[SOLVED] R9 290 black screen oc

Yamaokka

Prominent
Jan 12, 2020
23
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515
I am overclocking my r9 290 vapor x 4gb and i did the usual , i ran heaven and played with voltages and clocks and i got it at +13mv , +0% PL , 1080core and 1500memory , and i set up Fan curve.if i pushed it further i would get artifacts so i left it as it is then i turned off heaven and screen went suddenly black , and it does everytime i set that profile while not running heaven , when i do run heaven it works just fine underload no artifact and temperature doesnt go above 80°C. I know that i should try to increase voltage but i dont want to and it doesnt make any sense why would it crash on idle when it is totally fine under full load. Does anyone have some knowledge or experience with this kind of problem?
 
Solution
Enable force constant core voltage and see if that helps. The issue with overclocking the 290/290x is that the core voltage feeds the memory controller. When you idle the voltage for the core drops sub 1v and this causes the memory controller to become unstable. This leads to the black screen. So the issue becomes keeping memory stable at idle but you are fine under heavy loads. source

zx128k

Reputable
Enable force constant core voltage and see if that helps. The issue with overclocking the 290/290x is that the core voltage feeds the memory controller. When you idle the voltage for the core drops sub 1v and this causes the memory controller to become unstable. This leads to the black screen. So the issue becomes keeping memory stable at idle but you are fine under heavy loads. source
 
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Solution

Yamaokka

Prominent
Jan 12, 2020
23
1
515
Enable force constant core voltage and see if that helps. The issue with overclocking the 290/290x is that the core voltage feeds the memory controller. When you idle the voltage for the core drops sub 1v and this causes the memory controller to become unstable. This leads to the black screen. So the issue becomes keeping memory stable at idle but you are fine under heavy loads. source
Thank you , youre very helpful , I wasnt thinking about checking voltage on idle , i will try to force it.
 

Yamaokka

Prominent
Jan 12, 2020
23
1
515
Enable force constant core voltage and see if that helps. The issue with overclocking the 290/290x is that the core voltage feeds the memory controller. When you idle the voltage for the core drops sub 1v and this causes the memory controller to become unstable. This leads to the black screen. So the issue becomes keeping memory stable at idle but you are fine under heavy loads. source
Okay so when i checked settings in msi afterburner i already had force core voltage checked , i noticed that if i uncheck it voltage doesnt change. When i run heaven ,voltage is around 1120mv to 1180 mv but when i close it, voltage drops to 1008 , is that how force voltage is supposed to work or is it somehow bugged pr something
 
Last edited:

zx128k

Reputable
Okay so when i checked settings in msi afterburner i already had force core voltage checked , i noticed that if i uncheck it voltage doesnt change. When i run heaven ,voltage is around 1120mv to 1180 mv but when i close it, voltage drops to 1008 , is that how force voltage is supposed to work or is it somehow bugged pr something

Has it crashed yet at idle with constant voltage enabled?
 

Yamaokka

Prominent
Jan 12, 2020
23
1
515
Has it crashed yet at idle with constant voltage enabled?
when i have stock clocks at 1030core and 1400mem and core voltage at +19mv it wont crash on idle but it does at 1500mem oc , but it wont crash under full load , i have option in afterburner to overclock aux voltage but memory voltage is locked and even after i tried every possible tutorial there is to unlock it , it wont. Forcing voltage to stay at that 1150 for example isnt even possible because even if i drag the slider to max it stays at 1080mv and it still crashes.
 

zx128k

Reputable
when i have stock clocks at 1030core and 1400mem and core voltage at +19mv it wont crash on idle but it does at 1500mem oc , but it wont crash under full load , i have option in afterburner to overclock aux voltage but memory voltage is locked and even after i tried every possible tutorial there is to unlock it , it wont. Forcing voltage to stay at that 1150 for example isnt even possible because even if i drag the slider to max it stays at 1080mv and it still crashes.

Force constant voltage is meant to keep it at the value set. There is no voltage slider for memory voltage. You can turn off ULPS and PowerPlay. Note the card should no longer downclock.

source

The VRAM
The VRAM on Hawaii cards is very different from previous cards. ALL Hawaii cards have a golden ratio of
VRAM clock/core clock. This ratio varies from card to card but is generally between 1.25 and 1.4. Once you find this ratio it will generally allow you to run a much higher memory clock than try to incrementally raise VRAM frequency. For example my R9 290X has a ratio of 1.36 and 1140/1500 is not stable on it but 1140/1550 is even though they are at the same voltage.
While the Hawaii cards do not have memory voltage controls available in any software the memory clock does scale with core voltage so if you are trying to push a high memory clock you wil need to raise the core voltage regardless of your core frequency.

For some reason Hawaii cards don't always downclock the memory when idling so when you are going above 1350mhz VRAM with an OCed monitor or on a multi monitor setup you will need to set Afterburner to constant voltage. This will not negatively impact the life span of you card because the idle core voltage will still be under 1V. I also recommend trying this if you crash when pressing apply because that happens for the same reason. Your VRAM OC kicks in but the voltage stays at idle levels and you get a crash.