AMD R9 Radeon 390x and Freezing/Disappearing Game(s)

[vemerce]

Hey all. This is my current setup...

AMD 8350 8-core 4.0Ghz Processor
32k DDR3 RAM
OS: Win 8.1 Pro 64-bit
AMD Radeon R9 390x
2 HDD + 1 SSD
800w PSU

I have been trying to play Final Fantasy 14. I've updated all of my drivers (tried the lastest "live" release and also the beta drivers and have this issue with both) and I've tested my RAM with no faults there. I've even updated my motherboard BIOS.

Now here's the problem. When I'm running the game, it runs entirely smooth and looks beautiful. But after 5-10 minutes of playing it just disappears. I assume this is a crash, but there is no popup at all. On rare occasion, maybe 1 in 20 crashes, I'll get a bluescreen with a message that dxgmm1.sys had a problem.

The same thing also happens with Star Wars: The Old Republic, but only when I'm trying to record gameplay with OBS. (I had been assuming that was an OBS issue.) Without OBS, I don't have this problem in SWTOR.

I know that the 390x is a very new graphics card and I had thought that maybe it was overclocking too much or something, so I even tried turning off the AMD Overdrive stuff. None of that seemed to help. If anyone has any suggestions for how I can make this game quit closing and actually play/progress I'd certainly appreciate the help.

Thank you.

 

[i7Baby]

I gather you mean 32gb ram. Not 32kb.

What make and model PSU? Mobo? RAM - 4x8gb1600?

Make and model 390X?

What HDDs and SSDs? What OS?

What monitor resolution? What game? What settings?

What CPU cooler?

What CPU and gaming temps?

 

[vemerce]

I gather you mean 32gb ram. Not 32kb.

Yeah, it was late and I used "k" instead of gb.

What make and model PSU? Mobo? RAM - 4x8gb1600?

Corsair 800
Asus M5A97
4x8GB1600

Make and model 390X?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202147

What HDDs and SSDs? What OS?

1TB 7600 RPM
3TB 7600 RPM
240GB SSD
All SATA3.

What monitor resolution? What game? What settings?

2560x1440p
Final Fantasy XIV
Ultra (AMD Gaming Evolved Optimized)

What CPU cooler?

Cooler Master liquid cooler.

What CPU and gaming temps?

Rarely above 32*C

The weird thing is that I don't have any issues while playing. The game runs smooth and great, then it just randomly disappears or blue screens on rare occasion.

 

[i7Baby]

Which version mobo?

Which Corsair 800W? In bios, what readings are you getting for 12v, 5v and 3.3v power supply rails?

Which Coolermaster liquid cooler?

How are you measuring CPU temps. 32C won't be the gaming temp unless your room is like 15C. Use AMD Overdrive to get temps

Final Fantasy XIV - http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=6242&game=Final%20Fantasy%20XIV:%20A%20Realm%20Reborn - should be easy.

OS? In Disk Management, is it only the SSD with a 100mb system reserve partition on it?

 

[vemerce]

The model of the PSU is the Corsair 800. I bought it in late 2012. Not at home to check BIOS at the moment, but will update later on that.

OS was in the original post, but it's fully updated Windows 8.1 64-bit.

CPU Cooler: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B009SJR3GS/ref=ya_aw_oh_pii

As far as Disk Management goes, I will check that later too, but I think the SSD is the only thing that should have system files. I did a clean Windows install 2 days ago to the SSD.

I should also note that I've upgraded from 1080p to 1440p and from HDD to SSD and Win7 to Win8.1 in the last 2 days and I had no problems before.

 

[vemerce]

After putting some thought into this and browsing Google for the dxgmm1.sys error, I had a thought.

Is it possible that 800w is not enough to power this rig at 1440p? Might I need a 1000w PSU?

 

[i7Baby]

For a PC with an R9 390X you need a good 700+W PSU - from tiers 1 or 2 of http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html#xtor=EPR-8886

 

[vemerce]

Okay. So, I found a partial fix and this is my hypothesis...

Running Final Fantasy XIV with the latest version of DirectX 9.0c (native client after install) on my current system the game ran smooth and beautifully, but resulted in constant crashes (i.e. the game just disappeared) and occasional Blue Screens of Death involving dxgmm1.sys. After a long and hefty investigation of that error, I found a lot of common threads where people were advised that their power supply was too weak.

After switching to DirectX 11 for Final Fantasy XIV the crashing has stopped altogether. The game runs even more beautifully, but I believe it is better optimized for the R9 390X while in DX11 mode. (So the card consumes less power.)

So, in my very unprofessional opinion, I think that my power supply is just barely able to juice the card while the game is in DirectX 11 mode, but since it's not optimized properly for DirectX 9, it goes beyond its limits and crashes the game. Since not every game (i.e. SWTOR) has the option to change from DirectX 9 to 11, I'm going to upgrade my power supply to one of the 1000w Tier 1 power supplies and see if the issue subsides for all games.

Thank you i7Baby for all of your help!