My AMD 6900XT has a serious driver crash problem

[KAD192]

My pc configuration is
7800X3D+6900XT+DDR5 6400Mhz
I updated my video card driver to the latest 24.4.1, and I ended up having a serious driver error problem with my video card.
Playing Horizon Forbidden West for 10-20 minutes will definitely result in an error report of a video card driver crash.
Guys, anyone here with an AMD GPU? What driver version are you using? I need to check if it's my graphics card that's broken or if there's something wrong with the driver.

[TheAspieFox]

Numerous AMD GPU users have driver issues across several games. Reasons why I don't use AMD cards despite them being better "value".

Chances are, your GPU itself is fine.

If you really want to confirm, though, run a program called FurMark for about 30 minutes. If it crashes in there then you may have an issue -- could even be just as simple as dusting the heatsink + changing the thermal paste.

[Zephyr]

24.3.1 no issues withRX 7900 XT. Do you have this only recently or from the start?
Try to uninstall with DDU and make a fresh reinstall. This can definitely help.

Also, do you use undervolting or OC for the GPU or the VRAM? You might need to test out if it is stable in this game in such a case.

[Zephyr]

Originally posted by TheAspieFox:

Numerous AMD GPU users have driver issues across several games. Reasons why I don't use AMD cards despite them being better "value".

Chances are, your GPU itself is fine.

If you really want to confirm, though, run a program called FurMark for about 30 minutes. If it crashes in there then you may have an issue -- could even be just as simple as dusting the heatsink + changing the thermal paste.

This is basically wrong nowadays. There are not any more issues than with Nvidia. It is simply that often OC or UV is also used and that there are the same issues that happen all the time with any GPU vendor.

Horizon forbidden west runs generally excellent on AMD GPUs, in fact better and more stable than on Nvidia GPUs.

[TheAspieFox]

Originally posted by Zephyr:

Originally posted by TheAspieFox:

Numerous AMD GPU users have driver issues across several games. Reasons why I don't use AMD cards despite them being better "value".

Chances are, your GPU itself is fine.

If you really want to confirm, though, run a program called FurMark for about 30 minutes. If it crashes in there then you may have an issue -- could even be just as simple as dusting the heatsink + changing the thermal paste.

This is basically wrong nowadays. There are not any more issues than with Nvidia. It is simply that often OC or UV is also used and that there are issue that happen all the time to any GPU vendor.

There are plenty more issues, mostly regarding driver stability and them "playing nice" with games, compared to NVIDIA. The overwhelming majority of people that come to me with issues, and who I see having issues, regarding game crashes are AMD GPU users. Typically for NVIDIA issues come down to having GeForce Experience installed (and having it "Optimize" games for them), which isn't even a driver issue; it's a software issue. Other than that, it's most typically just people using incompatible/outdated mods, causing their games to not launch. In a few cases, yes, OC/UV is at play. Kinda funny that, too, I rarely every see Intel ARC users.

Your mileage may vary; I can only speak to my own experience and observation. It's a topic that can you can go back-and-forth on all day.

[KAD192]

Originally posted by Zephyr:

24.3.1 no issues withRX 7900 XT. Do you have this only recently or from the start?
Try to uninstall with DDU and make a fresh reinstall. This can definitely help.

Also, do you use undervolting or OC for the GPU or the VRAM? You might need to test out if it is stable in this game in such a case.

24.3.1 still has the driver crash problem. But I got a longer runtime by adjusting the GPU fan speed to 100%.
Maybe I should try lowering the CPU voltage or memory frequency.

[iiTsMus Sc]

Have you tried turning your ram frequency down or have you done extensive stability tests to determine 6400 is rock solid stabe?

Try 6000 or 6200. Make sure UCLK = MCLK and set FCLK at 2000

I'm using 24.3.1 with my 6800 XT. Have had 0 crashes/driver timeouts. No problem in HFW, or any other game for that matter.

[Zephyr]

Originally posted by TheAspieFox:

Originally posted by Zephyr:

This is basically wrong nowadays. There are not any more issues than with Nvidia. It is simply that often OC or UV is also used and that there are issue that happen all the time to any GPU vendor.

There are plenty more issues, mostly regarding driver stability and them "playing nice" with games, compared to NVIDIA. The overwhelming majority of people that come to me with issues, and who I see having issues, regarding game crashes are AMD GPU users. Typically for NVIDIA issues come down to having GeForce Experience installed (and having it "Optimize" games for them), which isn't even a driver issue; it's a software issue. Other than that, it's most typically just people using incompatible/outdated mods, causing their games to not launch. In a few cases, yes, OC/UV is at play. Kinda funny that, too, I rarely every see Intel ARC users.

Your mileage may vary; I can only speak to my own experience and observation. It's a topic that can you can go back-and-forth on all day.

I can also only speak from personal experience and I can just say that I never had any issues yet that were not caused clearly by myself when pushing for the limits the GPU could handle. The AMD drivers for the last 10 months all offered a pleasant experience and an overall much more capable software than the Nvidia side for OC and UV. I have tested quite a few games with my current RX 7900XT ranging from Cyberpunk or The Last of us to fast shooters like the newer DOOM eternal or Citybuilders and lastly Horizon forbidden west. Really, no issues at all when the GPU is used within spec, none whatsoever. Also, when used with stability tested OC+UV settings, no issues at all.

