new r9 390 faulty I believe

[TechHands]

I got a new r9 390 and I believe it is faulty. I'm replacing my 280x but as it is my 280x is doing much better then the 390.
I used DDU, and I tired beta and non beta crimson drivers with the 390.

My 280x is fine it has no trouble holding a consistent gpu load and core clock stays 1020mhz with a game like GTAV or fallout4.

the 390 has very inconsistent gpu usage that's "irregular" it constantly drops down to 0% and the core clock is constantly fluctuating.

I looked at the temps and they are fine, the 390 is performing so badly i'm not even leaving it in my system long enough to even get warm.

I'm using my 280x and I'm assuming the 390 is faulty and hope to have it replaced.

I have found others with very similar issues on the internet and I see no one mention anything about having their GPU's RMA or anything. I'm assuming their gpu's may not have been new or something?

I just have no interest in trying any older drivers and I'm assuming it's not an driver issue sense the 390 is like that in every game.

 

[GhostRyder]

System specs?

 

[TechHands]

System specs?

my motherboard is a gigabyte 970A ud3p
my PSU is a RM850
I have 16gb of memory
my cpu is a fx 8350
Win10

 

[EarthDog]

Yep needs more (some!!!) information to assist here...

I just have no interest in trying any older drivers

Im interested in you resolving the problem, not being lazy. Try different drivers either newer or older.

 

[TechHands]

Yep needs more (some!!!) information to assist here...

Have you tried different drivers either newer or older?

I've only tried the beta and non beta crimson drivers

 

[RCoon]

Core clock fluctuation is often a result of thermal throttling. The newest Crimson drivers slightly broke fan curve profiles, so it could be your GPU getting really hot and throttling itself, thus resulting in sporadic clock speeds and poor performance. Log the temps during gameplay with GPU-Z, no sense tabbing out before and after a sessions, as it won't provide accurate results. GPU-Z also has a PerfCap reason, so you know why clocks are being throttled.

Try:
- Installing older 15.12 drivers
- Creating a custom fan curve in AMD Overdrive/Trixx/Afterburner

 

[TechHands]

Guys I'm sorry and I'm disgusted.

 

[EarthDog]

Why did you come to the wrong place? Because we couldn't guess what was wrong in 5 posts???? RCoon has some additional steps for you to take to help resolve the issue.

 

[GhostRyder]

Core fluctuations generally point to something else being wrong mostly because if it was the card itself they normally artifact or crash.

My first advice would be to try forcing the fan very high (Like even to a crazy 80% or something) then trying a game and seeing what happens. Your system should be fine for this card so that's not the problem unless the PSU has an issue giving power to the card. What model of 390 did you buy?

 

[TechHands]

Why did you come to the wrong place? Because we couldn't guess what was wrong in 5 posts????

I mentioned how temp was not a issue sense I'm not even leaving the 390 in my system long enough to even get warm + i'm using gpu z and all that looking at the temp anyway.

I can not use a driver newer then the latest beta drivers that are out

The drivers I see to download from AMD are beta and non beta crimson drivers win10 64bit (I used both)

I'm feeling sick and I need to get on my hands and knees to unplug stuff so I can put the 390 back in so I can try old out dated drivers that I guess I'm going to haft to download from guru3d.com or somthing

Core fluctuations generally point to something else being wrong mostly because if it was the card itself they normally artifact or crash.

My first advice would be to try forcing the fan very high (Like even to a crazy 80% or something) then trying a game and seeing what happens. Your system should be fine for this card so that's not the problem unless the PSU has an issue giving power to the card. What model of 390 did you buy?

sapphire ntro 390 with backplate

 

[GhostRyder]

sapphire ntro 390 with backplate

Well that is generally one of the best coolers for that card on the market so it should be fine. I still recommend trying ridiculous fan speed (I am aware the temps do not seem to be the problem) just because there could be a separation on some part that is causing something like the VRM to get to hot (Like a defect in the card/cooler) and the extra fan speed may improve its performance which would at least point us in a direction.

As for drivers, since you 280X seems fine (I am guessing you are using the newest as well on that) we might be able to rule those out unless its a specific bug to the 390 (Or 3XX series). What games have you tried?

 

[Tatty_Two]

@Aquinus has a 390, would be interesting to see if he has had any issues with the recent driver releases that may be able to shed some light.

 

[TechHands]

Well that is generally one of the best coolers for that card on the market so it should be fine. I still recommend trying ridiculous fan speed (I am aware the temps do not seem to be the problem) just because there could be a separation on some part that is causing something like the VRM to get to hot (Like a defect in the card/cooler) and the extra fan speed may improve its performance which would at least point us in a direction.

As for drivers, since you 280X seems fine (I am guessing you are using the newest as well on that) we might be able to rule those out unless its a specific bug to the 390 (Or 3XX series). What games have you tried?

I see what you mean by trying to speed the fans up and the reason to do so.

Games that I tried the 390 with are ffxiv, fallout 4, GTA V.

@Aquinus has a 390, would be interesting to see if he has had any issues with the recent driver releases that may be able to shed some light.

