AMD problems with past 2 gens.

[Stas]

I've had AMD cards for almost a decade, easily about a dozen of them. Never have I considered switching to nVidia or had any issues with them until recently. Always overclock, voltmod, custom cooling, etc.
With 7950 I had the flicker/black screen problem. It was RMAed twice. Recent one still has issues periodically. About a month ago, I decided on the upgrade - R290. The fresh, new card came with the same glitches as the old one! I immediately sent it back. After reading countless reports of that flicker/black screen problems with cards of the HD7xxx and R2x0 generations, I started to wonder what the underlying problem is.
I'm yet to find the cause. Are the GPUs clocked past stable ranges? Is it unstable power supply? Some indicated that Elpida memory is to blame (I'm skeptical of this).
I'm hoping to hear from engineers or people close to sources. Thank you

 

[guskline]

Please tell us the rest of your specs, cpu, psu etc

 

[Silverforce11]

I've been using AMD since the 5850, before that it was NV. I've never had to RMA any hardware, ever. I'm probably just lucky.

But generally if you get a bad card that has flicker or corrupted images or 3d artifacts, just RMA it instead of wasting time troubleshooting.

 

[96Firebird]

Can you explain the flicker/black screen problem further? It is a quick half-second flash of black? 5 seconds of black? Are you using multiple monitors?

 

[Stas]

Specs are irrelevant. But here you go: 2500k@4.3, 16GB/1600, GA-Z68X-UD4-B3, 660W SeaSonic. Do you want specs of my 2 other rigs I've tested the cards on?
I've never RMAed cards before this myself. This issue is nothing AMD has seen before, IMO. It's obviously a hardware flaw and a wide-spread one. Only came with last 2 gens. I'm not trying to troubleshoot anything, as that's not an issue for me anymore. Just a conversation for education/entertainment value.

 

[Stas]

Can you explain the flicker/black screen problem further? It is a quick half-second flash of black? 5 seconds of black? Are you using multiple monitors?

The way it presented in my case was as follows.
Browsing (practically idle machine) - randomly the screen goes black for a 1-2 sec and back on. Sometimes it's accompanied by a crashed/recovered driver balloon tip. Maybe once a day.
When playing games - no issues. FurMark, 3DMark with aggressive settings (AA, AI through the roof) - no issues. But, often after games, leave the PC alone (idling), come back in 2 hours - black screen, frozen rig (no response on CapsLock, NumLock). Reset doesn't even reboot; have to hard shut down, let sit for 10 sec then power back on.
1 screen - 1920x1200, later 2560x1440.
That was with the 7950, 2 different ones. Sapphire Boost, if you care. When 290 came in and showed the first flicker signs, I quit right away and packed that shti up. Disappointing :/

 

[SlowSpyder]

I've had flickering with past video cards when I pushed the ram too far. Not a 7970, but a 5870, both use GDDR5 if that matters. You said you always overclock, volt mod, use custom cooling. Have you tried a factory card with factory settings? Did you still get the issue?

 

[96Firebird]

Ah ok, sounds like the sleep bug coupled with possibly too conservative clocks during the idle phase. Just my guess though, I'm no engineer (well I am, but a mechanical, not computer).

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2322060

I'd say it is more a driver issue than a hardware issue, since two users with the same card can have different results. As you can see from that thread, a lot of people are fed up that this issue has gone on so long.

Do you still have either card, and are you up for testing any solutions?

 

[Paul98]

The problem is with your system having some sort of conflict or setting causing it.

 

[Sohaltang]

Multi monitor? I had an issue that was similar. Had to change 2d clock speed .

 

[Yuriman]

See the thread "Does anyone still get the AMD 7xxx bug where your monitor doesn't wake up from sleep?".

Seems to be related.

I too occasionally come back to a black screen and frozen keyboard, or get the rare drive crash where the screen goes black for a second or two. My solution to the former was to prevent sleep, which isn't a problem since I run a few servers anyway.

 

[96Firebird]

Multi monitor? I had an issue that was similar. Had to change 2d clock speed .

He said only 1 screen. Post 6.

 

[sm625]

HDMI or DVI? I rarely have trouble with DVI but on HDMI I have a lot more problems. I dont think the cable design is very good. They dont even bolt down.

 

[Stuka87]

Disable sleep and your issues should go away. I have never had my screen flicker while actively using the box (And I have had my 7950 since release day). But I will get the black screen of death if the machine goes to sleep (every time in fact). Disable sleep and it works fine. Otherwise I have not had many issues with my AMD stuff. But the sleep issue is annoying, easy to work around, but we should not have too.

Funny enough my nVidia driver crashed (on my work machine right now) while typing this.

