My Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X

[Zoot]

I can't launch Trine, Trine 2, Revenge of the Titans, World of Goo, it seems all the indie games I have crash upon launch. I tried out Half-Life 2 this morning too, it'll get to the main menu, but it'll crash when you select anything. Saints Row 2 doesn't launch either, the 3rd and 4th work fine.

I've had crashes upon launch with Skyrim, and Batman Arkham Origins. This is the odd thing, once I get into a game it's fine for hours, it's only upon launch that I've problems. I haven't had the time to try out more games on it though.

I stuck my old Sapphire 7950 back in, and all these issues have gone away.

Not sure what to do yet, I might avail of the refund that's available for 14 days after purchase that overclockers.co.uk give you.

 

[SieB]

I've got Trine 2 and Saints Row 2, i'll re-download one of them to try later and let you know if I get any crashes, i'll try Sktrim as well.

What drivers are you using? I'm using the latest 13.12 ones and i've had no probs in any game i've tried. If you are using 13.12 try uninstalling and try the 13.11 Beta drivers.

Try uninstalling and reinstling the 13.12 drivers first though, but use this to uninstall the drivers. It will get rid of every file and registery edit so there is no trace of the drivers left on your PC and will clear anything that may be causing probs.

http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/display_driver_uninstaller_download.html

EDIT:
Just tried Trine 2 and Skyrim and I didn't get any crashes or have any probs running them.
I also tried the original Halo which I frogot I had, thats DX9 and I didn't get any crashes or probs in that either.

 

[Zoot]

Thanks SieB, and apologies for polluting your thread. Although you're the only one on this forum with the same card.

I've the 13.12 drivers installed, I did try re-installing them last night, but not with that tool; I didn't actually know that display driver removal tool existed. I'll give it a shot when I get home from work later this evening again and see what the result is.

Grrr.... part of my love/hate relationship with PC hardware. My old X-Fi XtremeGamer started giving me annoying driver issues over the last few days (no sound after reboot), ripped it out and went back to onboard audio, now the new R9 290 gives issues. Couple that with bricking my old FM2 board, although the new Gigabyte one I have is great. Not my time of year it seems! ^_^

 

[SieB]

No probs, it does sound more like a driver prob than one with the card itself.
Also, do you have Nvidia Physx installed? Just that games like Batman and a few others, even if you are using a AMD card you still need Physx installed.

If you have it installed but haven't reinstalled after installing your 290, try installing it again.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx-9.13.0725-driver.html

 

[Zoot]

Yeah I'm pretty sure PhysX is installed. I remember getting errors with Mass Effect 2 if I didn't have it installed, I'm sure the Batman Arkham games are the same, and I do have all 3 of those installed.

I see now I can't return the R9 290 for the refund within 2 weeks, since I've already used the Battlefield 4 code that came with the card.

Looking at the 13.12 release notes,
http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDCatalyst13-12WINReleaseNotes.aspx

​May resolve intermittent black screens or display loss observed on some AMD Radeon™ R9 290X and AMD Radeon R9 290 graphics cards

I'm one of those "some" it seems.

Tonight will be a night of fighting with drivers and the like. I suppose worst case scenario is that I stick the card in a box until the next driver release from AMD comes out.

 

[SieB]

You should still be able to RMA it if it turns out to be faulty.

If all else fails do a fresh Windows install, I do one everytime I get new hardware just for the sake of it.

There are also these Beta drivers to try, they were released for Kaveri support but apparently they also have improvements in games, haven't tried them myself.

http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/amd_catalyst_13_30_beta_(13_300_january_8).html

The next lot of drivers should be coming next week, AMD said that they are releasing 14.1 beta drivers by the end of January and that they would also include Mantle and True Audio.

 

[Zoot]

I don't know would an RMA help. I've read many accounts of the black screens happening with others persisting after RMA's. I'm convinced it's a software problem.

One of the 1st things I did with the card was load up Prime95 on the CPU and furmark on the GPU simultaneously for about 2 hours to get a feel for what the combined heat output is like and what the temperatures are like. Since I didn't experience any problems, to me that rules out hardware. If I got crashes while gaming, I think hardware would be the more likely culprit then.

I saw those 13.30 beta drivers, although they're not an official release from AMD. Nevertheless, I might give them a shot out of frustration later. I think they're mainly targeting Kaveri though.

I did read that about the 14.1 drivers coming soon with Mantle, so I probably won't have to wait too long in the worst case scenario.

 

[barnsley]

Yeah its a driver problem. My friend called me up this morning when some DX9 games wouldn't launch ( he has a ref 290). I think its only affecting 290s/290x which have a certain brand of memory.

 

[SieB]

Yeah its a driver problem. My friend called me up this morning when some DX9 games wouldn't launch ( he has a ref 290). I think its only affecting 290s/290x which have a certain brand of memory.

