i wanted to share my experience with the R9 290 black screen issue that everyone seems to have trouble with.
i cant rma my card. i got it on ebay at a good deal.
mine triggered when it would play a video on youtube or twitch or if the website had an ad playing somewhere on the site. also it did it more so when the system was "cold" like freshly started.
so here are my pc specs.
AsRock Killer Fatal1ty MotherBoard
AMD FX6350 cpu
XFX R9 290 gpu
750w power supply
well i tried everything. switching drivers. overclocking and underclocking. turning hardware acceleration off in chrome. nothing worked. monitored the gpu with gpu z. noticed the VDDC voltage was very unstable at idle. it would dip below 1v constantly. so i cranked the voltage up to +15 on it using MSI afterburner. its been 3 days since my last black screen (sounds like something said in rehab). at idle the voltage is steady 1v. under load it uses a little more than 1v but it doesnt black screen.
Driver Packaging Version 14.501.1003-141120a-177998C
Catalyst Version 14.12 AMD Catalyst Omega Software
Provider Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1443
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0001
Direct3D Version 9.14.10.01080
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.13283
Mantle Driver Version 9.1.10.0045
Mantle API Version 98304
AMD Catalyst Control Center Version 2014.1120.2123.38423
AMD Audio Driver Version 7.12.0.7719
thats exactly whats on my pc now. i hope this helps someone out thats had the same issues as me. it seems to be a major issue with these cards. i love the card and its never black screened during a game ever.
i think the issue is undervolting. like something is telling the gpu to stay at idle voltage even when there is a slight load on it. when it does get a load on it, it black screens.
edit: i just confirmed it. the wife had just turned my pc on to print something off and was browsing a site. boom black screen. i forgot to tell her to load the msi afterburner profile with the voltage saved. now all i have to do is make it load with windows. so far i havent had it black screen with the voltage turned up. the clocks are stock. the fan speed is also turned up because i didnt feel like the stock fan speeds were sufficient.
i will keep this updated.
update: day 3 still going strong.
update: day 5 no black screens.
Update: July 28 2015 still not one black screen.
Seems I've fixed it.
You may try this.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram