-yet- another problem with my 280x

[barnsley]

Either 13.12 is a really bad driver or I've got GPU issues :I. So a new problem has arrisen (the gpu shroud vibrating has fixed itself). Basically I was playing some sleeping dogs, which pushes my gpu to 97% usage and seems to be more of a stress test then any benchmark as its the first time I've seen it go to 70c. Basically the screen started to flash randomly and when I tabbed out to check the temperature it was on there was artifacts all over the screen, vertically. Memory temperature according to GPU-Z was 70c, the core itself was 70c so nothing was out of the ordinary. Since I last found out my GPU overclock was unstable its been running at stock.

So what should I do? Should I RMA it (and go get a 780 iChill), revert back to 13.11 or try and fix it?

 

[NeverBackDown]

14.1 drivers?

 

[SeekaX]

you could try a bunch of different drivers, but that won't fix it most likely. if it doesn't, don't bother looking for the reason, just RMA and either give a new 280x a go or switch to nvidia.
welcome to my 7950 experience, stupid inexplicable bullshit.

 

[barnsley]

welcome to my 7950 experience, stupid inexplicable bullshit.

Asus as well right? I'm so p**sed. My useless XFX 7870 was practically faultless compared to this. Really not impressed with Asus as of late. It feels like they've rushed out 'cards to make a quick buck with miners.

 

[SeekaX]

Asus as well right? I'm so p**sed. My useless XFX 7870 was practically faultless compared to this. Really not impressed with Asus as of late. It feels like they've rushed out 'cards to make a quick buck with miners.

the cooler was quite impressive, besides the second of three 7950 DCU2 top v2 cards i had, which had the infamous badly seated cooler issue.
not impressed with their new coolers either though.
i doubt that it was Asus' fault in my case though, the artifacts happened without any overclocks and at top notch temps.

 

[barnsley]

the cooler was quite impressive, besides the second of three 7950 DCU2 top v2 cards i had, which had the infamous badly seated cooler issue.

I'm not going through Asus and risk getting another poorly made 'card. The fact that my 'card would vibrate really badly for the first few weeks of me using it in my HAF xb (it was more horizontal in my old case) and when it wasn't in the HAF xb it had quite bad sagging issues. I honestly do think as it is the more basic ASUS 'card they don't put much effort into the quality of them.

I learnt my lesson from my Gts 450 and the RMA ping-pong with evga. If I can fix it myself I'll be happy otherwise I'm going to return it to scan and use the money to get a 780. AMD GPU prices are still going up and I'd prefer an upgrade not a side grade.

 

[NeverBackDown]

My brother's Asus 280x DCU2 has no faults.. overclocks to 1200mhz on the core with just a slight bump in volts.. memory was 1700mhz iirc too.. Probably just got a bad card? Asus are responsible for everything but the actual core so its probably their fault.

 

[SieB]

If it's only happening under one game it's more likely to be driver related than something wrong with the card.
Try some other benchmarks like 3Dmark11 and Heaven, if it doesn't happen in those then it's most likely driver related.

 

[barnsley]

If it's only happening under one game it's more likely to be driver related than something wrong with the card.
Try some other benchmarks like 3Dmark11 and Heaven, if it doesn't happen in those then it's most likely driver related.

I thought that too but now and again firefox flashes black for a second. Its completely random.


I was busy getting ready to remove the driver with driver sweep so I could try 14.1 again and windows seems to think the driver is corrupted all of a sudden. How suspicious.

I'll post back when I've got 14.1 installed

 

[SeekaX]

If it's only happening under one game it's more likely to be driver related than something wrong with the card.
Try some other benchmarks like 3Dmark11 and Heaven, if it doesn't happen in those then it's most likely driver related.

nope, my 7950s only had issues in very specific games, well basically anything older than 3 years. benchmarks and new games ran flawlessly. different drivers, etc. didn't make a difference.

I thought that too but now and again firefox flashes black for a second. Its completely random.


I was busy getting ready to remove the driver with driver sweep so I could try 14.1 again and windows seems to think the driver is corrupted all of a sudden. How suspicious.

I'll post back when I've got 14.1 installed

this reminds me of the time when i installed the drivers for my notebook, an 8750m. i used the AMD clean uninstall utility and in response i got a blue screen which i was only able to fix by reinstalling windows. god bless driver sweeper.