The Tri-X's all have the same Hynix Samsung ram so I don't think it's related to ram, not on the Tri-X cards anyway. DriectX 9 games are running ok on mine with the latest WHQL drivers.
The Elpida ram that is on some ref cards is supposed to be more prone to the black screen issue but there is no confirmation of it, just speculation.

Is your friend using Windows 7 by any chance? I notice Zoot is also using Windows 7 and i'm wondering if it is a Windows 7 issue because i'm having no probs on Windows 8.1.

 

[Zoot]

Yeah I'm on Windows 7.

So I've tried the Display Driver Removal tool, along with installing the 13.12 drivers (twice now), and the 13.11 Betas that are up on the website.

I've found the games I have problems running work fine in a window. Although the minute you put them into fullscreen, I get the black screen again. Not only that, I've gotten it on the Windows desktop a few times shortly after boot too, and that's with both drivers. I've now given up; I ripped the thing out of my case and put my 7950 back in, and I haven't got a single issue with the 13.12 drivers.

Although, one thing I do notice is that the installation of the drivers spits out some warnings in the logs with the R9 290 installed, whereas with the 7950 it completes with no warnings at all, further pointing to the drivers I guess.

Oh well, I guess the card can act as a paperweight until the new drivers come along.

 

[SieB]

Unlucky

I know it's a pain in the ass to do but maybe try a full reinstall of Windows if you have no luck with drivers. There maybe something that just doesn't want to let go and is causing probs.

I wonder how many of the people having probs like you and Barnsley's friend are on Windows 7. As I said i'm on Windows 8.1 and i'm not getting any problems so it would be interesting to see if the problems are something to do with the driver support or just something in general about Windows 7 that is causing issues.

 

[Zoot]

A Windows re-install might be worth a shot if the new drivers fail I guess.

I might play Tommy the Fool over the weekend and see if I can return it for a refund, either that RMA it, or failing both of those, sell it and get a GTX 780 I guess.

It's a choice of being set for Mantle with the AMD card or REALLY ramping up my Linux gaming with the Nvidia card. Or I could ride it out on my current setup, and still be ready for Mantle.

Have you ever dealt with Overclockers to RMA/return anything or any other issues out of interest?

 

[SieB]

My 290 is the only thing I have ever bought from OCUK, i've never had to deal with their RMA or returns but I guess they are as good as anywhere else.

Only thing is though, if you RMA it (this applies to all retailers) and it is driver or something else related on your end and they don't have the same issues when they test it, you will end up paying the postage and a fee.

 

[NeverBackDown]

I would try a full reinstall of windows. Many people end up doing that as a last resort and nearly all of the time it helps solve the issue.

 

[Zoot]

I don't know will a Windows re-install will help after re-installing the driver several times. Particularly since my 7950 is rock-solid stable, and the R9 290 isn't. I'm also not too fond of having to re-download and install years worth of Windows updates once more, since my installation disk (or usb key rather) is from 2009.

I'll give it until the next set of drivers from AMD, then I'll try a re-install of Windows I reckon. Hopefully I'll be able to sell it failing that.

Edit: On a side note, this guy in my city wants €520 for the very same card lol
http://www.adverts.ie/graphics-cards/sapphire-r9-290-tri-x-4gb-oc/4578177

 

[SieB]

I've just done some Googling to see if I could find anyone with the same problem as you. It seems that games crashing on fullscreen but working in windowed mode is a common problem. It also seems to effect people with all kinds of different configurations going back a few years for windows 7 and there are even a few cases of it on XP.

From what I have read there doesn't seem to be a solid reason as to what causes it or how to fix it. Some people said they had bad memory, some people fixed it by updating drivers, some people fixed it by deleting .cfg files for their games, by disabling the defense+ on comodo firewall and other things like uninstalling and reinstalling their AV.

Basically loads of different variations with not one single identifing cause of the problem, or one single solution on how to fix it.

 

[NeverBackDown]

More like a driver problem or at least some software conflicting with eachother. Might just have to wait for new releases.

 

[Zoot]

My thanks to SieB and others, however I think I'm going to try my luck selling it. I'll be able to undercut that guy looking for €520 for it here at the very least.

If I can get something similar to what I payed for it, I'll leave it go and get a GTX 780 instead. The Asus Direct CU II 780 is looking pretty damn fine right about now.

If not, I'll wait it out for a newer driver I guess. It was a bit of an unecessary upgrade anyway although I'd say like 90% of upgrades from folks like us aren't really needed! :lol:

 

[NeverBackDown]

tbh its more of a downgrade if you went with a 780.. the Tri-X card is the best cooler on the market for 290/290x cards.

 

[Zoot]

Probably, but it'll still be a nice bump over my 7950, plus I'll get Nvidia's superior Linux drivers once more, I'll get the oppertunity to really ramp up my Linux gaming.

@ SieB I have a few benchmarks I did before I pulled the card out. Expect a fancy plot soon, nothing of the calibre of the stuff you did though.