The AMD GPU Issue - @DEVS: please acknowledge that this is not fixed!

  • Old Dutchbeard
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    Dear fellow pirates,
    Dear developers,

    I love this game, but;
    My game crashes randomly.
    A lot.
    And I know I am not the only one that is experiencing this problem. The problem first occured when I was playing the Alpha. It persisted during the Beta. And I really hoped it would be gone after the release.

    Sometimes I can play for 3 hours straight without any issues. Sometimes I crash after 2 minutes.
    It is a rage-quit inducing problem especially in the cases where you have been doing the missions and are about ready to hand your treasure in for your reward. It feels like wasting time (more than usual, with gaming).

    If I'm playing with my friends it's annoying, but at least I can get back into the session. If I'm playing solo, all progress is lost. If I'm playing with randoms I feel guilty for just disappearing on them and leaving them without giving them a reason and I lose my progress just like when playing solo.

    I'm playing on PC.
    OS: Windows 10
    GPU: AMD Radeon R9 270x (driver: 18.3.3)
    CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K
    RAM: 8GB DDR3

    I have tried multiple solutions that I've ran into after some google-f*.

    1. I keep my driver up to date, currently 18.3.3.
    2. I tried reverting to older drivers, including 17.10.2.
    3. My lighting setting in game is set to Cursed. Looks like s**t.
    4. In AMD Radeon settings I turned off shader caching.

    This problem doesn't occur in any other games.

    Here is a bunch of other people reporting the same issue:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/85yah3/amd_gpu_crashes_not_fixed_since_beta/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/85ooa8/anyone_else_has_crash_problems_with_amd_graphic/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/86a3rg/my_girlfriend_got_this_error_her_graphics_card_is/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/7zu4tc/amd_issues_still_not_resolved_i_see_really_hope/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/86cahr/amd_gpus_crashing/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/7ztelt/amd_users_unplayable/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/7ylce6/game_crashing_with_amd_graphics/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/7k9cij/amd_game_crashes_are_infuriating/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/865ju8/amd_crash_potential_fix/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/860155/constant_crashes_every_10_minutes/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/85s1a8/crashing_all_the_time/

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/39117/game-stability-amd-pc

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/38195/amd-drivers-still-crashing-in-launch-build/2

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/35960/game-keeps-crashing-after-a-couple-minutes-of-playing-amd-pc/5

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/35546/amd-18-3-1-drivers-still-crashing/3

    What I was able to find about this on Rare's end:
    https://support.seaofthieves.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360000490227-Troubleshoot-Experiencing-regular-crashes-during-gameplay-or-when-resizing-the-window?flash_digest=e70dca887f7297f3dc5a9b88b6fcaa2d271cf16c
    Did not fix it.
    https://support.seaofthieves.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360000490347-Troubleshoot-Driver-crash-during-gameplay
    Did not fix it.

    I'm on a 2 week free trial period for Xbox Game Pass. If Rare doesn't at least acknowledge that this is a problem that still persists within the next two weeks I'll be cancelling my Game Pass and I will not be buying this game of course.

    I'm not angry about the bug being there. s**t happens, bugs happen, it's a new game. I'm angry about Rare being so silent regarding this issue especially since it has been a thing since Alpha.

    /rant

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  • CapnLimbless

    Welcome to the angry mob. I lost a 270X that wasn't worth a lot to me (in the test rig I use for betas and other risky business), but it would cost me double to replace it at this moment.

    This is a huge issue because it causes bad VRAM blocks eventually. A lot of us have sent emails to AMD about it and they claim that Rare has made no effort to work with them to fix it. Possible those customer service reps didn't know, but that sounds accurate since it's still happening.

  • El Espectro 0
    Founder

    @capnlimbless "Rare has not done anything..." Sure, and AMD did not take months to fix the first issue (Alpha).

