[SOLVED] R9 280X Crash

[Avik_b123]

Hello,

I'm currently using R9 280X 3G. (I know it's old). It's 6 years old, ran like a charm.

But recently I'm having in-game crashes and wired display. Was playing Ori and the Blind Forest. Some times the game crashes. some times the screen flickers and becomes non-responsive. And sometimes I'm seeing wired shapes. Like a blank wall or box-shaped water droplets.

P.S. This happens with other games like Star Wars as well.

Any suggestions?

Peace.

 

[cdrkf]

Hello,

I'm currently using R9 280X 3G. (I know it's old). It's 6 years old, ran like a charm.

But recently I'm having in-game crashes and wired display. Was playing Ori and the Blind Forest. Some times the game crashes. some times the screen flickers and becomes non-responsive. And sometimes I'm seeing wired shapes. Like a blank wall or box-shaped water droplets.

P.S. This happens with other games like Star Wars as well.

Any suggestions?

Peace.

This kind of issue can be caused by poor cooling - if the card is 6 years old then the cooler probably needs a good clean to remove dust build up. It's also likely that the thermal paste that connects the cooler to the card has dried out. Have you checked temps whilst gaming? If they are running high (e.g. above 90 degrees) then this is likely the issue.

Removing the cooler and applying new thermal paste, and giving the cooler itself a good clean should help. If this still doesn't fix the issue you could try using some OC software to adjust the voltages - a little extra voltage might help stabilise the card, the type of errors you describe are often related to memory errors, so dropping the frequency for the memory might help as well. I would try looking at the cooling first though.

 

[Avik_b123]

This kind of issue can be caused by poor cooling - if the card is 6 years old then the cooler probably needs a good clean to remove dust build up. It's also likely that the thermal paste that connects the cooler to the card has dried out. Have you checked temps whilst gaming? If they are running high (e.g. above 90 degrees) then this is likely the issue.

Removing the cooler and applying new thermal paste, and giving the cooler itself a good clean should help. If this still doesn't fix the issue you could try using some OC software to adjust the voltages - a little extra voltage might help stabilise the card, the type of errors you describe are often related to memory errors, so dropping the frequency for the memory might help as well. I would try looking at the cooling first though.

I think I should tell you the full story. Because of this issue, I opened my GPU, cleaned it, and applied new thermal paste. But I found out that one of the DUAL-X fans is not spinning properly. For example, If I keep my fan speed at 80%, the first fan is running properly, but the second fan is running slow like at 50%. I'm guessing the bearing of that fan is busted. Anyway, I have ordered a replacement DUAL-X fan.

But to check things with the heat, I'm using a custom fan profile (increased the speed at every level than usual because of the busted fan). Now I have done a stress test which is clocking the temperature max at 83 degrees. Also while playing the temperature never crossed 75 degrees. Verified it with GPU-Z log.

 

[cdrkf]

I think I should tell you the full story. Because of this issue, I opened my GPU, cleaned it, and applied new thermal paste. But I found out that one of the DUAL-X fans is not spinning properly. For example, If I keep my fan speed at 80%, the first fan is running properly, but the second fan is running slow like at 50%. I'm guessing the bearing of that fan is busted. Anyway, I have ordered a replacement DUAL-X fan.

But to check things with the heat, I'm using a custom fan profile (increased the speed at every level than usual because of the busted fan). Now I have done a stress test which is clocking the temperature max at 83 degrees. Also while playing the temperature never crossed 75 degrees. Verified it with GPU-Z log.

Sounds like the temps are ok then. In that case I would suggest trying to adjust the voltages / frequencies to get the card stable. It sounds like the card is getting to the end of it's life unfortunately as either the gpu or memory chips are wearing out.

A little more voltage the the gpu core might help, or try it at lower frequency, same with the memory. The replacement fan might also help but ultimately it's probably going to get worse over time. It might be worth looking for something a bit newer, say a second hand RX 570 as a replacement as that would be faster and those can be picked up pretty cheap (can get a new one for ~ £130 so second hand probably a lot less).

 

[Avik_b123]

Sounds like the temps are ok then. In that case I would suggest trying to adjust the voltages / frequencies to get the card stable. It sounds like the card is getting to the end of it's life unfortunately as either the gpu or memory chips are wearing out.

A little more voltage the the gpu core might help, or try it at lower frequency, same with the memory. The replacement fan might also help but ultimately it's probably going to get worse over time. It might be worth looking for something a bit newer, say a second hand RX 570 as a replacement as that would be faster and those can be picked up pretty cheap (can get a new one for ~ £130 so second hand probably a lot less).

Thanks for your help. I was avoiding upgrading but guess it's the logical thing to do. I was thinking of upgrading from R9 280X 3G to RTX 2060 Super if I have to. The motherboard I'm using is Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3. Will the motherboard support RTX 2060 super?

 

[cdrkf]

Thanks for your help. I was avoiding upgrading but guess it's the logical thing to do. I was thinking of upgrading from R9 280X 3G to RTX 2060 Super if I have to. The motherboard I'm using is Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3. Will the motherboard support RTX 2060 super?

