PSA: How I fixed my black screen issue and further increased stability with 6800 XT

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon' started by Exostenza, Feb 8, 2021.

  1. Exostenza

    Exostenza Maha Guru

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    Preface:

    This worked for me on my Intel Z390 chipset but I assume it should work for any Intel chipset built for the i7 3xxx series and forward as that is when the CPU VCCSA and VCCIO voltages were put in place as they work on today's platforms.

    The Meat:

    I figured I would put this down for posterity as it looks like a lot of people are suffering from black screen issues with the 5xxx/6xxx series of AMD GPUs. I was running an RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio (OG model) with absolutely zero issues while running a pretty decent OC on it too since Nov 2018. I upgraded on Feb 5 2021 to an MSI 6800 XT Gaming X Trio and I couldn't get more than 5-10 minutes of 3D rendering without a complete system lock up displaying a black screen; not even the hard reset button worked and I had to manually cycle the power off and on again it was so bad.

    My PC specs:

    OS: Windows 10 Pro X64 20H2

    Platform: MSI MEG Z390 ACE BIOS 1.90

    CPU: Intel i7-8086k @ 5ghz delidded / Silver King Liquid Metal / EVGA 280 AIO

    GPU: MSI 6800 XT Gaming X Trio / AMD Adrenaline 21.2.1

    RAM: 4 x 8GB G. Skill Trident Z RGB 3866mhz

    PSU: Thermaltake RGB Toughpower Grand 1200W Platinum



    So, while I was overclocking I read that the auto values for CPU VCCSA and VCCIO voltage would be set way to high (my mobo set them both at 1.38v) and I would benefit from finding the lowest stable voltages on both of those settings. It was recommended to try out SA @ 1.2v and IO @ 1.15v which was stable for me so I kept those voltages there.

    RTX 2080 @ SA 1.2v / IO 1.15v = Stable

    6800 XT @ SA 1.2v / IO 1.15v = Black Screen

    I did some reading about what these voltages do and it seems they control pretty much everything from the PCI-E bus to the memory bus so it stands to reason that the system depends on these voltages for stability. When I got my 6800 XT and I was unable to run two full runs of 3DMark Time Spy without a complete system lockup and a black screen the first thing that came to mind was the above discussed voltages. I did some more reading and found that an official rep from ASUS stated that the high voltages set on auto by the motherboards are absolutely fine and even up to 1.3v pose no threat of damaging a CPU in the long term. Users reported that they were able to obtain better overall system stability and specifically able to get the Radeon drivers to be a lot more responsive and stable by raising their voltages which clued me into this must be the answer.

    I first raised my voltages to SA 1.25v / IO 1.20v and the black screen lockups completely vanished while now I would only crash out of the 3DMark Port Royal ray tracing benchmark and the 3DMark Time Spy would run perfectly as many times as I want and I also passed the Time Spy stability test. I also tried some overclocking which crashed out of Time Spy.

    6800 XT @ SA 1.25v / IO 1.2v = No Black Screens at stock but crashing during ray tracing and overclocking

    I went back into the BIOS and decided, since an Asus rep said that 1.3v on these voltages was completely fine for the long run, to put both up to 1.3v and guess what! Now I can overclock and stay stable in BOTH Time Spy and Port Royal.

    6800 XT @ SA 1.3v / IO 1.3v = No Black Screens and stable while overclocking + ray tracing

    I have run several tests (Real Bench, Prime95) and my CPU temperatures have no gone up at all (though this may be due to the fact that I have delidded my CPU and used liquid metal between the die and IHS). All other temperatures are normal as well.

    Conclusion:

    I was able to completely rid myself of the dreaded black screen of death while also pushing GPU stability further for overclocking in the most extreme scenarios by simply setting my CPU VCCSA and VCCIO voltages to 1.3v each.

    I really hope this helps people struggling with black screens on their 5600XT, 5700XT, 6800XT, or 6900XT using Intel platforms as it made this card go from unusable to not only usable but great for pushing an overclock with.

    Post Script:

    People were reporting that they changed out their RAM which had previously been stable with an nVidia card but was causing their AMD GPU to give them the black screen of death. This is interesting because raising specifically the CPU VCCIO and maybe also the VCCSA voltage should, in theory, fix RAM to GPU stability issues. I am wondering if users thinking their RAM was no longer viable with an AMD GPU could have just raised one or both of these voltages and had a perfectly stable system. There are so many implications of these two voltages being raised I would love to hear from people.

    I would be interested to know what the corresponding voltage(s) on the AMD AM4 platform would be in order to increase stability like this; would it possibly the SOC voltage? Please if you have any knowledge on this comment so we can see if this can translate to helping people on the current AMD platform.

    One of the threads that clued me into all of this if you are interested: VCCSA, VCCIO & YOU on Guru 3D
     
  2. Jonathan Roy

    Jonathan Roy Guest

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    YOU ARE MY HERO!!!!
    I install my 6800 xt gaming trio x yesterday...random black screen while browsing, rock solid while gaming....reinstalled windows, ddu for driver twice....csm enabled , disabled in bios, try literally everything except....i decide to clear my cmos, by default my ram was set to 2133... guess what...tada...no more black screen....I did assume that ram and radeon 6800xt can cause problem...il suggest your post to another forum...thanks!!!!!really!!
     
  3. GREGIX

    GREGIX Master Guru

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    Well that may be solution for some. Some with blackscreens problems.
    Personally I did not had black screens ever(I mean, maybe at beginning with rad7 had once, with one early driver). But since I OC my system heavily, always, my SA/IOs was always higher than normal, due heavy RAM OC. Like 3800c14, 4100c15 etc. Thing is, my CPU does not like VERY high SA/IOs so...max is 1.27/.1.25V for them.. And as I do not/did not had problems earlier, and now with new 6800xt, then...maybe luck. Or that SA/IO setting.
    So yea.
    And disabled in power plan options : PCI Express "Link state power management". That crap is always off. I read about this somewhere, and running with this off since r9 fury?
     
  4. Exostenza

    Exostenza Maha Guru

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    I am so happy it worked for you - AWESOME!

    How are you liking your card now? I have mine running 2550mhz (2500-2600) on the core @ 1050v and it is slaughtering games.
     

  5. farbulus

    farbulus Guest

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    Hey Mott, any chance you are familiar with AMD systems and their different "SOC" voltage?

    I have a Ryzen 3700x on an x370 motherboard along with the 6800xt and I get the dreaded black screen of death after a few hours of high FPS gameplay.
     
  6. GREGIX

    GREGIX Master Guru

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    I belive u need to look at VDDG CCD Voltage and SOC Voltage plus memory controlers VDDF IOD Voltage.
    SOC like 1.1V to 1.125V
    CCD 1.05.-1.075 and same for IOD
    There is one more voltage u can look at, cLDO VDDP, 0.950V to 1.050V, but I would stick to 0.95 anyway
     
    AsiJu likes this.
  7. lukas_1987_dion

    lukas_1987_dion Master Guru

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    Thank you I'm gonna try this, as my PC restarts during some heavy work like benchmarks or Ray Tracing titles.
    If not then bye bye RX 6900 XT :/
     

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