R9 280 hardware video encoding (troubleshoot hell)

[NextGenIronMan]

Hello, fellow enthusiasts. I hope you're doing well.

 

My system keeps crashing when I play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with AMD Gaming Evolved enabled. I'm forced to CTRL+ALT+DEL my system and shut down the game process. If AMD Gaming Evolved is not running, though, I manage to get a rock solid experience with the aforementioned game. CS:GO is a game that Raptr has certified as being compatible with its in-game overlay, but it's far from being usable since it keeps crashing my game.

 

Sapphire Dual-X R9 280 3GB GDDR5 (Stock video card BIOS, UEFI mode – there's a physical switch on the card for activating Legacy BIOS, I left it untouched)

Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz, 3.3GHz Turbo Boost (DeepCool Gammaxx S40, heatpipe block-style cooler)

Gigabyte G1.Sniper B5 Motherboard (Intel B85 Express Chipset) Rev 1.0 (Stock BIOS)

120GB SATA3 Kingston HyperX SSD KC-S32120-5B

500GB SATA3 7200RPM Western Digital Caviar Blue HDD WD5000AAKX

Kingston HyperX FURY White Series 4GB DDR3 1600MHz CL10 HX316C10FW/4 (Channel A)

Kingston HyperX FURY Black Series 4GB DDR3 1600MHz CL10 HX316C10FB/4 (Channel B)

Corsair CX-500W 80 Plus Bronze PSU (it's got 38A on the 12v line and two 6+2 PCI cables, both attached to the card as 6-pins. MSI's famous GPU requirements list says I need only 25A)

 

Logitech G302 USB Mouse

Microsoft Wired 600 USB Keyboard

Zalman ZM-R1 mid-tower computer case

 

64-bits Windows 8.1 Pro properly licensed and fully updated

 

My system can withstand a 24-hour stress test running FurMark and Prime95 simultaneously, but sometimes it takes just 10 minutes before my CS:GO hopelessly crashes.

 

Here's what I have tried:

 

a) I've tried using Catalyst 14.12 instead of 15.7. It in fact explicitly installs an extra package of stuff meant for AMD APP and video capture that doesn't show up on 15.7's setup. I've read on OBS forums that the removal of that made Raprt issue a patch since theirs and every other software that relied on AMD APP for gaming capture started to have problems with 15.7. Nothing changed.

 

B) I've tried using only Plays.TV's beta client (even though it looks like it's almost completely integrated inside AMD Gaming Evolved). I thought it could be a problem with the Raptr-Plays.TV hook up, but Plays.TV's own standalone software behaved in the exact same fashion.

 

c) I've tried using Mirillis Action as an alternative. It worked flawlessly as it managed to record a 12-hour GOTV broadcasting session without crashing. It only stopped and closed the game because it hit the 12-hour mark (and I can't choose more than that for the maximum video duration, at least not in the trial version). Except for that weird behaviour (since I expected it to just shut down the video capture without closing the game), it worked well: it managed to actually capture 60fps on the 1080p, full quality setting, something that AMD Gaming Evolved / Raptr / Plays.TV was failing to achieve regardless of crashing. But there are two main issues: Mirillis Action is not free software and the performance hit was huge, way beyond the supposed 10% of an AMD APP recording solution.

 

d) I've tried even underclocking the card to the reference design clocks, since this Sapphire Dual-X is a slightly factory-overclocked card. Nothing changed.

 

e) This is the second motherboard I'm using while having the very same problem. I've changed it because somebody I know wanted an LGA 1150 system and I took the opportunity to make a deal and get a more well-featured motherboard, but the problem persisted. The first motherboard was an ASUS H81M-A/BR.

 

Sapphire's Technical Support told me this:

 

Sounds like the card is having hardware issue, please contact your retailer if you are still under the 30 days warranty period.

 

But I'm not sure my retailer's technical support will be able to reproduce the issue, since it might be kind of software (driver) related. I'd love to find an easy, replicable way of determining it's a hardware issue that involves only free software/games and that I could instruct my retailer's RMA department to reproduce, otherwise they'll just send me the very same card back if they're unable to determine it's a hardware issue.

 

I'm yet to try playing a different game for longer than the 2 hours I've spent with Diablo III, since I remember playing CS:GO for longer than 3 hours with no crashes. If I manage to get a crash in a different game, that will be a huge thing in this troubleshooting process.

 

Any good F2P game suggestions other than Team Fortress 2 and DOTA 2 (which are both Source Engine-based just like CS:GO) and League of Legends (which I just can't stand) that I could use for this troubleshooting process are welcome.

 

Do you guys think I should try "extreme" things like flashing the motherboard and/or video card BIOS in case any updates are available?

 

Any other ideas?

 

P.S.: In case you're wondering why I'm not using a Dual Channel Kit, it wasn't available at the time of my purchase and due to an online discounted offer I could not purchase 2 of the same modules (it was a one-item-per-customer kind of deal), so I was forced to purchase different heatsink colors for the same module. I took the risk and decided that if MEMTEST86+ failed I'd return the modules and wait for a Dual Channel Kit, but that didn't happen and I happily enjoyed the discounted price for a couple of cool, different-colored versions of the same memory module.

 

Thanks for your valuable time.

[monaka25]

        Have you tried any other game to see if that helps? If other games work, it could be CS:GO.

[AnnoyedShelf]

Gaming Evolved isn't exactly the best thing to record with tbh...

[vindcare]

CS:GO is a steam exclusive which mean you are running it from steam(duh). There are always problems when running multiple overlays, like xfire and steam. Try turning off steam overlay in CS:GO and then record something.

I'm using a 280x also but from Gigabyte and I've recorded a few replays using fraps with no crashes. Fraps also wouldn't turn on when the game was already running.

