PC Build Questions, Purchase Advice and Technical Support Megathread — Q3 2024 Edition

Welcome to the /r/AMD Q3 2024 PC build questions, purchase advice and technical support megathread — if you have questions about AMD hardware, need purchasing advice, have a PC build question or technical support problem, please read this post in full, as the majority of issues or queries can be resolved or answered by trying the steps outlined in this post or visiting one of the recommended websites, subreddits or forums linked below.

Note /r/AMD is not a technical support, purchase advice or PC building help subreddit — /r/AMD is community run and does not represent AMD in any capacity unless specified — there is no guarantee anything posted in this thread or subreddit will be seen by AMD.

If you want to guarantee your query or issue is seen by AMD, please use the official AMD community support forums or contact AMD support directly.

If you have found a bug or issue and want to report it to AMD, please use the AMD Bug Report Tool and include as much information as possible in your report — AMD can't fix something unless they know it exists and have enough high-quality information to reproduce it.

The AMD Community and AMD Red Team Discord servers are available to ask questions and get help from other AMD users and PC enthusiasts.

The subreddit wikipedia contains answers to common questions, troubleshooting tips, how you can check if your PC is stable, a jargon buster for FSR, RSR, EXPO, SAM, HYPR-RX and more. It's strongly recommended to read the wikipedia, in addition to what is detailed below, before you make any post.

AMD's support site also has many solutions and troubleshooting guides you may find helpful:

• Processors & Graphics Support Knowledge Base

• AMD Software Help Center

• Troubleshooting Tips for Resolving System Stability Issues

• Troubleshooting System Stability Issues

• Troubleshooting Common Boot Failures

• How to Troubleshoot Power Supply Issues

• Troubleshooting CPU Performance and Temperature Issues

• Information About PCIe Riser Cable and Extender Compatibility with PCIe Gen 4.0 Desktop Systems

You may also want to consider the following subreddits, websites and forums that may be more appropriate for your question or issue.

/r/AMDHelp: In this subreddit, we discuss, troubleshoot, and share knowledge relating to AMD and their hardware and software products on all supported platforms.

PCPartPicker: PCPartPicker provides computer part selection, compatibility, and pricing guidance for do-it-yourself computer builders. Assemble your virtual part lists with PCPartPicker and we'll provide compatibility guidance with up-to-date pricing from dozens of the most popular online retailers. We make it easy to share your part list with others, and our community forums provide a great place to discuss ideas and solicit feedback.

/r/buildapc: Planning on building a computer but need some advice? This is the place to ask! /r/buildapc is a community-driven subreddit dedicated to custom PC assembly. Anyone is welcome to seek the input of our helpful community as they piece together their desktop.

/r/pcmasterrace: Welcome to the official subreddit of the PC Master Race / PCMR! All PC-related content is welcome, including build help, tech support, and any doubt one might have about PC ownership. You don't necessarily need a PC to be a member of the PCMR. You just have to love PCs. It's not about the hardware in your rig, but the software in your heart! Join us in celebrating and promoting tech, knowledge, and the best gaming, study, and work platform there exists. The Personal Computer.

OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) Forums: Discussion forums for OBS Studio, the free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.

/r/overclocking: All things overclocking go here. Learn to overclock, ask experienced users your questions, boast your rock-stable, sky-high OC and help others!

/r/techsupport: Stumped on a tech problem? Ask the community and try to help others with their problems as well

ASRock Forum: Wanna discuss or find out something for your ASRock products? Come and get in ASRock worldwide forums to chat with ASRock global users!

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) Forums: Discuss and discover the best ways to make the most out of your ROG gear.

MSI Global English Forum: Need more people to discuss with? Click here to find help.

/r/buildapcforme: A subreddit dedicated to helping those looking to assemble their own PC without having to spend weeks researching and trying to find the right parts. From basic budget PCs to HTPCs to high end gaming rigs and workstations, get the help you need designing a build that precisely fits your needs and budget.

/r/GamingLaptops: The hub for gaming laptop enthusiasts. Discover discussions, news, reviews, and advice on finding the perfect gaming laptop.

/r/SuggestALaptop: A place for prospective laptop buyers to get suggestions from people who know the intimate details of the hardware.

If you are having an issue with or need to raise an RMA for a product not directly from AMD, you may want to consider contacting the manufacturer of your laptop, graphics card, motherboard or system — below we have linked contact options for the most common brands and manufacturers.

