AMD driver issue or RMA time for card?

[canadiantrex]

I recently (received it last week) purchased a Sapphire dual-x R9 280 from Newegg.

Temps are OK even with an overclock of 1100/1500. However, both at stock and overclocked I've noticed a stuttering issue.

Occasionally after gaming for a while (again, temps are still cool and OK, highest it's ever gotten to is 67* C), my game will have a slight stutter, maybe for a tenth of a second or so, every 1 to 2 seconds. It's never happened on the desktop or in any 2D app, only in 3D stuff. At first I thought it was an issue with World of Tanks, as that's the game it happened in the first few times. However, this morning it happened while playing Civ5, so it's obviously not a case of "lol, bad Russian programming". :biggrin:

As I've said, it's happened at both stock and overclocked. Rebooting fixes the issue for a day or so until it occurs again.

Driver version is catalyst 14.4 on Windows 8 64 bit. (8, not 8.1)
Card is pushing 2 1080p monitors, each one plugged into a DVI port.

Any of ya'll ever heard of this before? Would it be a driver issue or do I have something defective on the card?

 

[Elixer]

Install 8.1, since AMD will be dropping support for 8, then you can try the new 14.6 drivers that should be out sometime today.

 

[96Firebird]

Sounds like it could be a memory leak, maybe try an older driver?

Or the newer driver if it comes out today.

 

[canadiantrex]

Updated to 8.1, have not tried the new drivers yet, problem still occasionally occurs.

One thing I have noticed since the last time I posted: whenever this does happen, my GPU drops down to stock clock speeds. Not stock for the Sapphire Dual-X (which is 940/1250), but stock for the reference card (850/1250).

Hope this additional clue might help...

 

[lopri]

"Stuttering" is a bit too generic (it happens to every system under stress) so I think you may want to describe a bit more specific.

I had a 7950 and it would drop its clock or memory speed to half when overclocking was unstable. I had no temperature issue either with Gigabyte's WindForce cooler so yes OC can fail regardless of temperature.

 

[MTDEW]

Updated to 8.1, have not tried the new drivers yet, problem still occasionally occurs.

One thing I have noticed since the last time I posted: whenever this does happen, my GPU drops down to stock clock speeds. Not stock for the Sapphire Dual-X (which is 940/1250), but stock for the reference card (850/1250).

Hope this additional clue might help...

In CCC/Performance/AMD Overdrive... try setting the Power limit settings to +20% and see if it prevents the card from "down-clocking"

 

[canadiantrex]

"Stuttering" is a bit too generic (it happens to every system under stress) so I think you may want to describe a bit more specific.

I had a 7950 and it would drop its clock or memory speed to half when overclocking was unstable. I had no temperature issue either with Gigabyte's WindForce cooler so yes OC can fail regardless of temperature.

I'll try to explain it better. Imagine you have Fraps running, it's reporting a steady 60 FPS in Civ 5. Your GPU is about 30ish % load. Suddenly, your primary monitor (on which civ 5 is located) flickers for a split second. Afterwards, GPU-z on your second monitor is reporting stock reference clockspeeds (850/1250), gpu is maybe 40ish % load now, still no where near being taxed or pushed hard. Fraps is still showing a steady 60 FPS. However, as you move your mouse around in Civ5 and scroll about on the map, you notice that for maybe a tenth of a second every second or so, the screen freezes. While the screen freezes, Fraps continues to report a steady 60 fps. You have dual monitors, so you mouse over to the desktop on your second monitor, grab the GPU-z window and drag it around for a few seconds: smooth as silk. Go back to primary monitor and Civ5: stuttering every second or two.

In CCC/Performance/AMD Overdrive... try setting the Power limit settings to +20% and see if it prevents the card from "down-clocking"

It's been at +20% since before this started occurring.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Are you using an SSD?

 

[canadiantrex]

Are you using an SSD?

No.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

It could be related to your HD not being able to stream game assets fast enough then.

 

[canadiantrex]

It could be related to your HD not being able to stream game assets fast enough then.

