New Card(270X) - Causing problems?

T

thewooster

Gawd
Joined
Jan 12, 2006
Messages
512
Hi all, and thanks in advance!

So I just got a new MSI 270x for this machine, got it installed, and now seem to be having some problems. Everything runs, but it does seem to boot a little bit slower. It does game, but there seems to be a little bit of lag/choppiness. Nothing too bad, but noticeable. The biggest problem is that now just normal operations seem to take longer. For instance, programs launch in a "choppy" fashion. Not horribly slow, but I'll get the "busy" status way more often than usual, then suddenly the program will launch very quickly. Interacting with programs is the same. Still not horrible, but not good.

Previously this particular machine was just running Intel hd4000 integrated graphics.

Am I missing something, or is there something Else I should check? It would be really nice if the problem was not my new graphics card, but you know . . . XD.
I'm about to remove it, try booting, and then re-seat it to see if maybe something did not get connected correctly, but everything should be fine. Again, thanks ahead of time.


So Far I have:

Run Furmark Burn in test - Passed fine.

Booted into safe mode and run DriveSweeper to completely remove drivers, reboot and re-installed the drivers again.

Disabled and completely uninstalled Intel Graphics Drivers (also with DriveSweeper, though not in safe mode).

Virus/Malware scan (Malwarebytes and Avg).

Defragged/scanned hard drive recently.

Windows installation is fairly recent <6 months. Have not tried booting into linux yet.






Here is my current setup:

OS: Windows 7 64-bit (Updated)/Arch Linux 64-bit

PSU: Antec NeoECO 620W

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K

Mobo: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 (Intel Z77 (Panther Point DH))

Memory: 2 X 4gb Corsair Vengeance PC3-12800 DDR3

Video Card: MSI R9 270X (MS-V303) (PCI Express x16)

Hard Drives: Two Sata Seagate drives
 
What driver version did you install? I noticed with the previous beta driver that it installs a startup program that scans your hard drive for games to automatically optimize settings for. It's optional so you can uninstall it or uncheck it when reinstalling driver.
 
Upate:

Installed the latest stable version (not that beta), I don't see any reference to such program in the latest regular version (unless I'm missing something here).

Also, windows is now having the same issue even when I took the card out. Trying for one more re-seat and re-installing drivers again.

No preferable, but is it likely I need to re-install windows?
 
Use the latest WHQL. From your last post, it sounds like you are - some are having issues with the Mantle beta driver, while the WHQL should be fine.

Now if that isn't working out....Re-installing Windows isn't the worst idea. While windows is generally pretty intelligent about GPU brand changes, I've had 1-2 exceptions where Windows just decided to go haywire for some reason. When I went from AMD 7970s to NV, some of the AMD files were still hanging around for whatever reason (this was in 2012, mind you). And Windows just took a dump with a new GPU. I reinstalled windows, and everything worked great from that point on.

It's a definite pain in the neck. Then again, having the feeling a fresh Windows installation which is super fast and snappy isn't bad either. It all depends on the specific hassle factor in your situation: I hate reinstalling windows, but like I said. There have been 1-2 times where i've had to do it. Windows 7/8 have minds of their own at times. Again, it's not the worst idea to re-install. Worst case scenario, you can eliminate a defective GPU as being the cause of problems - and you won't have to deal with RMA hassle nonsense. And not dealing with hassle is always desirable, of course.
 
Ok, well I am in the process of backing up, and am going to do a fresh install (so much for that image I made last week, probably best to start fresh ;). I'll update once that's been done.
 
It's been a while so it's kind of fuzzy but I think AMD removed that bloat with the 13.12 WHQL driver. Before taking the drastic measure to reinstall Windows try uninstalling everything AMD GPU related except for 'AMD Catalyst Install Manager' entry, disable your Intel IGP via mobo jumper or BIOS and disable 'AMD High Definition Audio Device' in device manager if you don't use it. Good luck.
 
Ok, so here is where I'm at. I decided to go postal and re-install windows. I also did a couple of other checks to see if they might be causing the problem.

Hard Drive: Full Chkdsk + SeaTools diagnostic - both passed, no bad sectors. Also Crystal-disk bench-mark - good read/write.
Any possibility it would be the hard drive, out of curiosity?

Full Update, clean Windows install, new Display drivers (WHQL, only driver and catalyst center).

Ran Unigine_Heaven Benchmark, score seems ok comparatively to what I looked up.

