R9 280X cards flickering, can i ask for replacement nvidia on a same range?

[EarthDog]

They don't sell beta versions to the public.

 

[karklinskarlis1993]

Youd have to contact sapphire on that, They dont give bios updates out on their page.


This might help you have to find the info on how to obtain a new vbios

http://forums.amd.com/game/messagev...=168806&STARTPAGE=4&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2077956/280x-toxic-artifacts-chequered-boxes.html

already seen.
as i said, i went all through the Google. nothing helpful really found. i updated vbios earlier, which didnt help at all.

 

[eidairaman1]

Those are only 2 i pointed out. There was a youtube video however it was in russian and it dealt with 2 xml files etc.

 

[karklinskarlis1993]

ya, uninstalling the drivers manually dont even help. you gotta use that software cause that's the only way I got it to work. Btw i'm running an r9 280x on a 40" hdtv, and play bioshock and everything at 1920x1080p resolution all the time and have zero problems.

i have always uninstalled any graphic drivers through DDU. not a solution out here.

 

[eidairaman1]

Sounds like windows got messed up.

 

[karklinskarlis1993]

i am sorry to disappoint those who just now figured (through my bad typo lol) my graphic cards are already shipped away, but this thread was made just to understand my position out there.
if we assume my graphic cards ARE faulty ones - what happens next. am i able to ask for refund (full), for another card (for example, nvidia), custom vbios from them, or i have to wait for replacement (same card) ? warranty is still active. that was the idea of this thread.
so sorry, but i am no interested to find any solution for this R9 280x. i have been investigating it for a really long time, even i took these cards to programmers, just to take an eye on them, they suggested to update vbios, which didnt help. and when they offered me to downclock it, i wouldnt even consider doing that.

things i have tried to clear this thread out:
1) checked for bent pins
2) swapped displays
3) swapped to DVI-D, hdmi, VGA->DVI., etc
4) from oldest to latest drivers
5) several OS reinstall
6) tried on single setup, 2way xfire, 3way xfire
7) all windows updates, fixes installed.
8) vbios update
9) power limit increased to 30%
10) power saving mode off
11) fans 100% power mode
12) enable_ULPS off
13) motherboard bios update
14) several games tried
15) bought another 150euros motherboard to check if last ones is faulty (what a waste of money)
16) contacted with Sapphire, they suggested to update vbios
17) ..

Otherwise, this is fantastic support forum. earlier i was in tomshardware, where i didnt got any advices and suggestions, not a single help. Thank you so much all for your efforts, you are doing a great job!

 

[eidairaman1]

i am sorry to disappoint those who just now figured (through my bad typo lol) my graphic cards are already shipped away, but this thread was made just to understand my position out there.
if we assume my graphic cards ARE faulty ones - what happens next. am i able to ask for refund, for another card, or i have to with replacement ? warranty is still active. that was the meant of this thread.
so sorry, but i am no interested to find any solution for this R9 280x. i have been investigating it for a really long time, even i took these cards to programmers, just to take an eye on them, they suggested to update vbios, which didnt help. and when they offered me to downclock it, i wouldnt even consider doing that.

things i have tried to clear this thread out:
1) checked for bent pins
2) swapped displays
3) swapped to DVI-D, hdmi, VGA->DVI., etc
4) from oldest to latest drivers
5) several OS reinstall
6) tried on single setup, 2way xfire, 3way xfire
7) all windows updates, fixes installed.
8) vbios update
9) power limit increased to 30%
10) power saving mode off
11) fans 100% power mode
12) enable_ULPS off
13) motherboard bios update
14) several games tried
15)....

If the return policy expired nope You can only get a RMA from Sapphire and then sell the boards off.

 

[64K]

If nothing else you should be able to get them replaced. I believe Sapphire has a 2 year warranty. I know that's not what you want but maybe you can sell the replacement cards and get what you want.

 

[karklinskarlis1993]

If the return policy expired nope You can only get a RMA from Sapphire and then sell the boards off.

thats still pretty much strange. i have seen people around the network, saying they just said they are not interested in this card anymore despite of flickers and just had a replacement brand new nvidia card.
it leads to another question. in every single way, when they discover i got a faulty card, they will give me new one (same model r9 280x). so, isnt that possible to politely ask to not give me the same r9 280x, but to swap to another model? that would not be any loss to them, if they offer me a deal in a same $.

 

[Jborg]

I would have tried to downclock them.................

