GPU Artifacts should I RMA?

[nenshin Gattai GO AQUARION]

About a month after plugging my new R9 290 in, and artifacts suddenly popped up in games and Windows about 2 days ago; I have never overclocked the card Now here are some steps that I've taken to troubleshoot the problem:

 

1. Reseat GPU and change PCIE slots - Fixed the issue for a while then the problem came back.  I don't think all 4 PCIE slots are broken on my board.

2. Fresh install of Windows 8.1 and AMD drivers - Did nothing at all.

 

Is there anything else I should do to determine whether it's a card problem or something on my end regarding drivers/software?  Unfortunately, my old graphics cards are not available to me for testing.   Also how is Gigabyte's RMA service?

[Sauron]

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Welcome to the forum! Please remember to follow your topics so you're notified when someone answers there are links to the coc and faq in my singature, check them out!

 

Have you tried resetting cmos? Check if the card's power supply cable is perfectly plugged in, try a different one if it is. Try an older driver to see if you get the same issue. Please give more details: in which games, at which resolution, and what kind of artifacts are you seeing?  Aside from the 290, what other components are in your pc? Which model of the 290 do you have?

[Guest Philosophy]

I would try an older driver, it has helped me in the past. 

[nenshin Gattai GO AQUARION]

Welcome to the forum! Please remember to follow your topics so you're notified when someone answers there are links to the coc and faq in my singature, check them out!

 

Have you tried resetting cmos? Check if the card's power supply cable is perfectly plugged in, try a different one if it is. Try an older driver to see if you get the same issue. Please give more details: in which games, at which resolution, and what kind of artifacts are you seeing?  Aside from the 290, what other components are in your pc? Which model of the 290 do you have?

 

AMD FX-8370 OC 4.4 GHz

Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 Rev 4.0

GSkill Rupjaw XF3 8 GB 1866

EVGA Supernova B1 750W

Gigabyte R9 290 Windforce 947Mhz stock

 

As for resetting CMOS, I did roll back default BIOS for the motherboard and ran the 8370 at stock.  The card's  power supply cables are tightly tucked in.  Games wise I was playing some BF4, Black Flag, and Guild Wars 2.  The artifacts I was getting were mainly thin rainbow lines and black blotches everywhere.  AMD drivers keep on saying that the drivers crashed and recovered successfully.  As for older cards to test, I unfortunately don't have my old GTX 460 with me.

 

An interesting thing I noticed was on PCIE 2.0 4X slots the card was performing fine, although I was experiencing bottlenecks.  I'll try older drivers.

[typographie]

1. Reseat GPU and change PCIE slots - Fixed the issue for a while then the problem came back.  I don't think all 4 PCIE slots are broken on my board.

2. Fresh install of Windows 8.1 and AMD drivers - Did nothing at all.

 

If you've not overclocked and you've done all that, RMA. Workarounds would not be necessary to get a brand new card functioning if it weren't faulty to begin with. Let them take care of it.

[Sauron]

An interesting thing I noticed was on PCIE 2.0 4X slots the card was performing fine, although I was experiencing bottlenecks.  I'll try older drivers.

 

If older drivers don't fix it you should probably rma the card.

[Godlygamer23]

I would RMA the card.

[ManWithBeard1990]

Try a different PSU if you have one. Then RMA. It's always a good idea to see if what you think is broken actually is the part that's broken because RMA's are tedious.

[nenshin Gattai GO AQUARION]

Interesting thing just emerged.  I rolled back drivers to 14.4 and Furmark has been stable for 30 minutes so far.  I think 14.9 was screwing up my card.  I guess the card is a go.  AMD drivers struck again!