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/27286/constant-lockups-and-crashes-on-windows-10-no-info-to-troubleshoot/7

    This showed that the first issues were the fault of AMD and not of Rare:
    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/27284/game-crashing-when-approaching-islands-or-after-about-an-hour-of-play/12

    29 days ago:
    icstatic said in PC Loading Times:

    tutorialchimp said in PC Loading Times:

    icstatic said in PC Loading Times:

    So, what’s next? Our PC team is working h*****n getting the game ready for release. This includes security work, lots of bug fixes such as fixing launch and install issues, plus further compatibility work.

    With lots of work still left to do, the PC team is focused on ensuring as many people as possible get the best possible experience of our great water. Smooth sailing everyone!

    Please tell me that among the "compatibility work" is also working with AMD. I've been juggling with different drivers since I've been invited to the alpha in November and I just really want to play this game without freezes and crashes.

    Tell me you will fix the AMD before launch and I will preorder the very same minute.

    Good news! We have indeed made progress on this in the last few days. We're still working with AMD to get the new driver ready for launch, but we've two bits of information. This is not official, but here's a quick summary before I get the proper stuff written.

    Proper info on this is coming very soon, as are hopefully proper fixes. As a result of our attempt to track this down, performance on AMD GPUs is temporarily a bit lower as we've got some diagnostics turned on.

    Right now I have only had two freezes in three days. I have an RX 480 and I am using version 18.3.1.

    I will not deny that the issues of now could be the cause of the game and not of AMD.
    But I do know that the Spanish support of AMD had no idea of the problem (I was asked to reinstall Windows -_-)

  • CapnLimbless

    @el-espectro-0 said in The AMD GPU Issue - @DEVS: please acknowledge that this is not fixed!:

    @capnlimbless "Rare has not done anything..." Sure, and AMD did not take months to fix the first issue.

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/27286/constant-lockups-and-crashes-on-windows-10-no-info-to-troubleshoot/7

    icstatic said in PC Loading Times:

    tutorialchimp said in PC Loading Times:

    icstatic said in PC Loading Times:

    So, what’s next? Our PC team is working h*****n getting the game ready for release. This includes security work, lots of bug fixes such as fixing launch and install issues, plus further compatibility work.

    With lots of work still left to do, the PC team is focused on ensuring as many people as possible get the best possible experience of our great water. Smooth sailing everyone!

    Please tell me that among the "compatibility work" is also working with AMD. I've been juggling with different drivers since I've been invited to the alpha in November and I just really want to play this game without freezes and crashes.

    Tell me you will fix the AMD before launch and I will preorder the very same minute.

    Good news! We have indeed made progress on this in the last few days. We're still working with AMD to get the new driver ready for launch, but we've two bits of information. This is not official, but here's a quick summary before I get the proper stuff written.

    Proper info on this is coming very soon, as are hopefully proper fixes. As a result of our attempt to track this down, performance on AMD GPUs is temporarily a bit lower as we've got some diagnostics turned on.

    This showed that the first issues were the fault of AMD and not of Rare:
    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/27284/game-crashing-when-approaching-islands-or-after-about-an-hour-of-play/12

    Right now I have only had two freezes in three days. I have an RX 480 and I am using version 18.3.1.

    I will not deny that the issues of now could be the cause of the game and not of AMD.
    But I do know that the Spanish support of AMD had no idea of the problem (I was asked to reinstall Windows -_-)

    Yeah... that's not how quoting works. You don't put words in someone's mouth and then put quotations around it. I said the AMD reps told me they had received no response from Rare when asked for data to fix the problem. That has nothing to do with your straw man argument there.

  • El Espectro 0
    Founder

    @capnlimbless As I said, I am not denying that the current issue is from Rare, I am just trying to tell you that the issues from November to January were not the fault of the game.

    I just wanted to add more information to the topic, since it is not entirely true, sorry if I bothered you :)

    In addition, during the open beta I have also seen similar issues with Nvidia users and that is what makes me think that the current issue is from the game.

