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New R290 - Black Screen

WiZZyWiGG said:
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?
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Sounds to me those are symptoms of unstable memory clock on the Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X...I experienced that when I use to overclock my memory clock too much...the screen would flicker on desktop, and eventually black screen.

Just want to point out that the Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X has a 200MHz factory overclock with 5200MHz on the memory comparing the the official clock of 5000MHz. I got a feeling if you manual set the memory clock to 5000MHz, the chances are your black screen problem would go away.

However considering the 5200MHz clock is the stock setting of the Sapphire, you are entirely within your right to RMA the card for a replacement. The chances are you just going to get another 290 replacement rather than full refund, due to DSR is no more. But even if you could go for a different card such as the GTX970 for example, it isn't exactly completely risk free, as it has its own fair share of black screen and coil whine issues...so at the end of the day, it is still down to your luck.
 
WiZZyWiGG said:
Whats the best way to turn down the memory clock by 200MHz?
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The "easiest" way is probably use overclock software such as MSI Afterburner, make it start with windows startup and in the software, set it as apply overclock (but for your case it would be underclocking) on startup.

But for now, just try to use MSI Afterburner or AMD Overdive in CCC to manually change the memory clock from 5200MHz (1300MHz) to 5000MHz (1250MHz) clock, and see if it actually helps stopping the black screen from happening.
 
MSI Afterburner is showing it as 1250 on the graph so it must have taken hold, it hasn't got rid of the annoying flicker at the top of the screen that happens every few seconds...

I guess now I wait to see if a black screen appears.
 
WiZZyWiGG said:
MSI Afterburner is showing it as 1250 on the graph so it must have taken hold, it hasn't got rid of the annoying flicker at the top of the screen that happens every few seconds...

I guess now I wait to see if a black screen appears.
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Actually what kind of connection/cable are you using? Cause flickering issues can sometimes by caused by the cable.

It might worth trying a different cable/connection if you have a spare one lying around.
 
About 2 mins after my last post, black screen system crash :(

Using the same DVI cable I always have, took the opportunity on this crash to remove the 290 and put my old 7850 back in as I have to use this PC for work aswell as play so having it crash all the time isnt very useful.

7850 back in and the same DVI cable and the odd flicker at the top of the screen has gone, and hopefully the crashes aswell.
 
WiZZyWiGG said:
About 2 mins after my last post, black screen system crash :(

Using the same DVI cable I always have, took the opportunity on this crash to remove the 290 and put my old 7850 back in as I have to use this PC for work aswell as play so having it crash all the time isnt very useful.

7850 back in and the same DVI cable and the odd flicker at the top of the screen has gone, and hopefully the crashes aswell.
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Looks to me it's RMA time.

Just one finally thing...you have plugged in both the PCI-E 6pin and the PCI-E 8pin power into the 290 right?
 
Tried two different ways with the power to it now, once with the single cable that has both on and today with two separate cables. Was the same with both :(
 
Have you tried down clocking the memory? I know you shouldn't have to, but a down clock of 100mhz on the memory cleared up the issue completely for me.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
The "easiest" way is probably use overclock software such as MSI Afterburner, make it start with windows startup and in the software, set it as apply overclock (but for your case it would be underclocking) on startup.

But for now, just try to use MSI Afterburner or AMD Overdive in CCC to manually change the memory clock from 5200MHz (1300MHz) to 5000MHz (1250MHz) clock, and see if it actually helps stopping the black screen from happening.
Click to expand...

Bonjour said:
Have you tried down clocking the memory? I know you shouldn't have to, but a down clock of 100mhz on the memory cleared up the issue completely for me.
Click to expand...

Yep, did the above as suggested. Didn't help :(
 
I had a 290 which black screened in games and had the flicker on the desktop, turning down my RAM speed fixed it but that is not something you should have to do. I sent it back and got told it was faulty, I recommend you do the same.
 
Yeah was kind of my thinking aswell, I am all for trying things to get it working but it should really just work if im spending £200+ :)

Weird thing I noticed when staring at graphs, my 7850's memory clock sits at 1200MHz all the time, my R920 alternated between 150 and 1250 MHz every second or so?

Maybe that's just what it does though.
 
WiZZyWiGG said:
Yeah was kind of my thinking aswell, I am all for trying things to get it working but it should really just work if im spending £200+ :)

Weird thing I noticed when staring at graphs, my 7850's memory clock sits at 1200MHz all the time, my R920 alternated between 150 and 1250 MHz every second or so?

Maybe that's just what it does though.
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Yea the downclocking is just the powerplay features of graphic card which drop the voltage and clock speed of the card when it is not under load reducing power-consumption and idle temp. The 7850 SHOULD have the powerplay features as well, as I have had this feature since the 5850 days.

The 1250MHz memory clock should be the bare minimum one should accept for the 290 series cards. If it is not stable even at that clock, definitely RMA it.
 
Got my replacement from OCUK today (would have been Monday but I was out, great turnaround time I must say) and so far so good it would seem.

No desktop flicker noticed yet, did some testing in COD: AW and Far Cry 4 and they ran fine with any black screens.

Interestingly the memory clock speed of this card sits at a steady 1300MHz from boot, unlike the iffy card before that jumped between 150 and 1300 every couple of seconds.

Time for some proper gaming to give it a real test :)
 
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