RX480 random black screen during gaming

[gonzohop]

Hi all

At my wits end here. Here's my new build:

XFX Radeon RX 480 Core Edition 8GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
Intel i5 6400 Skylake 2.7GHz Quad Core 1151 Socket Processor
Asus H110M-PLUS Motherboard Micro ATX
Crucial CT2K8G4DFS8213 16 GB (8 GB x 2) DDR4 2133 MT/s DIMM 288-Pin Memory Kit
Noctua NH-D15S CPU cooler
SanDisk Ultra II SSD 240 GB Sata III 2.5-inch Internal SSD
Seagate Expansion 2TB USB 3.0 Portable 2.5 inch External Hard Drive
EVGA 430W PC Power Supply
NZXT 2m LED Cable
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

... connected to an LG 34UC98 34-Inch UltraWide WQHD IPS Curved LED Monitor via Displayport.

I've also got my MacBook Pro hooked up via the Thunderbolt port.

Everything behaves itself until the GPU gets heavy load. When I'm playing WoW or The Secret World the screen will randomly go black, for maybe 2 seconds, before returning to normal. This can be at any time. Sometimes no problems for 20 minutes, sometimes it'll happen within minutes of playing. I can't define a pattern. I've tried a new DP cable. But nothing crashes - I can continue as normal, it's just the display going black and coming back on.

I've tried everything I can find on the forums; rolling back the drivers, playing around with Wattman and Afterburner settings, reinstalling drivers - everything I can find, but nothing works.

The GPU isn't overheating - it never goes over 64 deg C. The CPU never exceeds 34.

And what's even more curious is that it works with no problems at all if I connect the monitor via DVI to HDMI or HDMI to HDMI - the problem seems localised to the DP. But with the LG monitor Freesync only works via DP so I need that to be working. I've tried having Freesync enabled and disabled.

I know the PSU is the lowest of the low power wise but I've calculated the draw is within limits and it all works fine on a connection other than DP.

Any ideas?

Thanks all.

 

[fedefury]

I think that the problem is with your core or gpu. It may be possible that your core is bottlenecking your GPU. This can cause your gpu to temporarily blackout. Do you know the temps of ur computer? What resolution are u playing on?

 

[gonzohop]

I think that the problem is with your core or gpu. It may be possible that your core is bottlenecking your GPU. This can cause your gpu to temporarily blackout. Do you know the temps of ur computer? What resolution are u playing on?

Thanks - hadn't considered a bottleneck. It runs perfectly fine on HDMI 2.0 and DVI. Does the displayport demand more core usage? I'm running on Ultra settings but I'll certainly try throttling that back to see if that helps. The core temperature has never exceeded 34 deg C and the GPU never over 64.

 

[fedefury]

I think that the problem is with your core or gpu. It may be possible that your core is bottlenecking your GPU. This can cause your gpu to temporarily blackout. Do you know the temps of ur computer? What resolution are u playing on?

Thanks - hadn't considered a bottleneck. It runs perfectly fine on HDMI 2.0 and DVI. Does the displayport demand more core usage? I'm running on Ultra settings but I'll certainly try throttling that back to see if that helps. The core temperature has never exceeded 34 deg C and the GPU never over 64.

the temps seem to be fine, this means that your airflow is probs good. Is it possible that its when your mac is on while you are playing for example. This might confuse the pc as it needs to decide which computer to use

 

[gonzohop]

Ok, thanks for the ideas. Here's where I am now. I've tried dialling down the graphics settings but that didn't work. I tried disconnecting the Thunderbolt cable and that didn't work. I tried a different mains outlet for the monitor and that didn't work...

... but what DID work was changing the game resolution from the maximum monitor resolution of 3440 x 1440 to 2560 x 1080 - and now it works perfectly.

But I don't understand why this is when it works fine at maximum resolution via HDMI. I'm scratching my head here. Any ideas?

 

[gonzohop]

Ok, I just blasted the card with an Xtreme burn-in with FurMark on full 3440 x 1440 res and it performed beautifully - not one black screen. Could it be an in-game issue and some bizarre coincidence with the only two games I play? The plot thickens...

 

[fedefury]

Ok, I just blasted the card with an Xtreme burn-in with FurMark on full 3440 x 1440 res and it performed beautifully - not one black screen. Could it be an in-game issue and some bizarre coincidence with the only two games I play? The plot thickens...

