Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Graphic cards => Topic started by: clickaddict on February 02, 2014, 12:22:20 am
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Hello all! Two days ago i bought my R9 280x, the graphic card works really good but i have some flickering in IDLE and in some games.
Driver version: 13.12
Bios version: 015.041.000.000
Bios date: 2013/11/28
Any info about this?
Thanks
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Hello there,
I'm having the exact same issue with my one week old R9 280X rev 2.0...
Screen flickering in 2D Mode (windows desktop) and black stripes IG (BF3, Minecraft...)
I guess it's because the card comes unlocked and is not stable... that's why artifacts are showing up... so RMA is the best option.
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Here are two examples :
http://hpics.li/2325a2a
http://hpics.li/82ff984
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This is a common issue on most R9 cards, but especially 270x and 280x, AFAIK.... I also experience it with my 280x, as well as a friend of mine..
MSI has already addressed this issue months ago with a new bios.. It seems sapphire also released a bios for this, probably some other companies also...
I wrote to Gigabyte in december about this, but I got some generic BS copy/paste answer from them...
Here is their answer:
Thank you for your kindly mail and inquiry. About the issue you mentioned, we suggest you can try the following steps:
(1) Please confirm there is no insufficient power or overheat problem with your system and VGA card. We suggest you can try to clean up the cooling fan or add additional cooling fan to help cooling down your computer.
(2) Please test your system in a simple environment : If your M/B is inside a case, please make sure that there's not a short circuit. You can try building the whole system outside the case. Remove such as add-on cards, devices from motherboard, only install CPU, single memory, single HDD, VGA card and power.
(3) Please remove the previous VGA card driver, then reboot the motherboard and install your VGA card driver from our web site, click here.
(4) According to How To Reflash BIOS? in VBIOS download page--Please note:
You can only update to a BIOS version of the same series. If your VBIOS version is:
F1, it can only be updated with VBIOS versions F2-F9.
F10, it can only be updated with VBIOS versions F11-F19.
F20, it can only be updated with VBIOS versions F21-F29.
Please first confirm your original VBIOS with @BIOS , if there is new VBIOS version fit the series of your original VBIOS, please update it.
For @BIOS utility, please click HERE.
To download VGA BIOS, please click HERE. Please update VBIOS by choosing "FLASH" in @BIOS.
(5) If possible, please try to test your VGA card and the games in another system, or test your motherboard with different VGA card to see if there's a hardware problem.
Regarding to motherboard, we suggest you can update motherboard BIOS to the latest version and test again.
If the problem still occurs in another system, a further testing or examination to your VGA card might be required. We suggest you to contact your supplier (where you bought the product) to arrange further examination and find out the root cause.
Regards,
GIGABYTE
Or in other words, they told me to go **** myself..
It seems Gigabyte will be the last to address this problem....
Not buying their products anymore..
Cheers
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It would be really nice to hear something from Gigabyte on this issue. I'm on my second R9 280x Gigabyte card after RMA'ing the first due to artefacts and glitches, but still experiencing the problems. Thought it was just the card at fault, but appears this is a wide-spread issue with the R9 280x cards, with other manufacturers already addressing the issue for their customers. I'd rather see a resolution provided by Gigabyte than go through the hassle of another RMA to be honest.
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I recently bought two of these cards In February and I instantly began to notice the flicker. I thought I narrowed it down to one card and sent it away for RMA. Today the other I thought was working flicker free is now flickering by itself. This seems to be a very common complaint if you check other forums. Others seems to have gotten a BIOS upgrade to fix the issue. Heres my build:
Intel i5 3570K
ASUS P8Z77-V PRO
GIGABYTE GV-R928XOC-3GD REV2 Radeon R9 280X
Kingston Hyper-X Blu 16GB
Antec 1000 PSU
Gigabytes only recommendation was to RMA the card.
We need a solution.
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Yup I have this issue as well.
i5 4570
Gigabyte R9 280x
I have the F60 bios and the only ones available are the F3 and F12, neither of which will flash.
Whats happening with this gigabyte?
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Hi All,
It seems I should have done a little more research before purchasing these cards as I seem to be having similar issues - I've never had these sort of issues before.
Installed both cards, was pleased with the fact that there was no bridge necessary for Crossfire. Great. Machine was fine for hours while I downloaded latest updates and transferred files across - too easy.
Jumped into my first game to test it out, played for 2 minutes just trialling some settings. Left.
Jumpted into a game that I wanted to play properly and I noticed a yellow flickering going through the entire screen - I attempted to change some video settings in game (to adjust quality) and computer froze. Restarted and launched game into an insta-freeze.
