R9 280x unstable at default clock speeds. Display crashing and recovering

[Dave Thompson]

Hi there,

It's been a long few days of pc problems that simply started out as a shadow issue on a certain game, and after way too much messing about, I thought I had ruined this XFX R9 280X when it would immediately crash on every game. After of a long list of experiments and wiping away the tears, I have come to realise the card was never at fault. Madness. The last thing I have done is flashed the v bios "PROPERLY" at pre-boot with a USB drive, and it hasn't worked as I hoped. The stock/default speeds are supposed to be 1080 clock, and 1550 memory, and the card was doing fine on those values before I messed up with flashing the bios with atiwinflash and other things. If I reduce the clock and memory to something like 800 and 1200, games start and appear to be stable. I am totally out of options now and just want to get the card running like it was. The shadow issues I was having (Tomb Raider in particular) is also present while using the integrated graphics, Just wish I had realised that before messing around with all sorts of drivers and BIOS flashing.

Please help so I can get on with my life! lol. Seriously though...please help

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I restored a basic win 7 installation I made a couple of years ago that only had updates and display drivers installed, nothing else, in the hope it would solve the issue, but games were crashing on that one too. I can only think it has something to mobo or GPU bios. The PSU is brand new (like 1 week old) and good quality, so I am not suspecting it right now, but perhaps I should be. I will now check all plugs are in properly with the PSU and card.

Win 7
i3 4130
Brand new Corsair TX650m
H81m DS2V mobo
8 gig ram

 

[Calvin7]

http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/products/amd-radeon-r9-200-series/amd-radeon-r9-280x-black-double-dissipation-edition-r9-280x-tdbd
Specifications Tab is toward bottom of page. As you can see your Brand new Corsair TX650m does not meet the minimum power requirements of the video card.

XFX R9 280X
Requirements:
External Power - 6-pins : 1
External Power - 8-pins : 1
Minimum Power Supply Requirement : 750 watt
XFX Recommended Power Supply : XFX 850W PSU

 

[Dave Thompson]

http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/products/amd-radeon-r9-200-series/amd-radeon-r9-280x-black-double-dissipation-edition-r9-280x-tdbd
Specifications Tab is toward bottom of page. As you can see your Brand new Corsair TX650m does not meet the minimum power requirements of the video card.

XFX R9 280X
Requirements:
External Power - 6-pins : 1
External Power - 8-pins : 1
Minimum Power Supply Requirement : 750 watt
XFX Recommended Power Supply : XFX 850W PSU

I was convinced without a doubt that even a 550 w PSU would be OK. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3615676/alpine-700w-psu-power-280x-card.html

It was working fine before I started messing around with DDU, flashing mobo and card BIOS.

 

[Dave Thompson]

Sorted it out. OMFG! Pardon the language, but that had to be one of the worst experiences I've had in fault finding. I wish I understood computers more so I don't go on wild goose chases like that. Luckily, I remembered roughly the name and date of the vbios that was already on there, but the only that almost matches the name on techpowerup is a bios meant for the non-black edition running at 1000 x 1500. The only difference in the name was the missing "OC". So flashed that again, which put my clocks at 1000x1500, I clocked back up to 1080x1550, and it appears to be running well again. The bios versions for this card are very messy. Anyone reading this...do be careful when you flash the vbois, and remember what version was already on there before you end up making things worse like I did. Happy gaming people.