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R9 290X - not even stable with factory overclock?

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mathico

New Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2014
I have a Powercolor PCS+ R9 290X, and I only really play 3 titles:
Company of Heroes 2
Starcraft 2
Rome 2
(I like sequels, apparently?)

The card is overclocked from the factory to 1050mhz core, 1350mhz memory, and a +50mV core, and seems to be able to get to a stable 1150/1500 no problem - almost. I'm using MSI Afterburner to manage my clocks, and I have a very aggressive custom fan profile, just to be safe. I can run Starcraft 2 and Rome 2 all day with either settings, and of the 3 titles, Rome DEFINITELY stresses the GPU the most, it will get the temps up in the low 70's, at max settings on 1440p. But Company of Heroes 2 is another story... sometimes it will be days between, but the game will eventually hang, the screen will go black, and all I can hear is the looping sound of the wind, ha. I have to hit reset (resets but doesn't post) and then hit power (turns off), wait a few seconds, and then power on again - very odd, to me. This seems to happen, regardless of whether I revert to stock settings (1050/1350) or try to overclock (1100/1350 or 1150/1350), and only seems to do it in this one game, that isn't even stressing my GPU that hard. It rarely gets out of the 60's (C), even during extended gameplay, and yet no combination of clocks and voltage/power seems to help this issue.

I'm wondering... what gives?

Any chance it's my PSU? I have a 750W Corsair TX750, which I always knew to be sufficient, but its over 3 years old now. Just wondering if a voltage drop or something could be causing it?

Could something actually be wrong with the card? It is just baffling that I can push overclocks close to 1200mhz core in everything else, but not in CoH2 (which I play most, unfortunately).

Or could my ASRock Z87 Extreme4 motherboard be the culprit?

I'm pretty certain temps and airflow aren't an issue - I have an Arctic R4, with 3 in/2 out 140mm fans, and an ice-cold watercooled i7-4770k that isn't even overclocked right now, as I try to troubleshoot this issue.

Anyway, I'm just baffled and frustrated beyond all hell. Help! Ideas and advice wanted!
 
Is Company Of Heroes 2 the only game that freezes?
If so, I would look at an issue with that game, not the hardware.
 
Company of Heroes 2 is quite CPU dependant : have you thought the problem could be your CPU overclock, or RAM overclock (if any)?
 
Is Company Of Heroes 2 the only game that freezes?
If so, I would look at an issue with that game, not the hardware.

I had an isolated crash in Rome 2 recently, but it was A BSOD, and not the usual GPU hang, so yes, I think COH2 is the only game that crashes, but again - I don't have a very big pool of titles I play, and honestly, I spend 90% of my time playing it, so... that could also be part of the reason why all of the freezes occur with it. Sorry if that's less than helpful =/

Company of Heroes 2 is quite CPU dependant : have you thought the problem could be your CPU overclock, or RAM overclock (if any)?

Neither my CPU nor my RAM is overclocked, ATM - and hasn't been for some time, as I wanted to eliminate them as factors.
 
I also haven't heard or seen of anyone else having issues with R9 290Xs in COH2. It's literally the "top" card right now for that title, particularly since it can't take advantage of SLI or Crossfire, so it's pretty popular for it, AFAIK.
 
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