[SOLVED] New build not working/extremely laggy when display is hooked up to graphics card ?

[pumpmuckl]

My setup

Dear folks, I am super desperate, because I cannot get my new build to run. Here is what I did:

I bought the following new components:

- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D

- Motherboard: ASROCK A620i Lightning Wifi

- GPU: Radeon Sapphire Pulse RX 7800 XT

- RAM: ADATA DIMM 32 GB DDR5-6000 2x16GB (Link: https://www.alternate.de/html/product/100011564)

For the rest of the build, I kept what I already had the NZXT H1 MiniITX Case, which has a 750W power supply and an AIO cooler. My OS is installed on an M.2 Drive.

Before assembling the new parts, I hooked the GPU up to my old system and quickly started some games. Everything worked fine no problems there.

Then I put all the new components in the case, plugged everything in and connected my DP cable to the graphics card.



What I experienced

First it seemed like the BIOS felt a bit laggy, when booting the new system the first time. However, I did not really pay much attention to this and installed windows 11 and all the newest AMD drivers for my mainboard and the graphics card. That is where the real issues started, which are:

- booting takes forever

- the system is extremely laggy just using windows (haven't event tried starting games), even moving the mouse is time-lapse

- The GPU keeps showing up with warning symbols in the device manager and shows constant 100% usage spikes in like 1sec 100% - 1sec 0% - 1sec 100% and so on (same is observable in the AMD adrenaline application)



What I tried so far and which outcome it gave

- reading for your sticky post and going through the checklist. Result: Nothing changed.

- Booting the system without the GPU connected and simply using the on board GPU. Result: Everything works fine and lags anywhere

- Booting the system with my old GPU (GTX 1070 TI). Result: Everything works fine and no lags anywhere

- Booting the system with the new GPU connected, but connecting the DP cable to the motherboard. Result: system runs smooth no problems.

- Using the laggy system with the new GPU connected. Result: Not really usable and blue screen after a while.

- Checked various sites about compatability of my components (which I obviously did before buying)

- Did a GPU benchmark of the new GPU but the rest are my old components. Results: Benchmark runs smooth, GPU temp about 60 degrees (case is open) and about 250W GPU power draw.

- Installed various OS (Ubuntu / Win10/ Win11). Results: same weird lagy behaviour with the new components in any OS

- Updated the motherboards BIOS to the latest version. Results: Nothing changes, still same behaviour

- well and the obvious. Googled the whole weekend and even tried ChatGPT, but couldn't find anything that helped.



My thoughs on this

So weirdly enough every component seems to work on their own and only the connection of the new stuff (mb, cpu, ram) and the new graphics card results in errors. I already googled a <Mod Edit> ton, but cannot really find a lead, to which could be wrong. Just spent the whole weekend assembling and disassembling everything, but could not get it to work.

If any of you guys have an idea of what I could try next or how to debug this situation, I would highly appreciate the help. Kinda desperate here.

 

[pete_101]

Just a thought, using an AMD GPU on an AMD platform should automatically enable Smart Access Memory (SAM), I see you've got Intel XMP profile RAM installed (I would recommend AMD EXPO instead), there is a chance SAM and your RAM don't go together well.

In the BIOS settings (probably in advanced settings) find SAM and turn it off, and see if that helps.

 

[pumpmuckl]

Just a thought, using an AMD GPU on an AMD platform should automatically enable Smart Access Memory (SAM), I see you've got Intel XMP profile RAM installed (I would recommend AMD EXPO instead), there is a chance SAM and your RAM don't go together well.

In the BIOS settings (probably in advanced settings) find SAM and turn it off, and see if that helps.

Hey Pete, thanks a lot for the idea! Just at work, so I can't try this before tonight.

Just a quick thought about this:
- The specifications of the RAM do show that it should be able to handle AMD EXPO
- I also looked on the Motherboard website and it does support the same RAM without RGB, so I assumed it would work as well in the RGB version
- However, what you explain could result in exactly what I am experiencing from my understanding, since it only starts with the AMD graphics card installed and not my old NVIDIA graphics card installed. I will definitely give this a try later.
- Also got anothher PSU from work, which I can additionally try to rule out insufficient power supply.

