HD 6990 Artifacting on my X58 MB; AMD acknowledges issue

[apoppin]

UPDATE, as promised:

No idea what happened or what went wrong. After a few days of moving the HD 6990 back and forth and changing cables, RAM, PSUs in and out ... it is working fine for the last week - and it has been working on the exact same setup that it failed on previously. i have no explanation.


Anyway, i have finished benching with HD 6990 for my upcoming SLI vs CF showdown at 1920x1200/2560x1600 and 5760x1050 and i am running TriFire-X3 (HD 6990 + HD 6970) without incident (except for damaged hearing)
:whiste:

Oh yeah, i heard from AMD .. it was something like Pfft
J



=========================

Sorry for the thread hijack of Admin Gillbot's thread about Radeon drivers. In my defense, i was answering a poster and it got out of hand.

Here is the cliffs.

My Intel X58 MB has been used for over two years to bench more than 30 Radeons and there are no issues with any of them - including HD 6970 CrossFire is running flawlessly and i completed DE3 on a HD 6970.

Only one card has an issue - my HD 6990 - and i have been running it since AMD sent it to me as an evaluation sample for my tech site. A few days ago, i installed my HD 6990 only to have it artifact and ultimately BSOD. i tried other RAM, put it on its side and tried both slots, swapped out the PSU and then contacted AMD.

AMD said in an email to me:

try it maybe in another motherboard ... We sometimes have that issue…

 

[blackened23]

Whoa I can't find the 6990 anywhere,....

 

[hdfxst]

I'm still waiting to see this email.Post it all or don't post any of it

 

[happy medium]

I'm still waiting to see this email.Post it all or don't post any of it

Am I reading into this wrong or are you calling Apoppin, an informative long standing member that has owned dozens of AMD and Nvidia cards a liar?


This is an unacceptable crap on the thread. The quoted post is valid and reasonable, and deserves more respect than what you showed here.

Moderator jvroig

 

[Firestorm007]

Am I reading into this wrong or are you calling Apoppin, an informative long standing member that has owned dozens of AMD and Nvidia cards a liar?

Give it a rest, will ya? We all know that you're a fanboy. I'm sure Apoppin can handle himself. All you're doing is throwing more lighter fluid on the fire and derailing the thread. I for one would like to see what Apoppin has to say. hdfxst has a valid question...


This is also unacceptable behavior. Use the report post and leave your complaints there, or take it to PM with Happy. Accusations of fanboyism are strongly frowned upon when done publicly, as it does exactly what you said here - "throwing more lighter fluid fire and derailing the thread".

Moderator jvroig

 

[apoppin]

I'm still waiting to see this email.Post it all or don't post any of it

i already quoted the relevant part in bright red. Do you think that you might know my contacts at AMD?
:\

Here is the full text of the email after i described my issues and attempts to troubleshoot it:

Sorry to hear that. Can you try it maybe in another motherboard? We sometimes have that issue…

That was my last communication from AMD regarding my HDD 6990 ten days ago despite my contacting them several times since.

 

[happy medium]

I for one would like to see what Apoppin has to say.

Then read the first post and the end of this thread , it just about covers it.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2188352

I'll let the mods take care of the rest of your post.


Re: "I'll let the mods take care of the rest of your post"
Also unnecessary. Stop doing that. Leave it at the report post function, stop grandstanding in public.

Moderator jvroig

 

[hdfxst]

i already quoted the relevant part in bright red. Do you think that you might know my contacts at AMD?
:\

So post the email,it's easy to take 11 words out of context

 

[Firestorm007]

Then read the first post and the end of this thread , it just about covers it.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2188352

I'll let the mods take care of the rest of your post.

Thanks, I've read the thread.

And I'll let the mods handle your derail...:thumbsup:

Re: "And I'll let the mods handle your derail"
Also unnecessary. Stop doing that. Leave it at the report post function, stop grandstanding in public.

Moderator jvroig

 

[hdfxst]

Am I reading into this wrong or are you calling Apoppin, an informative long standing member that has owned dozens of AMD and Nvidia cards a liar?

It's not calling him a liar,he's making a bold statement and backing it up with 1 sentence.All he has to do is post the whole email and i'll shut up

 

[apoppin]

It's not calling him a liar,he's making a bold statement and backing it up with 1 sentence.All he has to do is post the whole email and i'll shut up

i already posted the entire contents of that email in post 6. It is three sentences.

Now shut up
:biggrin:

Just Kidding!
- Your words

Edit:

For those too lazy to look up at post 6, redux:

Sorry to hear that. Can you try it maybe in another motherboard? We sometimes have that issue…

 

[hdfxst]

ok i'll shut up for now.But that certainly looks like grounds for a recall,maybe thats where all the 6990's went,they secretly recalled them to fix them.

 

[thilanliyan]

I think what was pointed out in the other thread is valid. It could just be the motherboard. And you haven't tried out nearly enough motherboards to conclude it is the video card (although trying out 15 different boards is a bit unrealistic). I have heard of some motherboards that didn't work properly with certain video cards. Here is a DFI x38/x48 board that didn't work properly with a 4870x2 and needed a BIOS update:
http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/hardware/9460-bios-fix-dfi-boards-hd-4870x2-issue-download-here.html

There could be others like it too.

