PC Drivers & Software

[onewithwaves]

Hello and thanks for taking a look at my question! I've been building PCs for over 10 years and this issue has me totally perplexed; any and all advice is very appreciated! Sorry for following AMD's template but I'm a new user and don't want to anger the community on day one.

Describe your system:

• Custom ATX desktop
• AMD Graphics Cards:
  
  • Sapphire NITRO+ RX 480 8GB x2 (Crossfire setup)
    
• Operating System:
  • Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (most likely ver. 1803)
    
• Driver version installed
  • Adrenalin 2019 Edition 18.12.3 (Optional)
• Display Device
  • Acer XG270HU, DisplayPort connection (fully DP compliant cable)
• Motherboard + Bios Revision
  • ASRock Z87 Extreme4, latest beta BIOS (it's far newer than the latest stable and both are several years old)
    
• CPU
  • Intel i5-4670K (OC to 4.2GHz)
    
• Power Supply Unit Model & Wattage
  • EVGA Supernova G2 750W
    
• RAM
  • 16GB

Describe your issue:

I've been running an RX 480 since they came out and I love my Nitro+ so much, I wanted to get it a friend on eBay. The first card I got had clearly been used for mining and had lots of problems; it didn't always power on with my system, sometimes my MOBO reported it didn't support UEFI when powering on, etc., and I returned it as not working. I got another card which is in much better shape and doesn't throw any errors on me but I have lingering issues I expect are from the old shoddy card (not sure how that would be possible but it's the only thing that's changed). When I first set up CF I was getting ~%150 scaling in Overwatch and all my monitoring programs worked perfectly (I use Afterburner to display hardware stuff on my G13's LCD). After the (old, bad) card threw a few fits, Afterburner stopped reporting GPU load correctly and OW and other CF capable titles stopped scaling at all; even with CF turned off, they ran far worse than they did before I set up CF. After getting the second (good, working) card, most games scale properly again but Afterburner and HWinfo64 are still not reporting GPU load at all; both cards constantly read 0%. I also have some issues with microstutter and CF scaling that weren't there before. For example, Overwatch runs in CF when connecting to the server and entering the game, but CF suddenly turns off once the menu loads (I have the CF logo turned on for troubleshooting purposes). I've even specified the AMD profile for Overwatch with no improvement. I'm it my wit's end trying to figure out what went wrong and what sort of gremlin that dead card left in my system - what do you think could get me up and running at 100% again?

So far, I've attempted totally uninstalling AMD's driver using DDU in Safe Mode and performing a clean reinstall of the latest Adrenalin driver. I've also totally uninstalled and reinstalled Afterburner, both the latest and Beta versions. I've tried enabling Unified Monitoring in Afterburner, disabling ULPS, disabling Power Efficiency in Radeon Settings, toggling global CF on and off and disabling my CPU's iGPU in my BIOS but haven't been able to resolve this issue. As I said before, any and all help is greatly appreciated as I've run out of ideas at this point.

[colesdav]

Hi - o.k. So you still cannot get Crossfire to run. Intel i5-4670K (OC to 4.2GHz)

I took a further look running the game with Epic settings at 4K re-applied, Render Scale set to 100%.
If I set FRTC to 100 I get 80 FPS horizontal, and ~ 98 FPS looking directly up in Overwatch.
I run the test at 4K to check the Crossfire Scaling, since that's when a single GPU is most 'stressed' and when Crossfire may be more likely to be of benefit.
I am not suggesting people play the game at 4K or what settings they use.
If running an Esports title like Overwatch at 1080p, you may well get negative scaling because of the additional CPU overhead it takes to run Crossfire.
I also tested pushing AntiAliasing quality back up to Ultra, it has no significant effect on FPS.
Setting Render Scale to 150% is requesting > 4.2 GB of Vram and that does drop the FPS down to ~ 40-48 at times, the R9 Fury X GPU's are struggling.
I tested Optimize 1x1. I still see the Crossfire Logo. The game runs fine at the settings I mentioned.

So next thing to ask you please.
What display resolution are you trying to run Overwatch at, and what Overwatch Settings are you exactly trying to run?
It might be the case that 1080p/low settings are running at such high FPS w/o crossfire, that when you try to turn Crossfire on , it requires additional CPU overhead and, Crossfire turns off?

If you tell me your settings I can set my i7-4790k up to mimic your Intel i5-4670K (OC to 4.2GHz)
Meantime I will see what happens if i try to run Overwatch at 1080p, Low, in Crossfire.

