ASUS R7 260X DCII OC - Black Screen, graph. artifacts, overheating, no Power Saving

[Szaby59]

Hello!

So far every ASUS R7 260X DirectCU II OC 2GB owners are reporting the exact same issues what I tried to describe in the topic title.

• Only one PowerTune (Power Saving) DPM states are implemented in vBIOS
  
  - Because of this the GPU/VRAM always runs at full speed which causes uneccesary high temperature/power consumption in idle mode.
  - AMD ZeroCore power saving feature sometimes causes black screen when the screen wakes up
  - Sometimes the card does not wakes up from ZeroCore - the monitor displays"No signal".
  
  
  
• Texture glitches, graphical artifacts even when the temperatures are in the safe range.
  Simple:not every card is capable to run at the advertized speeds and voltages (1188 MHz GPU / 1750MHz@7 GHz video memory)
  

Many owners including myself already contacted not just our local ASUS support but even the international support, they said the following about the issues we reported:

- PowerPlay/PowerTune states are not working, because the card is OC version - so to preserve stability the card is designed to operate always at full speed, there is no point (according to them) to enable power saving features for an "OC" card :confused: 😄

- If I think the GPU temperature is too high I should increase the fan speed using ASUS GPU Tweak. 😄

Some examples and screenshots:

No power saving in idle state

IDLE Temperatures, clock

In-game artifacts


UPDATE 2014.08.11. - workarounds and fixes:

• ASUS released a BIOS update to fix BlackScreen issue - this BIOS is the same 015.042... version I had on my card out of the box so If you upgrade from 015.039 you should expect MUCH higher (approximately +15°C) GPU temperature when you watch movies, play Solitaire or just checking your mail - so basically always...
  
  
  
• Flashing the "old" 015.039 BIOS DC2-OC-2GD5 bios over 015.042 re-enables Power Saving features, but the screen wake up and black screen bugs are still there and some cards still get artifacts during 3D games or even on Windows desktop.
  
  
  
• Flashing the 015.039 BIOS DC2-2GD5 (non-OC) bios on a DC2-OC-2GD5 re-enables Power Saving features, but the screen wake up and black screen bugs are still there, eliminates graphical artifacts - if still happens it could be a driver/hardware issue.
  
  
  
• Sapphire support has a BIOS update which fixes EVERY issues with their R7 260X (BIOS version 015.042.000.003.000000):http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4891301&postcount=14
  

TECHNICAL INFORMATION ABOUT R7 260X BIOSes:


Some GPU register dumps using AIDA64

• ASUS R7 260X-DC2-OC-2GD5 v015.042 BIOS:
  
  

  BIOS PowerPlay State #0:
  - Level #0: GPUClock = 875 MHz, MemClock = 1750 MHz, VID = 4.098 V (Boot)
  BIOS PowerPlay State #1:
  - Level #0: GPUClock = 1188 MHz, MemClock = 1750 MHz, VID = 4.096 V
  - Level #1: GPUClock = 1188 MHz, MemClock = 1750 MHz, VID = 4.098 V
  
  ------[ GPU PStates List ]------
  
  DPM7: GPUClock = 1188 MHz, VID = 1.25770 V
  

  
  
  
  Here you can see the card is forced to run at the highest DPM state...
  
  
  
• ASUS R7 260X-DC2-OC-2GD5 v015.039 ("old") BIOS:
  
  

  BIOS PowerPlay State #0:
  - Level #0: GPUClock = 1100 MHz, MemClock = 1625 MHz, VID = 4.098 V (Boot)
  BIOS PowerPlay State #1:
  - Level #0: GPUClock = 300 MHz, MemClock = 150 MHz, VID = 4.096 V
  - Level #1: GPUClock = 1100 MHz, MemClock = 1625 MHz, VID = 4.098 V
  
  ------[ GPU PStates List ]------
  
  DPM0: GPUClock = 300 MHz, VID = 0.87269 V
  DPM1: GPUClock = 635 MHz, VID = 0.87885 V
  DPM2: GPUClock = 770 MHz, VID = 0.96201 V
  DPM3: GPUClock = 875 MHz, VID = 1.03285 V
  DPM4: GPUClock = 950 MHz, VID = 1.09651 V
  DPM5: GPUClock = 1015 MHz, VID = 1.15503 V
  DPM6: GPUClock = 1065 MHz, VID = 1.20637 V
  DPM7: GPUClock = 1100 MHz, VID = 1.25770 V
  

  
  
  
  And that's how was with the 1st BIOS, and that's how it should be!
  So this dump and many other VGAs (and logic...) are the PROOF that even an OC card supposed to have idle P-states...
  