XFX Support

SAPPHIRE Customer Service

PowerColor Service Support

MSI Service And Support

Gigabyte Support Services Center

ASRock Support

ASUS Support

Dell/Alienware Support

HP Customer Support

Lenovo Technical Support

ACER Support

READ BEFORE POSTING — READ BEFORE POSTING — READ BEFORE POSTING — READ BEFORE POSTING

If you are experiencing any issues, including, but not limited to; games or programs crashing, system crashes or hangs, blue screens of death (BSoD), driver timeouts, system not starting, system freezes, data corruption, system shutting down unexpectedly, visual artifacts, lower than expected performance or any other issue, please read and try the following before making a post, the majority of problems can be resolved by trying the steps listed below

The suggestions below are not necessarily in any particular order, if a step has already been performed or is not relevant, please move to the next step.

• If your system won't power on, make sure all cables are plugged in and seated correctly, that the power supply is plugged into a working wall outlet and any switches on the wall outlet or power supply are in the ON position. It's also worth check your front panel connectors to make sure they are connected properly and trying a different outlet.

• If you have any power related issues, like your system not starting, shutting down, sleeping, restarting or waking from sleep, try to test with another power supply, as unstable voltages (such as on the 12V, 5V, 5VSB and 3.3V rails) can cause a variety of issues that can be inconsistent and hard to diagnose.

• Make sure your memory modules (RAM) are installed in the primary DIMM slots, some motherboards will not POST (Power-on self-test) if the RAM is installed in the secondary DIMM slots. The primary slots should be labelled on the motherboard or specified in the motherboard manual.

• If your system does power on, but won't get past the POST screen, please ensure your CPU, RAM and GPU are installed correctly and try clearing the CMOS — this can normally be done by disconnecting the motherboard from power and removing the CMOS battery for a few minutes. Many motherboards also have clear CMOS reset jumpers or buttons you can use, please consult your motherboard or system manual on how to clear the CMOS.

• If your system still won't POST, check if your motherboard has a Debug LED and consult your motherboard manual to check what step it's stuck on. Make your motherboard is compatible with the CPU you have — most AM4 and AM5 motherboards should have BIOS flashback, allowing you to update the BIOS without needing the CPU or RAM installed. Consult your motherboard manual as the BIOS flashback procedure will very depending on the make and model. When using BIOS flashback, we recommend using a USB 2.0 drive that is 8GB or less and formatted as FAT32, as some implementations of BIOS flashback don't work reliably with USB 3.0 drives and/or USB drives larger than 8GB.

• If you are using an AMD Radeon RX 6000, AMD Radeon RX 7000 or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 GPU, please ensure you are using separate 6-8pin PCIe cables and not using daisy-chained or splitter cables, as these may not be able to supply sufficient power — some GPUs may have LED indicators by the connector to let you know if the GPU isn't receiving adequate power, please consult your GPU and PSU manual for more information on how to correctly power your GPU.

• Make sure your Monitor/TV is plugged into the HDMI or DisplayPort output from your graphics card and not the motherboard. If this still doesn't work, try a different Monitor/TV, if you are using any HDMI or DisplayPort adapters, converters or splitters, remove these and use a direct connection, try switching between HDMI and DisplayPort and try different HDMI or DisplayPort cables to rule out any problems here. For best results, always use certified HDMI or DisplayPort cables.

• Make sure you are running the latest software updates for your operating system, games and applications.

• Scan your PC for any viruses or malware using Windows Security (formerly Windows Defender) or other reputable Anti-Virus or Anti-Malware solution, as malware, viruses, adware and other unwanted software can cause crashes, freezes, hangs and other performance, security, stability and compatibility issues.

• Make sure you are running the latest AMD chipset and/or graphics drivers, note that some devices, such as laptops, desktops and handhelds, may have custom hardware IDs or other manufacturer changes, in which case, you may have to download drivers from the manufacturer of your device.

• If you need to reinstall GPU drivers, we recommend using the AMD Cleanup Utility or Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to perform a clean installation of the GPU drivers, a guide on how to use DDU can be found here

• If you have installed GPU drivers after using the AMD Cleanup Utility or DDU, you may experience stutter in some games while the shaders are cached again.

• If Windows Update is replacing your GPU drivers (example of what that looks like here) please view the following on the steps you can take.