 

[apoppin]

ok i'll shut up for now.But that certainly looks like grounds for a recall,maybe thats where all the 6990's went,they secretly recalled them to fix them.

No. i was genuinely kidding.

i don't know what happened. i do know that my MB is fine and runs 6970 or 6970 CrossFire perfectly with no issues. There is no reason the MB would be defective. And everyone seems to forget that the HD 6990 worked for months in the same MB.

i know several tech editors beside my own site and i have also heard that another tech site lost their HD 6990. i don't believe that they made it public.

 

[96Firebird]

Have you tried underclocking the card? Didn't read the other thread, and didn't see it posted in this one.

 

[thilanliyan]

No. i was genuinely kidding.

i don't know what happened. i do know that my MB is fine and runs 6970 or 6970 CrossFire perfectly with no issues. There is no reason the MB would be defective. And everyone seems to forget that the HD 6990 worked for months in the same MB.

Motherboard starting to fail? Not able to give power consistently through that PCI-e slot? There could be so many issues there.

If loads of reviewers are starting to have flaky cards though that does point to an issue with the card.

 

[Madcatatlas]

At this point, i wouldnt put it beyond several green friendly reviewers and review sites that they would trounce their 6990s, taking some pictures and adding their cries of anguish to apoppins sandcorn mountain.

 

[apoppin]

Motherboard starting to fail? Not able to give power consistently through that PCI-e slot? There could be so many issues there.

If loads of reviewers are starting to have flaky cards though that does point to an issue with the card.

Nope.
The only card that has issues in my PC is the HD 6990. Same MB works perfectly with GTX 590/GTX 580 and with HD 6970/6970 CrossFire.

It's more like the power regulator ICs on my 6990 are flaky.

At this point, i wouldnt put it beyond several green friendly reviewers and review sites that they would trounce their 6990s, taking some pictures and adding their cries of anguish to apoppins sandcorn mountain.

Sounds like you are prepping us for something like some Red tech sites did when they trashed the GTX 590.

However, i only heard of one other tech site having a 6990 fail. i would much rather have a working HD 6990 as i was in the middle of benching for a review featuring HD 69x0 TriFire-X3 and multi-GPU.

--Perhaps i should have just kept quiet about it according to some of you.

 

[Gikaseixas]

Apoppin i would run it on 2 or 3 more MB just for consistency sake. Don't be so quick to point a culprit here. It sure sounds like a extensive investigation is needed before we come to a full conclusion.

Maybe that MB PCI-E slot developed some kind of problem. Life as a graphics card tester must not be easy for motherboards

Have you purchased a 1155 mb for future tests?? That could be another testbed for this.

This is certainly a very interesting story, keep us posted.

 

[Gikaseixas]

The only card that has issues in my PC is the HD 6990

Maybe that's the most demanding card you've got. The fact that it work well on the AMD mb should raise some more questions. I mean test it on a 3rd mb.

 

[apoppin]

Have you tried underclocking the card? Didn't read the other thread, and didn't see it posted in this one.

i missed this, sorry

You can't underclock it. As soon as you enter desktop it starts to artifact; entering CCC or launching any 3D app, BSODs it. i have tried it in the AUSUM and regular position also.

i am out of ideas. What else?

Maybe that's the most demanding card you've got. The fact that it work well on the AMD mb should raise some more questions. I mean test it on a 3rd mb.

Not at idle it isn't demanding. It artifacts wildly on the desktop. Launching any 3D app BSODs the PC.

i really don't know how well it works on the AMD MB. i am going to leave it running and looping Heaven for a couple of hours to see if it even survives.

 

[waffleironhead]

Am I reading into this wrong or are you calling Apoppin, an informative long standing member that has owned dozens of AMD and Nvidia cards a liar?

Anyone can be asked for proof. Anyone who fails to produce proof is suspect.
Anyone who blindly believes is an idiot.

 

[Madcatatlas]

Sounds like you are prepping us for something like some Red tech sites did when they trashed the GTX 590.


--Perhaps i should have just kept quiet about it according to some of you.

So you are calling all the reviews and negativity about the 590s faulty PCB and powerphases or whatever they are called, lies and conspiracy? Am i putting words in your mouth? i think not. These are your words. And i would love for someone to list all those sites, and i will start with someone called W1zzard who had this incredibly hilarious

E
P
I
C
F
A
I
L

listed as negatives capital letters for the 590.


I included your "perhaps i should have kept quiet" to say: perhaps they should have kept quiet apoppin?.... I think you understand the difference.

 

[Vesku]

Not doubting your 6990 may be experiencing a hardware issue, but do you really expect AMD to provide top tier RMA services on review cards?

 

[happy medium]

Not doubting your 6990 may be experiencing a hardware issue, but do you really expect AMD to provide top tier RMA services on review cards?

DO you think another 6990 would make a difference?