Need help with weird gpu issue

Sliver59

Honorable
Oct 25, 2013
4
0
10,510
Current Specs:
Win7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Asrock 990FX Extreme4
MSI R9 280X
AMD FX-8350
8GB Corsair RAM
Corsair TX750M

Long story short: I replaced my old video card with a new Gigabyte HD7970, and it was giving me startup problems. It was losing performance rapidly, and by the third night it performed worse than my old 560Ti. I replaced it with my current R9 280X, which worked great the first night too, but the same problem occured. I've taken many steps to figure things out, so here are the clues I've gathered:

- It's not compatibility. This guy has my same setup and plays BF4 on Ultra here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho0Pw70x28M
- None of the parts have shown up to be bad on multiple diagnostics. MBoard tests, psu tests, memory tests, gpu tests, and everything else from multiple different diagnostic programs
- My Dr.Debug says the startup issue is almost always code 36 (CPU post-memory initialization. System Management Mode (SMM) initialization), but this morning it gave me a 36 and a 10 for the first time (PEI Core is started)
- The computer is fully grounded
- Heat is not an issue, I watched my system closely on the night of the new R9. Nothing in my system ever went past 60C.
- My video drivers are updated, 13.11 Beta
- I removed all of my old nvidia drivers
- All problems go away if I put my old 560Ti back in

Everything should be fine, but it isn't. If anyone has any idea what's going on here, please let me know.
 
Solution

You can always contact MSI support and see if they have a trick up their sleeve.

Sliver59

Honorable
Oct 25, 2013
4
0
10,510
The 13.11 beta drivers are the only ones that the R9 280X uses. Plus, would bad drivers really cause a startup issue that existed before I even installed any AMD drivers?

The memory test was done three times. One by a diagnostic program my friend in IT gave me, one by another repair shop I sent it to, and one by microsoft's memory test. The memory is fine.
 

Sliver59

Honorable
Oct 25, 2013
4
0
10,510


This is the second card that this has happened to. The first was the HD7970 while I was running the stable drivers that came with the card, and now it's happening to my 280X.

They are basically the same card, so my thought was compatibility. But that guy on youtube has obviously got it working, so it can't be that.

I'm considering just buying a GTX770 and seeing if it has the same problem.
 

You can always contact MSI support and see if they have a trick up their sleeve.
 
Solution