XFX Speedster MERC 319 AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT vBIOS

[NintendoKing]

Hello there,

can anyone help me out, please?
I'm trying to figure out which vBIOS is the right one for my GPU.

It's an XFX Speedster MERC 319 AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 XT.

The card actually works very well, but occasionally it crashes completely under full load, I get a black screen and have to shut down the computer by pressing the power button.

Some posts have mentioned that the vBIOS update might help and that the occasional crashes would be resolved.

I have tried this several times over the last few days, but each time the BIOS was bricked and I had to restore the backup.

Can you tell from the pictures which BIOS I need?

I would really appreciate your help!

 

[VuurVOS]

Could be a thermal issue with your VRM or OCP Trigger of the power supply.
Remove the side panel and put the fans on high speeds.

 

[ir_cow]

There are two PCB.versions. Black edition and just merc 319. Also I had the same problem. Ended being VRM related. Send it in for warranty if you can.

 

[NintendoKing]

Could be a thermal issue with your VRM or OCP Trigger of the power supply.
Remove the side panel and put the fans on high speeds.

What the...!?
Now I feel really stupid because I've been trying the wildest things here for such a long time...

I think you're really on to something. When I open the side panel and set the fans in Adrenaline to go to full speed immediately, I don't get any crashes in the game (Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth).
I'll keep an eye on this over the next few hours, but it looks like it really is a heat issue.

Thank you - I'll get back with some feedback.

There are two PCB.versions. Black edition and just merc 319. Also I had the same problem. Ended being VRM related. Send it in for warranty if you can.

Mine is the Black edition.
I really hope there is no problem with the VRAM because the GPU is out of warranty...
Hopefully VuurVOS is right and I really only have a heat problem.

 

[NintendoKing]

I guess that wasn't it after all. The GPU crashed again with a black screen.

 

[VuurVOS]

Hopefully VuurVOS is right and I really only have a heat problem.

VRM losse efficiency when it reach its max temperature and reduces it life time. When you are unlucky the VRM is degrading and cannot longer function properly when it running hot....and causes black screens....had this with a Sapphire RX480 and MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX.

 

[adilazimdegilx]

Use Radeon softwares on screen display to monitor in game power, hot spot temps, clocks and voltages. Make sure tuning section in Radeon software is at default.
Especially hot spot temps tend to go wild after some time for these cards. If it's not, you can try to pinpoint the reason by capping max power, voltage, core and memory clocks individually.
A clean driver installation is another easy test fix.
BIOS update is unlikely to help, really.

 

[ir_cow]

Mine is the Black edition.
I really hope there is no problem with the VRAM because the GPU is out of warranty...
Hopefully VuurVOS is right and I really only have a heat problem.

Yep I had the black edition as well. Once the VRAm warmed up it would crash.

 

[eidairaman1]

10 yo psu, hmm... Suspect

I guess that wasn't it after all. The GPU crashed again with a black screen.

Being out of warranty go ahead and remove the thermal pads, clean the gpu die and heatsink, measure the gaps between 1 ram chip, the gpu die and the vrm circuit, get some high quality thermalpads that fill the gap and then add 0.25-1.0mm for pressfit.

@NintendoKing have you updated your motherboard bios? Have you swapped monitors and cables to different 1s? Octopuss was having screenblackouts and it was his monitor being a turd.

 

[NintendoKing]

VRM losse efficiency when it reach its max temperature and reduces it life time. When you are unlucky the VRM is degrading and cannot longer function properly when it running hot....and causes black screens....had this with a Sapphire RX480 and MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX.

I really hope that's not the case, but it is definitely possible...
I'm just surprised that I can play for hours and suddenly this error appears in certain games.

Use Radeon softwares on screen display to monitor in game power, hot spot temps, clocks and voltages. Make sure tuning section in Radeon software is at default.
Especially hot spot temps tend to go wild after some time for these cards. If it's not, you can try to pinpoint the reason by capping max power, voltage, core and memory clocks individually.
A clean driver installation is another easy test fix.
BIOS update is unlikely to help, really.

Thanks for the tip, I will definitely try that.
However, I had already tried undervolting for a while, but unfortunately without success... That's why I was hoping to have better luck with a fresh/updated BIOS.

10 yo psu, hmm... Suspect


Being out of warranty go ahead and remove the thermal pads, clean the gpu die and heatsink, measure the gaps between 1 ram chip, the gpu die and the vrm circuit, get some high quality thermalpads that fill the gap and then add 0.25-1.0mm for pressfit.

Good idea, I haven't actually tried that yet.
I'll order a new 750W Gold power supply while I'm at it.

I've only heard good things about the Honeywell PTM7950 thermal pads.
Do you happen to know if they're any good?

 

[NintendoKing]

@NintendoKing have you updated your motherboard bios? Have you swapped monitors and cables to different 1s? Octopuss was having screenblackouts and it was his monitor being a turd.

Updating the mainboard BIOS was a good tip - it wasn't the latest version installed.
I then tried a different DP cable and even an HDMI cable, opened the site panel, adjusted the fan curve - but still the same result/crash.

I've ordered the thermal pads and a new PSU now - maybe that will help.

As an info, the problem could be reproduced in another computer. So I tend to rule out the other components as the source of the problem.

 

[eidairaman1]

Updating the mainboard BIOS was a good tip - it wasn't the latest version installed.
I then tried a different DP cable and even an HDMI cable, opened the site panel, adjusted the fan curve - but still the same result/crash.

I've ordered the thermal pads and a new PSU now - maybe that will help.

As an info, the problem could be reproduced in another computer. So I tend to rule out the other components as the source of the problem.

Lettuce know how the thermalpads and psu go because there is 1 more thing that can be tried before it might be suggested the gpu be repaired by a place like northridgefix.

 

[NintendoKing]

I really appreciate your help!
I'll let you know as soon as I've received, installed and tested the thermal pads and the new power supply.