Never happened in the last year and a half I've had this rig, until I got this video card 2 weeks ago.

 

[BrightCandle]

I think some of the problem is definitely slow drive access for game assets. My SSD tends to slow down when it gets full and having cleared it out my pauses have disappeared.

There is definitely a problem with the game however, it should not be pausing while it loads assets, it should be using a lower quality texture and model to fill in the blanks and it should not be loading these assets so close to where they are needed that the game will actually stall, that is definitely a bug.

 

[canadiantrex]

I think some of the problem is definitely slow drive access for game assets. My SSD tends to slow down when it gets full and having cleared it out my pauses have disappeared.

There is definitely a problem with the game however, it should not be pausing while it loads assets, it should be using a lower quality texture and model to fill in the blanks and it should not be loading these assets so close to where they are needed that the game will actually stall, that is definitely a bug.

"definitely slow drive access" ?
"definitely a bug" ? (the exact same bug in World of Tanks, Civ5, and Borderlands 2, amazing!)

I just replaced a video card, and only a video card. A problem suddenly crops up that never occurred on my rig before, and I'm told it's problems streaming assets off my hard drive? I expect better from these forums.

When this stuttering starts occurring, the game isn't "pausing", it's just as though the video output is skipping over an eyeblink worth of frames. It's freezing for an eyeblink then skipping ahead to what would normally be rendered 5 or 6 frames later.

Regardless, yesterday morning I installed 14.6 drivers, I'll find out in a day or two if that fixed the issue.

 

[BrightCandle]

I have seen two different types of effect in WatchDogs so far, and they are different.

1) The game will pause, always when driving usually at an intersection, for upto 5 seconds but normally less than a second. All the frames will be missing but the game wont have progressed.
2) When using Ultra textures sometimes the game FPS will slow considerably and the game is unplayable.

These two things are not the same, (2) is a VRAM issue and (1) I suspect is asset streaming.

 

[canadiantrex]

I have seen two different types of effect in WatchDogs so far, and they are different.

1) The game will pause, always when driving usually at an intersection, for upto 5 seconds but normally less than a second. All the frames will be missing but the game wont have progressed.
2) When using Ultra textures sometimes the game FPS will slow considerably and the game is unplayable.

These two things are not the same, (2) is a VRAM issue and (1) I suspect is asset streaming.

I never mentioned anything about Watch Dogs. I don't even own the game.

All I wanted to know was if this was a known driver issue or if I should consider RMA'ing the card.

*edit* BrightCandle, you seem to have started posting in this thread under the impression that this was about issues in WatchDogs. Where did you get that idea from?

 

[Phynaz]

I had this issue a few years ago. It was a bad card.

 

[SlickR12345]

I'll try to explain it better. Imagine you have Fraps running, it's reporting a steady 60 FPS in Civ 5. Your GPU is about 30ish % load. Suddenly, your primary monitor (on which civ 5 is located) flickers for a split second. Afterwards, GPU-z on your second monitor is reporting stock reference clockspeeds (850/1250), gpu is maybe 40ish % load now, still no where near being taxed or pushed hard. Fraps is still showing a steady 60 FPS. However, as you move your mouse around in Civ5 and scroll about on the map, you notice that for maybe a tenth of a second every second or so, the screen freezes. While the screen freezes, Fraps continues to report a steady 60 fps. You have dual monitors, so you mouse over to the desktop on your second monitor, grab the GPU-z window and drag it around for a few seconds: smooth as silk. Go back to primary monitor and Civ5: stuttering every second or two.


It's been at +20% since before this started occurring.

RMA the card and don't tell them you OC. You've ruined the card.

I mean the big secret is that OC actually reduces the card lifespan from 20% up to 50%, depending on the quality of build of the card and how much you use it under OC.

I mean when you read reviewers OC the card at amazing rates and how good its at OC, its all a lie. Chances are they have gotten cherry picked cards from the developers/sell partners and are able to get a super high OC.

Also they never tell you about the downsides of OC and they actually don't even run these cards in their daily use to even know about the issues.

