Sapphire Tri-X 290 Overclock Data

[Fastx]

What about trying the following to see if it's more of a software conflict?

Search for msconfig and select diagnostic startup and apply then reboot. I just tried this and sleep is still fully functional on my rig. It disables stuff that isn't needed.

Worth a shot to see at least.

Ken I never had this problem on my GTX 770 until I installed the 290, so before I send this 290 back to NG I am just going to give in )) and do a fresh install of Win 8.1 as the best last resort. If this problem happens after the fresh install, then I am going to return the card to NG as defective for an exchange.

 

[24601]

Ken I never had this problem on my GTX 770 until I installed the 290, so before I send this 290 back to NG I am just going to give in )) and do a fresh install of Win 8.1 as the best last resort. If this problem happens after the fresh install, then I am going to return the card to NG as defective for an exchange.

I hope you will take this as a lesson going forward to not buy an AMD/ATi card when you don't have a return route.

Sounds to me you just can't handle the "awesomeness" of AMD/ATi's software/hardware mesh .

Using an AMD/ATi card without errors is a hard discipline and requires vast knowledge about everything wrong about them if you wish to succeed .

I do find it funny that I spoon-fed the exact answer in this thread and no one that expressed problems with their card used the solution .

 

[Termie]

I hope you will take this as a lesson going forward to not buy an AMD/ATi card when you don't have a return route.

Sounds to me you just can't handle the "awesomeness" of AMD/ATi's software/hardware mesh .

Using an AMD/ATi card without errors is a hard discipline and requires vast knowledge about everything wrong about them if you wish to succeed .

I do find it funny that I spoon-fed the exact answer in this thread and no one that expressed problems with their card used the solution .

To the extent the solution was to run a constant 1000MHz and 1.25V, I would say that this is swatting a fly with a sledgehammer. There are other solutions, and we're trying to run them down.

 

[24601]

To the extent the solution was to run a constant 1000MHz and 1.25V, I would say that this is swatting a fly with a sledgehammer. There are other solutions, and we're trying to run them down.

From personal experience, if you do not make the AMD/ATi hardware/software mesh submit to your will, it will walk all over you at every opportunity.

The permutated problems are endless. And I have run into a fair number of them.

Do remember that you can still overclock and overvolt when using the ASUS PT1 bios.

The bios itself just makes sure that when the AMD/ATi hardware/software mesh goes apesh!t, it's limited in it's options to screw you over.

The Drivers other than 13.12 still manage to do it by flat out overriding the BIOS whenever it feels like though.

 

[loccothan]

good bang 4 buck

 

[Kenmitch]

Ken I never had this problem on my GTX 770 until I installed the 290, so before I send this 290 back to NG I am just going to give in )) and do a fresh install of Win 8.1 as the best last resort. If this problem happens after the fresh install, then I am going to return the card to NG as defective for an exchange.

Let us know what happens. Not like it takes a long time to install Win8 on a SSD anyways.

Good luck

From personal experience, if you do not make the AMD/ATi hardware/software mesh submit to your will, it will walk all over you at every opportunity.

The permutated problems are endless. And I have run into a fair number of them.

Do remember that you can still overclock and overvolt when using the ASUS PT1 bios.

The bios itself just makes sure that when the AMD/ATi hardware/software mesh goes apesh!t, it's limited in it's options to screw you over.

The Drivers other than 13.12 still manage to do it by flat out overriding the BIOS whenever it feels like though.

AMD's offerings for most people are just fine. I think it really depends on a persons build as sometimes issues will arise....Sometimes they don't.

 

[Fastx]

Let us know what happens. Not like it takes a long time to install Win8 on a SSD anyways.

Good luck

I know the only thing is all the W8 updates, DL games I don't like.

One thing that was weird, I couldn't bring up msconfig either though the search box on desktop or though metro search/everywhere. I keep receiving a message said something like cannot find file or can't open file etc. and I tried several times. So I went thought command prompt and that did bring it up.

 

[Kenmitch]

I know the only thing is all the W8 updates, DL games I don't like.

One thing that was weird, I couldn't bring up msconfig either though the search box on desktop or though metro search/everywhere. I keep receiving a message said something like cannot find file or can't open file etc. and I tried several times. So I went thought command prompt and that did bring it up.

Try a fresh install of win7 these days. I have FIOS and it's painful throw it on a older rig and it's somewhat unbearable.

Did you try diagnostic startup? Any favorable results if so?

 

[Fastx]

Try a fresh install of win7 these days. I have FIOS and it's painful throw it on a older rig and it's somewhat unbearable.

Did you try diagnostic startup? Any favorable results if so?

