XFX Black Edition R9 280X, do I have a bum card and should I replace it?

Benton1234 · Jun 9, 2014

So my problem with this card is that when I first got it it had artifacts on browsers, I thought, wow that's a shame for this card, but ignored it and literally the next day, they disappeared. So I went on with my business and decided to look into why my frames were jumpy, seems the power limiter is the cause I max it out, weird, overclocked factory and they leave the limiter on? Anyways, this fixes my problem and believe it or not, temps got better max in games went from around 78C to 68-70C, that's kind of a scary difference, either way I give my better side once again to this card and move on. Then I finally decide look, I still don't like how how it runs at idle (120F/49C) so I underclock memory just 50 mhz and temps again drop dramatically to around 104F, what in the world?! Also stock clocks are Core: 1080mz Memory 1550mhz and voltage 1.2

Now i'm really puzzled so I decide to get Furmark 1.16 and run a test, what do you know, at stock settings it crashes after just 2-3 minutes! luckily everytime the video driver is able to save it from a total freeze. Also, the crash occurs once the temp hits 76C, I thought AMD says these can take 90C or so?

So my question is should I RMA it or is Furmark just that heavy of a test, I mean if a card is stable it should run through the 15-minute burn-in shouldn't it? I will admit Watch Dogs, Space Engineers, and all my other games and programs runs UNBELIEVABLY well, but I will admit there are still times when all of a sudden boom, 10-20 FPS and even youtube will start to freak out.

Also, here are a couple more things to mention: Power supply is an Enermax Platimax 80 Plus Platinum rated PSU at 1200 Watt's and I am using separate 6 pin and 8 pin power connection wires from the power supply as the manual states you need, it's definitely seated, the clip clicked into place and RAM and CPU have been tested as well through prime95 blend to make sure they are not the issue either. Also temperatures:
Room: 75-80F/24-26C
Case ambient: 25-27C/76-80F
Idle temp on everything is 96-102F/38-40C
CPU: FX-8350 OC'ed to 4.7Ghz and ran prime95 twice for 8 hours straight and everything runs perfect so please don't blame the CPU or overclock
RAM: 1x8gb AMD Radeon 1600mhz, manually input timings and ran perfectly as well through the prime95 blend test as well.
Used MSI Afterburner and HWmonitor to keep track and tune everything here

So as a man with no other options, can everyone here give my any and all advice to my issue, I really appreciate the help here, especially since the community kicks butt.

Suztera · Jun 9, 2014

Some R9 280X are unstable in some situations. You may have been unlucky. Does it crash in Valley benchmark?
The temperature are fine. Crash can be due to drivers or the card itself.

Benton1234 · Jun 9, 2014

Have not run Valley, I'll try it now though. Also, I was thinking to RMA this and get an MSI R9 280X 6gb of Vram, it's actually cheaper than this and has a whopping 6gb of Vram, do you think if I go through the RMA process it would be a worthy upgrade? here's the link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127786&cm_re=MSI_R9_280X-_-14-127-786-_-Product

I'm about to run valley, will tell you the results when it's finished.

Suztera · Jun 9, 2014

Perhaps. Depends how your RMA process goes.

Benton1234 · Jun 9, 2014

Ok, so I ran Valley and it ran great actually, until scene 4-6 and scene 14. They had artifacts, very little like barely noticeable but were visual, and it had become very jittery but weirdly enough minimum fps though during these scenes was 50? As well the temp only got to 68C. Also, I ran the stock settings during this test. The final outcome at the end though was an average of 80FPS and a minimum of 28.7 and a max of 131 FPS and I scored 3300.
Should I try it with underclocked memory clock now, just to see if the 50mhz drop really stabilizes it?

Suztera · Jun 9, 2014

Consider increase the voltage a bit more. If you are not comfortable with this, then ask for a replacement.
You shouldn't need to underclock the card to be stable or remove artifacts.

Benton1234 · Jun 9, 2014

Actually, that is one of my issues, I can't change the voltage in MSI Afterburner, the setting is their, i've unlocked it and I can move the slider but by what HWmonitor is telling me, nothing has changed sadly, any other program that's capable? btw, artifacts return in the browser, like right now at stock settings....

All right, that's what I thought, also, I really want to save money and go with that MSI R9 280X mostly because 6gb of video ram is like a godsend and that's an unheard of price tag for something like that, but, if I decide to go with an R9 290X HIS 4GB 512-bit will the amount of raw power be better than the Vram or is it not worth the extra 80-100 bucks?

Suztera · Jun 9, 2014

Return the card, it should not artifact at stock speed.

Benton1234 · Jun 9, 2014

All right, that's what I thought, also, I really want to save money and go with that MSI R9 280X mostly because 6gb of video ram is like a godsend and that's an unheard of price tag for something like that, but, if I decide to go with an R9 290X HIS 4GB 512-bit will the amount of raw power be better than the Vram or is it not worth the extra 80-100 bucks?

Suztera · Jun 9, 2014

Yes the R9 290 4GB will be faster than a 6GB R9 280X

Benton1234 · Jun 9, 2014

And while i've been sitting here I decide to investigate farther than what I already have, wow, the R9 280X's have been problem cards since November..... Now I feel super dumb, Should I maybe just dish out that extra for that HIS 290X? It's on sale actually for just 400 bucks USD, really wondering if I should just save myself the pain and suffering and get that instead? Also, my case is like a windtunnel lol so I really don't worry too much that the Hawaii GPU's get somewhat warm.

Suztera · Jun 9, 2014

Well it depends on whether the XFX will give you a replacement or a refund.

Benton1234 · Jun 9, 2014

True, I have actually been very worried about that, I did buy it through newegg, it sadly is under the VGA replacement only policy, but i'm wondering since it is a bum card, will they let me have a refund and let me turn around and buy a new card.

Suztera · Jun 9, 2014

Ask newegg first to see if they are willing to refund it or at least ask to buy another product with the refund.

Benton1234 · Jun 9, 2014

All right, should I E-mail them or just call them up? Sorry to ask this, never done an RMA before.

Suztera · Jun 9, 2014

Do you have proof of purchase, you need that on hand. I think you can't ask for a refund due to their policy on the product page.
Also: Return for replacement within: 30 days
If you surpass this then you will have to RMA it to XFX.

Newegg explains it better:
http://www.newegg.com/HelpInfo/FAQDetail.aspx?Module=6

Benton1234 · Jun 9, 2014

Scratch that, just called them and they set up my RMA for me and said they will give me store credit for the whole thing! YES GO NEWEGG! Anyways, is there anyway I can like thumbs you up for the help you gave me? I really appreciate it and want to make sure that I can add to your already good reputation.

Benton1234 · Jun 9, 2014

Okay, it seems sadly that the HIS card I wanted is coincidentally out of stock, well I've been looking around at all the R9 280X, 290, and 290X cards, what in the world is going on?! All the cards have at least 5 or more reviews of problems that trump what's going on with my card and it scares me really bad, unless their is a card you could suggest or anyone else could I really think I'm just going with a GTX 780 (Same price as what I was looking at) because at this point I can't trust AMD, especially with that many problems.

Suztera · Jun 9, 2014

Nice to hear you got the RMA from Newegg.
You could go GTX 780 , it will perform similar to R9 290.

XFX Black Edition R9 280X, do I have a bum card and should I replace it?

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