As for the games, you could try Heroes of the Storm or Warframe(not the steam version).

[NextGenIronMan]

Thanks for the replies, guys. They mean a lot.

 

        Have you tried any other game to see if that helps? If other games work, it could be CS:GO.

 

What made me suspicious is that CS:GO runs fine on its own.

 

Gaming Evolved isn't exactly the best thing to record with tbh...

 

Yes, I know, but I should expect the "official" recording software to at least work without crashing, even if not with the best options or results, right?

 

CS:GO is a steam exclusive which mean you are running it from steam(duh). There are always problems when running multiple overlays, like xfire and steam. Try turning off steam overlay in CS:GO and then record something.

I'm using a 280x also but from Gigabyte and I've recorded a few replays using fraps with no crashes. Fraps also wouldn't turn on when the game was already running.

As for the games, you could try Heroes of the Storm or Warframe(not the steam version).

 

It still crashed without the Steam overlay.

 

I've checked Fraps out but it looks like the trial version doesn't record for longer than 30 seconds.

 

Thanks for the game suggestions, I'm going to try those out.

 

A few developments

 

First I've run FurMark + MSI AfterBurner's recorder for 6 about hours before FurMark (but not MSI AB) crashed. I've run it 3 times. In the second and third runs I switched from HDD recording to buffer recording only, so I could try to rule out any filesize-related issues while still stressing the GPU's hardware encoding functionality (the only difference being that every frame got flushed after 2 minutes from being encoded).

 

Then I switched my main display adapter from the R9 280 to the i5 4440's HD 4600 and got back to recording CS:GO's GOTV, this time with Intel QuickSync instead of AMD APP. It also ran for about 6 hours before crashing. Had the game not crashed, I would've become sure that both CS:GO and MSI AB had no issues and would be able to surely pinpoint the R9 280 as the culprit, but... the game also crashed with HD 4600 + QuickSync.

 

I noticed though that Windows Update had an update for the Intel video driver and I updated it (Gigabyte website's Intel video driver was from sometime in 2014, if I'm not mistaken). I'm currently repeating the test with GOTV + MSI AB's recorder.

 

The troubleshooting nightmare

 

This whole situation is very frustrating because I've got a very confusing scenario in my hands where I can't say for sure where the problem source is.

 

– From the looks of it, it seems MSI AB can't record for much longer than 6 hours with no regards to which GPU + GPU codec combination is being used. With the R9, both CS:GO and FurMark crashed in the exact same fashion (with a Windows message showing up and MSI AB itself "not crashing") and after about 6 hours. So far MSI AB crashed CS:GO running on HD 4600 + QuickSync, therefore I can't rely on MSI AB for troubleshooting purposes anymore. I'll run FurMark + Intel HD 4600 (to make sure the Intel HD 4600 is ok), then FurMark + Intel HD 4600 + MSI AB + Intel QuickSync just for the sake of testing, though.

 

– CS:GO crashes randomly with Plays.TV (either inside AMD Gaming Evolved / Raptr or as the standalone program), sometimes within minutes of gameplay, sometimes after 2 or 3 hours.

 

– On the other hand, though, Mirillis Action managed to record exact 12 hours of CS:GO's GOTV before silently closing the game (and this looks related to the trial version's time limit, which is also 12 hours). Aside from that it looks like a fine piece of software since it recorded a smooth 60fps video and worked out of the box even with Catalyst 15.7.

 

Since MSI AB is out of the game at this point, my next move will be trying to use OverWolf's video capture with Catalyst 14.12 (when I ran it the first time I was on the dreadful Catalyst 15.7 and couldn't choose the AMD APP codec). If it doesn't work, though, I'll really be screwed since I don't want to end up having to resort to a paid video capture solution ir order to troubleshoot this. I wasn't supposed to be needing to do any of this. At all.

 

I'm really getting mad at AMD because of this whole situation. Having a likely faulty and tricky to troubleshoot piece of hardware is a big problem on its own (and I accept that no brand is free from that), but to add insult to injury I still have to dodge and troubleshoot poor driver and API support.

 

I'm this close to just buying a GTX, RMA'ing this R9 and then selling whatever card they return me (exchanged or not) for whatever price I can get, but I can't afford to do that and still have a problem because the issue was actually somewhere else.

 

Getting back to the basics:

 

No PSU issues (FurMark runs fine for 24 hours).

 

No CPU issues (Prime95 runs fine for 24 hours).

 

No RAM issues (MEMTEST86 gets 0 errors after 4 passes, which take about 4 hours).

 

FurMark on Intel HD 4600: next on the list.

 

I'm currently downloading SiSoftware Sandra and checking out whatever tools they can offer me to troubleshoot my hardware.

 

Right now I need to find a recording software that manages to work perfectly with CS:GO running on Intel HD 4600 + Intel QuickSync for as long as needed but that crashes with CS:GO running on the R9 280 + AMD APP.

 

In the meanwhile I'll try to download (if AMD's website allows me!) another version of Catalyst, even if beta, since some users reported on Bandicam and AMD forums that there are driver rollback alternatives after Catalyst 15.7 crashed all the recording softwares on the market (including AMD's).

 

Thanks for reading and sorry for getting this long.

[AnnoyedShelf]

@NextGenIronMan true, but Gaming Evolved is trash.  There's really no point in using it.  Honestly, even OBS is better.

[NextGenIronMan]

@NextGenIronMan true, but Gaming Evolved is trash.  There's really no point in using it.  Honestly, even OBS is better.

 

As far as I know OBS has AMD APP video encoding only in this unofficial fork. I still haven't tested it. Which Catalyst version are you using it with?

[DEDRICK]

Catalyst 15.6 can be found here - http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/latest-catalyst-windows-beta.aspx