No due to this is a random problem which makes it hard imo, I made up mind to just do a reformat/fresh install on the drive tonight when I get home from work. I think is the best/sound way to find out one way or the other at this point imo. I am also going to just load minimal programs/utilities at first, if I have the problem after this the card is going back for an exchange!

 

[Kenmitch]

No due to this is a random problem which makes it hard imo, I made up mind to just do a reformat/fresh install on the drive tonight when I get home from work. I think is the best/sound way to find out one way or the other at this point imo. I am also going to just load minimal programs/utilities at first, if I have the problem after this the card is going back for an exchange!

How did the adventure go?

 

[Fastx]

How did the adventure go?

I installed Win 8.1 with 14.6 last night as you see below in the screenshot. This is a random problem so I am playing the waiting game, in the short time since the installed both and the short time I used the computer I haven't had the problem. So I have play the waiting game now, next tests are the 24hr, 48hr, 72hr mark etc .

 

[Fastx]

Update.

So since the clean install Thursday night I have not had the problem, so far everything looks good and I am in happy mode again with the Tri-x 290. One other thing I want just to mention is I also updated my MB BIOS to P 2.90 from P1.40 as you can see below. If the problem does occur again I will update this post, but so far it is looking pretty good.

ASRock P1.40 BIOS

ASRock P2.90 BIOS

 

[Kenmitch]

Update.

So since the clean install Thursday night I have not had the problem, so far everything looks good and I am in happy mode again with the Tri-x 290. One other thing I want just to mention is I also updated my MB BIOS to P 2.90 from P1.40 as you can see below. If the problem does occur again I will update this post, but so far it is looking pretty good.

ASRock P1.40 BIOS

ASRock P2.90 BIOS

Nice to see the issue is fixed

Dang....Looks like your bios was pretty old. Did you flash it before you loaded windows. Looks like some of the revisions did mention gpu related updates.

 

[Fastx]

Nice to see the issue is fixed

Dang....Looks like your bios was pretty old. Did you flash it before you loaded windows. Looks like some of the revisions did mention gpu related updates.

No Ken I flashed the MB BIOS after I did the install on Thursday night. If you look at the original install dates and both MB BIOS versions in both screen shots (system info) I posted you will see I flashed after the install.

First screen shot American Megatrends BIOS P1.40
Second screen shot American Megatrends BIOS P2.90

 

[Kenmitch]

No Ken I flashed the MB BIOS after I did the install on Thursday night. If you look at the original install dates and both MB BIOS versions in both screen shots (system info) I posted you will see I flashed after the install.

First screen shot American Megatrends BIOS P1.40
Second screen shot American Megatrends BIOS P2.90

Maybe we'll start seeing some Tri-X overclock data? The thread did go somewhat off topic for a while it looks like.

I could do some testing for comparison if you like.

I only have a few things currently installed to test with.

Unigine Valley
Unigine Heaven....Could download and install
Dirt3....My quick fix when I just want to chill and play a quick game.
Tomb Raider
Sleeping Dogs
Hitman Absolution

LMK

 

[Termie]

Most video cards released over the past year seem to require a BIOS update to work with Windows 8.1. I've found that on both of my main systems. It leads to black screens, usually at boot, but the issue of not coming out of sleep could be related.

Glad that things are working for FastX.

So, here's a little OC data -
My card is stable at 1075/5800 without extra voltage. Runs very cool and quiet, with a max power draw of about 340W.

With an additional .05mV, I'm able to get to 1100MHz. I am not comfortable going higher, as that already adds 40W to the load. I have data for just about all the benchmarks Kenmitch mentioned above, and I'll add it once I'm done testing.

I haven't pushed the RAM higher, and I may try later, but I don't believe it's critical for performance.

 

[Fastx]

Termie, looking forward to read your upcoming review on the Tri-X 290 (290/780/780Ti S.O.) so will be on the alert for it.

 

[Termie]

Termie, looking forward to read your upcoming review on the Tri-X 290 (290/780/780Ti S.O.) so will be on the alert for it.

Oh, it's coming...

Here's a teaser:

Because I have a lot of graphs and some commentary, I'll start a new thread, but I'll be sure to link it here.

 

[Kenmitch]

Oh, it's coming...

Here's a teaser:

Because I have a lot of graphs and some commentary, I'll start a new thread, but I'll be sure to link it here.

Interesting results! It looks like your Tri-X overclock would most likely be achievable on most if not all samples. Looks like it gets more interesting at 1440p.

Do you have any insight on the 1080p results. As the clocks go up the min fps seem to go down. Is it a result of memory timings? Did you test the core overclocks with the memory locked at 5000 to see? Looks to have the opposite effect at 1440p....Seems a little strange.

I know it's just a spoiler so you can withhold the answers if it's part of your commentary.