  
  
• Sapphire R7 260X 2GB GDDR5 BIOS - with Black screen fix and still PowerSaving enabled:
  
  
  

  BIOS PowerPlay State #0:
  - Level #0: GPUClock = 1150 MHz, MemClock = 1650 MHz, VID = 4.098 V (Boot)
  BIOS PowerPlay State #1:
  - Level #0: GPUClock = 300 MHz, MemClock = 150 MHz, VID = 4.096 V
  - Level #1: GPUClock = 1150 MHz, MemClock = 1650 MHz, VID = 4.098 V
  
  ------[ GPU PStates List ]------
  
  DPM0: GPUClock = 300 MHz, VID = 0.87269 V
  DPM1: GPUClock = 635 MHz, VID = 0.87885 V
  DPM2: GPUClock = 804 MHz, VID = 0.96201 V
  DPM3: GPUClock = 914 MHz, VID = 1.03285 V
  DPM4: GPUClock = 992 MHz, VID = 1.09651 V
  DPM5: GPUClock = 1060 MHz, VID = 1.15503 V
  DPM6: GPUClock = 1112 MHz, VID = 1.20637 V
  DPM7: GPUClock = 1150 MHz, VID = 1.25770 V

  
  
  So If Sapphire was able to fix their card without loosing Power Saving feature back in December 2013 I just hope that ASUS will be able to do that VERY SOON. The card is almost 1 year old...
  
  

[Pixolution]

Hello everyone.

I have the same problem with my Card.

Yesterday i flashed the Sapphire BIOS on my ASUS Board, and I finally can boot my System again with full drivers (version 14.4 wcc)

I tested my system with Furmark and it runs through also 5 times without any problems.
Using only one Monitor, 23" on 1920x1080.

So after that I connected my additional Monitors to the System

Monitor 1: DVI-VGA Adapter, 17"TFT on 1280x1024
Monitor 2: DVI-I, 23" TFT on 1920x1080
Monitor 3: DVI-D to VGA Adapter, 17"TFT on 1280x1024

After few minutes my System freezed again with black screen, few seconds further it reboots.

This happens all the time now nonstop, every few minutes i got a freeze, even if nothing is running, exept windows.

Anyone has the same Problems aswell?

This evening I try some other BIOS on the card EG. Modded ASUS ones.

Good luck also everyone

[Szaby59]

This could be a faulty VRAM chip or overheating issue - 47°C for the GPU is very HIGH in 2D mode, the GPU heats up the board and (due to the low airflow) the GDDR5 memory. Personally I've never encountered issues like this but I had the 042 vBIOS on my card out of the box so maybe it's a HW issue and they fixed it later (not sure, because almost every card after flashing the non-oc bios works fine if we don't count the black screen bug after waking up from ZeroCore).
You can try the official vBIOS update from ASUS but since that disables PowerSaving the GPU going to be even hotter... Or flashing the non OC bios from techpowerup.

Alternatively Sapphire released a fixed vBIOS for their R7 260X 2GB OC card, unfortunatelly it does not have an UEFI GOP partition just legacy vBIOS so Windows 8.x's Ultra Fast Boot feautre will NOT work. But according to a guru3d forum member it fixes black screen issue AND PowerSaving is also enabled:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4891301&postcount=14

If Sapphire was able to fix their card without loosing Power Saving feature back in December 2013 I just hope that ASUS will be able to do that VERY SOON. The card is almost 1 year old...

Edit: 1st post updated with additional information.

[Szaby59]

Finally I was able to enable Power Saving in the updated ASUS BIOS you can download from here along with other "enhancements" 😄 http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4891940&postcount=21

[R1zlA]

Problem solved, i just replace with another R7 260x and everything is ok.

[Darkeloth]

So the new Radeon R260X you received doesn't show the same issues like screen artifacts and no power saving options, no idle mode ?

[puki83]

Hi guys,

Please can someone who have latest BIOS from Asus (v015.042 without powerplay support, and with fixed frequencies) do a backup from GPU-Z and then that .rom file upload somewhere so I can download it? I changed few BIOSes and with anyone my card don't work good, only with latest one with fixed frequencies for 2D it works good, but now when I want to flash back latest BIOS from ASUS site (.exe file) I get message that no vBIOS update is needed and I can't put back latest BIOS. Only solution is that I have latest BIOS in .rom file so I can flash it with ATIFlash, but I can't find it anywhere on net in .rom format (I forgot to backup it).


Best regards and thanks

[Best2Best]

Hi
sry for up this old type...
But I still did not solve my issue with bios 015.042... (No power saving in idle state) (IDLE Temperatures, clock)
Is someone able to solve this problem?
If they cant fix this problem . I would return the card and then take the money
After 6 months, yet they do not even know that this is a BIOS problem !!!! And say to See warranty for repair!!!!!!
sry For bad english i used google translate

[Best2Best]

ok At last asus Release new Vbios update for Asus r7 260x
But how To install This VBios update with .exe Format
just 2 click ?