• If you are on Windows 10 or Windows 11 and experience flickering, stuttering or brightness issues during gaming or video playback with hardware acceleration enabled, try disabling Multiplane Overlay (MPO), as some users have reported this has resolved their issues — more information on disabling MPO is available in this thread

• If a game is crashing, freezing, not starting, performing poorly or having other issues, please verify and repair the game files through Steam, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect, EA App, GOG Galaxy, Xbox App, Battle.net or whichever game client you are using.

• If a program is crashing, freezing, not starting, performing poorly or having other issues, please reinstall the program or attempt to repair the installation using the program installer/uninstaller.

• If you are on Windows and are experiencing stuttering or lower than expected performance, make sure you are using the Balanced or High Performance power plan and restore them to their default values, this can be checked under Control Panel > System and Security > Power Options.

• Make sure you are using the latest BIOS, Firmware and Drivers for your motherboard, laptop, desktop and any other components and peripherals you have connected to your system. These updates often contain bug fixes, new features and improve compatibility and interoperability.

• If you have any overclocks, underclocks, overvolts, undervolts, custom power curves or similar: revert everything to stock clocks, timings, voltages and settings, this includes disabling XMP/EXPO/DOCP — to do this, go into your BIOS and restore the factory settings — this is typically labelled 'Restore Default', 'Restore Optimized Defaults', 'Load Optimized Defaults' or some similar variation. If you are using other utilities like MSI Afterburner or Ryzen Master, you may also have to restore default settings in those utilities as well.

• If you experience crashes, freezes, unexpected shutdown or just want to check if your system is stable, you can stability test your system with the utilities linked below. Please remember that just because your system turns on, doesn't make it stable and that overclocking is not guaranteed and can vary depending on the setup you have and the silicon lottery of your CPU/GPU/RAM, you should always thoroughly stability test your system — many reading this post will have unstable systems and won't even know it.

OCCT — Ocbase is the home of OCCT, the most popular all-in-one stability / stress testing / benchmarking / monitoring tool available for PC.

Prime95 — Prime95 has been a popular choice for stress / torture testing a CPU since its introduction, especially with overclockers and system builders. Since the software makes heavy use of the processor's integer and floating point instructions, it feeds the processor a consistent and verifiable workload to test the stability of the CPU and the L1/L2/L3 processor cache. Additionally, it uses all of the cores of a multi-CPU / multi-core system to ensure a high-load stress test environment.

AIDA64 Extreme — AIDA64 Extreme is an industry-leading system information tool, loved by PC enthusiasts around the world, which not only provides extremely detailed information about both hardware and installed software, but also helps users diagnose issues and offers benchmarks to measure the performance of the computer.

Furmark 2 — FurMark 2 is the successor of the venerable FurMark 1 and is a very intensive GPU stress test on Windows (32-bit and 64-bit) and Linux (32-bit and 64-bit) platforms. It's also a quick OpenGL and Vulkan graphics benchmark with online scores.

MSI Kombustor — MSI Kombustor is MSI's exclusive burn-in benchmarking tool based on the well-known FurMark software. This program is specifically designed to push your graphics card to the limits to test stability and thermal performance. Kombustor supports cutting edge 3D APIs such as OpenGL or Vulkan.

MemTest86 — MemTest86 boots from a USB flash drive and tests the RAM in your computer for faults using a series of comprehensive algorithms and test patterns. Bad RAM is one of the most frustrating computer problems to have as symptoms are often random and hard to pin down. MemTest86 can help diagnose faulty RAM (or rule it out as a cause of system instability). As such it is often used by system builders, PC repair stores, overclockers & PC manufacturers.

MemTest86+ — Memtest86+ is a stand-alone memory tester for x86 and x86-64 architecture computers. It provides a more thorough memory check than that provided by BIOS memory tests. Memtest86+ can be loaded and run either directly by a PC BIOS (legacy or UEFI) or via an intermediate bootloader that supports the Linux 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit, or EFI handover boot protocol. It should work on any Pentium class or later 32-bit or 64-bit x86 CPU.

SeaTools — SeaTools – Quick diagnostic tool that checks the health of your drive.

For more advanced SSD and HDD diagnostic utilities, please check the website of your SSD or HDD manufacturer, as they usually offer specialised software to test the drive and update firmware, some examples include Samsung Magician, Western Digital Dashboard and the Crucial Storage Executive.

