Can't overclock rx480 unless connected to a display

Hardware GPU
1

I've recently set up my Rx480 and a GTX1060 for crypto-mining using nicehash. Everything runs fine and the rig is cracking hashes at this very moment. However for some reason I can't overclock the 480 unless it is attached to a display.
Specifically: Radeon Settings won't even start:

MSI Afterburner doesn't allow me to move around the sliders:

image.jpg827x446 115 KB

(overclocking the nvidia card works without any trouble in afterburner)

I've also tried sapphire's trixx. It allows me to change settings alright, but then simply ignores them. I can change the built-in LEDs color, but anything overclocking related is simply ignored.

Additional notes:

Any suggestions?

2

can you confirm that you can STILL overclock it and that nothing has changed between the initial setup and now?

If it does work and overlcoks fine with a monitor connected , then I'd recommend just connecting a monitor to it.

3

Back in the days of bit coin mining i use to have to make dummy plugs to fake a display. A 70 ohm resistor and a DVI to VGA dongle is all you need.

4

i dont think modern gpu's support vga output through the dvi ports anymore. at least my r9 290 didnt

5

I can confirm that overclocking still works with a screen attached. But unfortunately I don't have a spare lying around.

6

Is this a known limitation then? The only related looking references I could find online told me to disable ultra low power states, which I did (with afterburner), but to no avail.

I am considering to try out how things work on ubuntu, but with the current AMD driver situation I don't think that makes much sense.

7

does your monitor support more than one type of input? if your monitor has dvi and hdmi , you could connect the amd gpu to it's spare connection and just have it send out an extra monitor signal that you never have to switch to

8

My monitor does support multiple inputs, but is located right next to my bed. I really don't want to be running the miner there.

I'll check what happens if I apply the overclock and then unplug the monitor after the fact.

9

When I remove the monitor after the fact the overclock stays, though I cannot manipulate it any longer.

A real solution would be great, because I would literally have to carry my screen to the miner for this.

wtf amd?

10

It's not totally unreasonable for a gpu to have less options when it's not actually powering anything. They do seem to make all digital plugs for gpu's

11

I could buy a cheap used monitor for the price of that plug :neutral_face:

Update:

  • just reinstalled the AMD drivers, no change
  • switched to VNC instead of RDP, because RDP apparently messes with GPUs; no change
  • reset the BIOS; no change, but interestingly I cannot enter the bios menu when plugged into the AMD card. nvidia works fine

I should probably also point out that my processor is also from AMD and has integrated graphics. Model is AD7600YBJABOX.

12

Progress.
When disabling the nvidia GPU in the device manager windows switches over to using the AMD one as primary device. This allows me to apply an overclock, just as if a screen was connected. As soon as I re-enable the nvidia card I can no longer overclock, but any previously set settings remain, again just like with a real display.

While not pretty this is a serviceable solution for now. I need to re-do said steps every time the system restarts, but with this being a miner that won't be too often. Hopefully.

13

Even I’m facing the same problem… I’m using GTX 1070 and Rx 470…I could only hav access to over clock both cards by plugging and card for display…