PC Drivers & Software

[endereverend]

Hi,

I got myself a Vega 64 a while ago, and I've been experiencing issues.

Like the title says, when under high load the card is prone to crash.

I know it's the card because I will get a black screen, but the system and sound will still be working.

The GPU will "reinitialise" and the system recovers but any game will either crash or continue having a black screen.

Sometimes the game will report "Crash due to graphics adapter not responding" or some variation thereof.

The only common circumstance is that the game is graphics intensive.

Every time it happens the GPU Tach will be stuck on full afterwards, and AMD link will report 100% GPU load.

Drivers are up to date 17.12.2, it happened with all previous drivers as well.

Have done a full uninstall/ reinstall of the graphics drivers.

I've done some fiddling with Radeon Settings/ as well as simply setting everything to default but nothing seems to make a difference.

Have a Ryzen 1700X, Asus Crosshair VI Hero, Windows 10 Pro tested with Prime95 and Memtest without crashing.

(It's not a system crash, anyway)

So I'd just like to know if this is behavior that is expected/known or if I should start an RMA.

Regards and Thanks

[Matt_AMD]

Does the card crash when in Power Saving mode which can be selected under Wattman? If that stops the crashing, it could either be a faulty GPU or Power Supply. If the crashing continues regardless, and you have tried some basic trobuleshooting such as a DDU > different driver install/Clean Windows Install, then the GPU could be faulty.

[kingfish · Accepted solution]

Do you have any third party graphics controllers installed (Afterburner, Trixx, ASUS, etc)? If so uninstall them as there are conflicts with AMD/Wattman controls and settings.

In Wattman, do the Vega cards have a Power Limit setting? If so, it should be raised to the maximum +value (on other cards typically +50 or +20). Click apply.

[endereverend]

Alright,

I'll try with the power limit at 50%.

If that crashes i'll set it to power save.

I have done a DDU before installing the latest drivers, don't have any 3rd party OC tools installed.

My windows was installed from before creators update, have installed creators and fall creators since then. Will try a fresh install if push comes to shove.

[kingfish]

AMD graphics performance

" Your AMD graphics card has a Power Limit setting in Overdrive. The default setting is 0. That is a power saving (electricity)  setting that throttles your card when it begins to draw more power...like when your gaming. Enabling Overdrive and Raising the Power Limit to it's Highest + value (currently +50 or +20 depending on the card) Disables this throttling feature. It is not overclocking, it just allows the card to perform to its maximum capabilities."

[endereverend]

So far everything seems much improved.

I have run the 3DMark Time Spy extreme stress test several times, and so far it has managed to complete all 20 loops without issues every time.

Before changing the power limit a crash was almost guaranteed before completing even the first 20 loops.

Last week I've had only one crash (overwatch), the crash report stated it was also GPU related but it was a different message than before. (don't remember which exactly).

That said I haven't played GPU intensive titles as much at all.

It looks like it was the GPU being starved of power that induced the crashing before.

However the fact that this happens at stock settings, everything on default, is not great honestly.

I assume I had though luck with the silicon lottery with this one.

Let's say the GPU was binned a bit optimistically, and it draws a bit more power than it's supposed to be, I'd be fine with that.

But if it's faulty beyond being a bit more power hungry, that would be very bad.

Is there any way to try and determine which of these options is the case?

(Other than keeping the limit at 1.5x  and seeing how it fares, which I'll be doing for sure, but it might take some time.)

Would you suggest trying for an RMA or taking it on the chin?

[onekanoobe]

I am seeing the same issue to the one described but have not been successful in fixing it. The PC is running fine, but the LED tach on the card with max out and most often I get a black screen.  Sometimes the screen is white or gray with the app that was up, but usually just black.  While it has happened in games (infrequently) it is consistent in Davinci Resolve.  I have never gotten Resolve to work, not once.  it will load and I can browse to my media, but as soon as I try to play a clip, the system freezes, black screen, LED tach all the way up etc.  Most of the time I reboot because the card never fully recovers.

I have a Ryzen 5 1600 CPU on and ASUS B350 MB with 16gb RAM and a Seasonic 750FX Gold PSU.  The GPU power cables are separate.  I have tried adjusting Wattman to 50+, turning off sleep mode in Win10 and in ULPS.  I have tried multiple drivers.  I am worried that it may be the power supply, but am not sure how to go about testing that.  750 watts should be ample power correct?  Should I try an 850?