Solving the Wattman issue with AMD and GPU crashing

c00face · June 12, 2019

--Sorry, long post, but if you want a possible fix to your AMD Wattman crashing issue, this thread is probably for you--

After installing Windows 10, AMD older graphics series has been a pain in the ass. Wattman restored and crashing, screen flickering, display showing rainbow colors, and BSOD. I, like everyone else, label it a graphics card failure. But something wasn't adding up and I never threw my card away just in case. Fast foward a year and a half later, I reinstalled my card and it worked fine until just today, it all started happening again.

I said to myself, "Probably is a dying graphics card." I decided to open up the card to inspect the hardware to see if there was any issue at all with the card itself such as burnt marks, cracked capacitors, etc... Nothing. I started cleaning areas where it looked like it could interfere with circuit or solders with the flow of electricity. Replaced the thermal coating for the GPU chip and added the Sapphire cooler back on.

Then I noticed a small little switch on the side of the R9 290 card that I haven't noticed before.

Apparently there was a Quiet mode and an Uber mode on the 200 series. I did a quick search and realize Quiet mode is the normal mode while Uber increases power. And by default, it is set on Uber mode. I switched it to Quiet mode, plugged back in my R9 290... and just like that, the Wattman issue stopped, the flickering stopped, the BSOD stopped, and the rainbow display colors stopped. What in the flying f__k AMD? Are you telling me my previous motherboard crashed due to this setting that seems to be causing issue?

Anyways, seems like the problem has subsided and is this the actual culprit? Also, I did some research and realize Sapphire Tri-R9 290 comes overclocked. This could possibly be why I was having so much issue before. Setting the card to "Normal mode" might of literally fixed the issue with AMD Wattman crashing and system failure. And to all who is reading, YES, it DID crash my motherboard, this Wattman issue. I suggest you don't ignore it like I did before until your motherboard goes dying and your left wondering wtf happened.

--I'll come back in couple days after playing some serious Apex Legends to update if the problem is finally fixed. And my display and computer isn't restarting every 5 minutes.--

Also, to point out, it seems all of the AMD cards comes with this side switch of Quiet mode and Uber mode. By default, it is set to Uber mode to my understanding. And this could be the issue with the Wattman crashing. Setting it to Normal mode "Quiet" fixed it for me at the moment. I'll update later during the week to see if this was the actual issue.