RX 480 Black Screens

MaceTheAce

Commendable
Jun 26, 2016
7
1
1,510
My RX 480 will not display anything after loading windows. I have tried clean installing it twice, but once I download the drivers my cards fan will drop in speed then my screen won't detect connection to the card. I have no idea what to do. I can enter bios and can boot up into windows 10 but as soon as it stops loading windows my cards fan speed drops and wont display anything on my screen. Once I disconnect the card and plug the hdmi into my motherboard everything thing works. I am installing this card on an 3 yr old Gateway DX4860. Is there a problem with the card or my motherboard?
 
Solution


I have experienced black screens with a recently bought XFX RX480 GTR Black and it seems that it boils down to the basic PSU not rising up to the card's needs. TL DR version is insufficient AMPS.

I own a Seasonic MII 620W PSU, that has two 12V rails with 24A each. Seasonic is considered a good manufacturer and 620W should be enough for an RX 480 but it...

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
If you've tried clean OS installs and fresh drivers, you're looking at hardware (clearly).

The answer, I believe is a combo of Card (AMD's fault, no a strictly 'defective' card)+PSU. Your motherboard is likely fine.

The DX4860 came with an OEM 300W PSU (some shipped with a 250W OEM PSU) - even a quality 300W is likely too low to power an i5-2320 and RX480, and the OEM PSU with that rig is likely much, much worse.

The RX480 also has known power-draw issues, exceeding the 75W allowable from the PCIe slot.

A combination of the two things is likely the issue.
Once AMD release their new driver (by late tomorrow) the PCIe power draw issue should be removed, but you're still going to struggle with that PSU. It's not capable of reliably running the card.

Replace your PSU with a good quality 400-500W unit.

 

MaceTheAce

Commendable
Jun 26, 2016
7
1
1,510


Thanks for the answer I will definitely give it a try tomorrow. I actually upgraded my PSU to a 500w EVGA 80+ Bronze power supply, I should have clarified that. I don't know if choosing you as the solution does anything, lol, but if the new drivers work I will definitely choose you.

 

MaceTheAce

Commendable
Jun 26, 2016
7
1
1,510
If it was the BIOS wouldnt it just not detect the card from the beginning instead of after the driver installation? Also if that is the problem where could I exactly find a bios update for my current motherboard, if thats even possible
 

sleepycharlie

Commendable
Aug 27, 2016
3
0
1,510
I know this thread has been out for a while but I also can't get a rx 480 to work. You ever find a solution? I have a sufficient PSU and no combination of BIOS, drivers or anything will seem to work.. to much draw for the PCI slots regardless of whether or not it "should" be compatible? Goes black where the windows login screen should be. GPU fans stop trying to do anything.
 

Juravski

Commendable
Oct 20, 2016
3
0
1,520


I have experienced black screens with a recently bought XFX RX480 GTR Black and it seems that it boils down to the basic PSU not rising up to the card's needs. TL DR version is insufficient AMPS.

I own a Seasonic MII 620W PSU, that has two 12V rails with 24A each. Seasonic is considered a good manufacturer and 620W should be enough for an RX 480 but it isn't. After I installed the card I immediately launched the heaven benchmark to see its potential, but after one second after starting the screen turned black and I had to hard reset. I tried a game, but it had the same result. I tried everything that I found on the internet (DDU, "x" amount of drivers, BIOS updates, reinstalling windows, upgrading to win 10), nothing worked.

Then I decided to go at it "oldschool" and borrowed a more powerful (even though of lesser quality) High Power PSU with 700W and and a single 12V rail with 52.5A and needless to say the GPU card performed flawlessly. SInce my Seasonic has 620W and 2 rails with 24A (2x24A=48A???) it might not have been enough or the PSU has some kind of protection when the Amps that the card requires spyke.

I have come to this conclusion while observing the volts and amps listed in hwinfo64 for the gpu while the heaven benchmark was running. The watts usage never went above 130W but the Amps were all over the place with an average of 50A and spykes as high 120A (maybe this is where the PSU protection kicked in and shut off the power and the screen went black). I know it sounds unreasonably high for an amperage measurement but giving the the power issues that the RX 480 had at launch they are plausible.

My suggestion is to buy a good PSU with at least 700W and 52.5A on a single rail! I hope this helps somebody (to not waste 3 weeks troubleshooting RX480 gpu problems like I did)
 
Solution

Cici__

Commendable
Dec 3, 2016
1
0
1,510


I have the same situation here, and I RMAed it with xfx, lets see what will happen