    Edit: Reviewing my post, I realize that I did not want to mention you but the OP 😅.

  • Old Dutchbeard
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    @el-espectro-0
    I don't understand what you are trying to tell me.

  • El Espectro 0
    Founder

    @ab-3129 What I want to say is that it is not entirely true that Rare has not said anything about the issues during the Alpha and the closed beta.

    As for the current issues, it is true that they have not said anything.

    I just wanted to make that clear and try to offer you some information about what we know so far.

    Just one question, have you tried to contact SoT support without reporting it as a bug?
    The bug reporting system automatically closes the ticket when a solution is not known.

  • Old Dutchbeard
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    @el-espectro-0
    I haven't. I'll try to find where to do that.
    Due to the amount of complaints that I found about this in a single google search, I figured this isn't the kind of problem that is something on my end (other than having an AMD Radeon R200 / 300 / 400 / 500 series GPU). Creating a ticket doesn't seem productive.

  • NoobSniper6969
    Seafarer

    Had this problem since the open beta. Created a ticket and they told me to turn my lighting detail to cursed and turn off my shader cache, which I did. Happens maybe once every couple of hours. It's not a huge deal for me since I only play with friends, but it would be nice to have a fix.

  • El Espectro 0
    Founder

    @ab-3129 What really misses me is why I do not have as many crashes as most.

    I have the same graphic card as before, the only thing that has changed has been the motherboard, the ram and the microprocessor.

    I will post my specifications here in case that helps in something:

    • RX 480 8Gb
    • 16Gb Ram
    • RYZEN 7 1700X 3.8GHZ
    • Asrock Fatal1ty X370 Gaming X
    • Corsair VS550 550W (Just in case)
  • SturmGorilla941

    Still crashing as hell, all ppl with amd Cards Crash the same time in the Crew, sometimes one just got a lag a Moment and "survive" and the others Crash... So the game is unplayable! We lost around 10k Gold at least already because if all Crash thats it boot with loot gone thats just stupid... at least let us in ourer old boot if you cant fix this crashes

  • Blam320
    Legend
    Insider

    I use an RX 480, and I never encountered any issues during the final beta. The only problem I have with Radeon cards and software is their current instability with high-refresh-rate monitors.

  • NoBlackThunder
    Ship Mate
    Founder

    I looked at that one screen that said " Video driver crashed" .. Honestly as far as i know thats not a game issue. A game should never crash a driver unless something is wrong with the driver it self. Now ! AMD has done huge advancements when it comes to quality of there GPU drivers over the years. But i fear this might still be a bad written driver on there side maybe. Sea of Thieves uses the Unreal engine and in general developers mostly dont write any thing them self when it comes to the graphics engine and pre made game engines. I see its an older 200 series GPU from amd .. and sadly it could just be that amd has stopped fixing those drivers mostly and do rarer updates on those drivers now ( but they are still in the latest driver packages? ) Its hard to say. What i wanna say is that this might not be rares fault

  • NightHawk9342

    I've done everything under the sun to get my game to run the past few days. some sessions I don't crash, and some sessions I crash after the first hour. It's on AMD side I wouldn't really blame Rare for the issue. but I feel you man. I lost nearly 30 chest as I was pulling into an outpost. I skipped anger completely and went straight to laughing. Hopefully AMD has been made aware of the issue and they will have a new driver update in a week or so.

  • GlassFungus

    I also have the AMD Radeon R9 X270 and experience constant crashes since beta. I hope Rare is working with AMD to get this resolved ASAP. I've since had my game refunded but would gladly repurchase once this issue has been resolved. Rare, please keep us updated with the resolution.

  • Old Dutchbeard
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    Update:
    I have been playing for a good couple of hours yesterday and I didn't crash once. I didn't change anything on my end. I don't know what the difference is.

