Asus R9 290X huge problem, The last hope is you.

[XAKEP]

Hello everyone. Back in September when X99 came out I purchased my dream system, I'll put complete specs later on. But in short and relative I have X99 Deluxe MoBo, R9 290x GPU and Antec 1000W PSU. I can't tell you if I had this problem from day 1 or not but within a week I've had it. Let me explain what is going on.

First I decided to upgrade BIOS on my Video card because everywhere I looked I see that R9 290X was unstable and new BIOS revision promised exactly that. However I found myself in situation where BIOS flasher gave me error and GPU no longer booted for me. Thank god I had Second BIOS switch and in my 20 years working with computers this is first time I even thought about updating VBIOS. Anyhow I managed to reflash both to the latest version and everything ok with BIOS part. Now after card started to work again I installed brand new windows 8.1 and everything was exactly as it should be. Until I installed my Video driver and try to play my favorite game. As soon GPU start to be active (later on I found that any activity by GPU will trigger this, a video on the page that use some gpu or screen saver) Video driver crash and recovery will pop out. Performance in the game is extremely low in waves. Anywhere from 10 to 40 FPS when normally I'd get around 80 steady. So recap a bit. Video card works without problem (visually) when something starting to play that require GPU processing power driver crash. Reason I say that requite GPU because if I am in the desktop everything is fine, but as soon I let's say open chrome that indeed use video acceleration to display pages everything crash, may be not right away but within 30 seconds it does. Same goes for the games.

So my next thought was well, I have bad GPU. Let's RMA it and done deal right? Wrong. I have my older rig that is based on old X58 chipset an ASUS P6T-Deluxe (I like ASUS deluxe series boards as you can see) So it took me few minutes to plug my new shiny R9 290X in to my old computer and .... no problem whatsoever. And burned this card back and forward and sideways. I mean I really did all I can do crash driver and the card. Nothing worked. Card is stable 100% I mean no problems PERIOD. Forget about driver crash I even did OC, burn in tests, gaming benches basically I did complete GPU test. Everything checked out.

My next thought was, well I guess this is my Board, right? Wrong again. I took my older GPU from X58 build that is HD6970 (very nice card still) and plug it in to my new X99 build and ..... I did exactly same tests .... NO PROBLEMS AT ALL. Now I started to get a bit worry because solution still not found. Is it card or it's a board.

I was about to give up when I decided to put my 290X in to GPU slot PCIx_3. In manual in single GPU setup it is recommended to use PCIx_1 or PCIx_3 port. And guess what. Everything working I managed to get tests and benches, everything looked good no problem at all. I didn't fix problem but at list I have stable system. So recap. The only times I am getting driver crash and low performance if I put 290X in to PCIx_1 port, same card perform without problem in another motherboard and also in PCIx_3 port on new motherboard. I did tried PCIx_1 and 3 on older board just to see if all green, indeed it is.

So you'd say use it on PCIx_3 port what is the problem. Well this is not how hardware should work or is working. And this is first time in my years working with systems I am getting such off combination of fail / no fail tests. I must say I am uneasy to just let it go but I really had no choice because what to RMA CArd or board or both ? I can't just rip system apart send it in just to receive everything back with "no problems found" in the notes from ASUS. Because if you take card use it on my older board indeed no problems, only when you combine 2 you get. But anyhow I almost gave up and let it be on port 3 when something happened. All of a sudden I see lines on the screen. Almost looked like a bad cable issue (not artifacts when bad GPU connection on the board and require reflow) but indeed lines and again lines only happen when something is on the screen that require render, empty desktop ... no lines ...nothing to render ..lines. I made a recording, please review it. Now I must say that this happens may be one every 2 weeks for past 4 months or so. I need to reboot computer and they're gone. While lines are on game and fps work without problem, no driver crashes no nothing. Lines go across all monitors (I have 3 together).


Guys I am sorry for such long first post but you're really only hope I have to resolving this. Because I feel even RMA wont help me because like I said before they'll test card (how do they tests cards ?) and they'll find no problems. Same goes for the board cause my HD6970 works without problem on PCIx_1 and 3, I am stuck without answer.

Please help.


Thank you very much.

