Used GPU Artifacting

[sl0011]

I just purchased a used 6800 XT to save money. It works fine with default settings as far as I can see. Heaven benchmark and 3D mark Time Spy look perfect, and the scores are great.

The moment I try to undervolt and underclock the GPU, it starts showing artifacts. Maybe, I'm being too aggressive with the settings, the GPU is degraded or perhaps a software issue (NVIDIA gpu was installed before, I used DDU, but you never know).

 

I wonder if the 6800XT, it is just not undervolt friendly or if I got a degraded unit.

 

Default settings: 2354 MHz at 1150 mV.

My custom settings: 2250 MHz at 1075 mV. I have tried more settings, always being conservative compared to the examples I have seen online.

 

Is there a proper way to undervolt an AMD GPU? Maybe, I'm missing something here?

 

 

[Hinjima]

53 minutes ago, sl0011 said:

I just purchased a used 6800 XT to save money. It works fine with default settings as far as I can see. Heaven benchmark and 3D mark Time Spy look perfect, and the scores are great.

The moment I try to undervolt and underclock the GPU, it starts showing artifacts. Maybe, I'm being too aggressive with the settings, the GPU is degraded or perhaps a software issue (NVIDIA gpu was installed before, I used DDU, but you never know).

 

I wonder if the 6800XT, it is just not undervolt friendly or if I got a degraded unit.

 

Default settings: 2354 MHz at 1150 mV.

My custom settings: 2250 MHz at 1075 mV. I have tried more settings, always being conservative compared to the examples I have seen online.

 

Is there a proper way to undervolt an AMD GPU? Maybe, I'm missing something here?

 

 

Undervolting is exactly like overclocking.  Its not a guarantee that it will be stable at any settings other than stock.

Doubt the GPU has degraded that fast, its a relatively new product.  You say yourself that it works fine with default settings, what is the reason for wanting to undervolt it?  Are the temps bad?

[tikker]

My first guess would simply be silicon lottery. Running out of spec, whether that is over or under, is always a gamble. It seems you need to either reign it in further to be stable at that voltage or accept a higher voltage if you want the higher clocks.

[sl0011]

4 hours ago, Hinjima said:

Undervolting is exactly like overclocking.  Its not a guarantee that it will be stable at any settings other than stock.

Doubt the GPU has degraded that fast, its a relatively new product.  You say yourself that it works fine with default settings, what is the reason for wanting to undervolt it?  Are the temps bad?

My PSU is 750 W, which is fine, but my UPS is just 900 VA (480W). I don't want to overload my UPS, I will get a new one, eventually. For now, I would like to lower the card energy consumption while maintaining decent performance. 

[BuzzingBee]

Likely you pushed too hard with undervolt but yeah it depends on luck. My 6800xt can reach 1035mV and still going well after 2.5 years. Once you find your sweetspot for undervolting, you can lower more core speed (as it also further drops max voltage) until reaching desired power output. 

[sl0011]

1 hour ago, BuzzingBee said:

Likely you pushed too hard with undervolt but yeah it depends on luck. My 6800xt can reach 1035mV and still going well after 2.5 years. Once you find your sweetspot for undervolting, you can lower more core speed (as it also further drops max voltage) until reaching desired power output. 

I also find that Adrenalin Settings are buggy for me as well. I try to set a custom fan curve, but it gets reset by itself. I will try to perform a clean windows install, and check if that helps.

[BuzzingBee]

49 minutes ago, sl0011 said:

I also find that Adrenalin Settings are buggy for me as well. I try to set a custom fan curve, but it gets reset by itself. I will try to perform a clean windows install, and check if that helps.

Right now for some odd reason when putting computer to sleep then fan curve will reset. I just end up not using sleep on my computer. 

 

If you also have MSI Afterburner then there are some conflicts, make sure you don't apply overclocking settings at startup, and on settings do not tick start minimised. 

[Snail Jerky]

7 hours ago, sl0011 said:

I also find that Adrenalin Settings are buggy for me as well. I try to set a custom fan curve, but it gets reset by itself. I will try to perform a clean windows install, and check if that helps.

 

6 hours ago, BuzzingBee said:

Right now for some odd reason when putting computer to sleep then fan curve will reset. I just end up not using sleep on my computer. 

 

If you also have MSI Afterburner then there are some conflicts, make sure you don't apply overclocking settings at startup, and on settings do not tick start minimised. 

 

Had the same issue of Adrenalin tuning settings resetting. Tried disabling sleep mode that was suggested online, but that did not stop it. I would cold boot my PC in the morning, and checking Adrenaline right away I would still see the reset message sometimes..  

 

Then saw a post about disabling Fast Startup in Windows 10, and I added that as well. It worked for me, no more Adrenalin Software resets.

 

 

Made the change in March, AND ZERO software resets since then. I even wonder if the Windows "Fast Startup" was corrupting the recovery from sleep mode??  And maybe I should enable sleep mode again... But there seem to be legit reports, articles stating that there is something not right with C states/sleep mode.   - So I'll leave sleep mode disabled, I usually follow the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra.

 

 

 

[BuzzingBee]

11 minutes ago, Snail Jerky said:

Then saw a post about disabling Fast Startup in Windows 10, and I added that as well. It worked for me, no more Adrenalin Software resets.

Nice find, I always disabled fast boot as I heard enough that it can cause issues on Windows. Just to be clear, putting pc to sleep would reset my fan curve even when fast startup is disabled. Core speed, memory etc remained intact. 

[Snail Jerky]

6 hours ago, BuzzingBee said:

Nice find, I always disabled fast boot as I heard enough that it can cause issues on Windows. Just to be clear, putting pc to sleep would reset my fan curve even when fast startup is disabled. Core speed, memory etc remained intact. 

That's a shame.. you always hope for the best. My first time using a AMD card, and the two annoying driver issues are Windows related..  gahh..   has been great otherwise.

 

(I rarely play the newest games and I'm not on the bleeding edge, so maybe that is why I have an almost perfect experience compared to others relating to AMD)

 

 

[sl0011]

17 hours ago, Snail Jerky said:

 

 

Had the same issue of Adrenalin tuning settings resetting. Tried disabling sleep mode that was suggested online, but that did not stop it. I would cold boot my PC in the morning, and checking Adrenaline right away I would still see the reset message sometimes..  

 

Then saw a post about disabling Fast Startup in Windows 10, and I added that as well. It worked for me, no more Adrenalin Software resets.

 

 

Made the change in March, AND ZERO software resets since then. I even wonder if the Windows "Fast Startup" was corrupting the recovery from sleep mode??  And maybe I should enable sleep mode again... But there seem to be legit reports, articles stating that there is something not right with C states/sleep mode.   - So I'll leave sleep mode disabled, I usually follow the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra.

 

 

 

Thank you for the recommendation! I won't be using sleep on my PC from now on.

I had Afterburner set to start with Windows, after disabling it, Adrenalin appears to be saving my settings.

I have had an AMD GPU before, it was a great experience with some minor bugs related to my custom settings. It seems that Afterburner and Adrenalin access the same settings in the backend, and that can cause some conflicts.