I will admit that getting full potential and best stability will demand some time investment and knowledge if you want both, but this is generally the same on the Nvidia side.

In terms of this game, specifically, this forum is litterally quite full of complaining Nvidia users, while AMD user are relatively rare :). Of course there is also a bias, because Nvidia GPUs are much more common, but even so, this game runs arguably excellent on AMD GPUs.

Originally posted by KAD192:

Originally posted by Zephyr:

24.3.1 no issues withRX 7900 XT. Do you have this only recently or from the start?
Try to uninstall with DDU and make a fresh reinstall. This can definitely help.

Also, do you use undervolting or OC for the GPU or the VRAM? You might need to test out if it is stable in this game in such a case.

24.3.1 still has the driver crash problem. But I got a longer runtime by adjusting the GPU fan speed to 100%.
Maybe I should try lowering the CPU voltage or memory frequency.

Check for overheating GPU then maybe, if the fans have influence it means the temperature has influence, which is not good :). Check with overlays like MSI afterburner or with software like HWinfo64.

As an example:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3209003380

Top line to the left GPU edge temperature (or GPU temperature). All the way to the right is the GPU hotspot temperature for me. This should not go much over 100 °C to be within spec. Not over 85-90° C max would be with a comfortable safety margin.

[ssx999_]

With my PC config:
* R9 5900X@stock
* 64GB RAM @3.2GHz (stock)
* RX7900XTX@manufacturer OC

After installing the last version (24.4.1) through the DDU method, i haven't experienced any errors after ~2hrs of play time yet (however, i haven't encountered that many until now... as far as i remember i had only 2 crashes so far in ~50hrs)

It may be too early to conclude, but there is nothing wrong with the new driver for me

[Spears]

Originally posted by KAD192:

My pc configuration is
7800X3D+6900XT+DDR5 6400Mhz
I updated my video card driver to the latest 24.4.1, and I ended up having a serious driver error problem with my video card.
Playing Horizon Forbidden West for 10-20 minutes will definitely result in an error report of a video card driver crash.
Guys, anyone here with an AMD GPU? What driver version are you using? I need to check if it's my graphics card that's broken or if there's something wrong with the driver.

ive had this issue for as long as ive had my xfx6900xt. i think it has something to do with denuvo + freesync + SAM
try turning freesync to ON in the game profile's freesync setting, instead of default AMD OPTIMIZED.
you could also try in windows security, under exploit protection, adding HFW application, and turning CONTROL FLOW GUARD (CFG) off as an exception only for the game exe--do not turn this off system wide

[KAD192]

Originally posted by iiTsMus Sc:

Have you tried turning your ram frequency down or have you done extensive stability tests to determine 6400 is rock solid stabe?

Try 6000 or 6200. Make sure UCLK = MCLK and set FCLK at 2000

I'm using 24.3.1 with my 6800 XT. Have had 0 crashes/driver timeouts. No problem in HFW, or any other game for that matter.

It's working!
I lowered the CPU voltage, then limited the memory frequency to 6000Mhz and adjusted the GPU fan speed at 80%.
Now the video card driver crash is gone and I can finally play games normally.
Thanks!

[Zephyr]

Originally posted by KAD192:

Originally posted by iiTsMus Sc:

Have you tried turning your ram frequency down or have you done extensive stability tests to determine 6400 is rock solid stabe?

Try 6000 or 6200. Make sure UCLK = MCLK and set FCLK at 2000

I'm using 24.3.1 with my 6800 XT. Have had 0 crashes/driver timeouts. No problem in HFW, or any other game for that matter.

It's working!
I lowered the CPU voltage, then limited the memory frequency to 6000Mhz and adjusted the GPU fan speed at 80%.
Now the video card driver crash is gone and I can finally play games normally.
Thanks!

Enjoy then.

[Spears]

Originally posted by KAD192:

My pc configuration is
7800X3D+6900XT+DDR5 6400Mhz
I updated my video card driver to the latest 24.4.1, and I ended up having a serious driver error problem with my video card.
Playing Horizon Forbidden West for 10-20 minutes will definitely result in an error report of a video card driver crash.
Guys, anyone here with an AMD GPU? What driver version are you using? I need to check if it's my graphics card that's broken or if there's something wrong with the driver.

I started to get blackscreen of death crashes again after most recent win11 and amd update. I believe I have fixed it by resetting my TPM in Bios and reloading secure boot keys

[Lex]

installed my new 7900 with the new drivers and i have the same problem, never had a crash playing on laptop at 25 fps the same game

[Zephyr]

Originally posted by Lex:

installed my new 7900 with the new drivers and i have the same problem, never had a crash playing on laptop at 25 fps the same game

For me there is no issue with the current drivers (RX 7900 XT), however I had to reinstall the previous driver after the latest game update. I also got black screens on startup then. I suspect it was because of VRAM OC and such, since the game update messed with some things apparently. You can also try the 24.3.1 driver instead. With Horizon forbidden west it makes no difference. The other option seems to be to clock the system memory somehwat lower.


Both on Intel and AMD boards the XMP or Expo profiles are sometimes very optimistic. For Ryzen 7000 CPUs the recommended "go to" Clock is 6000 mhz for DDR5.

[Spears]

Originally posted by Lex:

installed my new 7900 with the new drivers and i have the same problem, never had a crash playing on laptop at 25 fps the same game

try reinstalling the chipset drivers on amd website or motherboards' download page