 

[pumpmuckl]

Just a thought, using an AMD GPU on an AMD platform should automatically enable Smart Access Memory (SAM), I see you've got Intel XMP profile RAM installed (I would recommend AMD EXPO instead), there is a chance SAM and your RAM don't go together well.

In the BIOS settings (probably in advanced settings) find SAM and turn it off, and see if that helps.

Alright, so I just got home and tried to find the SAM option in my BIOS settings, which I couldn't. However, from this post I found, that "Above 4G decoding and Re-Size BAR support. Both need to be turned on to use Smart Access Memory." So I turned both off and tried again, but the system still behaves exactly the same unfortunately 🙁. Now I have no more clue of what to do next and where to start digging.
Do you still suspect it's the RAM? I mean, I could order a new MB and RAM in order to rule that out, which I am still hoping I don't have to. But on the other hand, I have no idea of what I can try else. Big thanks already for your first hint, it's much appreciated.

 

[pete_101]

Alright, so I just got home and tried to find the SAM option in my BIOS settings, which I couldn't. However, from this post I found, that "Above 4G decoding and Re-Size BAR support. Both need to be turned on to use Smart Access Memory." So I turned both off and tried again, but the system still behaves exactly the same unfortunately 🙁. Now I have no more clue of what to do next and where to start digging.
Do you still suspect it's the RAM? I mean, I could order a new MB and RAM in order to rule that out, which I am still hoping I don't have to. But on the other hand, I have no idea of what I can try else. Big thanks already for your first hint, it's much appreciated.

I mostly suspected the RAM because of the SAM.

When I built my PC a year ago, I used XMP with a 7600x and it was problematic whenever XMP was enabled....I ended up having to buy an EXPO kit to get everything working correctly. This is the reason I tell anyone building a Ryzen 7000 series to use EXPO and not XMP, however, in the past year new BIOS updates have fixed many of these early issues.

Do I think RAM is the problem? It could be, but given everything works fine with the GTX 1070ti installed, it's most likely not the RAM. The other issue could be the A620 chipset with a 7800X3D, again it should be fine but using a budget board with an expensive CPU is not common...then again in mini ITX there may not be many good options.

 

[pumpmuckl]

I mostly suspected the RAM because of the SAM.

When I built my PC a year ago, I used XMP with a 7600x and it was problematic whenever XMP was enabled....I ended up having to buy an EXPO kit to get everything working correctly. This is the reason I tell anyone building a Ryzen 7000 series to use EXPO and not XMP, however, in the past year new BIOS updates have fixed many of these early issues.

Do I think RAM is the problem? It could be, but given everything works fine with the GTX 1070ti installed, it's most likely not the RAM. The other issue could be the A620 chipset with a 7800X3D, again it should be fine but using a budget board with an expensive CPU is not common...then again in mini ITX there may not be many good options.

After more googling last night, I found a couple more BIOS settings, that I could tune, such as explicitly activating or deactivating XMP/ EXPO.
Nothing helped, so I just ordered a bunch of new mainboards today (one with a more expensive chipset, same I already have, one from another manufacturer) and a RAM-Kit, which is explicitly listed in the MBs support list.
Now couple more days wait for the delivery and then see if exchanging the MB or the RAM changes anything... I will keep you and this thread updated on to what fixed the problem (if I fix the problem 😆) to be of any help for people running into the same problem.

 

[pumpmuckl]

I wrote to ASRock support again and actually got an answer today. They said I should set the PCIE version in the BIOS to 3.0 if my PCIE riser cable only supports 3.0. Actually, the BIOS usually does this itself, but fine. I then checked my case again, but I was sure that it had a PCIE 4.0 riser cable installed.
Well, I then realised that I have an older version of the case, which only has a PCIE 3.0 cable installed. I set the BIOS to PCIE 3.0 and everything runs smoothly.
So in the end I was the idiot for not double checking the version of the case I had... Hopefully this helps someone, who runs into the same problems.

The essence of this journey: PCIE 3.0 riser cable and PCIE 4.0 components do go together and should not pose compatability issues. Also the BIOS should recognize the correct version and set it automatically. However, explicitly changing the PCIE Version in the BIOS can solve these issues. So happy got everything solved finally!