 

[Termie]

Interesting results! It looks like your Tri-X overclock would most likely be achievable on most if not all samples. Looks like it gets more interesting at 1440p.

Do you have any insight on the 1080p results. As the clocks go up the min fps seem to go down. Is it a result of memory timings? Did you test the core overclocks with the memory locked at 5000 to see? Looks to have the opposite effect at 1440p....Seems a little strange.

I know it's just a spoiler so you can withhold the answers if it's part of your commentary.

I have an answer for you on that - at 1080p, Crysis 3 is largely CPU-bottlenecked, even with a big CPU overclock and 8 threads. In other words, at 1080p, it's not a good GPU benchmark - I should have mentioned that.

Now, what's very interesting is that despite this, the R9 290 runs faster than the GTX 780, which suggests that it may present a lower driver overhead to the CPU. I have another CPU-bottlenecked game, Hitman, that shows similar, surprising results.

I'm pretty confident that my memory frequency is producing positive results based on trying a number of settings - you do need to be careful, however, with VRAM overclocking, because you can continue to increase clocks only to get negative scaling.

One last tidbit: you mention that the Tri-X overclock looks pretty easy to achieve. I immediately set my clock to 1100MHz based on all the reviews I'd read using manufacturer samples. No go. Needed extra voltage. Take the OCs using reviewer samples with a grain of salt. Based on actual user reviews, I don't think going over 1100MHz without a significant voltage increase is going to be likely. I can hit 1075MHz stable without voltage, and that's where I'll actually use it, because temp/power is so much lower.

 

[Termie]

My new thread benching the 290 vs. 780 vs. 780 Ti is up: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2386778

 

[Kenmitch]

I have an answer for you on that - at 1080p, Crysis 3 is largely CPU-bottlenecked, even with a big CPU overclock and 8 threads. In other words, at 1080p, it's not a good GPU benchmark - I should have mentioned that.

Now, what's very interesting is that despite this, the R9 290 runs faster than the GTX 780, which suggests that it may present a lower driver overhead to the CPU. I have another CPU-bottlenecked game, Hitman, that shows similar, surprising results.

I'm pretty confident that my memory frequency is producing positive results based on trying a number of settings - you do need to be careful, however, with VRAM overclocking, because you can continue to increase clocks only to get negative scaling.

One last tidbit: you mention that the Tri-X overclock looks pretty easy to achieve. I immediately set my clock to 1100MHz based on all the reviews I'd read using manufacturer samples. No go. Needed extra voltage. Take the OCs using reviewer samples with a grain of salt. Based on actual user reviews, I don't think going over 1100MHz without a significant voltage increase is going to be likely. I can hit 1075MHz stable without voltage, and that's where I'll actually use it, because temp/power is so much lower.

That makes sense I guess.

I was comparing your overclock to my card which I guess wouldn't be the norm it looks like.

I only use trixx to overclock my card. Without any voltage or power target bumping I can get to 1100/5600 using a custom fan profile which is 20/20-100/100 without any throttle, driver crash, black screen of death, and no funky biz while surfing the web....I'm casual gamer at 1080p so it's not like I'd need to.

Anything higher than a 1100 core and I have to start playing around with the voltage and power limit.

 

[Fastx]

Update.

Ok so its over one week now and I have not had the problem since the fresh W 8.1 install, MB BIOS update per post #87. So at this point & time I am now convinced the problem is solved and so for the record this card was perfectly fine.

 

[Kenmitch]

Update.

Ok so its over one week now and I have not had the problem since the fresh W 8.1 install, MB BIOS update per post #87. So at this point & time I am now convinced the problem is solved and so for the record this card was perfectly fine.

Now you can sit back and enjoy it! After all is said and done it didn't really take much to fix your issues. The important thing is you didn't give up.

Most users just throw in the towel and rma the card only to find out they still have the same issue. It's these users that write the nasty posts/reviews about buggy AMD drivers or hardware.

Game on!

 

[Termie]

Yup, glad it worked out for Fastx.

I think the motherboard BIOS/VGA/Win8.1 incompatibility issue has got to be one of the most serious PC buildiung issues I've experienced in quite some time. I see so many user reviews about blank screens that I know are caused by this, and yet the manufacturers don't seem to have a way to get the message out.

Nothing like dropping a $500 piece of hardware into an existing system and seeing it do nothing at all - the obvious reaction is "time to RMA," because why else would a system not work with a new piece of hardware, right?

I've had the issue on both my systems with various video cards, so I know it's prevalent. First appeared with the Win 8.1 update, I believe. Basically, Win8.1 won't properly or consistently load on newer video cards without a Win8.1-compatible motherboard BIOS. That's three moving parts and thus a witches' brew of problems.