Issues overclocking with RX 480 MSI Gaming X

[Daniel Thomas]

So I'm getting some weird issues with this card. I've noticed they've been going on for a while, but when I try OC'ing the core clock its relatively fine, but when I try OC'ing the memory clock, then I get all of these crazy readings.
Even with stock clocks I end up getting crazy GPU activity, and sometimes its when the PC isn't really doing anything is in an idle state. The real problem is that after overclocking the memory my PC always ends up crashing after playing a game for about 10 mins or so.
I'm not entirely sure what's going on with my card, but if any one has any good ideas it will be much appreciated!

My System:
RX 480 MSI Gaming X edition
AMD R5 1600(Not OC'd)
Kingston Hyper X Fury 8GM 2400Mhz RAM
WD Blue 1TB HDD
Gigabyte AB350 - Gaming 3 Mobo


https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wSG-XMPAVxQlRkoa9UN0953w3ORyxBtt
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1b-z_KPpABrXbr-ghXWZozxcWmakcq5Zt

 

[Daniel Thomas]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from Daniel Thomas : "Need help... issues with RX 480 stability and crashing"

So I'm getting some weird issues with this card. I've noticed they've been going on for a while, but when I try OC'ing the core clock its relatively fine, but when I try OC'ing the memory clock, then I get all of these crazy readings. Even with stock clocks I end up getting crazy GPU activity, and sometimes its when the PC isn't really doing anything is in an idle state. The real problem is that after overclocking the memory my PC always ends up crashing after playing a game for about 10 mins or so.
I'm not entirely sure what's going on with my card, but if any one has any good ideas it will be much appreciated!

My System:
RX 480 MSI Gaming X edition
AMD R5 1600(Not OC'd)
Kingston Hyper X Fury 8GM 2400Mhz RAM
WD Blue 1TB HDD
Gigabyte AB350 Gaming 3 Mobo

These images are showing the GPU's state in MST afterburner when I'm not running any game, and I have chrome and a couple of other programs in the background:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1b-z_KPpABrXbr-ghXWZozxcWmakcq5Zt
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wSG-XMPAVxQlRkoa9UN0953w3ORyxBtt

 

[Daniel Thomas]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from Daniel Thomas : "Any ides why my GPU has bad stability and keeps crashing?"

So I'm getting some weird issues with this card. I've noticed they've been going on for a while, but when I try OC'ing the core clock its relatively fine, but when I try OC'ing the memory clock, then I get all of these crazy readings. Even with stock clocks I end up getting crazy GPU activity, and sometimes its when the PC isn't really doing anything is in an idle state. The real problem is that after overclocking the memory my PC always ends up crashing after playing a game for about 10 mins or so.
I'm not entirely sure what's going on with my card, but if any one has any good ideas it will be much appreciated!

My System:
RX 480 MSI Gaming X edition
AMD R5 1600(Not OC'd)
Kingston Hyper X Fury 8GM 2400Mhz RAM
WD Blue 1TB HDD
Gigabyte AB350 Gaming 3 Mobo

These images are showing the GPU's state in MST afterburner when I'm not running any game, and I have chrome and a couple of other programs in the background:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1b-z_KPpABrXbr-ghXWZozxcWmakcq5Zt
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wSG-XMPAVxQlRkoa9UN0953w3ORyxBtt

 

[bignastyid]

Please stick to 1 thread

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I've only just replied to this thread, or one of these threads. I don't see my response there.

 

[bignastyid]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from Daniel Thomas : "Any ides why my GPU has bad stability and keeps crashing?"

So I'm getting some weird issues with this card. I've noticed they've been going on for a while, but when I try OC'ing the core clock its relatively fine, but when I try OC'ing the memory clock, then I get all of these crazy readings. Even with stock clocks I end up getting crazy GPU activity, and sometimes its when the PC isn't really doing anything is in an idle state. The real problem is that after overclocking the memory my PC always ends up crashing after playing a game for about 10 mins or so.
I'm not entirely sure what's going on with my card, but if any one has any good ideas it will be much appreciated!