Intel Core i7-4770k CPU
ASRock z87 Extreme6 MBD
2 x Gigabyte R929OC-4GD-GA GPU
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB RAM
Thermaltake Toughpower 850 PSU
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My Gigabyte 280x rev 1.0 is also flickering in 2D desktop, but not in games. And since I installed the Catalyst 14.4 drivers, my PC ocasionally freezes, in total white screen or black.. Then I can only hard-reset.
Have the latest bios installed.
So annoying..
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I am also an owner of the R9 280 OC Rev 2. Specifically, the GV-R928XOC-3GD Rev2. This card comes with the F70 BIOS on it. For those unaware, GPUZ will see this BIOS as version 015.041.000.000.000000. The Gigabyte website offers no update for users running the R9 280X with Hynix memory, and the F70 BIOS. Mine is this version with Hynix memory on it, as it will be for anyone who's card also has the F70 BIOS. I do have some good news for people though on how to get this particular card working without artifacts. Note, this will not work with cards which have Elpida memory on them. This is only for the GV-R928XOC-3GD Hynix Rev2 model. Out of the box, my card was also artifacting, as is the case for many people. As many people know, the R9 280X is actually an HD 7970 Ghz edition. In this case, the GV-R928XOC-3GD is actually the exact same card as the Gigabyte GV-R797TO-3GD. This is the Gigabyte HD 7970 Ghz edition. The good news is, this card is the exact same, and uses the exact same Hynix memory. You can use the BIOS from this particular HD 7970 Ghz edition card, and the artifacting will stop. It has the F62 BIOS on it, and this BIOS is 100 percent compatible with the GV-R928XOC-3GD Hynix Rev2 model. GPUZ will read the BIOS as 015.026.000.000.000000. This BIOS has a couple differences. First off, the F62 BIOS runs 1050 MHz at 1.2 volts, and when boosting up to 1100 MHz, it runs at 1.256 volts. This is an increase from the 1050 MHz at 1.163 volts, and 1100 MHz at 1.2 volts of the F70 BIOS. The F62 BIOS also stops all of the flickering within the desktop environment as well. I have been a computer tech for 11 years. I put the BIOS on my card, as well as a customer's card a couple days ago, and neither of us have any issues anymore.
As always, make sure you know what you are doing. I am not responsible if you do this incorrectly. Also, be aware that because you will be flashing to a HD 7970 Ghz edition BIOS, your video card will now be seen as such in windows. This really should not matter to anyone since the R9 280X and HD 7970 Ghz edition are the same card. I have uploaded the BIOS for people. If you don't know how to flash your card, do an internet search and learn. In DOS you will run the following command
atiflash -f -p 0 biosfilename
This will allow a force flashing of the card. You will no longer have artifacting once you flash to this BIOS.
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Thought I might bump this to see if there's any update in solving this issue.
I have a rev1 and it's still prevalent.
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Has anybody tried the new Gigabyte BIOS version F4/F14 from 3. june 2014?
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4793#bios (http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4793#bios)
I wonder if the BIOS will remove the flickering..
Also I get frequent BSOD's in windows, something about memory management and ati drivers..
I run the Catalyst 14.4 version.
Does anyone have good experience with a newer version?
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Hi there,
I just joined the forum to share my experience. I upgraded an 7850 that gone faulty with this one, Gigabyte R9 280X 3GB rev 1.0. Actually I got the R9 as a replacement of the 7850 after RMA'd, so once paid the difference I thought I had done a good deal. The R9 is still under warranty...
Three weeks after the new card arrived, black screen when booting, no GPU signal at all. I was about to RMA it when I tried the BIOS micro-switch and tried the second BIOS. It worked!. That day I updated that BIOS slot to the F4.
From time to time, I noticed some flickering. I thought it might be the DVI-HDMI cable I was using and I didn't bother too much. Later on, I updated the drivers to the 14.10 (14.4 Catalyst). The flickering was still there, but nothing else. I was able to play all my games at ultra or very high settings. Temperatures were hitting 80ºC on more demanding games.
Around two weeks ago (July 2014), I started to suffer random black screens while on Windows Desktop. It was still something quick, but sometimes it could be 1 second... I started to get worried... then, I had the same issue while playing videogames. It was only once during the game, but I have had black screens all over again on the desktop. This has been on the F4 BIOS and 14.10. I changed the cable and now I'm using a HDMI (a cheapo, but working with other devices).
I tried the following:
BIOS: F4, Catalyst 13.10: flickering + black screens.
BIOS: F2, Catalyst 13.12: Flickering + black screens. (On the release notes, it states that it "might" fix the issue on R9 290)
BIOS: F3, Catalyst 13.12: Flickering only so far... (but it's been updated just now)
I was running GPU-Z while some black screens appeared, but it didn't record any remarkable reading, temperature was around 50ºC on the last one.
Last thing I can add to see if it matters is that where I live (Southern Spain) it's quite hot right now, not having A/C in my room, it is at 30ºC most of the time...
