PC Drivers & Software

[VValdemar]

The configuration of my PC (a common problem among users):

• AMD Graphics Card Make & Model
  • PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB [AXRX 6900XT 16GBD6-3DHE/OC]
• Desktop or Laptop System
  • Desktop System
• Operating System
  • Windows 10 64bit 19042.867 Build
• Driver version installed
  • Radeon Software Adrenaline 21.13.2
• Display Make and model and connection/adapter in use, resolution, and refresh rate.
  • LG LG 25UM57-P/HDMI-cable, 2160x1080px, 60Hz
• CPU/APU Make and model number
  • Ryzen 7 2700X
• Motherboard Make & Model + Bios Revision
  • Asus ROG STRIX X470-F GAMING + BIOS 5843
• Power Supply Unit Make & Model + Wattage
  • Corsair RM1000x [CP-9020094-EU] + 1000W
    
• System Memory Make & Model + Frequency
  • Kingston HyperX HX434C19FBK2/32 + 3466MHz

Problem description:
In the first minutes after the launch of the games at maximum settings, the game freezes (with a black screen or a crash). A message also appears that the driver response time has been exceeded. Benchmarks do not work in the same way.
There is a workaround: in the driver, select 2240 MHz as the maximum GPU frequency (this frequency is specified in the characteristics as the maximum in quiet mode). By default, the driver sets 2504 MHz, which is higher than the max. frequencies in OC mode (i.e. 2340 MHz).
I found messages from other users about this problem on different sites. There are video cards Vega 8, RX-series. And they had problems after updating the driver starting in the fall of 2020.
AMD, please pay attention! Thanks!

[rwesterb]

Thank you for your help!

I already returned my first PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 6900 XT as RMA due to these exact problems, games crash after about 15-30 minutes of game play.

The second card I got (some brand, model) behaves exactly as the first one, games keep crashing.

Setting the maximum GPU frequency to 2240 MHz actually seems to help, at least so far.

[rwesterb]

Well, seems I was too optimistic, tried another game, and graphic driver timeout problems continue.

Getting really annoyed! I hope AMD understands these kind of problems drive customers away!

I already changed my PSU (now Corsair 1000W), my RAM-sticks, and my hard drive in attempts to isolate the problem. These problems have cost me a lot of money, and my system works normally with my old Vega 64 card.  

[VValdemar]

It's a pity that it didn't help. Which game still crashed? What is your CPU?

[rwesterb]

I tried theHunter, Call of the Wild. This game seldom survives 15 minutes, almost never more than 30 minutes of gameplay. This time it crashed after about 5 minutes.

I have a Ryzen 2600x processor and a Asus x470 TUF gaming plus motherboard,

[rwesterb]

Today I got my 3rd Powercolor 6900 XT, the first and second were returned as RMA.

I was excited to test the card, since AMD also released new drivers the other day (21.4.1)

Windows 10 clean install, newest chipset and GPU drivers. Install steam and a couple of games (and all Windows updates).

Watch games crash within 30 minutes, both with OC and silent GPU BIOS settings.

Computer still working normally with Vega 64 card. I will check if I can return the card. I don’t think I have got three malfunctioning cards (hardware) in a row, I think AMD can’t write drivers.

[VValdemar]

Oh yes, in my case the new driver didn't help either

[SofiaBonez]

@rwesterb Since you did the DDU and your still having the issue I would first report it to AMD then I would do the DDU again and go back to a driver that was working you previously before this one.

There are a lot of people on YouTube having issues with this driver here's the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMXE3N8y2b8&lc=UgwADZz65O9SXY5p1i54AaABAg.9MPGyfje6-H9MQHiHcJpfs

[rwesterb]

Thank you for your suggestion, but there are no drivers that have ever worked with my card (I have tried evety single version), so no fallback for me.

No need for DDU, since I actually did a clean install of Windows 10 before I tried out the drivers.

[radhatter]

This means you need to stop looking at the GPU drivers, that isn't your problem. Something else is wrong with your PC, probably an unstable XMP profile on your RAM.

[rwesterb]

My system works perfectly with other graphic cards. Also run MemTest86 from a USB-stick over the night, not a single error detected.

But my 6900 XT runs fine when I bought a new CPU and motherboard (moved all other hardware to new build), so something with either my ASUS x470 motherboard, or my Ryzen 2600x that is causing problems combined with my 6900 XT.