Some motherboards, laptops and desktops may also have built-in BIOS diagnostic utilities to stress test certain components or the entire system. Please consult your motherboard or system manual for more information.

A truly stable system should be able to run any of these utilities or built-in diagnostics without any crashes, freezes, errors or other issues. These utilities can help you narrow down which component(s) in your system are faulty, aren't installed correctly or have unstable overclocks, underclocks, overvolts, undervolts, custom power curves etc…

If you require help using any of these programs, please read the help sections on each website or use Google and YouTube, as there are a plethora of guides and tutorials available.

• If you have a custom built PC, recently upgraded, started overclocking or want to know if your current PSU will support a hardware upgrade, please use one of the below PSU calculator and make sure the PSU you have can supply enough power when your system is under full load — If your PSU isn't able to supply enough power, you are likely to have issues starting your system and may experience system shutdown when under load.

• PSU Calculators: FSP, OuterVision, Cooler Master, Seasonic, Newegg, be quiet!, MSI, you can also add all your components into PCPartPicker and it will provide an estimate wattage.

• If you are using Windows 10 or Windows 11, use the built-in System File Checker (SFC) and Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) commands to check for any corrupt or missing operating system files and attempt to repair them, a guide is available here

• Try and apply common sense to an issue, for example if you have flickering on your TV or Monitor, try simple things like changing the HDMI or DisplayPort cable and port on the GPU and display you are using. If you've recently installed a mod and that game now crashes, uninstall that mod. If one of your memory modules is no longer being detected, is there any physical damage to the memory module, DIMM slot on the motherboard or pins, have you tried reseating it etc…

If you have tried all of the above and are still facing the same issue, please backup any important files/data and completely reinstall your operating system using a USB drive.

Only use official Windows 10 or Windows 11 ISO images that come direct from Microsoft.

The latest Windows 10 and Windows 11 ISO images can be downloaded from the Microsoft website using the Media Creation Tool.

It's not recommended to use utilities or programs which modify Windows or to use 3rd party, custom or slimmed Windows ISO images, as these are non-standard ISO images, they could have viruses, malware and may cause stability and compatibility issues.

If you have done all the above steps and are still facing an issue, please follow the below template for submitting a request, the more detail you can include the better. If you post something like 'pc crashes', don't list your PC specifications, what you've tried to resolve the issue or don't provide any helpful information, then don't expect a response, as there's not enough useful information to go on and it will be assumed you haven't read this post or tried any of the steps outlined above.

Below is an example template you could use…

Summary of the issue: The Invincible will crash with Adrenalin 24.3.1 if you have Radeon Chill enabled and try to open the in-game overlay , this is not an issue if you revert to Adrenalin 24.2.1.

What I have tried to resolve the issue: I have reinstalled 24.3.1 with the AMD Cleanup Utility, reset my in-game graphics settings, verified game files in the Epic Games Store and confirmed the issue is still present if Radeon Chill is enabled.

System specifications:

• Operating System: Windows 11 23H2, OS Build 22631.3810 (to find OS build version, press the Windows Key + R and type winver)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, stock settings/no overclock, cooled by a Cooler Master Air MA824 Stealth
• GPU: PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Hellhound 16GB, stock settings/no overclock
• Motherboard: ASRock X670E Taichi with 3.01 BIOS
• RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB (F5-6000J3238F16GX2-TZ5NR) 32GB DDR5-6000 CL32 with EXPO profile enabled
• Storage: 2TB Corsair MP600 ELITE /w Heatsink
• PSU: 1000W Seasonic Focus GX-1000 80PLUS Gold
• Display: Samsung 27" Odyssey G55C with included DisplayPort cable

If you are using a prebuilt system or don't know your full specifications, please include the make and model of your system and as much information as you can, e.g, Alienware m16 Gaming Laptop (AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX, AMD Radeon™ RX 7600M XT, 16GB DDR5-4800, 1TB PCIe NVME SSD) with the latest 1.11.0 BIOS.

Please include any logs, dump files, videos, screenshots and images of the inside of your case and setup, as this will aid in answering questions relating to airflow, cabling and component installation.

We would like to reiterate that /r/AMD is community run and does not represent AMD in any capacity unless specified — there is no guarantee anything posted in this thread or subreddit will be seen by AMD.

If you have any suggestions on how to improve this megathread or the wikipedia, please message us with your suggestion.