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Why is AMD quiet about black screens on 290x?

Kaapstad said:
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.
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Must be one of the lucky ones then cause my spanking new(ish) MSI 780 lightning have no issues what so ever. Granted i havent tried to OC the mem more than 100-150 over stock.
 
Phixsator said:
Must be one of the lucky ones then cause my spanking new(ish) MSI 780 lightning have no issues what so ever. Granted i havent tried to OC the mem more than 100-150 over stock.
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That's the problem, when you try and overclock the memory you may not get the same clocks as other 780s or Titans.
 
Reference cards have to follow a board design from AMD and they can use different components but so long as they are in the design spec, that's ok.
 
Been having this black screen issue for weeks now and starting to really become an irritation.

Having replaced the stock cooler with a Gelid Icy the temps were all reading phenomenally lower (GPU @ 60c, vram 1&2 @50 - full load) which I was super happy about until I started gaming with the thing...

I can replicate it in Sleeping Dogs (high res pack - everything max, 1440p) within the first 5 minutes of starting a new game (the intro play).

Having changed everything from my CPU clock to my PSU I was really grasping at straws until I decided to install Asus GPU Tweak and nudge the memory clock down from 5000 to 4000 as I found this commented on another forum (note: I was running stock speeds at this point, hadn't even got around to overclocking!).
Low and behold since down clocking the memory to 4000 to cards been stable for hours...

What the hell is up with this card?!
 
Tefty said:
Been having this black screen issue for weeks now and starting to really become an irritation.

Having replaced the stock cooler with a Gelid Icy the temps were all reading phenomenally lower (GPU @ 60c, vram 1&2 @50 - full load) which I was super happy about until I started gaming with the thing...

I can replicate it in Sleeping Dogs (high res pack - everything max, 1440p) within the first 5 minutes of starting a new game (the intro play).

Having changed everything from my CPU clock to my PSU I was really grasping at straws until I decided to install Asus GPU Tweak and nudge the memory clock down from 5000 to 4000 as I found this commented on another forum (note: I was running stock speeds at this point, hadn't even got around to overclocking!).
Low and behold since down clocking the memory to 4000 to cards been stable for hours...

What the hell is up with this card?!
Click to expand...

What brand of 290 is it?
 
Tefty said:
Powercolor - Tried with both stock Bios and Asus Bios...

Same result on both.
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Have you flashed it to a 290X at all?

If you have to lower vram speed to stop it crashing then its probably faulty.

EDIT

Have you tried leaving memory at stock speed and lowering core clock to 947?
 
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LtMatt said:
Have you flashed it to a 290X at all?

If you have to lower vram speed to stop it crashing then its probably faulty.

EDIT

Have you tried leaving memory at stock speed and lowering core clock to 947?
Click to expand...

Nope I can give it a go in a bit, trying to actually enjoy some Sleeping Dogs now I can get past the intro.

I raised an RMA request with the place of purchase earlier this afternoon upon discovering the down clock resolved the issue so will need to strip the card and put the stock cooler back on. Not impressed with this card to say the least...
When it runs its a lush but getting it to run is a ball ache...

3D Mark seems to work fine on the Fire Strike test and BF4 I was usually able to get an hour or so out of it. It's only thanks to sleeping dogs high res that I found something that could replicate the issue without fail... Over 30 times in a row!
 
I assume you're on latest driver?

Amount of posts about black screens has plummeted since beta9.4 which purported to fix it.

BTW I hate Sleeping Dogs, it killed my overclock. Something about the last part of the benchmark causes either massive power draw or undue stress to the GPU.
 
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Rangerjr1 said:
Advice? It wasnt advice, i never intended it to be advice. Whats up?
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I assumed you were telling him to get a new card as his other was faulty. That's the conclusion i come to if you have to underclock it to avoid crashing.

He should try what i said with lowering the core clock though. I noticed his stock clocks are 975/1250. It could be his cards needs a bump of voltage or two to be stable at that core clock.
 
Just confirming that my 290x was not only **** but faulty.

I dont see how a 290x is worth it over a 290. Considering price and performance (290 is a TINY BIT slower)
 
The fact that I could consistently get the black screen to occur during the intro play to me is proof enough that something isn't right, I used this intro 30+ times while tweaking overclocks and everything til eventually I down clocked and boom success!

Now that I have to rip off my Gelid and all the ram sinks leaves the question of do I invest another £10 for adhesive to re-attach them all or wait and get a 3rd party vendor cooled...
 
So here's the update:-

- Took memory back to stock 1500 and set GPU to 957 as suggested = Black screen lockup on Intro (again Sleeping Dogs can replicate the circumstances without fail)
- Tried everything stock (1000/5000) and set GPU voltage to 1300 and Power Target to 150 = Black screen lockup on Intro
- Set everything back to stock and then downed memory again to 4000 = Passed with flying colours

This was all done on the ASUS R9 290x BIOS even though I have a Powercolor R9 290 (unlockable).

I will try all these again later on the normal stock Powercolor bios however I can say for certain it crashed on stock too but for side by side testing I will do the same as above.

Really disappointed as the Gelid was fantastic for dropping the temps on the GPU and VRAM and now I gotta pull it all apart again to RMA. :< #sadpanda
 
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