VTX Radeon HD 7870 Issues

[Killerbanana]

Hi,


You can skip the third paragraph, it just describes my crashes.

OS: Windows 8
CPU: Intel i7 3770k
RAM: 2 x Crucial Sport 4GB, Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800 Memory Module
GPU: Radeon HD 7870 (VTX 3D X-Edition, GHz Edition)
Sound Card: Asus Xonar D2X
PSU: Corsair Gaming Series 2013 Edition GS 600W ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze
Motherboard: Gigabyte Socket-1155 Z77-DS3H Motherboard


I am partly posting this as a solution to some of the problems I have had with a VTX Radeon HD 7870, but also to see if there is a better solution.

Well, my HD 7870 was running extremely unreliably. It would crash my computer frequently, normally while playing games but occasionally if I had a lot of webpages open; I assume this meant that the GPU was crashing under load. The driver(s) that were usually cited were atikmdag.sys and atikmpag.sys. Putting those drivers under stress using Driver Verifier usually resulted in a lot of crashes.

This bit describes my various crashes and symptoms. It can be skipped: The crashes had different symptoms: the first was after a few hours playing The Witcher. I think I BSODed. THe second game I remember having issues with was Amensia: The Dark Descent. It ran fairly reliably untl I reached a certain area, then it started crashing. The screen would freeze and the sound would be stuck on a loop. The computer would go unresponsive and I would normally have to turn it off, but sometimes I could ctrl+alt+delete out of it. When the latter occurred I could restart the game but it would be very jittery. It was normally slightly more reliable like this, but if it crashed in jittery mode all hell would break loose with a blue screen (not BSOD) with artefacts on it tillt he computer eventually shut itself down or I did so. I also experienced BSOD with Anna (a slightly less demanding horror game). With Battlefield 3, aside from a certain "dxgi_error_device_hung" error (which I still haven't fixed), I would RSOD, generally after about 10-15 minutes of gameplay.

None of these were temperature issues: my card was always under 70 degrees. I memtested my RAM, and tried running my computer with just one of each of the two sticks. My card generally did fine with Furmark (unless I was using driver verifier, but I could go on for many paragraphs about my mucking around with that). Nothing was OCed by me (though the GPU came factory overclocked). My PSU was a Corsair GS600W, a reliable brand PSU with more than enough watts. Removing the sound card and uninstalling its drivers made no difference.

If you have any of those symptoms, chances are people will suggest any of the problems in the paragraph above. They are not to be ruled out, but this is for people who have ruled out all those problems.

1) Remove your GPU from the computer.

2) Uninstall all AMD drivers. I suggest being in safe mode, and following this guide: http://www.overclock.net/t/988215/how-to-properly-uninstall-ati-amd-software-drivers-for-graphics-cards

3) Turn off the computer, reinsert the GPU, and turn on again.

4) Still in safe mode, allow Windows (NB I am running Windows 8) to install a default driver for your GPU. In device manager, my driver reads "Microsoft Corporation - WDDM v1.20". The driver provider is AMD, but the version is 8.97.10.6 from 19/06/2012. Microsoft has signed the driver.

5) Restart in unsafe mode, and see how your system runs. Try to put your system in situations that were making it crash.

6) If the system is reliable without drivers from AMD's website, I suggest you create a restore point. Now you can experiment with AMD's drivers. For me, driver 13.4 (the latest 'stable' driver) made BF3 RSOD almost straight away whereas the automatically installed Windows driver did not RSOD after hours of gameplay on different occassions. If any AMD driver causes problems that you didn't have with the windows drivers, I suggest you just system restore.

The drawbacks:
1. This earlier driver might be less up to date than AMD's latest on their website.
2. A slight performance decrease. I scored around 5% lower in Furmark. I can live with that if my GPU works.
3. No Catalyst Control Centre.

Something odd which possibly indicates driver corruption: Driver Verifier first said that atikmdag.sys and atikmpag.sys were unsigned drivers. The default windows driver for the card reinstalled drivers of the same name, but driver verifier now does not consider them unsigned drivers. Odd.

I am not a computer expert, so could anyone suggest ways to further improve this solution or alternative solutions? Could the GPU itself be faulty?

 

[rolli59]

If you verified your ram being fine with several passes of memtest http://www.memtest.org/ I would come to the conclusion that the card is faulty and RMA it.

 

[Killerbanana]

If you verified your ram being fine with several passes of memtest http://www.memtest.org/ I would come to the conclusion that the card is faulty and RMA it.

Thanks, this encouraged me to get an RMA.

Because VTX3D is a fairly new company for GPUs, there might be scant information about their RMA process, so I thought this would be useful to share. I also am generally pleased with their RMA service, so out of principle I would like this information to be on the internet as a thanks for a relatively painless RMA.

1. As far as I am aware, VTX3D is owned by TUL, a larger company which also owns Club 3D and Powercolor (correct me if I'm wrong). Their graphics cards have a 2 year warranty from their manufacture date (which can be found on a sticker on the card). Certain types of damage are not covered, but basically if the card is failing with normal use inside the warranty you should be entitled to an RMA.

2. An RMA request can be sent on their website, www.vtx3d.com

3. There is plenty of information on the web already about how to word emails and what information to include for RMA requests etc. It is likely you will be asked to check a few things, such as whether the GPU has been overclocked. They respond to your emails quickly, so this process is relatively painless.

4. If your card gets approved for an RMA, you get sent an RMA code. You are asked to include the code and a few other details with the card you send them. You have to pay for the postage to their factory in Norway (from the UK for tracked and insured delivery expect to pay about £10-15. Keep packaging minimal to reduce this cost, but obviously pack the card safely.)

5. The RMA turnaround is quite fast. The entire process from me posting my card to getting a replacement I think took 13 days.

6. I sent them their HD7870 x-edition, and after confirming that the card was faulty they sent back their HD7870 black edition. To my understanding, the black edition is a slightly better card (it has a Tahiti LE chip and is a slightly newer model. I think the x-edition is a Ghz edition chip). That the card they sent back is about £15 better than the card I sent them basically makes up for having to pay the postage to them.

Of course, as the first part of this thread shows, faulty GPUs are a nuisance for a system builder, but the RMA process for VTX3D has been generally positive. If people are reluctant to buy a VTX3D GPU because they do not know the brand, the fact that their RMA process is good might be encouraging.

 

[rolli59]

That looks like good service and always nice to see them upgrading customers on the returned card.