Here we go. In this video please observe when clean desktop on the screen you'll see no lines, as long I pull up Blizzard desktop app ,right away you start to see lines. After few seconds I minimize it and just like that lines are gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8V5QaKFv_4

In next Video you looking at game in progress when lines came about. I picked up my DSLR and recorded it , I actually did it originally for ASUS when I spoke with them (waste of time btw). Please note clicking sounds. I mean my camera have nothing to do with PC yet it making this sounds on this video. Extremely strange because all sounds coming from headphones I don't have loud speakers. But no matter. Ignore sound for now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE6gGxBCSkM

Once again thank you and if you like me to do any tests or anything please let me know I'll do so.



My RIG Specs.

| ASUS X99 Deluxe | Intel Core i7 5930K 3424B375 | Samsung 850 Pro 256GB OS |
Samsung 850 Pro 256GB Programs | RAID0 3x750GB Caviar Black | Corsair 16GB (4 x
4GB) DDR4 2800 | ASUS AMD R9 290X | Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ-1000 | NEC
EA244WMi IPS LCD | CM HAF X Full Tower | Corsair H100i CPU AIO Liquid Cooler |
Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit |

 

[garagisti]

Hello everyone. Back in September when X99 came out I purchased my dream system, I'll put complete specs later on. But in short and relative I have X99 Deluxe MoBo, R9 290x GPU and Antec 1000W PSU. I can't tell you if I had this problem from day 1 or not but within a week I've had it. Let me explain what is going on.

First I decided to upgrade BIOS on my Video card because everywhere I looked I see that R9 290X was unstable and new BIOS revision promised exactly that. However I found myself in situation where BIOS flasher gave me error and GPU no longer booted for me. Thank god I had Second BIOS switch and in my 20 years working with computers this is first time I even thought about updating VBIOS. Anyhow I managed to reflash both to the latest version and everything ok with BIOS part. Now after card started to work again I installed brand new windows 8.1 and everything was exactly as it should be. Until I installed my Video driver and try to play my favorite game. As soon GPU start to be active (later on I found that any activity by GPU will trigger this, a video on the page that use some gpu or screen saver) Video driver crash and recovery will pop out. Performance in the game is extremely low in waves. Anywhere from 10 to 40 FPS when normally I'd get around 80 steady. So recap a bit. Video card works without problem (visually) when something starting to play that require GPU processing power driver crash. Reason I say that requite GPU because if I am in the desktop everything is fine, but as soon I let's say open chrome that indeed use video acceleration to display pages everything crash, may be not right away but within 30 seconds it does. Same goes for the games.

So my next thought was well, I have bad GPU. Let's RMA it and done deal right? Wrong. I have my older rig that is based on old X58 chipset an ASUS P6T-Deluxe (I like ASUS deluxe series boards as you can see) So it took me few minutes to plug my new shiny R9 290X in to my old computer and .... no problem whatsoever. And burned this card back and forward and sideways. I mean I really did all I can do crash driver and the card. Nothing worked. Card is stable 100% I mean no problems PERIOD. Forget about driver crash I even did OC, burn in tests, gaming benches basically I did complete GPU test. Everything checked out.

My next thought was, well I guess this is my Board, right? Wrong again. I took my older GPU from X58 build that is HD6970 (very nice card still) and plug it in to my new X99 build and ..... I did exactly same tests .... NO PROBLEMS AT ALL. Now I started to get a bit worry because solution still not found. Is it card or it's a board.

I was about to give up when I decided to put my 290X in to GPU slot PCIx_3. In manual in single GPU setup it is recommended to use PCIx_1 or PCIx_3 port. And guess what. Everything working I managed to get tests and benches, everything looked good no problem at all. I didn't fix problem but at list I have stable system. So recap. The only times I am getting driver crash and low performance if I put 290X in to PCIx_1 port, same card perform without problem in another motherboard and also in PCIx_3 port on new motherboard. I did tried PCIx_1 and 3 on older board just to see if all green, indeed it is.

So you'd say use it on PCIx_3 port what is the problem. Well this is not how hardware should work or is working. And this is first time in my years working with systems I am getting such off combination of fail / no fail tests. I must say I am uneasy to just let it go but I really had no choice because what to RMA CArd or board or both ? I can't just rip system apart send it in just to receive everything back with "no problems found" in the notes from ASUS. Because if you take card use it on my older board indeed no problems, only when you combine 2 you get. But anyhow I almost gave up and let it be on port 3 when something happened. All of a sudden I see lines on the screen. Almost looked like a bad cable issue (not artifacts when bad GPU connection on the board and require reflow) but indeed lines and again lines only happen when something is on the screen that require render, empty desktop ... no lines ...nothing to render ..lines. I made a recording, please review it. Now I must say that this happens may be one every 2 weeks for past 4 months or so. I need to reboot computer and they're gone. While lines are on game and fps work without problem, no driver crashes no nothing. Lines go across all monitors (I have 3 together).