I got so disgusted so quickly each time I had the 390 in my system that I didn't try older drivers that are I guess non crimson.

Here are gpu-z pics that I took yesterday while I was playing gta v with the 390

http://imgur.com/Eh0sxcj

http://imgur.com/J2Bspb3

1st pic I took from my phone while I was actually in the game (gta V)

Core clock fluctuation is often a result of thermal throttling. The newest Crimson drivers slightly broke fan curve profiles, so it could be your GPU getting really hot and throttling itself, thus resulting in sporadic clock speeds and poor performance. Log the temps during gameplay with GPU-Z, no sense tabbing out before and after a sessions, as it won't provide accurate results. GPU-Z also has a PerfCap reason, so you know why clocks are being throttled.

Try:
- Installing older 15.12 drivers
- Creating a custom fan curve in AMD Overdrive/Trixx/Afterburner

I found a 15.10 beta driver that i'm getting from sapphire
I'll use trixx and run the fans up at a high RPM while playing a game like GTA V and also have gpu z open

Look at the gpu z pics that I posted from yesterday

 

[Frogger]

Use Trixx to push the core clks up to the limit of the card along with setting the fan to 50%. Then game 15/20 minutes use the log option in GPU Z or set the graphs to show 'MAX' take pic. Set core back to stock & leave graphs @Max game again take pic. If card runs fine with 'forced' clks but won't hit max usage by itself you just might have a faulty card. Can you returned it to the retailer for replacement or do you have to RMA?

 

[TechHands]

using the 15.10 beta drivers has seem to improve my fps in GTA V like they way that it should be unlike before.
Looking at GPU z though and playing fallout 4 and gta v my gpu load still is not consistent and keeps dropping to 0%.
playing ffxiv (it was like this before also) my gpu load will stay consistent and even the core clock will stay consistent also at 1040mhz. (usually with ffxiv my gpu load will always be 100% unlike other games)

my fps in fallout 4 and in ffxiv are pretty much the same compared to my 280x even right now using the 15.10beta drivers

How is it that my gpu load will stay 100% consistently but not with other games? (r9 390) What I mean is that with ffxiv of course my gpu load will be 100% because that's what the game "does" but with ffxiv it not constantly dropping down to 0% like it is with other games. (r9 390)

Even though the fps in GTA V seem to be fixed or something by using the 15.10beta drivers I'm still disgusted and I'm yet to be proved there is nothing wrong with the GPU.

Point is that my 280x runs fine no matter what driver and I have always used the latest.

I'm so upset and it's not like I'm looking forward to having my 390 replaced and just run into these same exact issues making me believe or thing there was nothing wrong with the card all along. I would like to look forward to seeing improved FPS on a non faulty GPU and the ability to use any or what ever driver mainly the "latest"

Yea of course I'm going to RMA this card

Use Trixx to push the core clks up to the limit of the card along with setting the fan to 50%. Then game 15/20 minutes use the log option in GPU Z or set the graphs to show 'MAX' take pic. Set core back to stock & leave graphs @Max game again take pic. If card runs fine with 'forced' clks but won't hit max usage by itself you just might have a faulty card. Can you returned it to the retailer for replacement or do you have to RMA?

yes that's what I'm going to do

Edit I should not need to force any clocks sense with ffxiv it stays at 1040mhz consistently.

 

[ne6togadno]

Core clock fluctuation is often a result of thermal throttling. The newest Crimson drivers slightly broke fan curve profiles, so it could be your GPU getting really hot and throttling itself, thus resulting in sporadic clock speeds and poor performance. Log the temps during gameplay with GPU-Z, no sense tabbing out before and after a sessions, as it won't provide accurate results. GPU-Z also has a PerfCap reason, so you know why clocks are being throttled.

Try:
- Installing older 15.12 drivers
- Creating a custom fan curve in AMD Overdrive/Trixx/Afterburner

gpu-z build in test can perfectly do the job of stomping gpu with load while letting you observe card sensors.

@TechHands
uninstall old drivers with this http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMD-Clean-Uninstall-Utility.aspx
then install this drivers http://www2.ati.com/drivers/radeon-crimson-15.11-with-dotnet45-win7-64bit.exe
test with gpu-z (pay attention to fan rpms)
if card misbehave try this driver http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/Ra...5.11.1-Beta-64Bit-Win10-Win8.1-Win7-Nov30.exe

 

[Aquinus]

@Aquinus has a 390, would be interesting to see if he has had any issues with the recent driver releases that may be able to shed some light.

Hmmmm. This is a very unusual issue however, I did experience this kind of behavior after upgrading from Windows 7 to 10 after the upgrade borked up the drivers. My system somehow got stuck in a state between two driver versions and it was causing some pretty strange issue but, using DDU and re-installing the drivers fixed that.

