · 29 Dec 2019 at 20:49

The Strix had a heatsink which doesn't fit properly. Got to love that Asus "premium"

V4nger123 · 29 Dec 2019 at 20:57

All is well, they work!

Cheers, everything is a-go.

subbytna · 29 Dec 2019 at 21:02

Nasher said:
The Strix had a heatsink which doesn't fit properly. Got to love that Asus "premium"

I'm going to replace the thermal pad. Just need to know if it's the 3mm or the 1.5mm pads to get. I knew it was going to be warm due to the thermal pad issue, before I bought it. Fully aware it runs hot spot warm. Didn't think it was 105C warm though

Alex h · 29 Dec 2019 at 21:08

V4nger123 said:
All is well, they work!

Cheers, everything is a-go.

Glad you got it sorted mate now enjoy your card

Phixsator · 30 Dec 2019 at 21:48

How is folks doing with the new drivers.. im on the 19.12.2 and for the second time now after a delay from installing, issues are starting to show. Gonna go to 19.12.3 and see if there is a difference. Getting a bit tired of it.

DoneADougalOnSofa · 30 Dec 2019 at 21:53

Can't stand the new interface (HBSS or whatever it is takes some finding!) but I guess I need to get familiar with it.

My main gripe is periodic blackouts- screen goes black for 15-20 seconds, then recovers. Doesn't seem to matter what I'm doing.
Driver is crashing and resetting- any changes I make get wiped back to Balanced mode.

No problems up til now!

Poneros · 30 Dec 2019 at 22:46

Drivers are flawless (for me) except for missing P-state locks, but if you have an old config file then it still works when you load the profile (and if you don't, it's easy enough to revert to older drivers, make profile, save, then reinstall newer drivers).

hudson86 · 1 Jan 2020 at 18:28

I followed this guide for the LC, dont know if the blower pads are different. Lc are 1 and 1.5

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/8vv4fb/vega_64_lc_thermal_paste_and_pad_replacement_how/

However the ek waterblock has 1.0 and 0.5 but that might just be ek specific

Edit... this might be better for strix, this bloke used 3 and 2mm

https://m.imgur.com/gallery/GZJnFY2

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/atd6x2/strix_vega_64_thermal_pad_paste_replacement/

subbytna · 2 Jan 2020 at 14:22

DoneADougalOnSofa said:
Can't stand the new interface (HBSS or whatever it is takes some finding!) but I guess I need to get familiar with it.

My main gripe is periodic blackouts- screen goes black for 15-20 seconds, then recovers. Doesn't seem to matter what I'm doing.
Driver is crashing and resetting- any changes I make get wiped back to Balanced mode.

No problems up til now!

I'm getting that. Screen suddenly goes black, like it's resetting, then comes back on again after about 20 seconds or less. Almost the same routine if you lost the signal to the monitor briefly. Reconnects, shows the monitor is getting a signal and ten everything is fine again.

Also not enamoured with the new settings GUI. Prefer the older version as it's easier to find stuff. New one looks good but hard to get stuff like wattman without having to google how to find it (to change P states etc)

subbytna · 2 Jan 2020 at 14:24

neil473 said:
I followed this guide for the LC, dont know if the blower pads are different. Lc are 1 and 1.5

I've ordered the 3.0 pad strip and the paste too. Due Monday so I'll take it apart then and replace. Might do a brief guide. Mine isn't liquid cooled, just standard Strix 64

DoneADougalOnSofa · 2 Jan 2020 at 18:33

subbytna said:
I'm getting that. Screen suddenly goes black, like it's resetting, then comes back on again after about 20 seconds or less. Almost the same routine if you lost the signal to the monitor briefly. Reconnects, shows the monitor is getting a signal and ten everything is fine again.

Also not enamoured with the new settings GUI. Prefer the older version as it's easier to find stuff. New one looks good but hard to get stuff like wattman without having to google how to find it (to change P states etc)

Ahh, not just me then. Must be a specific issue with Vega64 cards then. We'll probably get a new beta very soon I would think...

teth · 6 Jan 2020 at 12:13

I experience it only when the card is UV or OC'd whilst watching Video's in fullscreen. (The blackouts) I think it resets to default but doesn't give a notification like it did before. If i watch movies with Card set to default it's fine and no blackouts. OC/UV still working in games thus far.

subbytna · 11 Jan 2020 at 21:29

Ok so I took 20-30 mins to replace the thermalpad and paste on the Strix 64 that I bought.