Guys I am sorry for such long first post but you're really only hope I have to resolving this. Because I feel even RMA wont help me because like I said before they'll test card (how do they tests cards ?) and they'll find no problems. Same goes for the board cause my HD6970 works without problem on PCIx_1 and 3, I am stuck without answer.

Please help.


Thank you very much.

Here we go. In this video please observe when clean desktop on the screen you'll see no lines, as long I pull up Blizzard desktop app ,right away you start to see lines. After few seconds I minimize it and just like that lines are gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8V5QaKFv_4

In next Video you looking at game in progress when lines came about. I picked up my DSLR and recorded it , I actually did it originally for ASUS when I spoke with them (waste of time btw). Please note clicking sounds. I mean my camera have nothing to do with PC yet it making this sounds on this video. Extremely strange because all sounds coming from headphones I don't have loud speakers. But no matter. Ignore sound for now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE6gGxBCSkM

Once again thank you and if you like me to do any tests or anything please let me know I'll do so.



My RIG Specs.

| ASUS X99 Deluxe | Intel Core i7 5930K 3424B375 | Samsung 850 Pro 256GB OS |
Samsung 850 Pro 256GB Programs | RAID0 3x750GB Caviar Black | Corsair 16GB (4 x
4GB) DDR4 2800 | ASUS AMD R9 290X | Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ-1000 | NEC
EA244WMi IPS LCD | CM HAF X Full Tower | Corsair H100i CPU AIO Liquid Cooler |
Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit |

Personally, i'd start by switching power supplies, that is use one from the older system in the newer one, with a single card and go from there. If the problem persists, i'd send the board in first... imho, it may just be that pcie is faulty on the board, and not delivering full power for whatever reason. 290x on load is mighty thirsty. Given the cards work flawlessly on your older system, that is what i'd think. On the other hand, if the power supply switch works, then need to replace power supply. Should be a day's worth of running the system to reproduce most of the errors, or not.

btw, nice rig... i feel very tiny

 

[XAKEP]

Personally, i'd start by switching power supplies, that is use one from the older system in the newer one, with a single card and go from there. If the problem persists, i'd send the board in first... imho, it may just be that pcie is faulty on the board, and not delivering full power for whatever reason. 290x on load is mighty thirsty. Given the cards work flawlessly on your older system, that is what i'd think. On the other hand, if the power supply switch works, then need to replace power supply. Should be a day's worth of running the system to reproduce most of the errors, or not.

btw, nice rig... i feel very tiny

Thank you for your feedback however I am positive that this is NOT PSU because it would of reproduce exactly same problem on both ports. Only 1 thing I must say in addition to OP that X58 and HD6970 is NOT PCIx 3.0 board and card. Other than that all the same. 1000W PSU is from older system I didn't want to purchase another new PSU for perfectly good high-end PSU.

 

[garagisti]

Thank you for your feedback however I am positive that this is NOT PSU because it would of reproduce exactly same problem on both ports. Only 1 thing I must say in addition to OP that X58 and HD6970 is NOT PCIx 3.0 board and card. Other than that all the same. 1000W PSU is from older system I didn't want to purchase another new PSU for perfectly good high-end PSU.

LOL, slip... need sleep!

I don't think it has to do with pcie3.0 or whatever. A faulty card will have given problems on X58 system as well. Great, that reduces the variables, and with that, i'd suggest that you send out your motherboard for replacement. Good luck.

 

[3DVagabond]

Possibly poor load distribution between the rails? Did you possibly use different pcie connectors for the card when you put it back in the system?

 

[Mondozei]

The notion that a 1000W PSU is inadequate for any single GPU is laughable.

I'm guessing it's an issue with the mobo, specifically the PCI lanes.

 

[XAKEP]

LOL, slip... need sleep!

I don't think it has to do with pcie3.0 or whatever. A faulty card will have given problems on X58 system as well. Great, that reduces the variables, and with that, i'd suggest that you send out your motherboard for replacement. Good luck.

Thank you for your input. I must ask then if its a board how come other card works in both slots under most harsh loads without any problem. What makes you think this is a board issue. Guys you need to understand one thing I've been working on this for a while now and I simply can't send something in. I don't know if you know how Asus RMA works but they will send you stuff back unless they can reproduce what you're saying and in my case I can't even reproduce this issue myself with different GPU.

