[SOLVED] RX 5700 XT - Getting weird artifacts / vertical lines

May 28, 2021
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Hello dear reader (and thank you for your time!)
//Hardware Specs to be found at the bottom

I have bought a RX 5700 XT Ultra Thicc III (by XFX) in on December 28th, 2020. (since the 2070 S was not available and I wanted to play cyberpunk).
All in all the card is performing really well, good temperature, etc.

But since January (really, ever since I got it) I get random green screens, folowed by weird vertical lines. Ofc this is not my 1st PC, so I started the debugging process.
I have tried literally everything there is to try. Up until now (May, 28th) I have at least disassembled my PC 3 times, performed a clean windows install 4 times, removed AMD drivers with DDU uninstaller and/or AMD cleanup utility for at LEAST 50 times. I tried EVERY. SINGLE. DRIVER. there is for this card. Sometimes it lasts for a couple of days, sometimes not even 24H.

But since yesterday NOTHING helps anymore, no driver uninstall, no windows clean install, nothing.
Here are some picutres, to see what I am struggling with:
IMG-20210528-191250.jpg


IMG-20210528-191112.jpg


It's pretty frustrating to be honest. I have no problems with troubleshooting and investing hours into fixing my PC. But even I have to admit that I'm defeated at some point.
Either the VRAM is broken (which I honeslty do NOT think, since with the right driver the card seems to work again for some days).

What I can rule out by 100%:
  • PSU not to enough. It was 750W. The card peaks at 220W.
  • Wrong driver (tried them all. not exaggerating..)
  • Clean windows install
  • Using different ports on the GPU (3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI) - tried them all. Problem consists.


Hardware specs:
-MSI B450-A Pro Max
- AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT (6x 3.80 GHz, boxed)
-32GB DDR4-3200 RAM (G.Skill RipJaws V, 4 x 8 GB)
-2 x 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD (Samsung SSD 970 Evo)
- XFX RX 5700 XT Ultra Thicc III

If you can help me, I'd be glad to pay your next dinner, seriously. My only options are selling the GPU (got the bill and it's still under warranty, but the current GPU market is literal crap and I don't wanna spend months without a GPU - and if I can't fix it, it's exactly what I gotta do. So I'd appreciate any input. Offer for dinner / beer is valid, I will paypal you the money (not a requirement, just as good will from my side)
 
Solution
Id honestly blame the vram. You have had issues since the beginning you said, not after a particular driver update. What happens if you switch to the quiet bios (as im assuming you're on the performance bios now)? Last thing i'd try is to reflash the bios and see what's happen.

If even that doesn't help, it is definitely the card. And those artifacts are definitely vram related. Have you also tried to downclock the vram and turning it up bit by bit to see if the artifact reappears after a certain number? They happen even before windows load, so it's definitely the card hardware. Also, not saying it's your case, but wattage on a psu is pretty much a number. What matters is the ampere delivered at each rails and the oem quality of the...

David0ne86

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Mar 11, 2021
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Id honestly blame the vram. You have had issues since the beginning you said, not after a particular driver update. What happens if you switch to the quiet bios (as im assuming you're on the performance bios now)? Last thing i'd try is to reflash the bios and see what's happen.

If even that doesn't help, it is definitely the card. And those artifacts are definitely vram related. Have you also tried to downclock the vram and turning it up bit by bit to see if the artifact reappears after a certain number? They happen even before windows load, so it's definitely the card hardware. Also, not saying it's your case, but wattage on a psu is pretty much a number. What matters is the ampere delivered at each rails and the oem quality of the psu itself. Never go "oh my psu is a 54875648 W and my pc only uses 3 W so it's definitely not that". I've seen psu claiming 700w turning off at 300 w peak (in best case scenario, some even has the fuse or even worse the capacitor explode and fry the whole system). Again, not saying it's your case, but still.
 
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Solution
May 28, 2021
3
0
10
Id honestly blame the vram. You have had issues since the beginning you said, not after a particular driver update. What happens if you switch to the quiet bios (as im assuming you're on the performance bios now)? Last thing i'd try is to reflash the bios and see what's happen.

If even that doesn't help, it is definitely the card. And those artifacts are definitely vram related. Have you also tried to downclock the vram and turning it up bit by bit to see if the artifact reappears after a certain number? They happen even before windows load, so it's definitely the card hardware. Also, not saying it's your case, but wattage on a psu is pretty much a number. What matters is the ampere delivered at each rails and the oem quality of the psu itself. Never go "oh my psu is a 54875648 W and my pc only uses 3 W so it's definitely not that". I've seen psu claiming 700w turning off at 300 w peak (in best case scenario, some even has the fuse or even worse the capacitor explode and fry the whole system). Again, not saying it's your case, but still.

Thanks for your input. I tried both BIOS, none works anymore. Still keep getting the artifacts. Even flashed the BIOS, no change. I will return the card to the vendor.
Never going XFX again. Lesson learned.
 

David0ne86

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Mar 11, 2021
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i mean you have been unlucky. Had your same card (gf still has in her rig) and never had an issue. It's not xfx problem. Bad cards can happen to anyone lol.

If anything, you should have rma it immediately the first time you seen those lines. With usage the problem got worse to the point it has become what it is today. So yeah, not really fair to blame xfx.
 

animekenji

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Dec 31, 2010
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i mean you have been unlucky. Had your same card (gf still has in her rig) and never had an issue. It's not xfx problem. Bad cards can happen to anyone lol.

If anything, you should have rma it immediately the first time you seen those lines. With usage the problem got worse to the point it has become what it is today. So yeah, not really fair to blame xfx.

It would depend where he bought it. If he paid scalpers prices for it on ebay, he is better off requesting a refund through ebay. There are a few stories going around now where people are sending defective video cards in under warranty, and the card makers are sending them checks for the MSRP of the cards because they have none for warranty exchange and can't get the parts to repair them. It would suck to have paid way above retail price, and then lose all that money. In ordinary circumstances, this wouldn't be an issue, but right now it's a problem. The AIB's are only liable for damages up to the full MSRP of the card, nothing above that. They're not going to pay you $1500 for a card that they priced to sell for $400.
 
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David0ne86

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Mar 11, 2021
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That's why you don't pay scalpers price. Again, not aibs fault if people take leaps of faith. That's why I don't think it's fair going "i won't buy xfx anymore, lesson learned" as xfx purposefully built a faulty card lmao.

Point is, he should've immediately ask for a refund/rma as soon as he saw those artifacts appear since op said they pretty much did since the get go. End of story. I guess he learned his lesson.