Why is AMD quiet about black screens on 290x?

[CEUOTC]

Got myself a Shapphire r9 290 with Elpdia mem, at first i thought it was a bad overclock giving me black screens. But i am still getting them at Stock clocks, using the latest drivers. Should I RMA the card or is it a driver problem?

Edit:
I should read the thread first, I am on 13.11 Beta 9.5 but still have this problem. So they haven't fixed it yet :/

RMA time.

 

[Warsam71]

Hello everyone,

In case you missed it, I wanted to let you know we just released a new driver today. It's the 13.12 WHQL. You can download it from here: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+7+-+64

Note, the link is to the Win7 64-bit.

Also, here is the link to the Release Notes for the driver: http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDCatalyst13-12WINReleaseNotes.aspx

 

[CEUOTC]

Excellent work.

 

[LtMatt]

Hello everyone,

In case you missed it, I wanted to let you know we just released a new driver today. It's the 13.12 WHQL. You can download it from here: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+7+-+64

Note, the link is to the Win7 64-bit.

Also, here is the link to the Release Notes for the driver: http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDCatalyst13-12WINReleaseNotes.aspx

Is this driver specifically intended for the black screen issue?

 

[benjii]

Is this driver specifically intended for the black screen issue?

It doesn't appear so, although they have addressed it.

​May resolve intermittent black screens or display loss observed on some AMD Radeon™ R9 290X and AMD Radeon R9 290 graphics cards

 

[LtMatt]

It doesn't appear so, although they have addressed it.

Have since found out this is just a WHQL version of the 13.11 Beta 9.5 driver.

 

[Deleted member 76686]

I did an RMA on my R290x last week and sent it this week, it was suffering the odd BSOD but it was suffering coil whine which to try and fix I tried to Max out the card via benchmarks like valley which all resulted with the black screen problem. My last four cards have been 8800-5870-580-R290X but out of these two of these have gone fault, both were ATI/AMD products so while I accepted a replacement of 5870 this time I went for a refund and have now gone for http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-127-GI

 

[matty114]

Will I have any problem doing a RMA with my 290? I got it from a place starting with E more than 4 letters. It only happens 1-3 times a day, I keep thinking they will test it and find no problems with it.

 

[Deleted member 76686]

What happens when you Heaven benchmark?

 

[matty114]

What happens when you Heaven benchmark?

The most I have ran it for is 15 minutes and it was fine, I can play Black Flag for hours with only 1 or 2 black screens. I just got a black screen in BF4 after 4 minutes. It is very random when they happen.

 

[Deleted member 76686]

Well I guess you'll have to make the report as detailed as possible, mine always happened after a few minutes in Heaven.

 

[just persia]

Finally got around to getting my new computer set up and working today, and my 290 black screens.

Is it worth waiting and hoping that a driver can sort this issue out? Or just RMA it now?

Also I have fitted an MK-26 to it(I know I should have tried it first), will they RMA it if I put the original cooler back on?

Thanks.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Finally got around to getting my new computer set up and working today, and my 290 black screens.

Is it worth waiting and hoping that a driver can sort this issue out? Or just RMA it now?

Also I have fitted an MK-26 to it(I know I should have tried it first), will they RMA it if I put the original cooler back on?

Depending on from which retailer you bought the card from and which brand. OcUK is fine with cooler removal for Sapphire, MSI, and I believe for VTX and HIS as well.

Did you get black screen on stock clock, or did you tried to overclock the memory?

 

[just persia]

Yes I got it from OCUK and it's a Sapphire so that's good to hear.

It was on stock clock, have updated to drivers that seem to have helped with some peoples and still no luck.

 

[Sh0ckdoctrine]

Got a black screen last night playing Crysis 2 (steam version) latest drivers.

Sapphire R9 290X.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Think the biggest contributor to the black screen issue is the Eplida being piece of poo and it's not stable for some people even at stock clock, let alone overclocking, so don't really think it is a driver related issue.

If we can have the option to tweak the voltage for the memory, we would probably have very good chance of solving the black screen problem. Unfortunately we don't

Guess we learn something new everyday...at least I would know in the future when making graphic purchase decision, I should REALLY keep the quality of the memory use in mind as well.

 

[Kaapstad]

Think the biggest contributor to the black screen issue is the Eplida being piece of poo and it's not stable for some people even at stock clock, let alone overclocking, so don't really think it is a driver related issue.

If we can have the option to tweak the voltage for the memory, we would probably have very good chance of solving the black screen problem. Unfortunately we don't

Guess we learn something new everyday...at least I would know in the future when making graphic purchase decision, I should REALLY keep the quality of the memory use in mind as well.

Yes the MSI Lightning 780 springs to mind here, could have been a great card but let down by the memory.

 

[LtMatt]

Think the biggest contributor to the black screen issue is the Eplida being piece of poo and it's not stable for some people even at stock clock, let alone overclocking, so don't really think it is a driver related issue.

If we can have the option to tweak the voltage for the memory, we would probably have very good chance of solving the black screen problem. Unfortunately we don't

Guess we learn something new everyday...at least I would know in the future when making graphic purchase decision, I should REALLY keep the quality of the memory use in mind as well.

What memory has your card got Marine?

Does anyone know what memory the MSI R290 Pro cards have?

 

[Kaapstad]

One thing I don't understand is all the 290Xs at launch were said to be reference, how can this statement be true when they used different memory chips.

 

[Marine-RX179]

What memory has your card got Marine?

Does anyone know what memory the MSI R290 Pro cards have?

Eplida.

Mine is the OcUK's VTX pre-flashed to 290x. I only played Bulletstorm and Deadlight since I got the card...neither game is very demanding. I'm unlucky that I don't seem to get black screen so long as I don't use higher than 1325MHz on the memory clock; trying 1425MHz I get black screen in Bulletstorm as well. I haven't tried on the more demanding games such as Crysis 3 or BF4, so I can't comment on that.

I think most 290Pros got Eplida.

One thing I don't understand is all the 290Xs at launch were said to be reference, how can this statement be true when they used different memory chips.

Yea now that you mentioned it, it's kinda weird that they got mixes of Hynix and Eplida when they are supposed to be reference. Guess the Hynix factory fire might have cause some shortage on their memory, so Sapphire had to use Eplida for random cards?