power color R9 280 screen flickering

Cataulin

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 22, 2010
Messages
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I've got a what I assume is a turbo duo r9 280. every few hours Ill get a screen flicker and I cant seem to fix it. do we have a power color rep here at hard forums that can give me a fixed bios by chance? I've been reading a few different forums and it may be the same issue. It doesn't do it during games but it does during normal operation IE office and browsing internet.
 
is this the flicker of horizontal lines that occurs on the desktop? I get this:
I get it in everything 2D until some type of 3D is ran. I normally will just start/stop GPU-Z's render test to fix it. doing that fixes it until I reboot or apply a different OC profile.
its something to do with the vram in 2D mode, voltage i think. some people have RMA'd for this but I can't cause I'm out of warranty. but I have also had it go away with several versions of the crimson drivers but I always keep them up to date and just live with it. it was late Dec, early Jan cant remember exactly. it is here on the forum somewhere...

 
I've got a what I assume is a turbo duo r9 280. every few hours Ill get a screen flicker and I cant seem to fix it. do we have a power color rep here at hard forums that can give me a fixed bios by chance? I've been reading a few different forums and it may be the same issue. It doesn't do it during games but it does during normal operation IE office and browsing internet.
All 7970/280x's have this issue. I also bet you have a browser open when it flickers. Disable hardware acceleration in any browsers your using and the problem will go away for the most part. Some drivers work better than others, but i find the current 16.4.1 working pretty nice actually flicker wise on mine. But its definitely some kind of power play issue and the flickers occur when its jumping back and fourth between power stages when a browser is being used.
 
its almost exactly like this video:


Not all 7970' shave this issue. My MSI 7970 ghz didnt do it neither did my XFX 7970 ghz. I can honestly have other things open besides my browser. This is a work computer so usually its(chrome in this case) off until lunch and I'll see the flicker almost every hour.
 
its almost exactly like this video:


Not all 7970' shave this issue. My MSI 7970 ghz didnt do it neither did my XFX 7970 ghz. I can honestly have other things open besides my browser. This is a work computer so usually its(chrome in this case) off until lunch and I'll see the flicker almost every hour.

yea whatever both my xfx 7970 and my newer xfx 280x act exactly the same way...they flicker if hardware acceleration is enabled in the browser..........of course if its turned of it can be problem free -for the most part. Turn off the dam hardware acceleration and it will good to go! its super easy to see when it happens watching gpuz sensors jump around as in when the clocks are jumping around. It wont flicker if the clocks stay in low power clocks or the other way around.
 
I c. the other way I have found to stop it is to disable powerplay in after burner. it locks the voltage, core and ram speeds to max and that fixes it.
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true that!
have you guys tried what I said about GPU-Z's render test? I literally just start then stop it and the problem goes away until reboot or applying another profile in AB.

edit: I've also noticed that with powerplay enabled I can watch the frequencies jump as I move windows around. this causes the window to skip and jump and coincides with the flicker I get.
edit 2: I think the cause of our problems are the same but the symptoms differ.
 
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I guess if i was using a pos dual core cpu thats getting hammed just running chrome i might actually try that...on my desktop i cant seem to find a benefit to keeping hardware acceleration enabled. lol i think the flash videos actually play better with it turned off. On my ancient laptop i do keep it turned on but i dont recall it having flickers either...it needs all the hardware help it can get:)
 
I c. the other way I have found to stop it is to disable powerplay in after burner. it locks the voltage, core and ram speeds to max and that fixes it.
View attachment 2362

No good. came back in and right as I logged in it did it. Nothing but explorer was running. Ill try letting the GPU z test run for a minute and then shut it down. I wonder if maybe games do flicker like that and Im just not noticing. Ill have to check it out tomorrow.
 
well its been three hours and its happened twice. It doesnt really bother me that much. maybe it needs a cleaning and new thermal paste or even a run in the oven. its got a little bit of coil whine now that Im sitting next to it with it on my desk.
 
yea whatever both my xfx 7970 and my newer xfx 280x act exactly the same way...they flicker if hardware acceleration is enabled in the browser..........of course if its turned of it can be problem free -for the most part. Turn off the dam hardware acceleration and it will good to go! its super easy to see when it happens watching gpuz sensors jump around as in when the clocks are jumping around. It wont flicker if the clocks stay in low power clocks or the other way around.

That's weird, I never that had issue with the Club3D 280xs I used to have. That's the sort of thing that would drive me crazy.
 
That's weird, I never that had issue with the Club3D 280xs I used to have. That's the sort of thing that would drive me crazy.
Honestly my guess would be what ever browser you used already had HWA off by default. I posted this exact same thread several years ago when i got my 7970 and learned the how and why right here.:)
 
Alright. sorry for taking so long update this freaking thread.

I got annoyed buy the coil whine and flickering. Took the damn thing apart and turns out GPU core was covered in thermal paste. I bought it used and the guy never told me about this but he also got it used and working. Cleaned it up hard core with some circuit board cleaner and let it air out for a hour or two. There was also some weird brown sweet smelling substance on the fins on the heatsink. so I'm not exactly sure what caused it but it runs like a champ now that its clean with no whine and plays doom 2016 great!
 
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