My System:
RX 480 MSI Gaming X edition
AMD R5 1600(Not OC'd)
Kingston Hyper X Fury 8GM 2400Mhz RAM
WD Blue 1TB HDD
Gigabyte AB350 Gaming 3 Mobo

These images are showing the GPU's state in MST afterburner when I'm not running any game, and I have chrome and a couple of other programs in the background:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1b-z_KPpABrXbr-ghXWZozxcWmakcq5Zt
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wSG-XMPAVxQlRkoa9UN0953w3ORyxBtt

yeah, your system sounds very unstable. I'm not sure what way your OC'ing, and what you are trying to achieve, but if you don't do it properly, and test for stability along the way, you are gonna get some trouble. To me, it sounds like your just sticking in settings and then wondering why they don't work. Prob not working, because every chip/mobo/GPU is different. OC'ing requires some knowledge, and testing to ensure it works.

Take all overclock off. Mem/GPU whatever. Test your system at stock and monitor with HWmon/HWinfo and make sure it's running as it should. Then start with one thing and get a stable OC. test, re-test, and then move onto the next component.

Your system is capable, and easily OC'able. But check out how to do it right, then you won't have crashes all over the place.

 

[Daniel Thomas]

Please stick to 1 thread

I've only just replied to this thread, or one of these threads. I don't see my response there.

I've actually overclocked a few times before. I've even OC'd the GPU in my laptop (GTX 1050), and that one seems to be pretty stable where I have it. The thing is in the graphs you see those readings are without any OCing at all, and that's the weird part. How come my activity is all over the place when nothing is going on, and why does my GPU only crash if I was to add a tiny +50 boost to just mem clock. That's not typically normal for most GPU's. Even my laptops clocks are higher than that. Could it be something with the card itself, or something else?

 

[bignastyid]

Silicon lottery. There are no guarantees when overclocking. Some things overclock well while others don't. It's not uncommon to get a factory OC'd card that is already close or at it's limits.

 

[Daniel Thomas]

Silicon lottery. There are no guarantees when overclocking. Some things overclock well while others don't. It's not uncommon to get a factory OC'd card that is already close or at it's limits.

I guess that makes sense. So maybe I should probably just stick to pushing the core until I hit a nice spot without any crashing there. What about the GPU usage when only every day applications like Chrome is open? Surely, I shouldn't be having those kinds of spikes like that in the graph. Could something in the background be using my GPU in a way I'm not aware of?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Please stick to 1 thread

I've only just replied to this thread, or one of these threads. I don't see my response there.

I've actually overclocked a few times before. I've even OC'd the GPU in my laptop (GTX 1050), and that one seems to be pretty stable where I have it. The thing is in the graphs you see those readings are without any OCing at all, and that's the weird part. How come my activity is all over the place when nothing is going on, and why does my GPU only crash if I was to add a tiny +50 boost to just mem clock. That's not typically normal for most GPU's. Even my laptops clocks higher than that. Could it be something with the card itself, or something else?

sadly that can be the case. Just because one system/chip/GPU might OC well, doesn't mean your next component will.
Trial and error.

Just a thought though. As much as I like OC'ing, I don't see the point for GPU's. More often or not cards nowadays are OC/SSC versions, and are pretty much at their max capability. OC'ing a GPU yields varying levels of performance increases, and IMO is just not worth it. If you playing a game at 120FPS and your OC gets you 123 FPS, is it worth the instability? Again, i'd say no. You won't even notice the extra FPS, apart from maybe some bench. So why cause the instability in the first place. Your RX is pretty highly clocked already. SO pushing it for a few FPS at the expense of games crashing doesn't make sense.

There are some games that respond poorly to CPU OC, there are some that respond poorly to GPU OC.