Last thing I want to do is RMA this card and wait one long month...
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Ok everyone in here I have something that may help you as it helped me.
I actually found this problem because I was getting artifacting in games.What is happening here is that the Bios provided by Gigabyte has the idle clock far too low. It sits around 350Mhz this caused artifacting in games for me and it may be causing flickering for you. What I did was create a graphic preset in ATI. Then I went in and edited the graphics preset to set the idle clock at 500Mhz. Every once in a blue moon I get the artifacting but it is a rare occurrence.
It blows my mind Gigabyte has not fixed this as I have seen so many people reporting and returning their cards because of it. When I get home I will try to upload a guide to fixing this. Rather simple solution.
Note: This was not my solution I found it after hours of googling this problem I wish I could give credit to the person who found it.
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Ok everyone in here I have something that may help you as it helped me.
I actually found this problem because I was getting artifacting in games.What is happening here is that the Bios provided by Gigabyte has the idle clock far too low. It sits around 350Mhz this caused artifacting in games for me and it may be causing flickering for you. What I did was create a graphic preset in ATI. Then I went in and edited the graphics preset to set the idle clock at 500Mhz. Every once in a blue moon I get the artifacting but it is a rare occurrence.
It blows my mind Gigabyte has not fixed this as I have seen so many people reporting and returning their cards because of it. When I get home I will try to upload a guide to fixing this. Rather simple solution.
Note: This was not my solution I found it after hours of googling this problem I wish I could give credit to the person who found it.
Thanks man, I would try anything before rma'ing the card. Actually, I was thinking of doing something else, as mine is a Rev1.0 and according to this: http://www.overclock.net/t/1452376/gigabyte-280x-rev-1-and-rev-2 , the Rev 1.0 version is actually the same physical card as the 7970, so I may flash that BIOS instead hoping it doesn't develop same issues. As it has dual BIOS it should be technically possible to recover it if something goes wrong. Unfortunately, it seems the Gigabyte 7970 card also has suffered from the same intermittent black screen problems :(
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I've been doing some other tests and I think I've isolated my two main issues and I hope (finger crossed) the most serious one is one (black screens). Yesterday I was using extensively my PC all day long, working in the morning, benchmarking in the afternoon and gaming in the evening and I *only* had flickering but no black screens.
Black screens issue:
At some point, I was able to reproduce those while benchmarking, but I think I was somehow causing that as I changed clock speeds and Voltage as I read was the solution for *some people* with similar problems on R9 290X (not 280X). So I reverted my clock speeds to stock (1100/1500/1.256V) and installed 14.10 drivers to start from there. I noticed that one of the "black screens" was happening because Windows 7 was changing colour scheme, so I disabled that. I said I was using some cheapo HDMI cables... so I replaced those with a brand new and better one. System was running fine (still with flickering) but I again decreased the stock clock speed a bit: 1000/1350. BIOS was latest: F4 (that is suitable for Rev 1.0 only)
Flickering issue:
It's still there. On these speeds: 1000/1350 flickering was still noticeable. Drivers were 14.10 (Catalyst 14.4). I tried a movie and screen was flickering nearly every 5 minutes or so. I ran Heaven Benchmark several times and left it alone for one hour, no artifacts or flicker recorded ( I use the webcam). I played one game for more than an hour, just one flicker happened on the menu, but never while playing. So I guess I am right now where most of the people stand with this issue.
Possible solutions to flickering:
There are several theories, based on what other vendors have done to fix the issue. In other forum, Gigabyte users claim that using 13.10 drivers (the ones that came in the CD) stops flickering for good. But this might not be a long term solution as we'll have to update drivers eventually. So here comes other ways to allegedly fix the issue while keeping newer drivers:
a) What Sapphire did with their BIOS was to alter Volt and max MHz for GPU and VRAM. This is essentially what user DW75 has posted, but instead of using a 7970 BIOS, using an actual R9 280X BIOS. This is just reducing OC to gain stability.
b) Other option is what deltaxi1867 says, and I think that has been used on others models (even on 7000 series) to fix this. It makes sense as most of the flickering occurs when card is on idle. So this fix consists of increasing min speed clock and in my case is 300MHz, so maybe 500MHz or other value in between should fix the problem.
Yesterday evening I did a fresh install of 13.10 drivers and left stock speeds (1100/1500 at 1.256V). It was late, but in the 40 mins I used the PC I didn't see any flickering. I played the same movie a bit and all fine so far...
Regarding BIOS changes: I was tempted to change it to a 7970, but I think that's risky if you don't use the exact compatible BIOS. Even for the same R9 280X card there are different versions with different VRAM (Elpida or Hynix) and different VRM controllers. Instead, we could modify our existing BIOS with a software called VBE 0.7 and set up a different stock clock.