Bought a faulty 290x, please suggest what to do.

[Petras86]

Hello.

So I never buy used things on eBay, but one night I went to check how much a used 290x costs...
So, like an absolute idiot, I ended up buying a 290x "spares or repairs" for £150, thinking that i got a great deal for a "used" 290x...
Returning it is not an option, since I f`d up here.
Selling it on eBay would cost advert placing fee+ final sale price fee+ eBay`s service usage fee...
I'm also not at all looking forward to putting it into the oven, but it`s only these two solutions that I know of.

Thank you in advance.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

No other answer other than the fixes you've already researched.

Just take it as a lesson learned and learn to read listings next time.

 

[divingman25]

If you do not want to sell the graphics card on ebay, then try to see what is wrong with it and attempt to fix it.

 

[Petras86]

If you do not want to sell the graphics card on ebay, then try to see what is wrong with it and attempt to fix it.

But how? It starts artifacting soon after any 3D load. I don`t think it's heat causing it, because it happens too quickly for components to heat up and I set all the fans on 100%, yet it makes no difference.
I believe it`s GPU artifacts and not vRAM, since I've seen quite a few vRAM ones on my previous graphics cards while overclocking...

 

[weilin]

you can always contact the manufacturer and see if they're willing to do an out of warranty repair. You send them to defective card, they send you a refurb card. Last time I did this (Sapphire Tech) it only cost me $100 to get it fixed.

 

[beetlejuicegr]

If it is artifacting then you most likely need a REBALLING or REFLOW of the gpu,

luckily if you reflow/reball from a professional, shouldnt cost more than 100 so in theory you got a good price 290x/

Most of the times artifacting is made from the gpu processor that has issues , was overheating for long at previous user and has some connections faulty to the gpu board.

 

[Petras86]

A £100 or $100 =]? Because it's almost a full price of a decent NEW 290x...
I did the oven thing this weekend and it DID get better... But I really don't want to do it again, since I used 200*C for 10mins and that is pretty much the max, as much as I've read...
Today I was playing GTaV just to see how and when artifacting starts and I didn't get them for around 10mins and they were smaller and rarer than before.

 

[beetlejuicegr]

R9 290x are over 250GBP man, ( https://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?catid=56&groupid=701&sortby=priceAsc&subid=1752 ) so even if you payed 80 GBP (i assume the prices are about there for reballing) you should be fine. Plus most services give you a warranty period. I think it's totally worth it.

Oven thing = worse case scenario, you might have destroyed another component, and 10 minutes is way too much btw. This is a dangerous "reflow" that could destroy your 150gbp investment.

I strongly suggest to reball the card and enjoy max fps in all games in ultra settings on a price still under 280GBP...

 

[Petras86]

My plan was to buy a cheaper one and to get aftermarket cooling for it... Now it's a artifacting card that's been in the oven and is not exactly worth risking repairing, that is also LOUD as hell... =]
I wouldn't call it "investment", but more like a major screw-up...