I guess, it's possible it's the card. But that's easy to test. Run it at stock and measure your performance in games and benches and compare!. Rule it out.

If it works fine at stock, then you know it's the OC you're trying to achieve is either unstable or undo able!

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Silicon lottery. There are no guarantees when overclocking. Some things overclock well while others don't. It's not uncommon to get a factory OC'd card that is already close or at it's limits.

Bang on!

 

[Daniel Thomas]

Please stick to 1 thread

I've only just replied to this thread, or one of these threads. I don't see my response there.

I've actually overclocked a few times before. I've even OC'd the GPU in my laptop (GTX 1050), and that one seems to be pretty stable where I have it. The thing is in the graphs you see those readings are without any OCing at all, and that's the weird part. How come my activity is all over the place when nothing is going on, and why does my GPU only crash if I was to add a tiny +50 boost to just mem clock. That's not typically normal for most GPU's. Even my laptops clocks higher than that. Could it be something with the card itself, or something else?

sadly that can be the case. Just because one system/chip/GPU might OC well, doesn't mean your next component will.
Trial and error.

Just a thought though. As much as I like OC'ing, I don't see the point for GPU's. More often or not cards nowadays are OC/SSC versions, and are pretty much at their max capability. OC'ing a GPU yields varying levels of performance increases, and IMO is just not worth it. If you playing a game at 120FPS and your OC gets you 123 FPS, is it worth the instability? Again, i'd say no. You won't even notice the extra FPS, apart from maybe some bench. So why cause the instability in the first place. Your RX is pretty highly clocked already. SO pushing it for a few FPS at the expense of games crashing doesn't make sense.

There are some games that respond poorly to CPU OC, there are some that respond poorly to GPU OC.

I guess, it's possible it's the card. But that's easy to test. Run it at stock and measure your performance in games and benches and compare!. Rule it out.

If it works fine at stock, then you know it's the OC you're trying to achieve is either unstable or undo able!

You've got a point. I've noticed maybe a 5 FPS increase at the least on my RX 480. The performance is good without it for the most part, but I know based on what I've commonly seen with most other people is that they've been able to get a pretty decent boost out of the same card with very little. Because in the future I could probably use that extra bit of power, but I was just wondering if it was my card, or if it could be something malicious in my system causing problems.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Please stick to 1 thread

I've only just replied to this thread, or one of these threads. I don't see my response there.

I've actually overclocked a few times before. I've even OC'd the GPU in my laptop (GTX 1050), and that one seems to be pretty stable where I have it. The thing is in the graphs you see those readings are without any OCing at all, and that's the weird part. How come my activity is all over the place when nothing is going on, and why does my GPU only crash if I was to add a tiny +50 boost to just mem clock. That's not typically normal for most GPU's. Even my laptops clocks higher than that. Could it be something with the card itself, or something else?

sadly that can be the case. Just because one system/chip/GPU might OC well, doesn't mean your next component will.
Trial and error.

Just a thought though. As much as I like OC'ing, I don't see the point for GPU's. More often or not cards nowadays are OC/SSC versions, and are pretty much at their max capability. OC'ing a GPU yields varying levels of performance increases, and IMO is just not worth it. If you playing a game at 120FPS and your OC gets you 123 FPS, is it worth the instability? Again, i'd say no. You won't even notice the extra FPS, apart from maybe some bench. So why cause the instability in the first place. Your RX is pretty highly clocked already. SO pushing it for a few FPS at the expense of games crashing doesn't make sense.

There are some games that respond poorly to CPU OC, there are some that respond poorly to GPU OC.

I guess, it's possible it's the card. But that's easy to test. Run it at stock and measure your performance in games and benches and compare!. Rule it out.

If it works fine at stock, then you know it's the OC you're trying to achieve is either unstable or undo able!