    There were a couple of stutters and freezes that lasted for 1 or 2 seconds where I thought: 'there it goes..' every now and then, but it recovered every time.

    Will post again on relevant changes.

    Another update: I just crashed again.

  • Soggy Breeches
    Seafarer
    Insider

    There are three potential culprits here: Microsoft, AMD, and Rare.

    I have had either the Xbox app crash, the video driver crash, or the game freeze nearly every time I play.

    More than once my entire computer just went blank and restarted by itself. Usually it is one of a couple "video driver failed" errors. The Xbox app will crash occasionally.

    It seems like an optimization issue or some weird MS sync/phone home service that overloads/interrupts the video driver in some way. I imagine Rare and AMD are working well together, but trying to get Microsoft to help is probably pretty hit or miss for them and dependent on the MS tech or admin working the tickets.

    Regardless, these are obviously global and not local issues and a fix will really make a difference in the enjoyment level of the game for AMD users...which is a huge amount of players.

    R9 280
    Fx-6300

  • Khiven
    Marauder

    @soggy-breeches said in The AMD GPU Issue - @DEVS: please acknowledge that this is not fixed!:

    There are three potential culprits here: Microsoft, AMD, and Rare.

    I have had either the Xbox app crash, the video driver crash, or the game freeze nearly every time I play.

    More than once my entire computer just went blank and restarted by itself. Usually it is one of a couple "video driver failed" errors. The Xbox app will crash occasionally.

    It seems like an optimization issue or some weird MS sync/phone home service that overloads/interrupts the video driver in some way. I imagine Rare and AMD are working well together, but trying to get Microsoft to help is probably pretty hit or miss for them and dependent on the MS tech or admin working the tickets.

    Regardless, these are obviously global and not local issues and a fix will really make a difference in the enjoyment level of the game for AMD users...which is a huge amount of players.

    R9 280
    Fx-6300

    Exactly same issue here. I have R9 280 as well and I7 4770K and having these crashes... Hopefully they are working on this and have not forgotten about all of us...

  • Siberion24
    Founder

    Same problem. Seems to crash every time a few minutes after I pick up something I can sell (chest, skull, vase)

    System specs:
    i5 8600K
    16GB 3200MHz RAM
    z370 Gaming-F ROG Strix MoBo
    2 X MSI R9 390
    AMD Driver 18.3.4

    I also have the issues with the HUD and conversation system being all buggy an glitchy.
    Anyone have the same problem?

  • El Espectro 0
    Founder

    Rare is aware of the issue and they are working on it.
    From this post, there are a few more icStatic posts on the subject.
    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/31308/are-amd-crashes-going-to-be-fixed-by-launch/58?page=2

    I hope they fix it soon.

    @Siberion24 If you are referring to this issue with the HUD, no solution is yet known :(

  • spec24

    @capnlimbless

    Yeah... that's not how quoting works. You don't put words in someone's mouth and then put quotations around it. I said the AMD reps told me they had received no response from Rare when asked for data to fix the problem. That has nothing to do with your straw man argument there.

    That happens a lot on these forums.

  • El Espectro 0
    Founder

    @spec24 I have already apologized for that, my fault 😅.

  • spec24

    @el-espectro-0 No worries. It's just happened to me like 5 times already :)

  • Siberion24
    Founder

    @el-espectro-0 said in The AMD GPU Issue - @DEVS: please acknowledge that this is not fixed!:

    @Siberion24 If you are referring to this issue with the HUD, no solution is yet known :(

    No, I'm experiencing another issue where:

    • When talking to NPC's the previous line is still displayed, usually under the current line, and sometimes glitches through
    • The Health bar is randomly interlaced with black and white vertical lines
    • When going to the vanity or clothing chests, no preview is shown
    • A lot of random blinking in menu's

    I just wondered if these were related to the driver crash issue.

  • El Espectro 0
    Founder

    @siberion24 I do not remember seeing anyone mention that in the forums (at least I), so I recommend you contact the support for that.