Code: 
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0
FPS:	 28.3 Score 713 Min FPS:13.6 Max  FPS:62.0

System
Platform:Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit
CPU model:Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz (3400MHz) x4
GPU model: AMD Radeon R9 200 Series 13.251.0.0 (2048MB) x1

Settings
Render: Direct3D11
Mode: 1920x1080 8xAA fullscreen
Preset Custom Quality Ultra
Tessellation: Extreme


Anyway, for the most part it runs alot better now, but there are still a few glitchy things (maybe they're normal, but I've had to run integrated for awhile XD).

It posts fine, and boots fine, but still hangs with a black screen 3-4 seconds before login screen (It did not used to do that).

Programs mostly launch fine now, though there is still a little bit of jumpiness/choppiness. Some programs seem to hang for a few seconds before launching, but not bad.

I fired up Borderlands 2 with all settings on high at 1920 X 1080 with 4 x AA. Fraps has it at a pretty solid 62 FPS, though it does dip two 40-50 when first loading a scene, and occasionally during game-play.

Maybe it was just a generic problem with windows. Does that pretty much sound like everything is fine with the card though? Anything Else I should check? Thanks!

*edit* - Also I get this black bar on catalyst control center every so often (but not in game or other programs so far, so I suppose that could just be a glitch). The rest of the screen looks fine, just the top of the program bar looks like that.
25jguba.png
 
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I don't have those issues with my 270X but maybe because I'm running Windows 8.1 Pro. Besides the beta driver bloat it had the known issue with the occasional short screen bounce but that has been fixed with video BIOS update (had to create a service ticket on site to access vBIOS). Maybe try that first then if you have a spare hard drive try a demo of Windows 8.1 Pro x64.

You'll need the official ISO image filename 'Windows_8.1_EN-US_x64.ISO'. Google search for "Windows_8.1_EN-US_x64.ISO lucy-systems"

Do a checksum with Hashtab to make sure it's valid:
Windows 8.1 (multiple editions) (x64) - DVD (English)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/#searchTerm=windows%208.1&ProductFamilyId=0&Languages=en&ProductFamilyIds=524&PageSize=10&PageIndex=3&FileId=0
SHA-1 BC2F7FF5C91C9F0F8676E39E703085C65072139B

Use Universal USB installer http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ to install the ISO to USB memory stick.

Install using generic Microsoft placeholder Pro (not Core) key. Google "generic Windows 8.1 Pro placeholder key".

If it works out buy a student license key.
 
Ok, thank you all for your answers so far, sorry for taking so long to get back, I had some more tests to run, and wanted to try a few more things.

Alright, so after a fresh Windows 7 install (from a flash drive, check-summed the iso), I updated, installed the latest WHQL drivers, disabled HDMI audio from the video card, disabled igp in bios, etc . . . (Also running linux on another partition - having similar issues, but not as pronounced).

Anything video seems to be mostly working at this point, so maybe this should topic should be moved after? Idk, but I'm still getting some odd problems that I haven't been having before. After testing everything (except the motherboard and psu), I'm not quite sure what to point my finger at.


Video seems to load fine, games play without any noticeable problem. Main problems now are:

1. Slight (1-3 seconds) hanging or delay before programs launch/start to launch. Even regular Windows explorer windows(Computer, etc . . .) take a few seconds sometimes. The windows tend to go all white and I get a busy icon. (I do not have this problem in Linux, or at least not as noticeably).

2. USB3/2 speeds highly variable(tested on several devices). Sometimes I get fairly normal speeds, but often they are painfully slow.


Normally I would suspect Hard drive > Memory > CPU > Corrupted Windows install, for these problems. As mentioned, I did test everything as well as I know how (CPU only did a couple hours of prime95, maybe I should do that one overnight as well), but it seems odd that this starts right after I install a new video card. The problem now persists even if I disable/remove the video card and use integrated. I also did make sure to do a checksum of the Windows Iso before I loaded it onto the flash drive (and reinstalled twice).

So, is it possible that I might have damaged the motherboard inadvertently? Would that cause these problems? The board is pretty thin, and though I am pretty careful when installing new hardware, I forgot how thin this board was, and it did bend a little bit when I first set the card in (yes I felt stupid, somehow this case doesn't have good support for the whole mobo).
 
Do you have all of your motherboard chipset drivers installed? If you don't install the intel management engine and 7 series drivers from your CD, maybe that could cause issues? These drivers do not come pre-installed with windows, so you do need to install from your motherboard driver packet. Also you do need to install the USB 3 drivers from your motherboard driver packet as well - if you don't, speeds will be wack.

Not sure if that's the issue, but it doesn't sound GPU related. I have seen similar issues of performance weirdness when chipset drivers aren't installed, however.
 
Yes, all drivers are installed and updated, and bios is up to date. Yeah, I don't think it is the GPU at this point, but everything started right after I installed it, so I'm not quite sure what happened.
 
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