PC Graphics

[Dreamsthinker]

Hi everyone,

This might be a topic you’re all tired of — black screens on AMD GPUs — but I’ve got something that seems a bit different.

I’m talking about the ASRock Radeon RX 7700 XT Steel Legend 12GB OC (RX7700XT SL 12GO) and black screens that only occur when overclocking the VRAM and only when the system is idle.

Overclocking and undervolting the GPU itself work perfectly fine. Performance in games and benchmarks is also solid.

By default, the memory runs at 2250 MHz (actual 2238). In games and benchmarks, it works stably at 2464 MHz (actual 2451) with Fast Timing enabled.

However, when I overclock the VRAM, I occasionally get black screens while on the desktop, particularly when using a browser. Only a PC restart helps in these cases. It happens most frequently in Google Chrome with hardware acceleration enabled. Even lowering the VRAM clock (e.g., to 2400 MHz) and disabling Fast Timing doesn’t resolve the issue.

It’s a strange paradox: the card draws nearly 300 W under load and stays stable, yet in 2D mode, it behaves erratically as soon as I touch the memory. What’s more puzzling is that the memory, when idle, runs at a much lower frequency than the default (which is expected) and still causes the system to crash.

Windows 11 23H2 and 24H2 with a clean install, Adrenalin 24.10.1 and 24.12.1 — no difference. No entries in the Windows logs (except complaints about an unexpected shutdown).

Can anyone explain this paradox? Is there anything I can do besides giving up on overclocking the memory?

UPDATE:

I’ve managed to find a workaround by using profiles in Adrenalin ('Tune Game Performance'). I keep the default global profile for GPU overclocking and apply the VRAM overclock only in game-specific profiles. When launching a game, Adrenalin automatically switches the VRAM mode.

However, this solution is neither 100% safe nor convenient. On rare occasions, I still encounter a black screen when activating or deactivating the game profile. That said, everything remains perfectly stable during gameplay.

To emphasize: under load, there are zero issues. The black screens only happen when the system is idle, and I attempt to overclock the VRAM.

PS I may have the wrong subsection. If so, please move it to the right place -__-

[Dreamsthinker]

Hello again, I have an update for you.

Disabling MPO (Multiplane Overlay) completely resolved the black screen issue in idle. However, now those same black screens occasionally occur in games, under load.

To the AMD team: if you're reading this, please focus on fixing MPO so it works properly in 2D mode. It already functions correctly in 3D, but the issues in 2D need to be addressed.

As a temporary workaround, is there any way to dynamically enable or disable MPO on the fly, without requiring a reboot? This would at least serve as a stopgap solution.

MPO disable:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm]
"OverlayTestMode"=dword:00000005

MPO restore:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm]
"OverlayTestMode"=-

[Dreamsthinker]

And here’s another update.

It seems like I’ve also resolved the black screen issue under load after disabling MPO. The solution turned out to be quite simple: I just added 20 mV to the GPU voltage (raised it from 980 to 1000), and now the black screens are gone. It looks like disabling MPO slightly increased the GPU load during gaming.

The most important takeaway, however, is that MPO causes instability at idle when VRAM is overclocked on the 7700 XT. I don’t think Microsoft is to blame here — it’s more likely some very peculiar bugs in AMD’s drivers.

I urge AMD to pay attention to this case.

UPDATE:

Yet they sometimes reappear..... Again with no load.

[Crouze]

I agree, I'm having the same problem on the RX 7700XT with the VRAM, it's kinda annoying, pls AMD fix

[Dreamsthinker]

I’m continuing my experiments. Disabling MPO did improve the situation, but stability is still completely absent both at idle and under light loads.

In my previous post, I jumped to conclusions — raising GPU voltage doesn’t affect the issue at all. It seems more like a matter of luck.

I’ve seen plenty of reports on Reddit describing similar problems with VRAM overclocking on the 7700 XT. If your monitor’s refresh rate is above 60 Hz and you overclock the memory, black screens at idle or under minimal load are guaranteed. Sometimes it happens within minutes, other times it takes an hour or two.

There are occasional reports of successful overclocks, but these seem to be either rare exceptions or cases of premature celebration before proper stability testing.

I’m not into conspiracy theories, but this really does feel like a software lock from AMD...

[jack5253]

After turning off MPO, it appears that I have also fixed the black screen problem when the system is loaded. The fix was really easy: I simply increased the GPU voltage from 980 to 1000 by 20 mV, and the dark screens have vanished. It appears that turning off MPO marginally increased the GPU burden while playing games.

But the most crucial conclusion is that when VRAM is overclocked on the 7700 XT, MPO results in instability at idle. I don't believe Microsoft is to blame in this case; rather, it's probably some odd problems in AMD's drivers.