    Raise a ticket (it may take a while to fully load)

  • Siberion24
    Founder

    @el-espectro-0 said in The AMD GPU Issue - @DEVS: please acknowledge that this is not fixed!:

    @siberion24 I do not remember seeing anyone mention that in the forums (at least I), so I recommend you contact the support for that.

    Raise a ticket (it may take a while to fully load)

    I'll try to get some footage and contact support tonight.
    Tnx for your input.

  • R00TBR

    I have the same issues even with 18.3.4 ............

  • TriplePlayed
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    Perhaps you should contact support?

  • Bane Silvermoon

    For the record, this happens with Vega 64 as well, so it's not about older cards. And it's anecdotal, but in a year with this rig, I've never had a video crash with any other game, so it seems to possibly be some combination of factors specific to running SoT.

    I've also noticed a clear pattern of it happening more frequently when streaming, particularly if the stream quality is cranked up. So it may be somehow related to load. Perhaps something screwy causing spikes, and thus being more likely to overload it when it's already running close to peak.

    Either way, I can sometimes play for hours before I crash if I don't stream. But if I try to fire up twitch, either with obs or Radeon relive, I MIGHT get twenty minutes. Crashed 6 times in a few hours last night. Turned off streaming. Played for three hours without a single crash.

  • Siberion24
    Founder

    So a little update on my issues mentioned above.
    Yesterday evening while troubleshooting and trying to get some footage, I disabled Crossfire for my dual R9 390's.
    Low and behold, a frame drop of about 15-20 FPS but ALL visual bugs/glitches disappeared. YAY!
    Not only that but the frequency of crashes went down severely. Double YAY!
    (From once every 10-15 minutes to once in the last 6 hours of gameplay)

    @bane-silvermoon
    This seems to be similar to what you noticed when disabling streaming.

    I wonder if it might be a GPU bandwidth issue instead of a load issue...

  • Bane Silvermoon

    @siberion24 Using AMD Link, my GPU utilization does pretty much lock in at 99% while playing SoT.

  • SavageStevo

    AMD card here and having the same freezes. My wife sitting beside me on Nvidia has not crashed once and my graphics card is much better than hers ): I have never come across any issues with any other game before. I disabled the shader cache and have all the settings on common (lighting on cursed) when I should be playing on rare settings at least.....

    I like to play solo when my wife or friends are not online but at the moment there is a 50% chance on any voyage that I will freeze and lose everything.... It is unplayable. Even when I play with friends I am not reliable. Doing a skull fort, driving the galleon and suddenly I DC.....excellent.

    In my opinion the fault lies with Rare as they should have identified this sooner and worked with AMD to get it fixed BEFORE releasing a broken product. I am so disappointed as I really like the game but it looks like I will have to stop playing. Never buying an AMD card again.....and I really feel like Rare have let me down.

  • PsychKenn1082

    Just to add my voice to the mix here. I'm having the same issue. No other games at launch has done this. This needs to be addressed so that I can continue playing this game.

  • Tesla010
    Marauder

    R9 270X Windforce 4gb
    FX-8320 3.5ghz
    8gb ram

    Game has been unplayable. I have not once been able to actually "finish" a play session. I've lost close to 100k in gold and 40+ hours because of these game breaking issues. Thankfully I'm using the game pass trial, but still frustrating to never actually be able to enjoy the game.

  • HentaiAsobi

    Hei, just wanted to add that i too have the same Problem (AMD HD7950) and i contacted Support and all that stuff like you guys did.
    I really hope that they actually do something soon.
    It´s unacceptable that the Game runs like it does right now:
    -) Graphics Card Driver crashes since Alpha
    -) Bad Servers at Launch
    -) Losing Gold and Progress because of those Servers and because of crashes

    They need to fix this and they need to do it now. (Actually considering how long they´ve been working on this, they should´ve fixed this a week ago)

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