PC Graphics

[kapitana]

Hello,
For some reason my RX480 started randomly crashing (the drivers that is) when I browse the internet, watch videos ... or even when my PC does nothing. This doesn't occur under heavy load (when I play GPU intensive games). It's getting really annoying and obnoxious. It literally just crashed while I was writing this post. I tried fresh driver installment, but that didn't solve the problem. Then I tried increasing the Power limit, thinking that it might help?, but sadly nothing changed. Then I tried heavy overclocking for the f*cks of it ... and it played fine in games (no problems), but crashed when I was browsing through facebook (when I wasn't using the GPU). What the *** is going on?? It makes no god **bleep** sense ... Every help and suggestions are appreciated, like really ... really really.

If this cannot be resolved and since I play games like CSGO and Minecraft (which are not very GPU demanding), I might just scrap the RX480 and buy something more reliable and stable - an Nvidia product (gtx 1050 or something). I'm open to all kind of suggestions.

[colesdav]

(1). Try https://community.amd.com/t5/drivers-software/amd-driver-fix-and-install-using-ddu-memory-psu-and-vr...

(2). According to latest Adrenalin 2020 21.3.2 Release notes: 
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-21-3-2

Known Issues

• Connecting two displays with large differences in resolution/refresh rates may cause flickering on Radeon RX Vega series graphics products.
• Enabling vsync in Rocket League and setting the game to use borderless fullscreen may cause stuttering or ghosting.
• Radeon RX 400 and 500 series graphics products may experience a TDR during extended periods of video playback.
• Brightness flickering may intermittently occur in some games or applications when Radeon™ FreeSync is enabled, and the game is set to use borderless fullscreen.
• Enhanced Sync may cause a black screen to occur when enabled on some games and system configurations. Any users who may be experiencing issues with Enhanced Sync enabled should disable it as a temporary workaround.

Looks like AMD know about the problem and you need to wait for a fix in new drivers. 
Use the AMD Bug Reporting Tool to report the bug to AMD if you are o.k. with the PC Data Trawl with no opt out. 

Just FYI, RX590 is not having this problem on my PC, but do not buy one. 

[kapitana]

I actually have a second monitor with different refresh rate plugged in. It's not in use, but it's plugged to the GPU. I will try removing it and see if this solves the problem. I hope it does ... even though it's always been plugged in and never made a problem before.

Edit:

• Radeon RX 400 and 500 series graphics products may experience a TDR during extended periods of video playback.

*Looks like AMD know about the problem and you need to wait for a fix in new drivers.*
Ohh yea. I didn't read this part. But it's such an old product ... shouldn't it have all bugs fixed already?. 

[colesdav]

RE: Ohh yea. I didn't read this part. But it's such an old product ... shouldn't it have all bugs fixed already?. 

Yes it should, but, the usual story is when they launch a new GPU, the drivers and AIB GPU VBIOS are broken for months, in some cases driver problems for years. Sometimes problems never get fixed, like R9390X fan control (there is none on my R9 390X model in Adrenalin 2020 21.3.2).

The only thing that seemed to work was when Tech YouTubers finally went ape about RX5700XT Driver instability after lots of users complained and I think the bad publicity forced them to fix the problems, probably  because it started to hit sales. 

I never buy AMD GPUs at launch. Can't get them anyway. 
By the time they fix the driver issues in the previous gen cards the next gen GPU is about to launch.
So if you are going to buy one, for gaming only - forget any productivity or compute, only buy one in Black Friday Sale at low cost when they are EOLing.

Sad situation really because the RX5700XT is running o.k. right now on Adrenalin 2020 21.3.2 drivers, and performs well in rasterization only versus an Nvidia Palit RTX 2080 GamingPro OC. It is still slower than the Nvidia GPU but it cost ~ 1/2 as much. 

[kapitana]

That is kinda sad. But anyway I'll see if unplugging the second monitor fixed the problem (which I doubt, cuz it's probably related to the reported driver issue) and write back tomorrow to say how it's going.

[kapitana · Accepted solution]

Soo ... it's been one day since I posted about my driver crashes and surprisingly, after disconnecting my second monitor, the crashes didn't occur anymore. I think the problem is solved????. I just need to never use my second monitor again .... seems 'bout right. More like problem halfway solved but who am I to judge ... I don't use the second monitor anyway. Now, if some of ya'll experience random driver crashes with rx480 and have a second monitor connected, you need to disconnect it.

*Edit*
Btw I've always had that second monitor connected and it never made a problem before ... so this most likely is an issue introduced by some of the new driver updates. I'm trying to say that ... it might? get resolved in the future.

[colesdav]

RE: I might just scrap the RX480 and buy something more reliable and stable

RX480 Polaris is now pretty ancient technology compared to latest GPUs. No real improvement since launch. 

RX580 was just a respin with a few minor fixes, AIB only coolers and an increased BIOS power limit to trade more FPS for increased power (>GTX1080...). 

RX590s were another respin on GF 12nm process with even higher BIOS power limit to trade more FPS for even more increased power.  They were obsolete at launch.  I know, I own two of them.
 
You will see a massive perfomance improvement even if you move to an R9 Nano/Fury/FuryX, Vega 56, Vega 64 or RX5700XT.

AMD latest RX6800 looks an impressive performance uplift over any of those previous AMD GPUs but I simply do not trust the driver stability and I cannot get one anywhere anyhow.

[kapitana]

Yeah, I don't really need a heavy lifting GPU for CSGO. Literally anything that has double digit compute units is good enough