"""And it seems the R9 280X has the highest failure rate because the R9 280X GPU is actually the same as the older HD 7970. Except that now the chips at 'reference' are essentially overclocked 7970s, so when manufacturers overclock beyond reference they are pushed to extremes and easily become unstable"""

This at least rules it out if its still flickering.

 

[karklinskarlis1993]

I would have tried to downclock them.................

"""And it seems the R9 280X has the highest failure rate because the R9 280X GPU is actually the same as the older HD 7970. Except that now the chips at 'reference' are essentially overclocked 7970s, so when manufacturers overclock beyond reference they are pushed to extremes and easily become unstable"""

This at least rules it out if its still flickering.

lets see, what they can provide.

if we go to worst case scenario and they just give me another R9 280X cards `non flickering ones`.. and i got flickers again - do i have to keep shipping items back to them forever? thats stupid, thats my wallet they are forcing me to empty. i am wondering, for how long they are testing items which have been sent to RMA.

 

[GhostRyder]

thats still pretty much strange. i have seen people around the network, saying they just said they are not interested in this card anymore despite of flickers and just had a replacement brand new nvidia card.
it leads to another question. in every single way, when they discover i got a faulty card, they will give me new one (same model r9 280x). so, isnt that possible to politely ask to not give me the same r9 280x, but to swap to another model? that would be any loss to them, if they offer me a deal in a same $.

They will most certainly replace the card with a "new" R9 280X Saphire TRI-X OC card because generally unless the card is out of production you just get the same product. The most you could ask for is a different variant of the same card (IE different cooler).

lets see, what they can provide.
if we go to worst case scenario and they just give me another R9 280X cards `non flickering ones`.. and i got flickers again - do i have to keep shipping items back to them forever? thats stupid, thats my wallet they are forcing me to empty.

If it keeps happening repeatedly Sapphire will work with you in some way to remedy the situation. However at that point I definitely would start questioning something is up with my system because Sapphire does not like anymore than you do getting a product back so they usually make sure before sending out that a card is functional (Especially when it comes directly from Sapphire).

 

[karklinskarlis1993]

i am wondering why does every one else has got the luck to get a replacement to another card.. just thoughts..GhostRyder, do you really think that different cooler setup on R9 280x will fix flickering? i would really fall in love in this powerful card, if those damn flickers woulnt not appear on my screen.... so complicated. i hope i wont get banned for spamming all this evening long in this thread.

 

[GhostRyder]

i am wondering why does every one else has got the luck to get a replacement to another card.. just thoughts..GhostRyder, do you really think that different cooler setup on R9 280x will fix flickering? i would really fall in love in this powerful card, if those damn flickers woulnt not appear on my screen.... so complicated. i hope i wont get banned for spamming all this evening long in this thread.

Well it depends on the overclock mostly instead of just the cooler but a lot of times the cooler variant also can determine the binning process for the chip. Some models have much higher binned chips in an attempt to push the card to its limits while performing well in the cooling department. Normally on the sapphire coolers the most difference you will get is the cooling capacity/noise in differences.

You may be able to swing 3 Vapor-X models or something similar if you ask for it mostly because its 3 cards. But honestly I am not sure what you could get away with in this case but the best thing to do would be to request the RMA, talk with them about it (A real person), and see if they can work a better solution for everyone because the last thing they want is to see those cards ever again.

 

[karklinskarlis1993]

ok, lets see, what they discover sooner or later. thank you!

 

[Tatty_Two]

I would suggest an 860W PSU is very borderline for tri 280X cards, crossfire with an i5 and just an ssd and absolute mimimum hardware in the pc as a testbed drew 562W and that was in a fairly mild synthetic benchmark, once you add a H105, a couple of other HDD's and another 280X (250W load) and a heavily overclocked i7 I think your going to be pretty much near or on the limit, I appreciate you have tried single cards but your PSU may have some issues after such load, perhaps a long shot but I agree what some have said, 3 all faulty, that's not bad luck that's an epidemic! .........

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/58...c-in-crossfire-video-card-review/index23.html

 

[OneMoar]

all he needs todo is use msi afterburner and setup manual profiles and make sure "sync similar gpu's is enabled
http://f.cl.ly/items/2z2S3c0T091w060C1r47/Image 2014-11-25 at 4.30.03 PM.png
and
http://f.cl.ly/items/262V0T2Z1C1O3g2G3j0t/Image 2014-11-25 at 4.30.45 PM.png
if that doesn't work set unoffical overclocking mode to "without power play support and then manually setup a 2d clock profile
I doubt its psu sounds like the fairly common issue of AMD's clock gating not working
for the manual profiles I would recomend
3D 1125 core 1400Mem ~1.23v
2D 500 core 1400mem 1.1V
do the above and I am 100% sure that it will correct the issue

 

[EarthDog]

Good thing that PSU can output well more than it can list... but.. that is cutting close... though you will find even with three cards and the CPU and a H105/HDD's it would still be under 860W actual.