I found a forum with the same problem that you have with WOW: https://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi4uIuCm4LQAhUDBywKHc-nCdgQFggoMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Feu.battle.net%2Fforums%2Fen%2Fwow%2Ftopic%2F17613171671&usg=AFQjCNHbnL1LnKanKakPmhTYTNnG38BnmQ&bvm=bv.136811127,d.bGs

 

[gonzohop]

I found a forum with the same problem that you have with WOW: https://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi4uIuCm4LQAhUDBywKHc-nCdgQFggoMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Feu.battle.net%2Fforums%2Fen%2Fwow%2Ftopic%2F17613171671&usg=AFQjCNHbnL1LnKanKakPmhTYTNnG38BnmQ&bvm=bv.136811127,d.bGs

Thanks fedefury. The problem they are describing is a bit different to mine - their PC is doing a full-on crash whereas mine is fine, it's just the screen momentarily turning black at random moments....

... HOWEVER!! One thing did catch my eye. One poster mentions "DisplayPort still has some glitchy behaviour with certain monitors at certain refresh rates, causing a page buffer fault". This got me thinking that perhaps the Displayport isn't communicating properly between the PC and the monitor so, despite installing the driver off the LG CD-ROM, I downloaded the latest driver from the LG website. It said it installed and I tried playing again - no luck, same problem. Grrr. But I looked in to it further and opened the Device Manager and checked out Monitors. It was showing the Microsoft Generic PnP driver. Hmm, that's not right - could that be the problem?! So this time I installed the driver using the Device Manager rather than using the exe file and...

It worked!!! It was the monitor driver all along. I hadn't bothered to check it had installed properly - I just assumed that it had because it confirmed that it had - twice!

Thanks for your help fedebury - that link you sent got me to the answer.

I can sleep easy tonight. Phew.

 

[gonzohop]

Arrrrrgh!! It's back. How??! How did it work for an hour with no glitches and then just come back?!

This thing is one step from defenestration...

 

[gonzohop]

Finally solved, thanks to an LG engineer pointing me in the right direction. In the AMD Radeon settings, under "Display", the scaling mode was set to "Preserve aspect ratio" when it should have been "Full panel".

That's all it was.

Wow.

 

[fedefury]

Finally solved, thanks to an LG engineer pointing me in the right direction. In the AMD Radeon settings, under "Display", the scaling mode was set to "Preserve aspect ratio" when it should have been "Full panel".

That's all it was.

Wow.

seems you have been through a hell of a ride, i hope that it stays fixed!

 

[gonzohop]

Thanks fedefury. Never again - sheesh! Let's hope my misfortune can benefit someone else with this problem.

 

[fedefury]

Thanks fedefury. Never again - sheesh! Let's hope my misfortune can benefit someone else with this problem.

You sir are my hero! I have scouring forums for hours to no avail. You are amazing!

haha thnx!
glad i could help!

 

[ImSoNotSchizo]

Thanks fedefury. Never again - sheesh! Let's hope my misfortune can benefit someone else with this problem.

You sir are my hero! I have scouring forums for hours to no avail. You are amazing!

haha thnx!
glad i could help!

been having this issue to myself tried all the steps you have hope its a settings issue

 

[H-ector]

have the same problem. hope the full panel scaling mode will do the trick

 

[fedefury]

have the same problem. hope the full panel scaling mode will do the trick

has it?

 

[H-ector]

have the same problem. hope the full panel scaling mode will do the trick

has it?

Definitely, yes. Thanks for it.

 

[fedefury]

have the same problem. hope the full panel scaling mode will do the trick

has it?

Definitely, yes. Thanks for it.

np!

 

[LethalMuppet]

Finally solved, thanks to an LG engineer pointing me in the right direction. In the AMD Radeon settings, under "Display", the scaling mode was set to "Preserve aspect ratio" when it should have been "Full panel".

That's all it was.

Wow.

Thank you! You marvellous, marvellous person!!

I was on my second gfx card and 3rd Dp cable! And THIS is what fixed it.

I owe you beer.

LG29UM68 with Sapphire 8GB OC Nitro+ RX470 connected on DisplayPort 1.2 (and a 2GB OC RX460 with the same issues before that!)