 

[Stas]

I've had flickering with past video cards when I pushed the ram too far. Not a 7970, but a 5870, both use GDDR5 if that matters. You said you always overclock, volt mod, use custom cooling. Have you tried a factory card with factory settings? Did you still get the issue?

Always troubleshoot with stock settings.

Ah ok, sounds like the sleep bug coupled with possibly too conservative clocks during the idle phase. Just my guess though, I'm no engineer (well I am, but a mechanical, not computer).

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2322060

I'd say it is more a driver issue than a hardware issue, since two users with the same card can have different results. As you can see from that thread, a lot of people are fed up that this issue has gone on so long.

Do you still have either card, and are you up for testing any solutions?

I RMAed the card once again. Should have it back soon. I remember trying to change 2D mode settings in the early stages of troubleshooting. But the Sapphire 7950 Boost card didn't let me change voltage or 2D clocks - always ignored my settings (MSI Afterburner, Sapphire Trixx).

 

[Stas]

Disable sleep and your issues should go away. I have never had my screen flicker while actively using the box (And I have had my 7950 since release day). But I will get the black screen of death if the machine goes to sleep (every time in fact). Disable sleep and it works fine. Otherwise I have not had many issues with my AMD stuff. But the sleep issue is annoying, easy to work around, but we should not have too.

Funny enough my nVidia driver crashed (on my work machine right now) while typing this.

I tried that. I never use sleep to begin with. I do let the monitor go to stand by, however. It would still crash. A couple of times I actually witnessed it. I was on the phone in front of the screen, the computer idled for maybe 5 min at this point (neither sleep nor monitor stand by could've been triggered, yet) - bam, screen goes black. No input response.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

HDMI or DVI? I rarely have trouble with DVI but on HDMI I have a lot more problems. I dont think the cable design is very good. They dont even bolt down.

I've had similar issues with HDMI. Some cables also have a nasty tendency to "sag" and loose connection for a split second if mounted "vertically". Annoying as **** when you're watching a movie.

Much prefer DVI and (full-size) DisplayPort as they have a proper mechanical latching mechanism.

-------------------------------

OP have you tried a different cable?

 

[Ketchup]

....Always overclock, voltmod, custom cooling, etc...

So, I have a question. When these cards start to fail, is this after you are doing the above? Conventional wisdom would suggest that if a card fails after the above alterations, don't do it again.

i have been fortunate - I have never had a card give me a corrupt display. I had a couple fail after several years of use, but those were cards that ran extremely hot, and it was time for an upgrade when they died anyway.

 

[Stas]

When these cards start to fail, is this after you are doing the above?

No.

 

[BrightCandle]

AMD has been having power saving issues since as long as I can remember. They changed it quite a bit with the 7970's and I just had so many problems with performance and black screens. They improved over the 6 months and the cases of black screens and flickers reduced but it was never eliminated. A friend has a 290 and they find they also get black screens coming out of power saving and the occasional flicker they can't explain. I think its either in the drivers or a fault in the hardware that has persisted for a few generations. I don't know if they can fix it with driver updates, they haven't done so in the past nearly 3 years so I wouldn't expect it soon anyway.

The bug got raised with AMD anyway in their "please help us with rereporting all your bugs" effort two months ago so yeah lets hope they fix it. For now I don't think its anything you have done, I think its a fault in the product, one I experienced myself quite a bit.

 

[Stas]

It's really disheartening given my positive experience with ATI and AMD products going back all the way to 9800Pro and OG Athlon 64

 

[Paul98]

How do you know it's the graphics card?

 

[Stuka87]

I tried that. I never use sleep to begin with. I do let the monitor go to stand by, however. It would still crash. A couple of times I actually witnessed it. I was on the phone in front of the screen, the computer idled for maybe 5 min at this point (neither sleep nor monitor stand by could've been triggered, yet) - bam, screen goes black. No input response.

I actually have display sleep off as well.

Does your mobo have built in VGA (via the onboard video on your CPU)?

Try removing the AMD card entirely and see if it still happens. I have not seen anybody with a 290 complain about it.

 

[Stas]

I actually have display sleep off as well.

Does your mobo have built in VGA (via the onboard video on your CPU)?

Try removing the AMD card entirely and see if it still happens. I have not seen anybody with a 290 complain about it.

No integrated. GTX 970 works fine. So did 6870 before 7950 or R290. There is no way I'm going to keep my screen awake - the computer gets rebooted twice a month, if that.

 

[Rvenger]

I firmly believe it is chipset related because I never had the wake from sleep bug until I switched to X99. I also had the wake from sleep issue on the AM3+ and FM2 socket. Z68, Z77, Z87, and Z97 gave me 0 problems.