PSUs also do not 'brown out' like that. They either have enough power, or they do not.

Good call on the ULPS stuff and CFx...!!!

 

[karklinskarlis1993]

all he needs todo is use msi afterburner and setup manual profiles and make sure "sync similar gpu's is enabled
http://f.cl.ly/items/2z2S3c0T091w060C1r47/Image 2014-11-25 at 4.30.03 PM.png
and
http://f.cl.ly/items/262V0T2Z1C1O3g2G3j0t/Image 2014-11-25 at 4.30.45 PM.png
if that doesn't work set unoffical overclocking mode to "without power play support and then manually setup a 2d clock profile
I doubt its psu sounds like the fairly common issue of AMD's clock gating not working
for the manual profiles I would recomend
3D 1125 core 1400Mem ~1.23v
2D 500 core 1400mem 1.1V
do the above and I am 100% sure that it will correct the issue

i will give it a try!

for those, who said, it could be my psu fault - on casual usage i didnt use 3 cards, just 2way-xfire. but i tested all of them, in every combination axb/axc/bxc, flickering continued.
i tested 3 way setup, and i was able to post in using ax860.

 

[kn00tcn]

did you say you mined with them? how do you know that the store didnt get someone's return from 2013 (where it was possibly mined as well) then sold it to you? if all 3 came in the same shipment, what if it was dropped, causing damage?

as for downclocking, you cant just say 'no', you have to try it to see if anything changes, if it doesnt change you rma with 'faulty card' reasons, but if flickering stops, you still rma with 'card unstable at stock settings', the point is to rule out variables, not to run at slow speeds forever

 

[eidairaman1]

Perhaps why i went overkill with the SS XM2 1250 Gold lol.

I would suggest an 860W PSU is very borderline for tri 280X cards, crossfire with an i5 and just an ssd and absolute mimimum hardware in the pc as a testbed drew 562W and that was in a fairly mild synthetic benchmark, once you add a H105, a couple of other HDD's and another 280X (250W load) and a heavily overclocked i7 I think your going to be pretty much near or on the limit, I appreciate you have tried single cards but your PSU may have some issues after such load, perhaps a long shot but I agree what some have said, 3 all faulty, that's not bad luck that's an epidemic! .........

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/58...c-in-crossfire-video-card-review/index23.html

 

[fullinfusion]

I would suggest an 860W PSU is very borderline for tri 280X cards, crossfire with an i5 and just an ssd and absolute mimimum hardware in the pc as a testbed drew 562W and that was in a fairly mild synthetic benchmark, once you add a H105, a couple of other HDD's and another 280X (250W load) and a heavily overclocked i7 I think your going to be pretty much near or on the limit, I appreciate you have tried single cards but your PSU may have some issues after such load, perhaps a long shot but I agree what some have said, 3 all faulty, that's not bad luck that's an epidemic! .........

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/58...c-in-crossfire-video-card-review/index23.html

Yup I agree, 3 280X cards with a 860 psu is way low in my experience. Heck when I had 2 7970's I was pulling over 1kw with the system clocked up.
Id really look into another psu as even the one I had would seemingly work, it just didn't have the balls to do the load when the load demanded the power.

 

[OneMoar]

lack of power doesn't normally display its self as the kind of problem the op is having
if he was pushing the psu that hard it should be powering off or at the very least the system should be crashing

 

[fullinfusion]

lack of power doesn't normally display its self as the kind of problem the op is having
if he was pushing the psu that hard it should be powering off or at the very least the system should be crashing

Yup I see where your going with this and either way a 860 just don't cut it.. when a PSU starts to act up theres alot of weird shit that can happen and not necessarily a crash or the power shut off.

Id say PSU or a board issue, I also seen DDU was used
I shall speak no more on that program

I just skimmed the thread and pieced this and that together but like Tatty said, 3 cards bad? whats the chances!

I just finished with MSI on 2 R9 290's rma and had 2 bad cards but I raised my voice and let it be heard that Im not putting up with their shit and in the end they fixed the problem.
If I were the OP id just ask for an UPGRADE plain and simple.

EDIT: yeah DDU imo is a problem and has the OP done a clean OS install?

 

[OneMoar]

there is nothing wrong with DDU when used properly ...