PC Building

[TinkerBridget]

My latest system is an ROG X570-E with a Ryzen 7 3800X and a ROG Vega 56.  This is my first AMD since they had way less cores back in the olden days, and I am back to my first ever Radeon card since having 3dFX & Nvidia since the dawn of time.  My last system was an i7 4770k & 780 ti that I had the Vega 56 in for a while before jumping to AM4.  The old machine is still in use too since being rebuilt as a backup.

I have had two 6900 XT cards in this system, the first was an RMA & full refund (liquid devil), the second gave me great performance (ROG 6900 XT LC), but had random crashes in certain games more than others, but was not reliable at all.  Hence reverting to the Vega 56 which was my first Radeon, and I think hussled me.  The system however is bulletproof and I can OC the Vega 56 as much as I want again, I probably should have recorded my old settings somewhere.

I tried a registry fix that stopped dual screen crashes due to multi plane overlay, and that also allowed some games to crash less than before, but they still crashed.  I investigated system logs and got nothing.  I powered the graphics card from a whole separate PSU, I tried so many driver versions, I wiped my main drive and started with a completely fresh windows 11, nothing I did could make that 6900 XT work for games, so I was basically using my PC for CAD and boring stuff.  I'm honestly wondering if it is something obscure between the AM4 board/older gen Ryzen and the newer card or something stupid that I missed, but at least I can play games again, even if it is with less power.

Having an open loop doesn't make things easier, I have read recently that apparently display port cables can cause crashes, but can't easily check that now, and I have a 6900 XT paperweight until I start a new system down the track on AM5 where I will try it out again.

[Duron999Mhz]

Nice to see the old Vega 56 still moving along. You mentioned your PSU, which one are you using ? 

Have you tried using DDU for removing the AMD driver ? Sometimes I found that does help. My last thought is are you running the 6900xt with stock settings in Adrenaline or could it be applying your Vega 56 profile or settings ? Same goes for Afterburner if you are using it ? 

Hope these ideas help, post back with an update.

Oh, I d also love to see a picture of your build.

[TinkerBridget]

Yes I used DDU, despite the fact that it had only ever had Radeon drivers on this build.  You'd think though that a fresh windows install would have worked if it was just drivers though and somehow DDU didn't work before the complete do over from scratch starting with chipset drivers etc all in sequence.

No it couldn't have been using Vega settings when I built it, wiped it and started fresh with windows and all drivers from scratch.  It was effectively a new build at that point.

PSUs used are a Corsair 860i & ROG 750 from memory.  Used both separately and one for system and one for the GPU alone and the other for the system.  The ROG one is in this system now as the newer one, the Corsair is in my old system.

I'm not going to bother messing with this system for a while now, I just want to play Jedi Survivor, and maybe Arkham Knights and the rest of my unfinished games now it won't crash.  The rest of the time I'm CADing & slicing 3d prints and enjoying stability.

The 6900 XT will get a crack in the next year or so maybe in an AM5 build.

Pic is on my profile, glass is grubby because I did a full teardown, redid the ZMT, replaced the pump, replaced a radiator, removed some excess fans, moved where the pump was mounted and whacked it back together, all the while swearing at the 6900 XT and regretting my life choices wasting a day to downgrade a graphics card that if not for the open loop would have been a much quicker job.

[eebiii]

Agree with @Duron999Mhz. Card should be ok. Sounds like driver corruption. I also remember not too long ago the fight with video cards and display cables and monitors but hasn't been too much of a problem over my last few builds, which included 2 6900xt red devil ultimate with ek blocks. 

[TinkerBridget]

Driver corruption?!?!

I tried just swapping the cards, removing and reinstalling the driver, wiping and starting again with a fresh windows install, then several versions of the drivers.

[eebiii]

I know your Vega is working with everything but maybe display port cable or monitor with 6900xt? Some cards are finicky like that

[eebiii]

Are you using multiple cables from your PSU to your 8-pin or just one cable to feed all your 8pin card power?

If you tries different PSU but hooked it up the same way...would be same issue. 

Just spitting out ideas. hate to see that card just sitting there. Although I have two brand new computers sitting here acting as paper weights.

[TinkerBridget]

I tried every permutation, including using a whole PSU using one plug for each 8 pin cable to the card separately and in addition to the PSU powering the system and that made no difference.

[BigAl01]

I would stick with one PSU unless you can guarantee there are no grounding issues between them.  Getting to the heart of the problem might entail trying a different monitor and possibly HDMI or Display Port cable.  Also, if you dial down the settings with the new video card (6900 XT), do you continue to see crashes?

[Fragdad]

So do the crashes only happen when both cards are installed? Or does it happen with a single card also? Are your PCIE lanes set to AUTO and GEN 4 in BIOS? Speaking of BIOS you should update to the latest version if you haven't already, and consider upgrading to at least a 1000 watt PSU just to get it down to one unit if for nothing else. Sorry if I'm being obvious or annoying! Just trying to help 🙂

[TinkerBridget]

Only one card, and only the 6900XT crashes.  Of course I updated the bios, then I updated it again when they released a new one.  It doesn't need 1000W, I did the maths, 750 is more than enough, I was just using a second PSU to power the GPU alone to make sure.

[Fragdad]

Sorry about the misunderstanding! I thought you were cross-firing two 6900 cards. I'm curious as to what would happen if you tried running this card in PCIE GEN 3 mode with that legacy CPU. You touched on that a little in your original post and it kind of stuck in my head. If it does not fix the problem, then you have at least eliminated it as a variable.