Thanks.

[sattla]

i will give you all my settings when i get back home.

my CPU is never over 65c so i doubt that the issue. in that case its weird that rendering 300 fps in loading screen is using CF and when i get to menus where frames are capped on 60 (by game engine cf is disabled)

Try put 1x1 and put texture filtering quality to performance this is the setting that rly does the trick for me normally when its working - gives me all the extra power without this one i jump from like 90 to 220 with my setting and inputlags when i put performance its 250+ avg all the time.

Again huge thanks so faar.

[colesdav]

Hi,

No problem.
Note I am just running Radeon Settings - no other 3rd Party overclocking tool installed.

Are you certain you have killed all other background processes?
I already set a + 5% GPU overclock and I pushed up my i7 4790K to 47 47 46 46 GHz with Hyperthreading disabled.
I do not want to push the overclock any higher as crash can mean loss of Windows 10 installation these days.
I also set Low settings to 100% Render scale and dialled everything else down on Low.
I turned off FRTC completely.
At that point I am very definitely getting GPU Utilizations at ~ 95% average. Yet still, Crossfire does not disable for me. It still works fine.

I will try using your suggested Radeon Settings settings later on.
I really have to go now.
Sorry I have been unable to repeat your problem.

Maybe speak later.
I will definitely post here if I do manage to replicate the Crossfire Dropout.
It could just be your GPU's though and I am not running on an RX480.

Bye.

[sattla]

I had afterburner installed but i took it away and did a CCclean registry clean before i did DDC from safemode without internet connected like you stated ( tested DDC 3 4 times)
Im running 2x 580's

i did go to my installed programs and checked all services and no one of them should do anything to me login in to OW + disable one GPU no overlay apps or screen adjustment at all.

settings will follow soon

[sattla]

Settings @ Adrenaline
http://prntscr.com/mbnsyb
http://prntscr.com/mbntc6
http://prntscr.com/mbntmq
http://prntscr.com/mbntyx
http://prntscr.com/mbnu3o
http://prntscr.com/mbnucw
http://prntscr.com/mbnukv
Settings @ Overwatch
http://prntscr.com/mbnvja
http://prntscr.com/mbnvu5

Windows HW overview
http://prntscr.com/mbnx8q
http://prntscr.com/mbnxmk
http://prntscr.com/mbnxwx
http://prntscr.com/mbnyck

[colesdav]

Here I turn Hyperthreading off on i7-4790K, turn off all background processes and run Overwatch at 1080p, low.
Look at how high the CPU Utilization is getting whislt playing the game with those settings.
Crossfire ran o.k. but in the past, on other games/AMD GPUs once it gets into 90-95% CPU Utilization, Crossfire starts to have promlems.

Next I will Overclock the i7-4790k to higher speed and/or Overclock the R9 Fury X see what happens to Crossfire.
That should push up the CPU utilization and FPS.

[sattla]

i did file this 3 times you are the first one in 2 months that have useful information since i never heard anything from AMD.

[colesdav]

So what was wrong?
Was it because you were running Crossfire Profile with Optimize 1x1 and not default?
Thanks.

[sattla]

No i think you miss understood me - Its not working for me as soon as i login to OW it disables my other card i can see that from task-manager and CF logo disappears.

[colesdav]

OK ...
It looks like the Overwatch Update totally messed up the Epic Graphics Settings.
I set the Graphics settings to Low, exited, re-entered, the game ran fine.
I reset the Graphics settings to Ultra, re-entered, adjusted the Resolution Scale up from 86% and this time I see this:

It is now running at 60FPS at 4K with those settings The Epic Settings were hosed for some reason.

[sattla]

i also had to reset my in game setting via the battle net client to get max performance.
http://prntscr.com/mbjov0
http://prntscr.com/mbjp2r

i would rly love for my CF to work again i know it will give me avg 180+ on my settings (all low reflections off 100% render and trexures high model ultra

[sattla]

why do you lock down on 59 fps tho? how important is this cap of FPS i kinda need 144+ that's why i even do this. i hope its not a mandatory setting.

[sattla]

Cf disables - YouTube

Also monitoring gpu 2 activity its shows normal good scaling until logging in and c.f. logo disappear.

[colesdav]

sattla
I think I answer your question on FRTC = 59 before I saw it :-).
If not then please ask more.
You need to ensure you check the FreeSync Range of the monitor you buy.
Some will be 144Hz but could have FreeSync range of 48-75... in theory at least.