 

[SieB]

nope, my 7950s only had issues in very specific games, well basically anything older than 3 years. benchmarks and new games ran flawlessly. different drivers, etc. didn't make a difference.

Well situations like that point more towards driver or software issues. If it's hardware related then it should cause problems in all game and not just certain ones.

The components in the GPU work in the same way for all games, so if there was a problem hardware wise then any game or benchmark would produce the same issues. The way games work haven't changed in three years apart from going from DX10 to DX11.
Obviously some games are more demanding than others, but if you can run a demanding benchmark like 3DMark11 or Heaven without problems then I can't see it being hardware related because the components are being stressed more than they would during normal gaming, especially in 3DMark11.

 

[barnsley]

SO RIDDLE ME THIS, how, after a nice clean driver removal just by the AMD software am I suddenly running 13.11? I've used driver for every major update to CCC and yet somehow this happens. I honestly have no idea how 13.11 was running under 13.12. I really am starting to wonder why this has happened. Seriously, I can build high end rigs that run and never have any problems yet on my own machine I'm cursed to make stupid mistakes/somehow break things.

 

[SieB]

SO RIDDLE ME THIS, how, after a nice clean driver removal just by the AMD software am I suddenly running 13.11? I've used driver for every major update to CCC and yet somehow this happens. I honestly have no idea how 13.11 was running under 13.12. I really am starting to wonder why this has happened. Seriously, I can build high end rigs that run and never have any problems yet on my own machine I'm cursed to make stupid mistakes/somehow cause dumb mistakes.

What are you using to uninstall the drivers with? If you are using the normal AMD uninstaller you should try this instead

http://www.wagnardmobile.com/DDU/

It will completely wipe any traces of old drivers.

 

[barnsley]

What are you using to uninstall the drivers with? If you are using the normal AMD uninstaller you should try this instead

http://www.wagnardmobile.com/DDU/

It will completely wipe any traces of old drivers.

I use driver sweeper, its never failed me until now. That or somehow I have a driver hidden away somewhere. I'm pretty sure its human error on my part at this rate.

 

[SieB]

I use driver sweeper, its never failed me until now. That or somehow I have a driver hidden away somewhere. I'm pretty sure its human error on my part at this rate.

Give DDU a try, it supposedly does a better job of driver sweeper from what I have read on other forums.
I've never used driver sweeper myself so I don't know whether it actually does do a better job but I have used DDU and know it does a good job of removing all files, folders and registry edits.

It will restart your PC in safe mode, do it's thing completely wiping the drivers and reboot back into windows.

 

[SeekaX]

Well situations like that point more towards driver or software issues. If it's hardware related then it should cause problems in all game and not just certain ones.

The components in the GPU work in the same way for all games, so if there was a problem hardware wise then any game or benchmark would produce the same issues. The way games work haven't changed in three years apart from going from DX10 to DX11.
Obviously some games are more demanding than others, but if you can run a demanding benchmark like 3DMark11 or Heaven without problems then I can't see it being hardware related because the components are being stressed more than they would during normal gaming, especially in 3DMark11.

i tried 5 different drivers back then, i even reinstalled windows two times, i am pretty sure all of the drivers were crap for older games.
the card itself might have been able to run those games properly, but the AMD drivers weren't. even though the same drivers worked just fine with a 6870.

 

[Excalabur50]

As SieB has said use DDU it is much better at removing drivers than driver sweeper and I have used both, and it is not human error if you are using 8 or 8.1 there seems to be issues when installing ANY AMD driver and you will find that you have to clean with DDU when in safe mode then when you reinstall your drivers they will install correctly.

 

[Zoot]

I agree with SieB, hardware issues are normally seen in game. Random reboots, lock-ups, issues launching games, artifacts in game etc. Artifacts aren't always hardware related either, my GTX 560 has given me random artifacts in a few games, but 3 years later it still works for instance.

How about turning off Supersampling in Sleeping Dogs? That makes it very demanding, with that on it's one of the few games where my 780 hits 70C too.

 

[barnsley]

So I woke up this morning to find the download for the driver removal thing that Sieb recommended running at a few bytes/second. No artifacts though ^_^