• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Please can you help with my 2x 290x refs cards

Associate
Joined
13 Jul 2011
Posts
288
Location
Cheshire
Hey

Ok so i really need some help before i lose the plot with my cards. I Purchased a Saf 290x Ref card back last year when they came out ever since i had it just never been stable.
Running MSI Afterburner at 1100/1400 power target 50% Core MV50 etc BF4 & Crysis3 you can be playing it and boom just crashes within 10 mins. I then purchased a 2nd card for crossfire and still having the same problem. The first card i did the asus bios voltage unlock and the 2nd card i have not bothered.

I have tried all the beta driver and 14.4 and 13.12 and nothings changed. I have also changed my CPU clock to a lower setting and this has made no difference either

here is my event view
eventviews2014_zpsd50e5a95.png


can anyone give me some advice ?
 
Last edited:
Can you try this and see how it goes.

1.Uninstall all AMD/Nvidia drivers(With control panel or Driver Uninstaller (DDU) / Cleaner made for Display Drivers.(NVIDIA/AMD)

2.Flash both cards to same BIOS(Sapphire TRI-X is Good one VER015.042.000.000.000000)

3.Shut down PC and do a full CMOS reset(Disconnect power cable from computer for awhile, remove the CMOS battery, Press your power button. Press and hold the power button on your computer for about 10-15 seconds (nothing should happen because the power is turned off). This will discharge any remaining power stored in the capacitors. This will make the BIOS reset.After awhile put power cable and battery back in.)

4.Put cards back in and attach all power cables and make sure all cables are plugged into the motherboard also(double check all cables to motherboard and disconnect and DVD drivers or things your not using )

5.Turn on computer ,set up your BIOS and restart the computer.

6.Goto desktop and install your AMD driver and Nvidia Physx driver only and restart computer.When restarted AMD will ask to setup a few things(Video/Crossfire)

7.Install Sapphire Trixx for now and setup a an aggressive fan profile for now.If you want to Overclock the cards,only overclock the core and do not touch the memory.Test machine for awhile,once you find a good core overclock,test memory overclock.(Of course take your time do it right)

If it works out for you,set everything back up and good luck too you.
 
I personally wouldn't flash a BIOS for a non-reference card to a reference one. At best the fan curve will be completely different, at worst it simply won't boot anymore and you'll need to use the second BIOS to get up and running to reflash the first.

I would echo Matt's request - do the crashes happen if you remove the overclock on the graphics cards? If you still get crashes, try using each card on it's own to work out which is faulty and RMA it. If they both test OK solo, then I'd be looking at your PSU, CPU overclock or motherboard to find the fault.
 
I'm pretty sure your issue with the blackscreen is to do with the vram being clocked too high, when they are incapable of running those speed stable. Flashing to other bios doesn't really help, as I've already tried (unless it's for the purpose of unlocking voltage).

My 290x's memory would only do around 1375-1400MHz stable max. Unfortunately memory performance on the 290s are similar to the silicon lottery of GPUs...
 
Last edited:
Op, you should only run@stock until you get to the bottom of it at least.

Worth a try:

Possible Fix: Uninstall 14.x driver and install the 13.12 driver! I know you may have heard this fix before, but during the days i was searching for solutions, i dismissed this fix - thinking it wouldn't work and it was too "simple" for it to work. I just want to reiterate this solution, as i have been on many forums where people are still having the B(lack)SOD and also as watch_dogs is coming out :) i want people to sort out their GFX card for the release.

Although the 13.12 drivers don't have mantle (i had released some FPS decrease in BF4 multiplayer) its a good fix until AMD finally put out another driver to sort the issue (probably not). So catalyst 14.5 is supposed to come out on the 27th-28th.
 
Back
Top Bottom