PC Graphics

[SanguS]

My hardware:

• Gigabyte RX 6900 XT Gaming OC
• MSI Prestige x570 Creation
• Ryzen 9 3900x with water cooling
• CORSAIR Vengeance RGB PRO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3600 (PC4-28800)
• EVGA Supernova 1200W P2 80+ Platinum
• Samsung SSD - 2TB (primary)
• 4x WD Red - 8TB (secondary)
• Samsung G9 at 1440p

Some Details and the Initial Problem

• I built this rig last year minus the video card, I was running an EVGA 1070 wonderfully on it up until winning a Newegg shuffle for the RX 6900 XT.  I swapped the new card in, connected 3 discrete power cables to my modular PS and here we are.  
• Crashes started immediately on most AAA titles, and after some tweaking I was successfully able to crash just about anything I tried to.  
• Black Ops Cold War crashes to desktop with ease (usually seconds), only a very narrow configuration range (lowest settings, very low VRAM usage manually configured via .INI) are stable but come on.  
• Valheim crashes at 1440p with max settings, screen goes black and game continues in the background, or entire system will crash to blackscreen requiring power cycle.  
• No man's Sky crashes to desktop after a few minutes at Ultra
• Doom crashes to desktop after a minute or two at Ultra Nightmare
• Baldur's Gate 3 crashes to desktop but often winds up requiring full power cycle to recover

Things I have tried

1. Ran DDU in safe mode and removed all previous versions of NVIDIA and AMD drivers, along with INTEL to be safe even though I've never had an intel chip on this box.  
2. Tried both the recommended and WHQL versions of AMD software and drivers with no change
3. Tried all Preset GPU Performance Tuning settings in AMD software 
4. Tried Manually configuring fan speed (removing Zero RPM, and all Radeon proprietary graphic settings like Anti-lag, Chill, Boost, Image Sharpening, enhanced sync)
5. Bumped up minimal voltage to narrow range of fluctuation
6. Flashed MSI bios to most recent version
7. Changed PCI E Slots, changed VGA power slots
8. Removed secondary monitor displayport cable to better isolate troubleshooting
9. removed Valve Index from system (disconnected USB cables, DVI isn't connected) for isolation 

[hrpuffnstuff]

By chance would you also be running an evga nu audio sound card?  I had a similar issue when I first installed my rx 6900 xt and it turned out that the evga sound card was the culprit.  Once I removed it from the system my crashes stopped.

EVGA replaced the card and no more issues since installing the new one.  I also swapped out my PS from an enermax platimax 1350w to an EVGA supernova G2 1300w afterwards but by the time I received it I'd already isolated the sound card as the issue.

[SanguS]

Unfortunately no, I use the MOBO's onboard for sound.  Outside of what I have listed here the only other component would be my pump for the CPU's liquid reservoir but that would just be a fan jack.  

[hrpuffnstuff]

Have you checked for corrupt system files?

[SanguS]

I've checked individual games for corrupted files (Battle.Net type validation of files, as well as a total delete of the programs and re-installations), as well as checkdisk type scans of system and secondary drives.  All AMD and NVIDIA files get purged through DDU in safemode when cleaning up or exhausting a driver version, and then installed with whatever AMD package I'm testing (WHQL or the Recommended stable).  Plenty of space on all drives in question. 

One point I need to go back and mention is I am on Windows 10 x64 Insider Build.  

[kshutch00]

This does sound a lot like my issue that you posted in.

Have you tried using the method of extracting the drivers but installing them through device manager and not installing Adrenaline?  That gave me the best results, but it would still fail especially when any stress was involved.

Gigabyte has since told me my card had 2 issues, one being a memory module and another having something to do with a power issue in the card.  I am guessing I was seeing the reboots in bios and such because of the power issue, and then seeing the reboots on stress because either the power issue or the memory issue.

Some things that may set our issues apart:  Have you tried installing windows to a new drive with that card installed and was it successful?  After a crash, if you go into bios, does it ever crash while in bios?  I was unable to install windows using this card as it would crash in the middle of the install and I would see reboots even in bios.

[SanguS]

Hey thank you for the suggestions kshutch00, 

I haven't tried installing drivers through the device manager exclusively yet, but I'll give that a shot next.  I haven't had any issues in BIOS, and all of my crashes are to the desktop as opposed to a full system power cut although I have gone blackscreen a few times requiring a full power cycle.  I was entertaining the idea of installing windows on a separate solid state and giving it a shot.  After the device manager direct attempt to install drivers I'll probably move over to that one.  I'll give gigabyte a call and see if they could address the ticket.  Thanks again for the tips, I'll report back with findings.  

[SanguS]

2 Months ago, I started an RMA for this card.  On the 6th of June they received it, and shortly after that on the 1`9th they made the determination that the unit was defective and had to be replaced.   

That was 2 months ago, and nothing has happened since.  I've called multiple times and they tell me the tech is unavailable or out to lunch and that they will get back to me with an update on a replacement.  At one point about a month ago, I was able to speak to someone in service who assured me that they would get to it no later than the following week. 

Today, and yesterday, the RMA portal page was broken generating a 503 error from their web server. Gigabyte is the worst RMA/customer service I have ever experienced.  

[SanguS]

It has now been 101 days since I've submitted my RMA.  After a few weeks of being completely offline, the Gigabyte RMA site is up again, however all previous accounts associated with the site are not functional, and there is no way to create a new account.  I've left multiple messages with Gigabyte support for a callback, but have not received anything.  

[SanguS]

It has now been 131 days since Gigabyte received my card.   

[SanguS]

Today, 150 days after mailing the Gigabyte RX 6900 XT in to their RMA department, I received a replacement in the mail.   There was no correspondence or tracking number, it just showed up.   Here is to hoping that the card is functional.   I'd hate to wait another half a year in case it isn't.  

Buyer beware.  

[gn07]

Just stop buying amd’s **bleep** cards. My 6800xt is a stuttering mess.