AMD 14.x Catalyst Overclocking is Broken

[VulgarDisplay]

Sapphire r9 290 Tri-X OC stock settings +50 power limit

Sapphire r9 290 Tri-X OC +120 voltage offset +50 power limit

1130mhz 1350 memory +50 offset +50 power limit

The card is throttling, but not as bad as I have seen. I don't have time to really heat it up and find a demanding scene. This was just a quick run in crysis 3 inside on the first level. I'm sure it would be even more taxing if I up the settings.

I'm going in now to use the same clocks as the 290x from the H Review that sparked this thread. Give me a minute I may not get this done before I have to leave for work.

The review that started the thread is here.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014...0x_gaming_4g_video_card_review/1#.UzxTtfldVNI

[H] used 14.2 beta drivers for their overclocking test, but it is a known issue with all 14.x driver that power limit is broken causing all cards to throttle when adding voltage or overclocking. The simply hit a power wall because the lack of an increase in power limit stops the card from drawing more voltage.

 

[railven]

They broke ZeroCore for me with their FramePacing driver, which broke WoW for me, which was the last straw for me.

In the market to buy ASAP and these are the kind of threads that keep me worried buying an AMD card now is not a good idea. Hopefully you get it fixed.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

The 13.12 drivers do work. I'm mad because I wasted time using heaven to show this behavior but it really doesn't tax the cards.

At the exact same settings as in the [H] review my r9 290 that draws LESS voltage than the 290x in their review was running around 1005-1020mhz at times in crysis 3. The 290x will hit the voltage wall sooner and throttle harder than my card. I forgot to log to file in GPUz when I loaded crysis 3 but I will redo the benchmark when I get back from work later. Hopefully you can all wait 10 hours for more.

 

[railven]

The 13.12 drivers do work. I'm mad because I wasted time using heaven to show this behavior but it really doesn't take the cards.

At the exact same settings as in the [H] review my r9 290 that draws LESS voltage than the 290x in their review was running around 999-1020mhz in crysis 3. The 290x will hit the voltage wall sooner and throttle harder than my card. I forgot to log to file in GPUz when I loaded crysis 3 but I will redo the benchmark when I get back from work later. Hopefully you can all wait 10 hours for more.

Knowing this place you'd be banned for derailing and FUD-spreading by then.

I'm just messing.

 

[Mushkins]

Considering this breaks nearly every factory OCed card sold to the public, I sure hope AMD is fast tracking a fix.

Any word on if this is only an issue with the latest gen cards, or is it across the board?

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Considering this breaks nearly every factory OCed card sold to the public, I sure hope AMD is fast tracking a fix.

Any word on if this is only an issue with the latest gen cards, or is it across the board?

It's a fine line between throttling and not throttling due to the powertune limit. I wish someone had a leaky 290x to test with. My 290 is pretty good chip, and doesn't throttle nearly as much at +50 voltage offset +50 limit as many people report on OCN. The Tri-X cooler also keeps temps low and voltages lower as a result.

I have a 76% ASIC quality chip so I believe that in theory means it draws less than someone with a lower quality chip.

 

[el etro]

I can confirm one thing here:


Win 8.1 + HD 7970 Lightning + Cat 14.3B or Cat 13.9WHQL = No vsync(nor by D3D Overrider or Radeon PRO, it don't works).

 

[Kenmitch]

It's a fine line between throttling and not throttling due to the powertune limit. I wish someone had a leaky 290x to test with. My 290 is pretty good chip, and doesn't throttle nearly as much at +50 voltage offset +50 limit as many people report on OCN. The Tri-X cooler also keeps temps low and voltages lower as a result.

I have a 76% ASIC quality chip so I believe that in theory means it draws less than someone with a lower quality chip.

I'm running 13.12s currently but could try latest beta.

I have 2 290's in seperate rigs. 1 asic is 70's 1 asic is 80's. Guess I could see tonight possibly.

 

[ViRGE]

What exactly is broken with the power limit setting? Is the limit not increasing when set higher?

 

[VulgarDisplay]

What exactly is broken with the power limit setting? Is the limit not increasing when set higher?

No it stays at 0 when you raise it. Even at stock clocks I can make the card throttle just by increasing voltage and making it draw more power. This is with a 290.

