r9 290x Strange throttling issue / PowerPlay issue

[Ryan Bellune]

So, let me preface this by saying that I'm no stranger to GPU overclocking, especially on AMD cards. This issue has me stumped though.

 

     I recently purchased this card from newegg about 2 months ago now. I heard both from Linus's videos and from reviews around the net that this card could overclock like a dream. and so far, it does. there's just one issue though: no matter what settings I run the card at, the card seems to be running about 5-10% lower than the reported clock speeds. For instance:

 

 

 

     The default settings for the card are shown above. Where the clock speeds are set to 1080MHz on the core, it only runs at about 955-967MHz even with very decent temperatures. I've tried a couple of steps to resolve this, including turning power savings off in the BIOS, disabling/enabling graphics overdrive in the driver, as well as changing the settings in MSI afterburner to disable PPlay.

 

 

     I've also tried a couple of things in RadeonPro, but the majority of options were greyed out. The main issue here is that I'm unable to attain a stable overclock for the graphics card because the voltages and clock speeds fluctuate too wildly. Any help for either disabling PowerPlay or information about this issue would be appreciated!

 

Cheers

-Ryan

[CoolaxGaming]

What about increasing power limit?

That is Power Tune in action, decreasing your clock speed BECAUSE of less power

Try these settings... 

[winningsince1337]

Is this a reference card? If it is, don't expect shit out of it. Also, there are no guaranteed over clocks. The silicon lottery makes or breaks your max over clock.

[Ryan Bellune]

What about increasing power limit?

That is Power Tune in action, decreasing your clock speed BECAUSE of less power

 

I've tried moving that slider up and down with little change. 

 

 

This issue arises when I try to overclock. The clock speed increases, but not by much. In fact, in the test I just performed clock speed DECREASED after increasing the limit in AB

 

[CoolaxGaming]

I've tried moving that slider up and down with little change. 

 

PL increase, load.PNG

 

This issue arises when I try to overclock. The clock speed increases, but not by much. In fact, in the test I just performed clock speed DECREASED after increasing the limit in AB

 

Clock increase, load.PNG

Can you tell the exact model of your card and temps?

[Ryan Bellune]

Is this a reference card? If it is, don't expect shit out of it. Also, there are no guaranteed over clocks. The silicon lottery makes or breaks your max over clock.

 

No, this is a non-reference design by Sapphire. The issue doesn't appear to be the silicone to me, but rather a driver/firmware issue.

[Ryan Bellune]

SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X R9 290X 4GB GDDR5 TRI-X OC (UEFI)

 

Under synthetic load, with fans set to "silent" profile, The card maxes out at 78°. Temperatures drop to ~65° at 100% fan speed

[CoolaxGaming]

SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X R9 290X 4GB GDDR5 TRI-X OC (UEFI)

 

Under synthetic load, with fans set to "silent" profile, The card maxes out at 78°. Temperatures drop to ~65° at 100% fan speed

Oh damn, thats almost good as my lightning... Try using AMD Overdrive (while afterburner disabled of course)

[Ryan Bellune]

That's where the problems come in. AMD's overdrive only lets me get a 2% boost out of it, even with 50% extra voltage. After that you get an immediate driver crash once a stress test starts up. That doesn't seem right to me though

[winningsince1337]

What PSU do you have?

[Ryan Bellune]

I should also mention that I'm running Omega drivers, but this issue has persisted though several different versions

[Ryan Bellune]

What PSU do you have?

 Corsair TX750. It's about 3 years old at this point, and still under warranty.

[Ryan Bellune]

Another update: When I disable overdrive in the drivers, and then change the clock speed in drivers, it sets the clock speed properly at idle(e.g. set it to 1150, reported clock jump to 1150 at idle). However, once I start my stress test (aida64 GPU stress) the clock speeds dip back down to ~950MHz. Temperatures never go above 80°C.

[winningsince1337]

Hmmm, contact Sapphire suupport... might be a bad card...

[Godlygamer23]

Another update: When I disable overdrive in the drivers, and then change the clock speed in drivers, it sets the clock speed properly at idle(e.g. set it to 1150, reported clock jump to 1150 at idle). However, once I start my stress test (aida64 GPU stress) the clock speeds dip back down to ~950MHz. Temperatures never go above 80°C.

Have you looked into seeing if Sapphire released a BIOS update that addresses this issue?

[Ryan Bellune]

Hmmm, contact Sapphire suupport... might be a bad card

 

I'll go ahead and create a ticket now. They don't seem to be easy to get in contact with.....

 

 

Have you looked into seeing if Sapphire released a BIOS update that addresses this issue?

 

I have, and so far the only thing they have is a newer version of their inferior OC utility. I have tried using that utility as well, by the way. Same problem

[Tam3n]

Try with unofficial overclocking mode set to disabled.

 

Some things you could try (settings I use):

Try checking disable ULPS, though that's generally only relevant for xfire setups. You don't need to have extend oc range checked. Change voltage control to standard. Try with stock mem settings.

 

Check your VRM temps, though they are probably fine...

 

If your card has a BIOS switch, try in the other mode.

[dragoon20005]

I see that you are using the Vapor-X

 

have you ever use the TriXX Utility?

[Ryan Bellune]

Hmmm, contact Sapphire suupport... might be a bad card...

 

They just updated the ticket. "Did you run the card in graphics intensive mode and check the clock speed again?"

Fantastic....

 

Try with unofficial overclocking mode set to disabled.

 

Some things you could try (settings I use):

Try checking disable ULPS, though that's generally only relevant for xfire setups. You don't need to have extend oc range checked. Change voltage control to standard. Try with stock mem settings.

 

Check your VRM temps, though they are probably fine...

 

If your card has a BIOS switch, try in the other mode.

 

I've made the adjustments you suggested. The issue still persists. As for the VRM temps, after 30 minutes at full load, they only got as high as 72°C. The card does not appear to have a secondary BIOS, all I'm seeing is a switch to change the "turn off all the fans" mode and a UEFI/Secureboot control button. I've tried changing the UEFI mode to off, but my computer won't post with it disabled. I'm running windows 8.1 64bit

 

 

I see that you are using the Vapor-X

 

have you ever use the TriXX Utility?

I have used TriXX to attempt an overclock. It seems to work, but monitoring the clock speeds with either CCC or MSI AB tells me that it's still throttling.

[Ryan Bellune]

On a side note, sapphire's ticketing system is horrible. I can't respond without having to log in, and once I log in it forgets that I edited the ticket. Gah... :angry:

[dragoon20005]

On a side note, sapphire's ticketing system is horrible. I can't respond without having to log in, and once I log in it forgets that I edited the ticket. Gah... :angry:

it might sound like a VRM issue or the cooler on your GPU is not functioning well

[Ryan Bellune]

Try with unofficial overclocking mode set to disabled.

 

Some things you could try (settings I use):

Try checking disable ULPS, though that's generally only relevant for xfire setups. You don't need to have extend oc range checked. Change voltage control to standard. Try with stock mem settings.

 

Check your VRM temps, though they are probably fine...

 

If your card has a BIOS switch, try in the other mode.

 

You were exactly right. I re-installed both MSI afterburner as well as omega drivers, changed the settings as you described and now I can finally overclock this thing like I intended. Hats off sirrah.