You've got a point. I've noticed maybe a 5 FPS increase at the least on my RX 480. The performance is good without it for the most part, but I know based on what I've commonly seen with most other people is that they've been able to get a pretty decent boost out of the same card with very little. Because in the future I could probably use that extra bit of power, but I was just wondering if it was my card, or if it could be something malicious in my system causing problems.

that's true to an extent, and I mentioned that. There can be an increase in performance, but as bignastyid pointed out, those OC/SC/SSC clocked cards (of which your's is), if it's already factory OC'ed, you have very little room to play with.

With that said your RX is a solid choice for 1080p Ultra @60hz in nearly every game out there. The issue for the future for you and me, is that for any real perceivable and justifiable increase in performance, we have to get a better card. OC'ing it for 3-5fps is not the answer

But Volta and Vega updates no doubt are around the corner, so for me at least, with my GTX1060 (which is roughly the same performance as your RX480) Ill be looking at a GPU upgrade, rather than eek an extra 2% out of my card.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

On the malicious end of things. I've heard of people having Mining malware on their PC's, the validity of which I can't vouch for. Some report having 100% GPU usage nearly from startup, and anything like gaming isn't possible. If you were experiencing something like that, i'd say yes, re-install windows get rid of any malware and test again. If you're experiencing periodic changes in usage, i'd put that down to what ever software your using, or things you have running in the back round. IMO chrome is a hog. And I've seen some unusual usage on my system, but when closing all chrome, the usage disappears.

 

[Daniel Thomas]

On the malicious end of things. I've heard of people having Mining malware on their PC's, the validity of which I can't vouch for. Some report having 100% GPU usage nearly from startup, and anything like gaming isn't possible. If you were experiencing something like that, i'd say yes, re-install windows get rid of any malware and test again. If you're experiencing periodic changes in usage, i'd put that down to what ever software your using, or things you have running in the back round. IMO chrome is a hog. And I've seen some unusual usage on my system, but when closing all chrome, the usage disappears.

So I figured I should update this post after I finally managed to get my hands on an SSD. I cleaned instead Windows onto, made the SSD my boot drive, and moved over many programs to the main drive. As was one of my suspicions something on my HDD was causing issues with the GPU drivers. Not only do things run smoother now, but thing work the way they should. I can overclock my GPU to reasonable levels without any crashing or artifacting so far, and things like updating drivers directly through the application without it crashing works like a charm too. I guess maybe from swapping around so many parts in my PC in the past couple years the registry might have gotten screwed up. So a clean install of Windows is what I needed all along it seems like.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

On the malicious end of things. I've heard of people having Mining malware on their PC's, the validity of which I can't vouch for. Some report having 100% GPU usage nearly from startup, and anything like gaming isn't possible. If you were experiencing something like that, i'd say yes, re-install windows get rid of any malware and test again. If you're experiencing periodic changes in usage, i'd put that down to what ever software your using, or things you have running in the back round. IMO chrome is a hog. And I've seen some unusual usage on my system, but when closing all chrome, the usage disappears.

So I figured I should update this post after I finally managed to get my hands on an SSD. I cleaned instead Windows onto, made the SSD my boot drive, and moved over many programs to the main drive. As was one of my suspicions something on my HDD was causing issues with the GPU drivers. Not only do things run smoother now, but thing work the way they should. I can overclock my GPU to reasonable levels without any crashing or artifacting so far, and things like updating drivers directly through the application without it crashing works like a charm too. I guess maybe from swapping around so many parts in my PC in the past couple years the registry might have gotten screwed up. So a clean install of Windows is what I needed all along it seems like.

Excellent! Result Yeah, i mentioned that in my last post. Sometimes, the software -OS, drivers etc have issues, so often re-installing windows will kick things along, and get everything working. It can be the windows registry, installed/uninstalled drivers and the remnants of same causing issues.

I use CCleaner for managing those things. It's a useful little tool for cleaning up the PC and invalid registry entries. Just remember to back up your registry before cleaning it, just in case.