[sattla]

mine is 45 - 144 i will try that but as i said the problem begins when it reaches 60 fps and its fixed in main screan.

Again thanks a lot for your precious time!

[colesdav]

Hi,

Just FYI here are some videos of me running Destiny 2 maxed out at 4K:
Desitiny 2 R9 Fury X Crossfire DX11. - YouTube 
and
Overwatch at 4K Epic: 
Overwatch 4K Epic Test on Adrenalin 2019 19.1.1 - YouTube 

They were both recorded using Adrenalin Relive, at 4K so make sure you set Youtube Playback Quality to 4K to see them in full resolution.

i74790K is set to run with 4 cores and 8 threads.
Crossfire is running well on Adrenalin 19.1.1 Drivers for those games at those settings.

I also recorded running Overwatch at 1080p low settings running the i7-4790K with 4 cores, 4 threads (hyperthreading disabled) and overclocked. CPU utilization was very high, but I have been unable to break Crossfire with a Pair of R9 Fury X's so far. 

Crossfire "Just Works, it just works "  with the R9 Fury X's on Overwatch, so far.

I will go look at all of your settings again and see if I can repeat it. If not then it looks like it is maybe RX580 specific problem.

Bye.

[onewithwaves]

[Repost because I accidentally replied to the wrong post] Thanks so much for all your effort so far; OW right now is still the only game with CF issues for me (haven't had much time to test lately). Here's what I was able to test last week:

• Deus Ex HR DX (with the regular HR CF profile forced) runs better than before, a little microstutter but nothing too bad. The game runs very well @ native resolution but doesn't like going above 1440p.
• Fallout 4 runs a lot better in CF than rpeviously; I'm able to turn some settings up and don't see much stutter in CF. Capping the frame rate to 70 make a big difference in smoothness, especially since the game gets wacky above 80fps anyway.
• Just Cause 2 is a superstar; I can run the game at 4K VSR at 144fps without a single issue. This wasn't possible for me before.

I've tried Alt+Tabbing and Alt+Entering in and out of OW to try and get CF back up but it's very stubborn about staying disabled once hitting the menu. The menu screenshot I posted unfortunately didn't handle downsizing very well; it was mainly meant to show 48fps and no CF (even though the CF logo wouldn't show up anyway).

I'll have to make sure my local OW profile is the same as the one that works for you next time I have a chance to play, just to be safe. It's disappointing that the issue seems to be specific to me now, especially after investing in some GPU brackets on the off chance GPU sag was causing problems. I haven't tried Afterburner since I did my last clean re-install since I haven't totally sorted this aspect of the issue out yet. Is it worth trying to get that extra AMD audio source installed properly on the off chance the game is seeing it's not working? It's never been installed properly for me since I went for CF in my setup so I figured it might be intended or inconsequential.

[colesdav]

H,

The AMD Audio Source was present in the Adrenalin 2019 19.1.2 update and in the Adrenalin 19.2.1 update for me. I did complainn about it but don't know if that is why it seems to have been fixed. You may want to run DDU in safe mode with internet disconnected. Remove old AMD Driver and install Adrenalin 2019 19.2.1. Reboot. Then connect to internet. The Adrenalin 2019 19.2.1 release has finally fixed constant notifications to upgrade to older drivers, so it may be worth it for that alone.

It looks to me that this Overwatch issue is not affecting R9 Fury X. Please see my previous post. I have tried just about everything I can think of to break Crossfire and it works great despite everything I tried.

Bye.

[colesdav]

Hi,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
I tried matching your settings exactly.I recorded these last week but I am so busy at the moment I didn't get time to check, review and publish until now.

Videos here: AMD Settings used to help debug Crossfire Dropout issue on Overwatch (1). - YouTube 

 and here:     AMD Settings used to help debug Crossfire Dropout issue on Overwatch (2). - YouTube 

Please check that  those settings are what you expected.

Crossfire is working very well on my R9 Fury X's in Overwatch and I have tried everything to re-create the dropout issue at launch. I am very happy with the performance on Overwatch with my R9 Fury X GPU's

One thing I also tried was connecting an additional monitor to the secondary R9 Fury X after the GPU's were already set to run in crossfire. If you are running multiple monitors with crossfire enabled, all monitors should be driven from the Primary  GPU. No monitors should be driven from the secondary (linked) GPU. However, on my R9 Fury X's that did not cause Crossfire Dropout.

