[SOLVED] Not Enough video memory - 5700 XT

[jerreece]

I'm reaching out to XFX about my AMD 5700 XT THICC II Ultra GPU. I suspect there's an issue with it. I purchased November 2019 and since new every now and again one of my dual monitors would flicker off, and back on. It was entirely random. Some days it would never do it.

I game at 1080p so the 8GB of VRAM on board should be plenty. Over the last couple weeks playing No Man Sky I've experienced a lot of stuttering, and random crashes. I suspected initially it had to do with the new Expeditions update. At first it happened every 20-30 minutes. Then it got more frequent. My AMD Ryzen 5 2600X never hits 80% or more usage while playing, and the GPU never goes above 69/70% usage. So I couldn't figure out the stuttering. Turned network/multiplayer off. No help.

The last couple days now I literally cannot get a single game to run. They all crash to desktop without warning or error message in most cases when the game begins loading resources. GPU Ram usage never gets above 3GB before this happens. However, when trying to load into the game "Control" I do get an error when it crashes. It says it cannot load 2D and says I'm out of video memory.

No Man Sky
Detroit: Human Unknown
Control

All same issue. I've tried various AMD driver installs from December through April. None fix the issue. I even tried updating my motherboard BIOS, chipset drivers, motherboard drivers. I've cleared up space on my Windows SSD in case it was a page file issue. I've verified game files on Steam too. I have ZERO issues with Windows, if my kids play CPU based games like Roblox. YouTube.

I've run 3DMark Time Spy on Steam. Four days ago it ran perfectly fine with a result of 8,596. Now it fails to run the tests and says the error is "bad allocation".

I tried running OCCT to test VRAM but it won't test more than 3GB of VRAM?? GPU-Z clearly shows the card has 8GB. So I'm wondering if the VRAM or memory controller on the GPU is failing.

Sometimes when the games crash (during load) Steam will also close. No errors. And sometimes Windows will stop recognizing one of my monitors. I have to reboot windows to get the monitor to be recognized by Windows again.

Any thoughts on what I can test/try while waiting to hear from XFX?

 

[jerreece]

Just used DDU to wipe all Intel, AMD, and nVidia drivers from my system. Reinstalled all my motherboard and GPU drivers to the most up to date versions.

Same problem. No change.

 

[norcalsc]

usually before swapping or replacing hardware, i will try a fresh win 10 install from a usb flash drive. also if you can try your GPU in another system it might give you some insight into where the issue is coming from

 

[jerreece]

usually before swapping or replacing hardware, i will try a fresh win 10 install from a usb flash drive. also if you can try your GPU in another system it might give you some insight into where the issue is coming from

Totally get that. This isn't a new card. I've had it since November 2019. It's been perfectly fine up until a couple weeks ago. All that's changed is AMD driver updates. So I've rolled back but no avail.

I've been playing with my RAM settings in the Mobo BIOS. XMS Profile 1, 2, or letting the BIOS use default settings. My RAM is rated at 3,200Mhz. with XMS Profile 2. If I set Profile 1 (slower) I can play games. The GPU now uses more than 3GB of VRAM. In fact now OCCT suddenly recognizes just shy of 8GB of VRAM when it does it's test (which runs fine). This doesn't make sense to me since the RAM on the Mobo and the VRAM shouldn't impact one another that directly. And I used to run everything fine up until 2 weeks ago.

I've now tried 3 different BIOS versions on the MOBO too.

Anyhow, I just ran Memtest86 with a USB thumb drive boot (took like 3 hours) and the CPU and RAM had 0 errors. So I really don't think it's on the RAM side of things. But I still get the stuttering in No Man Sky - and occasional crashes. And even had a system freeze while playing "Control" last night. I had the graphic settings completely maxed at 1080p and the game was butter smooth.

I have a brand new Crucial BX500 2000GB SSD I've been putting off installing. Debating retiring my 120GB SSD that I have Windows installed on. Maybe start with a fresh Win10 install and see if anything changes.

 

[Karadjgne]

Try using Furmark or msi Kombuster. Those are intensive gpu stress tests, if you can run them no issues then I'd suspect the issue isn't the gpu exactly, but something that affects it. It's possible the storage is going, 120Gb drives weren't the greatest for longetivity, so it's possible that's the issue.
Psu is also a possibility, especially if the gpu crashes under Kombuster stress, as that's much more like your game load vs youtube or roblox.

 

[jerreece]

Try using Furmark or msi Kombuster. Those are intensive gpu stress tests, if you can run them no issues then I'd suspect the issue isn't the gpu exactly, but something that affects it. It's possible the storage is going, 120Gb drives weren't the greatest for longetivity, so it's possible that's the issue.
Psu is also a possibility, especially if the gpu crashes under Kombuster stress, as that's much more like your game load vs youtube or roblox.

Yeah I only brought up YouTube and Roblox to show that CPU based programs don't have issues. Only applications that utilize the GPU itself. All just part of the troubleshooting process to figure out where I need to be focusing.

I'm in the process of making a Win 10 USB drive right now so I can begin the PITA process of a fresh install. Haha. I just don't wanna move all my files around between disks. But it's about time. I still have a 1TB Western Digital Black hard disk in there with lots of photos/memories on it. It needs to go too. lol