Drivers & Software

[StSebastian]

I've done looking around for a good few months now hoping to find a solution to what's been going on, and now I'm starting to worry if it's a defective card (Not a Reference card, but a Power Color Red Devil). So I'm going one more step down the list and making this thread, hoping that I've just missed something, but also because I'm starting to stress over this and feel the need to ask for outside advice. I am by no means an expert, at best I'd say I'm 'comfortable but not fully competent' when it comes to PC building.

PRETEXT:

In January I upgraded from two XFX RX480s (8gb a piece) to this single monstrous Red Devil XTX. Up until the switch, I have had nothing but smooth experience so long as I kept within the limitations of my hardware. Now? I'm starting to wonder if I need to just get a whole new Mobo+cpu+PSU along with Oils and Purity seals because I don't know what I've done wrong.

CONTEXT:

I have been experiencing Hangups into Driver Crashes FAR too often. The games that I primarily play these days includes Darktide, Planetside 2, Starcraft 2, Dota 2, and I dabble around in various single player games ranging from Black Mesa, Space Engineers, Witcher 1-3, and more. Lately the focus has been on the first 3 games that I've listed, with hangups into driver crashes occurring during each one of them. I have had a session of Darktide that lasted long enough for me to log into a character, open up the shop and immediately crash out, but also a session where I managed to complete 3-4 missions before I closed the game for fear of crashing out of the next mission and not wanting to deal with the issue. Same goes for Planetside 2, just today I launched the game and crashed before I even got to character selection, and then immediately loaded it back up for a 55 minute long session before it crashed again. Rinse and repeat for Starcraft 2 and Dota 2, though at least with Starcraft 2 the game doesn't crash when the drivers do.

As of right now, I am currently running on a ROG STRIX B450F-Gaming 2 Motherboard using a Ryzen 5 3600, 32GB of ram currently at 2133 mhz, powered by a Rosewill Tachyon 1200 (1200W, 80 Plus Platinum rated PSU). I am currently running on Windows 10 Proffessional

After the crashes began I have tried:

-DDU / Driver Reinstall (At least half a dozen different ways about this alone)

-Re-seating the GPU and making sure that the brace is keeping the card level

-Re-arranging the power connectors to the card. This card has 3x 8pin connector inputs, I have each connector going to a separate 12V Rail (At least, I assume they're all 12V rails)

-Disabling MPO

-Disabling different features in BIOS including turning off overclocking of the CPU

-I have deliberately kept the framerate targets at 60fps (My monitor is only 60hz for now)

After starting this thread I have now also:

- Updated Chipset Drivers (I'm ashamed to have forgotten this one)

- Increased the RAM clock speed to 3200mhz (Really just a shot in the dark)

- Ran a Memory check, confirmed there were no issues

There are some other fixes that I am going to be trying as I have the time going forward, such as:

- Moving the Card to the second PCIE slot

- Running a Memory check just to be sure (This will be done shortly after making the post and I will update as to results)

- Pulling my hair out and possibly crying.

If I can think of any other details I will add them, and, if there are instructions to retrieve the most recent crash reports so I can share them I will gladly and expeditiously do so.

Currently pending results from recent fixes.

[ThreeDee]

Have you looked at your systems Event Viewer for logged errors when you setup crashes?

Is your motherboards BIOS up to date?

Do you have the latest AM4 chipset drivers installed from AMD.com?

Have you tried setting your PCIe x16 slot to GEN3 instead of auto?

I had a similar issue on an x470 Master SLI/ac when the 5700xt launched (GEN4). My motherboard didn't know how to negotiate a proper speed with my shiny new GPU. I only had AUTO, GEN2, GEN1 settings available. Setting the card to GEN2 stopped the crashing until ASRock released a BIOS that gave me the option to select GEN3 manually and then I was good to go

What CPU are you running?

You are currently knee capping your GPU a bit with your setup as it is

If your budget allows .. look into getting a B550 motherboard (I'm an ASRock fanboy) and then possibly just plop in your CPU and RAM (depending on what CPU you currently have) and off to the races you go

[StSebastian]

Yes! I forgot to mention that on the list of attempted fixes. I have updated the BIOS to the latest version, however I do not know about the AM4 Chipset drivers, that will be my next fix, and if that doesn't work I will add the GEN3 to the todo list. I assume that is done from BIOS?

Also I'm a moron, I forgot to list the CPU. Currently on a Ryzen 5 3600. If the issues persists I was already planning on looking into a new Mobo+CPU together, so if all else fails...

[ThreeDee]

PCIe x16 speed is a BIOS settings, yes

Your 3600 would work in any B550(m) motherboard

[StSebastian]

Had another crash while playing today. Implemented the Speed adjustment to 3.0, already have a list set up for a motherboard and some other things (Was already looking at upgrading, may as well carry through.)

Update: Still crashing. Sigh.

[xxrune]

I have a similar problem to you, I get a black screen on all games where I will still get sound from the game, and my GPU suddenly goes full throttle, forcing me to do a hard re-boot. It seems to have something to do with DirectX because I keep having to reinstall it, or maybe it has something to do with the file gmdb.blb. I'm unsure.

[xxrune]

I forgot to mention that I also have a PowerColor Radeon RX 7900 XTX Red Devil.

And there's another person or people with 7900XTX that have the same problem, here's his quote.

I had a similar issue with my 7900XTX. I was playing Fortnite and out of no where. I get a black screen and my two monitors stop receiving a display signal. I am still getting game sounds but I am forced to hard restart the PC. I have had this GPU for about two weeks with no issues. Played several other games for hours and no issues. However, I did update from 23.4.1 to 23.4.2 this past week... so maybe its related to that. However, I did run DDU and and reinstalled 23.4.2 and it happened again while at the desktop. However, since I was still within the return policy I decided to return the card and ordered a RTX 4080. This was my first AMD experience after 10 years of having only Nvidia and I just want to stick with what I know and what's worked.

[StSebastian]

I can't speak to any crashes during Fortnite (Not my preferred game), but that's a much more aggressive driver crash. Mine are usually able to recover, but then again IDK if that has anything to do with me using Adrenaline software or not.

[xxrune]

After doing a little research on what I was about to comment on, I've retracted the comment.

[Cowbee]

I have the same card but the Limited Edition version and I don't really have a driver crash except for Monster Hunter World's DX12 API but that has always been an issue even back with my 3080. 

Did you use 3 independent 8 Pin cables on your XTX? If not, please do not daisy chain.

[StSebastian]

I did. 3 totally independent lines.

[StSebastian · Accepted solution]

Going to use this post as the solution, hopefully.

My personal fix for the time being was to proceed as follows

1: Run AMD Cleanup utility, then restart as it needs.

2: Reboot into Safe Mode and run DDU.

3: Complete the DDU and restart into normal mode, proceed to install AMD Drivers Only and restart as required.

4: Uncertain if this was an issue overall, but I was still experiencing odd crashes with Planetside 2, however I couldn't 100% attribute it to the driver. I uninstalled the game and reinstalled it and so far no crashes. If it comes back, I'll be undergoing some additional hardware upgrades and update after that.

Edit: And I'm still getting crashes. FML