[radhatter]

The 6900XT makes your CPU and RAM work harder because it's so much faster.  Previously the CPU and RAM would have been hanging around looking for something to do because your old GPU wasn't fast enough to push their limits.

Now you are asking them to run at their max all the time which will reveal instabilities in them.

Memtest86+ is a joke these days, it's just not "tough enough."

Try OCCT

https://www.ocbase.com/

Run the CPU test and the memory tests w/ AVX2 enabled.  Let it complete the whole hour each time (really you should let it run for like 8 hours but it requires the paid version.)

[rwesterb]

Ok, but the memory sticks work perfectly with my new motherboard (x570, moved the RAM-sticks, not a single GPU related problem so far), do you still think they cause problems when installed on my older motherboard (x470)?

2x 16GB 1.35V Kingston 3200MHz

[radhatter]

Each component has a little bit to do with how well you can stabilize memory.

The CPU is the main component, that's where the memory controller lies.  If you look at the product page for your CPU here, scroll down to the section that says "System Memory" under specifications.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-5-2600x

System Memory Specification: Up to 2933Mhz.

Essentially, the 2600X is only officially guaranteed to be stable up to 2933Mhz.  Anything past that is an overclock.  XMP profiles are overclocking and manufacturers should say so, but it isn't fun to advertise that way so they don't.  Almost certainly your CPU can do the 3200Mhz speed just fine, on just about any motherboard.  But it might require some manual tweaking because again, it's overclocking.

The motherboard also has something to do with the stability. There are physically different ways they can lay out the memory traces on the motherboard, some ways do better for higher frequency, some do better for more memory, etc.  They aren't all the same.  The fact that you have 32GB makes the CPU work a lot harder to address all the memory, if you only had 16GB you may never have seen any problems in the first place.

The X570 boards came out with the 3X00 series of CPU's which now officially support 3200Mhz memory.  There's a good chance that the x570 board is delivering cleaner voltage or has a more optimal layout for the memory-traces that helped you out.

It's impossible to say for sure, there's just too many variables, but there are a lot of reasons to believe that x570 has more robust memory handling.

[rwesterb]

When I purchased my 6900 XT, I actually had a memory configuration of 32 GB (4x8GB), Ripjaws V, DDR4 3200MHz, CL16. That was working fine with my Vega 64 card

I originally had 16GB installed, but about a year ago I added 2x8GB more.

Once problems started occurring with my newly purchased 6900 XT, I removed two RAM sticks (left slots A2, B2 according to motherboard manual), since filling all slots may reduce stability (according to my understanding).

The games kept crashing with my 6900 XT, so I checked my BIOS-settings again. I then saw that when I had removed two memory sticks, my motherboard had set the memory frequency to 2400 MHz (I had now been running on that frequency for a while). The lower memory frequency had no positive effect on my system stability, but I can imagine such a low frequency may also cause problems. Setting the frequency and voltage to specified values didn’t change anything.

After this I bought new RAM-sticks in an attempt to isolate the problems. Then a new SSD, then a new PSU, then a new motherboard and CPU. All in all a very expensive GPU upgrade.

But you clearly give the impression of knowing what you are talking about, so I will assume memory stability problems are the root cause for problems with my old motherboard:-)

It’s nice to get answers from someone that seems to actually know what he’s talking about, never get that impression when I’m talking to technical support staff.

[radhatter]

Even myself would say "highly likely" for now. There's no real way to know without testing for that specifically, but it's one of the most important things to rule out first.

There's no doubt that AMD has had some very legitimate driver woes, but in my experience they are relatively quick to put it in the patch notes even if the solution takes awhile. I hope it keeps chugging along out your new system brings you lots of fun!  And expect the drivers to get better for sure, my 5700XT gained almost 1000 points in 3DMark Time Spy from the time it came out to now, they are pretty good at optimizing over time so at least we have that.

[JemonD]

I also had a funny coincidence yesterday when I was playing CORE. first, the screen darkened, a message appeared(no signal), then a desktop image and two windows with an error, the first from the game and the second from RadeonSoftware, appeared. from the game that the failure occurred, and from radoensoftware that has timed out driver. but these are all small things compared to the fact that this loss of contact situation continued until I uninstalled the driver and installed the old (stable) one.

coincidence