 

[XAKEP]

Possibly poor load distribution between the rails? Did you possibly use different pcie connectors for the card when you put it back in the system?

Not sure what you mean but as stated in OP I tried other card in port 1 and port 3 that worked perfectly. HD6970 in new board in pcix 1 and 3 full load no problems. And yes about 1000 watt PSU its more than enough for my setup.

 

[garagisti]

Thank you for your input. I must ask then if its a board how come other card works in both slots under most harsh loads without any problem. What makes you think this is a board issue. Guys you need to understand one thing I've been working on this for a while now and I simply can't send something in. I don't know if you know how Asus RMA works but they will send you stuff back unless they can reproduce what you're saying and in my case I can't even reproduce this issue myself with different GPU.

Well, Asus customer service is reportedly horrible and I feel your pain. As to why 6970 works without problems on x99, why the answer is simple IMHO, and can easily be gleaned from the following image.:
http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?ct=articles&action=file&id=7174

6970 has lower power consumption and as such may not have been pushing things power wise, and therefore was avoiding trouble. I can't think of anything else than this to be the plausible reason, especially since 290x works on another motherboard just fine.

Edit: try to explain this to support before you rma anything, that may help avoid unnecessary hassles. Stress that 290x works fine on x58 board, but has problems on x99, and that there are artifacts even when you change slots on x99. Nothing such is encountered on x58. Bad motherboards are not rare, but can be tricky to identify.

 

[3DVagabond]

Not sure what you mean but as stated in OP I tried other card in port 1 and port 3 that worked perfectly. HD6970 in new board in pcix 1 and 3 full load no problems. And yes about 1000 watt PSU its more than enough for my setup.

It's a multi rail psu. Just checking to make sure you have distributed the load across multiple rails. Each 12v rail is 25a. You could, in theory overload a rail if you were trying to draw too much from one rail.

 

[garagisti]

It's a multi rail psu. Just checking to make sure you have distributed the load across multiple rails. Each 12v rail is 25a. You could, in theory overload a rail if you were trying to draw too much from one rail.

Most psu's have separate output for graphic cards... no? I mean my 6 year old 750hx does.

 

[3DVagabond]

Most psu's have separate output for graphic cards... no? I mean my 6 year old 750hx does.

I don't know what you mean by separate. If you mean that there are no pcie connectors that share the rail with other 12v connectors, then no. Not all psu's are set up like that. Plus the TPQ-1000 is not exactly a new psu. They've been around since '07.

 

[lavaheadache]

Why you guys quoted each other when you were the only responses consecutively is beyond me lol. I'm reading this from my phone and gave up on the enormous wall of text. Do us all a favor and give a cliff note of that entire spiel only providing the relative information. Surely it can be summed up into a couple sentences. I would love to help.

 

[Ketchup]

Good testing on your part XAKEP. Honestly, you won't notice a difference between the top three slots on that board. If you really want to RMA something, that would be the board. (I have no idea where the power supply and pci-express lane suggestions came from). I use the second slot on my board due to better cooling. Performance is exactly the same.

If you want a suggestion though, update the board to the latest BIOS before giving up and sending it back.

 

[KaRLiToS]

What 3DVagabond means is you need to balance all components accross the rails of the PSU.

You have 4 rails on your PSU and it is recommended to balance the load accross them. Example: Put your fans on rail 1 and CPU/Motherboard on rail 2, Put your GPU on rail 3 or 4. Or both. You can use one PCIe power connector from one rail and use the other PCIe connector from the other rail, that way you will surely balance everything correctly.

Unfortunately Antec doesn't provide any information about the rails. I just checked the user manual and didn't find anything.

This is from Jonny Guru review on the 850w unit.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story2&reid=58

As we can see, the Quattro 850W has four +12V rails. This means we're going to have to figure out what connectors go to what rails. Given the fact that Antec does not give this information in the manual or on their website, we're going to have to do some exploratory surgery.

Anyway, I doubt it is the PSU.

But I saw Asus GPU tweak on your Desktop? Why are you using that and which BIOS are you using right now?

The flicker you are experiencing seem to have a link with PowerPlay options of AMD.

Check this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWgpxEHads4&index=7&list=WL

What drivers are you using, do you uninstall Asus GPU tweak before uninstalling the drivers?

 

[Ketchup]

What 3DVagabond means is you need to balance all components accross the rails of the PSU.

