Hoping for advice, computer freezing, think it's AMD GPU related

[TheBigCheese]

Hi guys

I'm having a lot of trouble with my computer at the moment and I'm not sure how to accurately troubleshoot it.

This is my setup:
i7 3770K
Corsair 32GB DDR3
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H
2 8GB AMD R9 290 Sapphire Tri-X in crossfire
EVGA SuperNova G2 1000W PSU
Windows 10 64bit

Radeon Software Version - 16.6
Radeon Software Edition - Crimson

Everything is running at stock in a large Coolermaster case with good ventilation.

I'm using it for 4K gaming and it runs really well, I've been playing Dying Light lately with everything at max (AA switched off) and it runs at a constant 60FPS (v-sync on).

HOWEVER...

Every now and then the computer will hang and will require a press of the reset button.

There doesn't seem to be a regular pattern, expect for the fact it's when I'm gaming.

I was gaming earlier for a good hour or so without issue, and then it froze.

When I've just loaded it up just now (which has spurred me to write this post) it didn't just freeze, it black screened, made a slightly strange noise, was black for a second or two and then restarted by itself which is a different crash behaviour.

There doesn't seem to be a pattern to it. When it crashed earlier I had multiple programs open in the background including Chrome, Photoshop etc., so there was a lot going on in the background but it worked for an hour without crashing.

Just now it had nothing running (having recovered from teh crash earlier) and it crashed instantly I went into the game (as in, into the map, the loading screens were OK).

I have been reading about AMD cards and there seems to be an issue with them not drawing power properly when they have eco-mode switched on. Some people recommend switching this off using MSI afterburner. I don't really like to do anything that's outside the standard recommended parameters so I thought I'd get some advice before doing that.


What do you think OCUK, any ideas what could be causing the issues?


Thanks very much!


Hope this post all makes sense, I'm rather tired while typing it and wanted to describe the issue while it's fresh in my mind.

 

[TheBigCheese]

Hi guys

Thanks very much for all the thoughts, sorry it's taken me a while to reply, very hectic day, I'll try and test what you've said tomorrow.

hobib_ali - yeah, CPU doesn't go above 70ish, GPUs get to about 84 max. I actually moved the computer from under my desk to give it more air circulation so it didn't get hot air circulating under the desk, it's not really in a position to move now...not easily any way. Thankfully tommybhoy has a cunning plan for that!

TheRealDeal - good plan with the underclocking, I got the cards a while ago and hadn't considered that they could be clocked to the edge of stability. What should I use to underclock them, the AMD software or MSI Afterburner? Thanks for the tip on the RAM as well. I wouldn't think it would be that, I do a lot of Photoshop/Premiere work and frequently virtually fill up the RAM with video stuff and it doesn't fall over then, so I would guess the RAM is working correctly, not sure though!

Brizzles, thanks for the confirmation! Again, is that best done through MSI Afterburner?

Griffildur - I'm pretty sure they are in the OK range. On one of the times it crashed, I rebooted, loaded back into the game and as soon as it loaded the game (as into the playable game, not the menu) it froze again, it shouldn't have heated up in that time, but I can run CPU-Z and GPU-Z to monitor the temperatures.

r7slayer - I have looked in event viewer but I can't see anything relating to a crash, just that it says it's recovered from a crash, nothing to indicate what caused it unfortunately (which is actually in line with what others have said about AMD GPU related crashes).

CAT-THE-FIFTH - soon as I figure out how to do that! lol

tommybhoy - this is gold information! As I mentioned above, moving the computer at the moment would be a real issue so if I can test one card at a time without having to drag it out will be superb!


I'll try testing it tomorrow and let you all know how it goes!