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Strange performance issue with new build - Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X

gthlm

gthlm

gthlm

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Hi guys, this one has me stumped, hoping someone might be able to shed some light!

I haven't done enough testing to prove anything - but it seems to be from a cold boot - GPU performance will be really bad, on the order of 50% of normal fps in games and bench scores, the Unigine benchmarks will trigger the "AMD Display Driver stopped working...", and there are regular direct x crashes in games. All manner of nastiness.

BUT, a simple restart and everything is fine. Really good bench scores, great FPS, perfect stability.

i7 4770K
Asus Z87-Plus
Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X OC
Avexir Gold series 8Gb - set with XMP profile in bios
Corsair RM750 PSU
Corsair Hydro H75 cooler
Samsung 840 EVO 250Gb

Totally virgin build, there's nothing else in there. Fresh install of 8.1 x64, legit license - no KMS activator or anything like that. Does the same thing with 13.12 or 14.1 beta drivers.

Don't think it's anything to do with the 290X - it seems to work as it should in my old 2600/P8-Z68V system.

I'm a bit suspicious of the Corsair RM750 - I don't like how the fan almost never runs and it does get quite warm.

I've never come across anything like this before. If anyone can give me any ideas I'd be really grateful!
 
i doubt its the psu man, its a good thing the fan isnt spinning lol i have the rm650w and it hardly spins, it spins when the psu is under a certain load, i think it might be temperature controlled aswel but not sure on that though.
 
OvEr_KiLL said:
i doubt its the psu man, its a good thing the fan isnt spinning lol i have the rm650w and it hardly spins, it spins when the psu is under a certain load, i think it might be temperature controlled aswel but not sure on that though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I read it starts spinning at 40% load. It cools it right down when the fans going and you still can't hear it. It's just kind of wrong to my mind that the PSU should be hot when the system is idle.

almighty15 said:
I would do a fresh install.....
Click to expand...

It literally is a fresh install, everything is new - assembled yesterday.
 
OK, i've proven it now. Half a dozen power cycles to test.

Always from a cold boot, 50% GPU performance.

After restart, 100% GPU performance.

UEFI issue? On a restart the first part of post is skipped (no "F2 to enter setup" etc.)
 
d1ablo969 said:
It seems that when you first start-up the system the video card is limited in terms of power...
Click to expand...

Clocks and voltages are all normal though. No evidence whatsoever that it's underpowered or throttling.

I'm fairly convinced it's a uefi issue now. I can amplify the problem enormously by turning on the Hardware Fast Boot option in bios. That gives <10 fps in Unigine heaven and constant (every ten seconds or so) display driver crash/recoveries - on a cold boot.

Even in that extreme case, it still works 100% perfectly after a restart.

The bios switch on the card doesn't seem to do much, and I've no idea which position is which since sapphire haven't bothered to document that anywhere.
 
On my MSI, the switch closest to the display attachments is Legacy Bios and the one furthest away is the Hybrid Bios, for Uefi etc
 
Neil79 said:
On my MSI, the switch closest to the display attachments is Legacy Bios and the one furthest away is the Hybrid Bios, for Uefi etc
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it's the same on this one, but it doesn't say anywhere. Sapphire don't have a manual for this card at all as far as I can tell, which is fair enough, but they at least could have put a piece of paper in the box explaining the switch.

I've tried it in both positions in conjunction with the associated bios options and it doesn't seem to make much difference to anything anyway.

Updated the mobo bios to the latest version to no avail.

Anyway, I'm still struggling with this if anyone has any other ideas. I know it only takes seconds to restart, but still...
 
Go into the BIOS and specifically select the GPU as the primary video device. If you leave it on auto, strange things can happen as the IGP can often come up first.

I've found with my MSI R290 card, that with the legacy BIOS enabled, everything worked, but with the UEFI hybrid BIOS selected, the PCIe card needs to be selected. With the BIOS set to auto, and the IGP active, the hybrid BIOS just makes the R290 come up with a black screen as if it's not been recognised at all.
 
Steampunk said:
Go into the BIOS and specifically select the GPU as the primary video device. If you leave it on auto, strange things can happen as the IGP can often come up first.

I've found with my MSI R290 card, that with the legacy BIOS enabled, everything worked, but with the UEFI hybrid BIOS selected, the PCIe card needs to be selected. With the BIOS set to auto, and the IGP active, the hybrid BIOS just makes the R290 come up with a black screen as if it's not been recognised at all.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion but, yes, I've done all that already!

It's a minor problem but it's so frustrating. After the restart it's rock solid. I can get a good OC on it and play BF4 for hours with no issues at all.

If there was some kind of base incompatibility between the mobo and the graphics card surely I wouldn't be the only one posting about it? This must be a reasonably common combination?
 
Have you tried updating the BIOS on the motherboard? Asus has chucked out quite a few new ones for the Z87 boards.

If that doesn't help, check if there are any newer BIOSes for the graphics card.
 
Steampunk said:
Have you tried updating the BIOS on the motherboard? Asus has chucked out quite a few new ones for the Z87 boards.

If that doesn't help, check if there are any newer BIOSes for the graphics card.
Click to expand...

Yes, latest BIOS, no, no new BIOS' for the card.

Small update: It seems on the Sapphire the switch position nearest the display ports is the UEFI bios, which is the opposite to Neil's MSI. I discovered this when I disabled the compatibility support module in the bios and it reposted a few times with no video and then posted with a message that the graphics card was not UEFI compatible and that it had turned the CSM back on to tell me so. That was quite helpful at least! Flicked the switch, turned the CSM off again and now it seems everything is native UEFI.

HOWEVER. It hasn't affected my issue. Still have to restart immediately after boot if I want my gpu to work properly!
 
Last edited:
Update:

Since installing 14.2 I no longer have this problem. Unfortunately I can't say for certain if it was the definitive fix or coincidence with something else I changed.

But if anyone else stumbles across the same problem, that's the first thing to try.
 
Right - I noticed that my GPU runs at 100% activity after cold boot (I was testing it by watching HD vids on utube). Values are jumping up and down though but it seems to be working very hard for some reason.
2qs4ab8.jpg



Then after restart - and watching same video gives me much more reasonable:

mljrzo.jpg




Activity almost never gets to 100%. Videos are smooth. Everything seems to be fine. Any idea why its happening????

D
 
its a fresh windows install. there shouldnt be anything malicious present. Screengrabs are showing what happens when watching HD video. Cold boot is giving me problems and thats what I noticed.

EDIT: I'll scan the whole system just in case.
 
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