You have 4 rails on your PSU and it is recommended to balance the load accross them.

There are three problems with this idea:
1. He is only using one card
2. He only changed the slot (not the power connector)
3. The 8-Pin EPS 12v CPU power connector is not on the same rail as either of the PCI-Express power connectors.

 

[KaRLiToS]

There are three problems with this idea:
1. He is only using one card
2. He only changed the slot (not the power connector)
3. The 8-Pin EPS 12v CPU power connector is not on the same rail as either of the PCI-Express power connectors.

I think you skip one of my main point in my post.

Put your GPU on rail 3 or 4. Or both. You can use one PCIe power connector from one rail and use the other PCIe connector from the other rail, that way you will surely balance everything correctly.

18amp * 12v = 216 watts

What is the TDP of a R9 290x? It is 290 watts.

I think my post is clear, put one 6 pin of the R9 290x on a rail and the other 8-pin on the other rail. One rail is not sufficient for his R9 290x, he has to use two of them to balance everything.

Why do you have to quote me when you don't even read? Because I think you also skipped this :

Anyway, I doubt it is the PSU.

 

[Ketchup]

YGPM KaRLiToS. I won't waste the OP's time with it.

XAKEP, you may already know this, but I don't want you to be mislead. The 12vPCI-Express power connectors are not the only source of power for the video card(s). They are there to provide extra power, for cards that require more than what is provided by the 12v supplied through the board.

 

[KaRLiToS]

YGPM KaRLiToS. I won't waste the OP's time with it.

XAKEP, you may already know this. The 12vPCI-Express power connectors are not the only source of power for the video card(s). They are there to provide extra power, for cards that require more than what is provided by the 12v supplied through the board.

PCIe express slot provides 75watts only.



Guys, take it to PM and sort it out there. Not here.

-Rvenger

 

[thesmokingman]

Multi rail psu have really fallen out of favor with higher powered gpus. 18a per rail lol, you can't get very far with that.


Anyways, OP what psu is in your old system where the 290x seemed to run fine?

 

[Hitman928]

I think it's funny when people come to this board saying they've tried everything they can think of and don't know what to do, but when people offer suggestions, they refuse them outright without even trying them, makes me laugh a little. Troubleshooting is never fun and can be a long process with lots of twists and turns. Sometimes it can be a simple thing you can't believe you missed, other times it's something weird you never thought it could be.

OP, if you want help, be open to trying things people suggest, otherwise start to RMA parts and hope for the best.

As for the power supply, again, it's doubtful to be the issue, but there is a large power draw difference between a 6970 and a 290x so it is a possibility. It's also not all about how many Watts your power supply is rated for, it's a lot more complicated than that. How many amps it can provide from each rail is important as well as how much power it is trying to bring through the PCIe slot. For instance, to be in PCIe spec a card must draw no more than 75 W through the slot, but the latest high end cards haven't been in spec for a couple of generations and some will try and pull more through the slot. All of this can add up, could be a board problem or a PSU problem, it could be neither, but if you're not willing to try, how will you know?

 

[garagisti]

It's the same psu he's just switching between both... he mentioned it in a reply to one of my posts. A 1000w antec tpq iirc.

 

[Ketchup]

...As for the power supply, again, it's doubtful to be the issue, but there is a large power draw difference between a 6970 and a 290x so it is a possibility. It's also not all about how many Watts your power supply is rated for, it's a lot more complicated than that. How many amps it can provide from each rail is important as well as how much power it is trying to bring through the PCIe slot.

This is a good point for consideration. However, MSI (I picked them due to the availability of the page) recommends 33 amps for the 290x and 34 for the 6970. The difference in power requirements is only 50 watts more for the 290x.
https://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/power-requirements-for-graphics-cards
Radeon HD 6970 - 34A and a 550W PSU minimum
Radeon R9-290X - 33A and a 600W psu minimum

Considering we are working with a 1,000 watt PSU (which he no-doubt bought for the high-end CPU, GPU, and water cooling combination), I think the OP is good here.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Each rails only has 18 amps available. For a total of 216 watts.

 

[Hitman928]

It's the same psu he's just switching between both... he mentioned it in a reply to one of my posts. A 1000w antec tpq iirc.

Ok, didn't see that. As long as he's hooking it up the same, it shouldn't be the PSU unless he's go something else running off a 12v rail in the new system he didn't mention.

OP, if you run in safe mode or in a linux boot, do you still get the lines? Can you take a picture of the inside of your computer with everything installed?