Bad GPU or bad PSU

[eikichi]

Hi there,

Recently I've upgraded my GPU from 570GTX to Palit Super JetStream 780GTX

Complete setup:
Intel Core i7 2600K
Asus P8Z68-V PRO
Corsair 2 x 4GB @ 9-9-9-24
(SSD)OCZ Vertex 4 256GB
Palit Super JetStream 780GTX @ 990MHz, Boost @ 1033MHz
Cooler Master Silent Pro 700Watt
Windows 8.1 PRO

This PC was build in 2011 if I am not mistaken, as a dev/gaming machine. Playing games like BF4, Crysis 2, Metro last light, Titanfall and the latest Assassins Creed causes either the PC to fully crash or just the game to crash, for instance, windows needs to closes the application etc. I use the latest nvidia drivers and always perform a clean installation using driver cleaner.


What I've done to test the stability of the system so far is to run,
memtest86+ for 10+ hours with no error,
Unigine benchmark for 2+ hours with no errors
FurMark for 2+ hours with no errors
OCCT PSU test had an error after 17 minutes, so I stopped after that.

The 780GTX temps don't go higher than 70C and the fans never more than 50%.

Playing games with my old 570GTX runs fine with no problems, so I didn't bother running the above benchmakrs to see if there are differences.

The 780GTX was bought brand new 3 weeks ago, I've been facing problems ever since. There were a couple of things that threw off, the card was not in an anti-static bag and the boost frequency goes up to 1097MHz rather than 1033Mhz as advertised. GPU-Z posts this BIOS version 80.80.21.00.58

Furthermore, could my PSU started failing after 3 years of use?

Basically I am stuck, I cannot figure out what's wrong, my ssd failing or my GPU failing or my PSU?

Please help, how should I proceed? I was thinking to start by getting a new PSU.

Regards,
John

 

[Neoaculus]

Yes, get a new 800 watt power supply for your build. This should fix your problems.

 

[eikichi]

It is very odd though, how come a 3 year old PSU degrades like this. Furthermore, I would assume that my system does not require more than 550Watts. So even if my PSU cannot produce the advertised power it should still be able to handle it.

 

[RobCrezz]

I doubt its the PSU to be honest. I would RMA the card if the 570 works fine in your computer.

 

[OnkelCannabia]

It is very odd though, how come a 3 year old PSU degrades like this. Furthermore, I would assume that my system does not require more than 550Watts. So even if my PSU cannot produce the advertised power it should still be able to handle it.

The test with your PSU suggest of course that it is your PSU. It is powerful enough to run the GTX 780 in theory and is also good enough quality that you wouldn't expect it to break after 3 years. You might just have had bad luck with the PSU. The 780 puts a load of extra load on the PSU, so it might have had issues before, but you just didn't notice. I can't exclude the GPU as a source of error 100% either.

If you have a chance to test your system with a different PSU or an equally power hungry GPU try that out. Or maybe you can install the GPU in a friend's system and test it there? It would be a shame to replace a high quality PSU just to find out it was the GPU after all.

 

[AshyCFC]

That PSU is known to not output the wattage advertised so MAY be a problem.

There's only a 30W difference in power consumption between the 780 and 570 but that still may be enough to not allow your PSU to run it.

In all honesty, I would upgrade the PSU to a top quality unit if you want to use a top quality graphics card.

 

[eikichi]

Palit on their website suggests that you need 250Watt to run it. Let's assume that my i7 2600K needs 95W and just to be sure let's say that remaining devices; motherboard, 1 x ssd, 1 x dvd-rw require another 150W to 200W, which they don't. That barerly adds up to 600W.

Also note that I am not overclocking the system. It's all set to optimized defaults.

Any suggestions on the PSU? How expensive should it be? Should I go for 750Watt or 800Watt+

I feel like it's waste of both money and wattage..

 

[AshyCFC]

600W is fine.

How much would you be wiling to spend?

 

[eikichi]

I was thinking no more than £100-120. The point is that I already have 700Watt PSU which is not performing well, how come 600W will be fine?

I would be happy if I can get away with it, with less than £100. My requirements is performance obviously and low noise. I was looking at one of those fully-modular ones..

 

[RobCrezz]

I was thinking no more than £100-120. The point is that I already have 700Watt PSU which is not performing well, how come 600W will be fine?

I would be happy if I can get away with it, with less than £100. My requirements is performance obviously and low noise. I was looking at one of those fully-modular ones..

I really doubt its your PSU at fault, in this case.

 

[eikichi]

If the card was failing, shouldnt I get artifacts on the screen or something like nvidia driver error/crash. The only thing I get is game crashing "Windows need to close the game.exe" etc or a BSOD.

Computer management shows a lot of critical errors which are kernel-power related meaning that the pc did not shutdown properly.

 

[RobCrezz]

Not always, depends on what is faulty with the card.

And the fact it wasn't in a anti static bag, sounds like it was a faulty return.

 

[RobCrezz]

That said, without having another PSU you cant see for sure.

 

[eikichi]

That's also what I suspect, but why should a well-known retailer do something like that, what's the benefit apart from making a bad name about themselves. The retailer I am referring to is south-east based, near Portsmouth.

 

[RobCrezz]

Scan? Might be it was a mistake and it was never meant to go back out.

 

[eikichi]

No, not them. I don't want to mention the name because it may have been a fluke.