The 390 has some pretty fancy advanced clock scaling, much like AMD's Cool n' Quiet and Intel's Speedstep on CPUs, so only full load would result in full clocks. A great example is that with vsync on, Cities: Skylines might use half of my 390's power and the core clock might hover at around 800-900Mhz at "90% load." So poor performance may not be a result of the GPU but rather, something else on the machine. If your GPU isn't clocking up to full clocks it is either throttling down due to temperature or, the GPU isn't being fully loaded and you have a bottleneck or issue elsewhere.

If the GPU was at fault, I think you would be seeing very different results than what you're experiencing. I suspect something else is going on with the games you're playing. I'm not at home right now but, I can give some examples of normal behavior with the 390.

I found a 15.10 beta driver that i'm getting from sapphire

Download drivers directly from AMD, please.
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/Ra...5.11.1-Beta-64Bit-Win10-Win8.1-Win7-Nov30.exe

The only issue I've had recently is with Afterburner saving a bad overclock and loading it on boot, which required me to reformat my SSDs. Elite: Dangerous has an issue with super cruise performance but, doesn't sound like the issue the OP is encountering.

Fallout 4 is a very new game and I'm pretty sure AMD has been releasing improvements with their latest drivers. I suggest cleaning the drivers out and installing them from the link I provided for 15.11.1 and see if the problem still exists. Either way, I haven't experience that many issues with my 390 other then Elite: Dangerous which is a very specific issue.

Are we also sure that this isn't a CPU/Motherboard issue? Using that motherboard that has only 4+1 phase VRMs might be strugging to keep the CPU going at full tilt. It's possible that the 280x didn't tax the CPU hard enough but, the 390 might be pushing the VRMs over the edge. Either way, I'm getting the distinct impression that this isn't a GPU issue since some games run normally (probably the ones that hammer the CPU the least.)

 

[TechHands]

gpu-z build in test can perfectly do the job of stomping gpu with load while letting you observe card sensors.

@TechHands
uninstall old drivers with this http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMD-Clean-Uninstall-Utility.aspx
then install this drivers http://www2.ati.com/drivers/radeon-crimson-15.11-with-dotnet45-win7-64bit.exe
test with gpu-z (pay attention to fan rpms)
if card misbehave try this driver http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/Ra...5.11.1-Beta-64Bit-Win10-Win8.1-Win7-Nov30.exe

I know and using that test will max out my load and core clock leading me to believe nothing is wrong with the card but when I start playing games other then ffxiv all my gpu load does is just drop down to 0% every micro second or so.

gpu-z build in test can perfectly do the job of stomping gpu with load while letting you observe card sensors.

@TechHands
uninstall old drivers with this http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMD-Clean-Uninstall-Utility.aspx
then install this drivers http://www2.ati.com/drivers/radeon-crimson-15.11-with-dotnet45-win7-64bit.exe
test with gpu-z (pay attention to fan rpms)
if card misbehave try this driver http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/Ra...5.11.1-Beta-64Bit-Win10-Win8.1-Win7-Nov30.exe

so is DDU bad to use then or something?

 

[Filip Georgievski]

Searching on the Web for this issue and found out that I may not be the GPU that gives you the trouble, but it could be the CPU not having enough power as it may very well be throttling.
Can you try undervolting and underclocking it or if it is OCed get it down to stock. Also check your CPU, reapply thermal paste maybe, check for lose bolts or pins on cooler.
Also monitor if CPU clocks and usage are dropping as well.

 

[Aquinus]

I know and using that test will max out my load and core clock leading me to believe nothing is wrong with the card but when I start playing games other then ffxiv all my gpu load does is just drop down to 0% every micro second or so.

so is DDU bad to use then or something?

Please stop double posting. There is an edit button you can use if you need to update your last post but, spamming messages is against the forum guidelines.

 

[TechHands]

my motherboard is 8+2 phase and I have already used the beta and non beta drivers

HUH?

I know a 100% gpu load will max out the gpu clock.

Edit thank you for helping

 

[Aquinus]

my motherboard is 8+2 phase and I have already used the beta and non beta drivers

My bad, I was looking at the wrong model number.

I know a 100% gpu load will max out the gpu clock.

Then I would focus on the CPU and how it is behaving. If the GPU looks fine, then it probably isn't the issue. A defective GPU would be acting a lot worse. Low performance usually isn't a defect unless it's an issue with the cooler, which you said it isn't because temps are fine.

 

[TechHands]

My bad, I was looking at the wrong model number.

Then I would focus on the CPU and how it is behaving.

The CPU seems fine i'm also keeping an eye on that and all using task manager

 

[Aquinus]

The CPU seems fine i'm also keeping an eye on that and all using task manager

Task manager won't tell you how hot it is running or if it's maintaining full clocks. Task manager on Windows 10 doesn't report clock speeds properly on my machine and it only gets worse with BCLK straps. I would rely on something that can graph it out. I would use something like AIDA64 or hwmonitor.

 

[TechHands]

Task manager won't tell you how hot it is running or if it's maintaining full clocks. Task manager on Windows 10 doesn't report clock speeds properly on my machine and it only gets worse with BCLK straps. I would rely on something that can graph it out. I would use something like AIDA64 or hwmonitor.

I also use HWmonitor because of how task manager is