Overclock only stable under load?

[gundershot]

I was able to overclock my Tri-X R9 290 to 1090MHz core and 1490MHz memory, from the stock 1000 and 1300. Upon exiting my stress test (Heaven) my display instantly went black, so I had to reboot. The memory overclock seems to be the culprit here, lowering it to 1400 made it far more stable (I used that speed while doing general tasks for some time yesterday and there were no crashes, although oddly it crashed on my first attempt writing this post today). It would appear that the overclock is only stable under load, does anyone have any clue what I can do about this? So far I've tried updating Windows and reinstalling my display drivers. I'm guessing that this may something to do with voltages lowering when idle.

[SeanBond]

You voltage drops when not under load. So it crashes. There are settings to have constant voltage flow going into your card but it will constantly be dumping heat and it's not really worth it. I would say just drop the overclock some so you don't have to do that.

[gundershot]

You voltage drops when not under load. So it crashes. There are settings to have constant voltage flow going into your card but it will constantly be dumping heat and it's not really worth it. I would say just drop the overclock some so you don't have to do that.

 

Thanks! I'll check out the voltage settings and see if I can figure anything out. I'm going to avoid lowering the overclock for now as it takes a 90MHz drop in the VRAM clock to make it stable

[SeanBond]

Thanks! I'll check out the voltage settings and see if I can figure anything out. I'm going to avoid lowering the overclock for now as it takes a 90MHz drop in the VRAM clock to make it stable

I personally don't bother with the vram anymore. It bring more instability than what it's worth. From base clock to maximum clocked vram for me I think I gained half of a frame per second in my testing long ago. Presision x has kboost and afterburner has K something... to push constant voltage. 

[SeanBond]

Thanks! I'll check out the voltage settings and see if I can figure anything out. I'm going to avoid lowering the overclock for now as it takes a 90MHz drop in the VRAM clock to make it stable

Does that seem to be the issue?

[gundershot]

Does that seem to be the issue?

 

I think the voltage drop was the issue, as you pointed out. I've decided to just set up some profiles, so clocks are at stock when idle/doing 2D tasks, and switch to the OC values when playing games or doing other 3D tasks. Only problem now is that it may apply the OC when on game launchers, while there's not enough load to bump up voltage. So I may have to force constant voltage after all.

[SeanBond]

I think the voltage drop was the issue, as you pointed out. I've decided to just set up some profiles, so clocks are at stock when idle/doing 2D tasks, and switch to the OC values when playing games or doing other 3D tasks. Only problem now is that it may apply the OC when on game launchers, while there's not enough load to bump up voltage. So I may have to force constant voltage after all.

That works. 

[gundershot]

Well, I set unofficial overclocking mode to "without PowerPlay support" and everything is stable now. I was able to get a +200MHz core and +390MHz (maxed out) memory overclock with +100mV core and +13mV aux. I'm pretty satisfied with this, if it proves to be stable for the next day or so I may try extending the official limits and push things further.