This is why I don't recommend OC, especially if the card is not high quality build from start. I mean they are using cheaper part all round.

Even "special" editions like Asus "mars" or "matrix" or others "black" versions don't really use the highest quality parts, since its too expensive and they would have to sell it at least 20%-30% more over the other cards.

 

[IEC]

OP, what do your RAM and pagefile settings look like?

Edit: What happens if you set your video card clocks to stock settings?

 

[canadiantrex]

OP, what do your RAM and pagefile settings look like?

Edit: What happens if you set your video card clocks to stock settings?

Explain what this is and I'll tell ya. :biggrin:

Also, been playing Civ5 for about 6 hours since I updated the drivers to 14.6, not a single problem yet. So.... fingers crossed!

 

[canadiantrex]

RMA the card and don't tell them you OC. You've ruined the card.

I mean the big secret is that OC actually reduces the card lifespan from 20% up to 50%, depending on the quality of build of the card and how much you use it under OC.

I mean when you read reviewers OC the card at amazing rates and how good its at OC, its all a lie. Chances are they have gotten cherry picked cards from the developers/sell partners and are able to get a super high OC.

Also they never tell you about the downsides of OC and they actually don't even run these cards in their daily use to even know about the issues.

This is why I don't recommend OC, especially if the card is not high quality build from start. I mean they are using cheaper part all round.

Even "special" editions like Asus "mars" or "matrix" or others "black" versions don't really use the highest quality parts, since its too expensive and they would have to sell it at least 20%-30% more over the other cards.

Um...yeah...

 

[nurturedhate]

Set the card to the base stock clocks, 850 or whatever it is, reboot and then see if the issue happens. It sounds more like an issue with the vram than anything else, if you are fine one sec, then the card reverts to stock clocks and then the issue starts its a driver or card issue 99% of the time. Not seeing anyone else posting about this so I would assume it's not driver related. So lets start by troubleshooting the card. Knock the clocks down and see if you can repeat the experience.

 

[nurturedhate]

Explain what this is and I'll tell ya. :biggrin:

Also, been playing Civ5 for about 6 hours since I updated the drivers to 14.6, not a single problem yet. So.... fingers crossed!

Hope 14.6s work for you

 

[PliotronX]

RMA the card and don't tell them you OC. You've ruined the card.

I mean the big secret is that OC actually reduces the card lifespan from 20% up to 50%, depending on the quality of build of the card and how much you use it under OC.

I mean when you read reviewers OC the card at amazing rates and how good its at OC, its all a lie. Chances are they have gotten cherry picked cards from the developers/sell partners and are able to get a super high OC.

Also they never tell you about the downsides of OC and they actually don't even run these cards in their daily use to even know about the issues.

This is why I don't recommend OC, especially if the card is not high quality build from start. I mean they are using cheaper part all round.

Even "special" editions like Asus "mars" or "matrix" or others "black" versions don't really use the highest quality parts, since its too expensive and they would have to sell it at least 20%-30% more over the other cards.

Are the newer cards more susceptible to electromigration or something? All my cards in the past have been off the shelf and voltmodded on air and they disagree with you.

 

[canadiantrex]

Are the newer cards more susceptible to electromigration or something? All my cards in the past have been off the shelf and voltmodded on air and they disagree with you.

*shrug* Anecdotal... But I ran a 7850 24/7 for over a year and a half LTC mining. Gave it to a friend a few weeks ago and according to Steam she's currently playing Far Cry 3 on it. Oh yeah, for those 18 months it was overclocked. :whiste:

 

[SlickR12345]

Are the newer cards more susceptible to electromigration or something? All my cards in the past have been off the shelf and voltmodded on air and they disagree with you.

Its just that they are using cheaper parts all round. I mean you've noticed cards are getting bigger and bigger, every time more transistors, have more and more memory and this increases the cost, so in order to reduce the cost they must use cheaper and less quality parts.

Yeah die shrinks help, but going from 180nm to 80mm is huge, going from 32nm to 22nm is not.