I still have to look at what happens if I install MSI Afterburner  as well as Adrenalin Driver.

Please note I jusrt updated my Adrenalin 2019 driver to Version 19.2.1. today.

Please let me know if you made any progress at solving your problem.
Maybe someone else who owns a pair of RX580 can step in and help you out from here as I cannot repeat the problem with a pair of FuryX GPU's.

Thanks.

[onewithwaves]

Thanks again for all your help so far; you're a model community member. Unfortunately I'm still having the same issue, even after a clean reinstall of the latest driver from AMD, a repair scan of Overwatch and clearing my in game settings. Other CF games are running as expected, it's just OW. Even Alt+Enter in and out of fullscreen or Alt+Tab between the game and another window won't start CF again. I haven't even reinstalled Afterburner and have been relying on the on-screen monitor for troubleshooting and benchmarking. I'm going to report the problem in the AMD software and see how far I can get. Again, thanks for all your help troubleshooting this with me.

[colesdav]

Thank you, If I had two of your cards to hand I would have tested them.
I think you should open an email suppot case with AMD for this:
Online Service Request | AMD 
Good Luck, I hope you get it working.

[onewithwaves]

Wow, you won't believe this but Blizzard seems to be aware of a workaround to resolve the issue and I'm betting it's an issue on AMD's end. Here's the forum post they sent me a link to: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/crossfire-negatively-impacts-performance/248236/12

The workaround listed there works perfectly for me even though AMD's official Overwatch profile lists Overwatch's executable by the correct name now. I did previously notice that the profile was tied to "Overwatch_r.exe" a few months ago when I first encountered the CF issue. It would seem there's still something on the back end that's tying CF functionality to an executable by the wrong name even though the profile is correctly listed for "Overwatch.exe" now.

AMD's reporting system seems to be down for the past few hours so I'll try again later but I wanted to add this here in case anyone else sees it.

[colesdav]

Hi,

Thank you.

Now I definitely am stumped though because if I look here: 

That's running with: 

And the comment says that the profile should be called Overwatch_r.exe so the above looks correct for my install at least.
Also if Crossfire Profile is set to Default I think that Overwatch profile should be picked up automatically anyhow. 

It looks like something really weird has been happening with AMD Installer then...

Are you certain that this is not a case of Windows 10 auto install of an old driver with a crossfire profile called overwatch.exe then getting overwritten by user install of the downloaded correct up to date AMD Driver Installer for the GPU and therefore the  installation gets corrupted?   

If I read the text comment - it seems to indicate that Overwatch_r.exe is the correct file.

"

ZamZam2 posts
5
Nov '18
I’ve figured it out.

The Radeon profile for Overwatch references a file called overwatch_r.exe.

The only way to prevent Crossfire from being interrupted, it to create a copy of Overwatch.exe, and rename it to Overwatch_r.exe.

Delete existing Overwatch profile in Radeon Settings.

Add new profile, referencing Overwatch_r.exe.

Set profile, to ‘AFR friendly’ option, adding the Overwatch one found.

Instead of opening Overwatch via the Battle Net launcher, open the (renamed) Overwatch_r.exe direct.

AMD need to fix the profile, by referencing Overwatch.exe (not overwatch_r.exe)"

I was in the middle of Beta Testing the AMD Raise the Game Deal Reloaded Title - Tom Clancy's The Division 2.
The AMD Adrenalin 2019 19.2.1 drivers are still black screening and audio buzzing on my PC which passes all checks even on this title.
This AMD Driver situation is getting very boring... I will be opening a tread about it on the forum. 

RE: AMD's reporting system seems to be down for the past few hours so I'll try again later but I wanted to add this here in case anyone else sees it.
Yes they are probably overloaded with the 5000 people who actually received the Radeon VII GPU's they ordered and paid for next day delivery  (unlike me). 
Those Radeon VII's were released with very bad drivers. 

Funnily enough, according to some reviewers such as Gamer's Nexus for example, Drivers that cause Black Screening, System Hang, and corrupted Windows OS. AMD Radeon VII Review: Not Ready for Launch (& Pad vs. Paste Test) - YouTube 

Where have I seen that before .... oh yes, on my R9 FuryX, Fury, Nano and RX Vega 64 Liquids, regularly for years.

 
Just let me have a look at the current driver installation I have and let me see if Overwatch launches in Crossfire again... 
Thanks again. 
Should be able to update this post in about 10 minutes from now. 

Bye. 

