Hi Tom's Hardware!
I have a strange (and persistent!) issue with my launch day Sapphire AMD RX 480 8gb graphics card. I have been struggling with this issue since I built my rig (late June 2016) and have finally narrowed it down to the GPU.
Originally, my entire computer would freeze randomly while not playing games. Things like the caps lock key wouldn't work (indicator light couldn't be toggled), the monitor would display the last frame and any sound which would be playing would buzz/stutter. The only solution was to hard-reboot my PC from the power button.
After using DDU utility to clean reinstall graphics drivers, the issue seemed to be resolved however the freezes would now occur when gaming. Installing the drivers WITHOUT AMD Radeon settings (crimson) seemed to make the freezes less frequent; every time I had the settings installed, freezes would occur on the desktop and while gaming, making my PC barely usable. Wattman (part of Radeon Settings) would also be unresponsive sometimes if I tried to access it. Without Radeon settings, the PC would still be usable but would still eventually freeze.
My build is as follows:
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Storage: Corsair Force LE 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive )
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 480 8GB Video Card
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
My Mobo BIOS version is F6 released 2016/03/22, Gigabyte has since released 2 new BIOS versions however I don't know if they will help, I don't want to flash until I know for sure, let me know if flashing is a good idea!
One user reported undervolting the card through Wattman settings might help. I will post links to similar issues below
Here is a link to a thread where someone had a very similar problem with the same quasi-fix (however they ended up getting a new card)
https://www.reddit.com/r/AMDHelp/comments/4zh5mw/possible_fix_for_rx_480_freezing_crashing/
Another similar issue
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/4zcvad/pc_freezes_with_new_rx480/
All over AMD threads
https://community.amd.com/thread/204557
So, should I RMA this card? Is it something else about my PC that is causing this issue? (I doubt it). Any help or suggestions will be much appreciated!
I have a strange (and persistent!) issue with my launch day Sapphire AMD RX 480 8gb graphics card. I have been struggling with this issue since I built my rig (late June 2016) and have finally narrowed it down to the GPU.
Originally, my entire computer would freeze randomly while not playing games. Things like the caps lock key wouldn't work (indicator light couldn't be toggled), the monitor would display the last frame and any sound which would be playing would buzz/stutter. The only solution was to hard-reboot my PC from the power button.
After using DDU utility to clean reinstall graphics drivers, the issue seemed to be resolved however the freezes would now occur when gaming. Installing the drivers WITHOUT AMD Radeon settings (crimson) seemed to make the freezes less frequent; every time I had the settings installed, freezes would occur on the desktop and while gaming, making my PC barely usable. Wattman (part of Radeon Settings) would also be unresponsive sometimes if I tried to access it. Without Radeon settings, the PC would still be usable but would still eventually freeze.
My build is as follows:
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Storage: Corsair Force LE 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive )
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 480 8GB Video Card
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
My Mobo BIOS version is F6 released 2016/03/22, Gigabyte has since released 2 new BIOS versions however I don't know if they will help, I don't want to flash until I know for sure, let me know if flashing is a good idea!
One user reported undervolting the card through Wattman settings might help. I will post links to similar issues below
Here is a link to a thread where someone had a very similar problem with the same quasi-fix (however they ended up getting a new card)
https://www.reddit.com/r/AMDHelp/comments/4zh5mw/possible_fix_for_rx_480_freezing_crashing/
Another similar issue
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/4zcvad/pc_freezes_with_new_rx480/
All over AMD threads
https://community.amd.com/thread/204557
So, should I RMA this card? Is it something else about my PC that is causing this issue? (I doubt it). Any help or suggestions will be much appreciated!