The main thing required to support modern gpu's (aside from a PCIe slot) is UEFI bios - which your board has so it will work with any gpu you want to put into it provided your PSU is up to it.

The only thing is that is an AM3 board, so you are going to be pretty cpu limited. What CPU do you have? There was a recent retrospective / gpu scaling review done with the FX 8370 (probably about the best cpu you could put into that board) here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3izKyB4u28


Based on that for pairing with an FX cpu there's not much point going higher than a GTX 1650 Super (even that gets held back a bit). Then again, if you intend on upgrading the rest of the machine to something a bit newer down the road getting the RTX card wouldn't be a bad idea (it will work no problem, you will just be leaving a bit of performance on the table, unless you turn RTX on in games that support it).

 

[Avik_b123]

The main thing required to support modern gpu's (aside from a PCIe slot) is UEFI bios - which your board has so it will work with any gpu you want to put into it provided your PSU is up to it.

The only thing is that is an AM3 board, so you are going to be pretty cpu limited. What CPU do you have? There was a recent retrospective / gpu scaling review done with the FX 8370 (probably about the best cpu you could put into that board) here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3izKyB4u28


Based on that for pairing with an FX cpu there's not much point going higher than a GTX 1650 Super (even that gets held back a bit). Then again, if you intend on upgrading the rest of the machine to something a bit newer down the road getting the RTX card wouldn't be a bad idea (it will work no problem, you will just be leaving a bit of performance on the table, unless you turn RTX on in games that support it).

My CPU is AMD FX 8350 and PSU is Corsair RM650. Yes, I'll be upgrading the whole system. Can't do it all at once due to budget constraints. What I understand from your reply is that putting 2060 will bottleneck the performance.

Actually bottlenecks are not my concern right now. Sadly the motherboard doesn't have any onboard display ports. So if GPU fails, I won't be able to run my PC.

Like I said, I'll be upgrading the whole system step by step let's say in 8-10 months. Target is to play games at 4k with good performance and future-proofing at least for 2-4 years. So you think this is a good investment or do you suggest otherwise?

 

[cdrkf]

My CPU is AMD FX 8350 and PSU is Corsair RM650. Yes, I'll be upgrading the whole system. Can't do it all at once due to budget constraints. What I understand from your reply is that putting 2060 will bottleneck the performance.

Actually bottlenecks are not my concern right now. Sadly the motherboard doesn't have any onboard display ports. So if GPU fails, I won't be able to run my PC.

Like I said, I'll be upgrading the whole system step by step let's say in 8-10 months. Target is to play games at 4k with good performance and future-proofing at least for 2-4 years. So you think this is a good investment or do you suggest otherwise?

Yeah I tend to upgrade like that - get a really good gpu one year (even if the rest of the system isn't really fast enough for it) then upgrade the platform the next and the gpu performance jumps up with the system upgrade.

People get very worried about bottlenecks so thought I should make you aware of it - actually if you are running at 4k, or with RTX mode on then the GPU will likely still be the bottleneck. I think one positive that video shows is that an FX 8XXX cpu can still run pretty much every game out there fairly well, so it's not like the games won't run. The only thing I would say, getting an RTX 2060 Super right now might not be the best move, if you can keep that 280X going a little longer there are new gpu's due out from both companies really soon (nVidia have confirmed RTX 3000 series are coming 'soon' although we don't know the exact date leaks have suggested we are looking end of this month of beginning of September). Once the new cards are announced there should be some decent price drops on the current RTX 2000 series parts.

 

[Avik_b123]

Yeah I tend to upgrade like that - get a really good gpu one year (even if the rest of the system isn't really fast enough for it) then upgrade the platform the next and the gpu performance jumps up with the system upgrade.

People get very worried about bottlenecks so thought I should make you aware of it - actually if you are running at 4k, or with RTX mode on then the GPU will likely still be the bottleneck. I think one positive that video shows is that an FX 8XXX cpu can still run pretty much every game out there fairly well, so it's not like the games won't run. The only thing I would say, getting an RTX 2060 Super right now might not be the best move, if you can keep that 280X going a little longer there are new gpu's due out from both companies really soon (nVidia have confirmed RTX 3000 series are coming 'soon' although we don't know the exact date leaks have suggested we are looking end of this month of beginning of September). Once the new cards are announced there should be some decent price drops on the current RTX 2000 series parts.

Thanks, mate. I'm just worried about whether my motherboard will support 2060. If it doesn't, I'll be in big trouble.

 

[madmatt30]

Thanks, mate. I'm just worried about whether my motherboard will support 2060. If it doesn't, I'll be in big trouble.

A 990 am3+ board will support any gpu out there, no compatibily issues whatsoever.

4k though? A 2060 isnt going g to manage that well at all.

5700xt is the best price/performance that can actually game at that res fairly well at this current time (at medium settings at least anyway)