Before hand I ran Superposition benchmark to get the card nice and heated up for a temperature reading. Scored 4422 on the 1080 Extreme setting benchmark. Card was on stock settings with no power limit increase.

This was the hot spot temp BEFORE the change....110 degrees!!!

Ok so here's the stuff I needed - Thermal Grizzly 3mm pad and some thermal paste, again from Thermal Grizzly. Here are the 6 screws that I need to remove to get at the chip and pad. 4 pressure mounted screws and 2 screws tot he side that hold the backplate on

Removing the pressure screws took a REALLY small screwdriver but I had one to hand. Here is the pressure plate off

All that was left was to take the 2 side screws off and I could get started

I didn't even have to take the cables out, the cooler came off very easily and was able to sit it down beside the PCB. Very simple to remove the cooler.

You can see the REALLY poor contact on the flimsy yellow pad. This was really bad. Hardly ANY contact at all, plus a fairly poor amount of thermal paste on the cooler plate.

Here's the amount of TIM left on the CPU. Sparse. You can see parts of the right hand side of the chip are clean, showing there was little if any contact with the thermal paste.

A quick clean with a few ear buds and some iso alcohol and it's shiney shiney

CPU cleaned and ready to go too

The Grizzly paste comes with a black spreader, a bit like one of the ice cream "spoons" you get from the ice cream van. Spatula...that was the word I was looking for.

I peeled the old thermal pad off. It was flimsy and tore easily. On with the new 3mm thick one. Much better

With the thermal pad on and the new thermal paste applied, it was a simple reversal of the screws and 60 seconds later everything was back in place. You can see the thermal pad through the side of the cooler. I let a little hang off so that if I need to replace it again, it'll peel off easily.

Ran the same benchmark again with the new paste and pad. Scored 4654 - Although I did increase the power limit slider fully to the 50% to give the card more juice if it wanted. The main thing is that the hot spot reduced by 25 degrees....TWENTY FIVE :eek:

Other temps were slightly higher due to the card running much faster with the additional power the 50% limit gave it.

Took about 30 mins all in, if that.

gpuerrilla · 11 Jan 2020 at 22:24

Very good results, nice pics telling the story.

Phixsator · 11 Jan 2020 at 23:13

My hotspot temp on my nitro+ is around 95-100c. Not very impressive and this is undervolted to 1025mv from 1200mv. Still have about a year of warranty on it so i'm not gonna bother for now with a new paste job but it seems like it could use it though.

hudson86 · 11 Jan 2020 at 23:18

Excellent, nice result

DoneADougalOnSofa · 12 Jan 2020 at 10:25

I messed up watercooling my Powercolor Red Devil, needs a reseat... Flipping hotspot!
Luckily I can still game, just have to use frame-limiters to keep the heat down.

I'll sort it out one day- or just keep it how it is until I eventually upgrade!

subbytna · 14 Jan 2020 at 09:55

From running a few other benchmarks since the "surgery" Replacing the thermal pad and paste has resulted in the card running about 9-10% faster. The fans don't ramp up as much and the fan profile can be less aggressive now, even with the power slider up to the 50% slot too. I've a 1080p Freesync monitor so I don't have to push the card too hard to get a solid 60FPS+ in all games now. Means the card is quiet and runs so well.

Phixsator · 14 Jan 2020 at 14:17

subbytna said:
From running a few other benchmarks since the "surgery" Replacing the thermal pad and paste has resulted in the card running about 9-10% faster. The fans don't ramp up as much and the fan profile can be less aggressive now, even with the power slider up to the 50% slot too. I've a 1080p Freesync monitor so I don't have to push the card too hard to get a solid 60FPS+ in all games now. Means the card is quiet and runs so well.

I 2 run a 1080p monitor but a 240hz and in the games where i want to use all 240hz like CS or Overwatch I get all them frames and more. Just had a look on a few different reviews of Vega 64 and I saw several claiming it pulls close to 300watts and is roughly 10+ fps lower in games like Gears 5 vs the 5700 non XT.. Thing is, after a small downclock from stock 1630 to 1600 and an UV from 1200 to 1025mv while bumping the HBM to 1025mv and 1025mhz as well i had no issue getting just slightly better score than the 5700 non xt while "only" drawing 210ish watts.. Not to bad for this old dog of mine. This is when paired with a Ryzen 3600 non x and not the 9900k that they always use in reviews these days.