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grond_strong
Journeyman III

R9 380X Fan Issues

Hello, name's Carl. First time here on the forum and first time (maybe last) AMD GPU user.

I recently picked up an R9 380X secondhand. It was in great condition and everything seemed to check out physically. I installed it, Firestrike'd it, received a modest score of 7600 but then ran into a startling issue. The fans won't spin past 20% at around 1200RPM. Don't get me wrong, I like a silent system, but I don't like a system in which the GPU gets to 92 degrees Celsius. I reapplied thermal paste, made sure the fan connector was seated firmly, and uninstalled and reinstalled (cleanly using AMD's clean uninstall utility) several times to the latest Radeon drivers and Wattman/GPU still will not acknowledge the manually set fan speed nor will it operate past 20% on auto either. I then installed Afterburner in which I used to manually slide the fan slider to 100% just to test it. The fan percentage will tell me the fan is at 100% but the fan tachometer tells me the fans are still only spinning at 1200RPM - 20%. Even when set to auto in afterburner, the fan percentage indicator will track as if the fans are following a curve, but the actual speed will remain at 1200RPM. Please help. I'm not sure what to do past buying one of those cheap expansion card slot fan brackets off Amazon and they look terrible and I'm not sure work well. I'd love to get this card working right if I can.

Some prelimenary info:

I am running Windows 10 home, i3-6100, Gigabyte Z270XP-SLI, 8GB ram.

The GPU in question is a Visiontek R9 380X and does not receive the fan curve/temp control part of wattman that other GPU's do, just the minimum RPM slider.

Any ideas from all you AMD GPU experts?

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6 Replies
grond_strong
Journeyman III

Update, reset of windows 10 (deletion of all apps), installed much earlier drivers 16.4.1(something from 2016) and used overdrive instead of wattman with still no luck.

Attempted to use afterburner with older drivers and still no luck - fan percentages fluctuate as if the fan is moving but with no actual change in speed.

Contacted Visiontek and their customer support told me to rollback drivers.

Good time to flash bios? Couldn't find one on Visiontek's website. But found matching one for a PowerColor card that looks identical.

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First: Here is the latest AMD Drivers from AMD Support for the R9-380x GPU Card: Desktop.

Second: Uninstall MSI Afterburner after resetting everything back to "Default". Then activate AMD Wattman and use that to configure your Fan(s) on the GPU card. 

MSI Afterburner sometimes is not totally compatible with AMD Wattman, even if Wattman is not activated. Here is how to tune your GPU card using Wattman: How to Tune GPU Performance Using Radeon Wattman and Radeon Chill . If you are still having problems, post back and someone like kingfish​ can show you how to properly configure your fans using Wattman.

I would flash the vBIOS as a last result. But you can download a vBIOS from this GPU-Z Website : VGA Bios Collection | TechPowerUp .

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Hello, thanks for the reply,

I've done all that several times over:

I've only installed newest AMD/Wattman and used the fan utitlity - no change.

I've used Afterburner with Wattman - no change.

I've used Afterburner with no AMD drivers - no change.

I've installed old 16.4.xx drivers that would have been close to card's release date - no change.

I've used AMD Overdrive (old drivers fan utility) without Afterburner installed - no change.

I've used old drivers with Afterburner - no change.

I've dabbled with other software such as CAM - no change.

(On each of those uninstalls of AMD drivers I've used AMD's clean uninstall utility which when checking on gpu properties confirmed that there was indeed no AMD drivers installed and reset all settings to default before doing so.)

With none of the software working, I decided to update/reflash my bios. I couldn't find any vbios files on manufacturer's website, so I looked on techpowerup.com and couldn't find my model's bios. I found a similar one but the submodel names were different and I didn't want to risk it.

I then decided to modify my vbios using a well-reviewed Tonga bios editor. Unfortunately this bios editor only adjust things like power, memory timings, clock speed, etc., not fan speeds/settings.

I think I've done just about everything so I've ordered a gpu fan enclosure that plugs into the motherboard which will act as the shroud for the gpu heatsink. It'll be uglier. So if there's any other tips to restoring my gpu to stock form I'd appreciate it.

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I purchased a Visiontek HD 7850. The fan went bad (broken blades) and even though it wasn't under Warranty (voided due to card being too close to other cards in the computer) Visiontek still sent me a brand new Shroud and fan assembly as a goodwill gesture for being a VisionTek Customer.

I don't know if VisionTek still has Limited Lifetime Warranty on all its GPUs but you can write to VisionTek Support and see if they can send you a new shroud and fan assembly under Warranty. But I am not sure if the Limited Lifetime Warranty is transferable to another User. If not, then you can find out if they still sale the Shroud for your GPU card and how much it might cost.

It could also be a bad Fan sensor on the GPU card that is not sensing the correct Temperature. In which case, a new fan assembly (Shroud) would not help. Maybe that is why the original owner sold the card.

True, I could try, and that would be nice if they did. However, I have my doubts on whether it's a physical fan problem. My immediate conclusion is that the card's built-in pwm fan controller is broken. I'm not sure what the likelihood of that happening would be. But the fan blades spin just fine, they are silent, not grinding, have resistance when manually spun, and there's no physical damage to the fan wires or connector. I thought about testing the voltage to the tiny pwm fan headers but that would require me to unplug the fans to get a voltage meter in there and that would be sketchy.

Thanks again for the suggestion. I still may choose to contact Visiontek back, if just for the right vbios for my card.

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The VisionTek R9 380X does have a Limited Lifetime Warranty but not if bought Used. Here is the Warranty from VisionTek:

Warranty Information

All VisionTek products come with limited warranties after product registration.

All warranties shall not apply if, in VisionTek's sole judgment, the product has been subjected to incidental damage including but not limited to the following:

  • Removal of Serial/Part number sticker(s)
  • Damaged while being installed
  • Damaged by software or hardware by someone other than VisionTek or by motherboard incompatibility/design
  • Damaged by tampering, user error, inadequate or defective power supply/power application, disaster, misuse, neglect, abuse, accident, alteration, repair, modification, a fix or replacement by an unauthorized technician that in any way affects its performance or reliability.
  • If the graphics card is not used for its specifically designed purpose of graphical processing and visual output to a display or multiple displays. Most common applications include gaming, multi-media play-back, video production & editing, and output to display or multiple displays.
  • If the product was used for cryptocurrency mining (VisionTek GPUs are not designed for this type of processing application).
  • If the product was purchased used or via a third party (i.e. eBay, private sale, non-authorized reseller).

From VisionTek Specs on their R9 380X GPU Card:

Specifications

  • Graphics Engine: Radeon™ R9 380X
  • Overclocking: Factory Overclocked
  • Video Memory: 4GB GDDR5
  • Memory Interface: 256-bit
  • DirectX® Support: 12
  • Bus Standard: PCI Express 3.0 x16
  • Number of Monitors Supported: Up to Six (with MST Hub)
  • Warranty: Limited Lifetime

​So you are out of luck if the Card itself is bad.