I'm positive a 290x will draw more watts at that oc and thus throttle worse than my card. I'm at work now and can't test anymore.

Someone with a 290x needs to test this also.

I plan on playing with my fan profile to get my temps closer to what they had in the review which should further increase my power draw.

 

[bystander36]

What are you using to OC the card? I wonder if Overdrive has different results than MSI Afterburner.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

From the testing people are doing at ocn it is a problem with all 14.X drivers and does not work with any software.

 

[Fastx]

VD fwiw here is a guy with a MSI 290 Gaming using 14.2 works great for him with no throttling but with 14.1's he was getting throttling. But I did see others do have problems with 14.2 so it looks to be a random isssue at this time imo. I would also try AB like Bystander mentioned and disable CCC OD.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25919642&postcount=6

Here a thread on 14.2's you might be interested to read if you haven't already.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1808207

 

[Fastx]

From the testing people are doing at ocn it is a problem with all 14.X drivers and does not work with any software.

Can you post the link I'd be interested in reading that thread. ^

 

[Silverforce11]

I just don't understand how they can fail so hard with such a feature, its almost as if they DON'T QA test their betas and shove it out asap.

 

[Bateluer]

I didn't experience any issues OCing on the 14.1s or 14.2s, but I've rolled back to 13.12s for the time being.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Can you post the link I'd be interested in reading that thread. ^

http://www.overclock.net/t/1436497/official-amd-r9-290x-290-owners-club/19610#post_22001037

This post in in reply to me asking why my card was throttling was the first I saw of it. The thread is massive and its mentioned often in there.

Depending on your bios you may not see this issue. Some bios do not have a power target so there is nothing to adjust.

 

[thesmokingman]

Stop using AB and Trixx? AB has never worked right on Hawaii gpus anyways. I've written that in post dating back to Hawaii's release, even with all these adl patches he's written into AB. Gputweak looks to work fine.

I've tested it on a few generations of gpus. Just using AB and 14.x driver on a 6950, the gpu usage fluctuates randomly while sitting idle on the desktop. It's a driver issue? Or is it? In the case of the 6950, it's easily rectified by uninstalling AB 3x betas and installing 2.3.1 since only Hawaii gpus need/forced to use the newer betas.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I'm using trixx because it allows +200 mv

 

[RaistlinZ]

I don't understand why they changed the overclocking feature to begin with. It worked fine for the 7xxx series. Why'd they have to make it more complex?

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I don't understand why they changed the overclocking feature to begin with. It worked fine for the 7xxx series. Why'd they have to make it more complex?

Because nvidia found a way to make their cards run faster than advertised making amd look bad in reviews so they had to follow suit.

 

[leeb2013]

I have the non-oc version of the Tri-x R9-290 and had similar issues with 14.x drivers. I put the oc BIOS on it and it wouldn't work with 14.x. I tried to o/c with Trixx, from stock 947MHz to 1000MHz, increased the power limit to +50%, but it kept throttling to below 947MHz, even at <65C with the fans staying at minimum. Adding voltage made no difference, it didn't added any and still throttled.

However, with 13.12 drivers, it works fine and I can o/c to 1200 with little throttling. The oc Bios also works fine, so now it sits nicely at 1000MHz.

They screw something up for sure.

BTW, does anyone know why with these cards you no longer see the "target temperature" in CCC?

 

[Shmee]

I dont use CCC, I use Ab, trixx, or miners for changing GPU settings. Afaik, with 14.2, my +20 power tune works fine. I am not ocing it though, but I do underclock when mining I believe.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

If you don't increase voltage or clocks to the point where it draws a certain wattage it won't throttle.

 

[Spanners]

I have the non-oc version of the Tri-x R9-290 and had similar issues with 14.x drivers. I put the oc BIOS on it and it wouldn't work with 14.x. I tried to o/c with Trixx, from stock 947MHz to 1000MHz, increased the power limit to +50%, but it kept throttling to below 947MHz, even at <65C with the fans staying at minimum. Adding voltage made no difference, it didn't added any and still throttled.

However, with 13.12 drivers, it works fine and I can o/c to 1200 with little throttling. The oc Bios also works fine, so now it sits nicely at 1000MHz.

They screw something up for sure.

BTW, does anyone know why with these cards you no longer see the "target temperature" in CCC?

Same issue here, Tri-X r9 290, 14.1/2/3.