[colesdav]

Hi,

Crossfire is working fine for me on the 19.2.1 driver, the Crossfire Profile is the Overwatch_r.exe according to AMD Settings. I just used Default Profle for Crossfire.
Evidence here:
 

[colesdav]

Hi again - and if I set the AMD Crossfire profile to Use AMD Predefined profile, as shown below, it still works:

I will put a bet on it that this is a case of a older AMD Driver auto install by Windows then getting overwritten by a user installed correct AMD Driver install.

Or, possibly an issue soley applicable to RX480/580 GPU for some reason but I  doubt it.

Anyhow, today I cannot get this image out of my head for some reason:

Bye.

[waltc]

Yep, it never pays to buy second-hand stuff (GPUs--other hardware) from people you don't know because you never know what's been done to it.   My Crossfire 590/480 8GB Win10x64 system also runs like a champ--very nice.  D3d12 multi-GPU titles (like the last two Tomb Raiders) run very nice, too!

Likely, the pic you cannot get out of your mind is preparing you with a sneak look at your own, upcoming family--hopefully, in a few years--as there is no need to rush into anything...;) Trust me...;)

[colesdav]

waltc 

Other reason people had to purchase second hand AMD GPU like RX480/580 was because of the Crytocurrency mining where GPU's were being sold buy boatload and planeload to Coin Mining Factories, and supply for gamers was almost totally ignored. 

So before you start to give off about people having to run second hand GPU's you might want to stop and think.

You can get 'really good deals' now for RXVega 64/56/RX590/580 including free game bundles. But guess why that might be. 
Perhaps too many were produced. Retailers have tons of them to shift. What was going to go to miners was diverted into retail chain for consumers perhaps?
They are outdated technology now, possibly a third respin with yet another higher BIOS power limit with very high power consumption and much lower performance versus competition at same power level perhaps? 

Provided a used GPU is extensively tested properly in multiple benchmarks then it should be o.k. and might work for a while. 
In the case of the person posting about their Overwatch Crossfire Issue, their cards are working fine in Crossfire on other titles. 
There are people having the same problem in overwatch with same GPU's on the Overwatch forum. 

Did you actually test Overwatch running on your cards?
Does it work?
Could you show us here on this post and maybe provide a video to prove it?

Perhaps you have some idea of what went wrong other than blaming the use of used GPU's or insinuating that other hardware on PC is also second hand?

Perhaps that might be a better way to spend your time?

Thank you.

[colesdav]

waltc 

RE: Likely, the pic you cannot get out of your mind is preparing you with a sneak look at your own, upcoming family--hopefully, in a few years--as there is no need to rush into anything...;) Trust me...;)

Well done for behaving as a good loyal AMD fanboy and resorting to personal insults as is frequently normal on this forum, and others.

It is truly an image I couldn't get out of my head this weekend. 
I am tired of AMD GPU's and bad installers and bad drivers crashing.

I am tired of the fact that I tried, for the third time in a row, to purchase a premium AMD GPU on launch day, only to find there were no cards in the real world.

However perhaps you are correct.

Perhaps anyone who goes to so much effort to buy an AMD GPU or spends their own time supporting other AMD users should be in that car. 
Thank you for pointing out my genetic and mental deficiencies. 
 

[colesdav]

waltc 

RE: Yep, it never pays to buy second-hand stuff (GPUs--other hardware) from people you don't know because you never know what's been done to it.

Yes I agree it is not ideal. 
If you want to purchase an AMD top end GPU it is frequently the only choice you have though.
I am not sure AMD are serious about their Premium GPU Launches. 
R9 Fury X were almost impossible to purchase new. I had to hunt high and low to find one. 
RX Vega 64 Liquids were only available as part of a ridiculous and expensive 'Liquid Pack' on their launch day and there were very limited numbers available on launch day. Those GPU were EOL'ed within a few months. Again I had to search every where to get one. 
Radeon VII GPU same story w.r.t. availability at launch. I bought one as soon as they became available, without even having a chance to read an independent review. My order + next day delivery fee was accepted within 2 minutes of launch, my order was number 40, and accepted for next day delivery. The GPU didn't turn up. Because it didn't actually exist. I had to contact the Retailer. They had kept my money of course, but could'nt be bothered to even contact me to tell me they didn't actually have a GPU to sell to me in the first place.  Retailer had no idea if they would even be able to fulfill the order within 2 weeks. So I cancelled it. That is very unethical sales practices if you ask me. They should not have accepted my order in the first place. I may have been able to purchase elsewhere.