[SOLVED] Do I have a PSU or a GPU problem?

[bam2500]

I build my computer last December but was unable to get a new GPU so I used my old one which is a Gigabyte 1060. I have had no problems with it since.
PSU: Super Flower Leadex III Gold HG series 850W 80 Plus Gold.

I "won" the Newegg lottery and got a Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 3080 MASTER 10G (rev. 2.0) Graphics card. I installed the card and as soon as I powered the computer on it started to act funny. It seemed to restart as soon as I turned it on. Then it made it all the way to the desktop but was stuttering. The screen would turn black and come back on. I tried to download the newest driver but the download was taking forever. The download would then pause and after a second or two the screen would turn black and come back then the download would continue. After this happened a couple times I turned off the computer. I have reinstalled my 1060 and have had no issues since. I downloaded the newest Nvidia drivers and installed them, I didn't do a complete uninstall of the old drivers.

I do have a much older power supply (almost 9 years old now) that I could try to use except it is not modular, is only 750W, and is currently in use in a different computer.

Can anybody offer me advice on what I should do to narrow down my problem?

Thank you

MOBO: MSI MPG B550 Gaming Edge Wifi
PSU: Super Flower Leadex III Gold HG series 850W 80 Plus Gold
Ram: 32gb

 

[Ralston18]

I am not familiar with "Super Flower" PSU's so no sense of quality, performance, and reliability.

Also be sure that you have not mixed and matched PSU cables from other PSUs.

Overall, though the PSU very suspect - but for other reasons....

This GPU?

https://www.ushopmall.com/gigabyte-...MIyL6ekaaN8gIVAfCzCh3nHAMhEAQYAiABEgI5wvD_BwE

Recommended PSU is 850 watts for GPU alone.

The PSU may simply be unable to meet the power requirements being demanded by your build and all the more so because of the new RTX 3080.

 

[rolli59]

I am not familiar with "Super Flower" PSU's so no sense of quality, performance, and reliability.

Also be sure that you have not mixed and matched PSU cables from other PSUs.

Overall, though the PSU very suspect - but for other reasons....

This GPU?

https://www.ushopmall.com/gigabyte-...MIyL6ekaaN8gIVAfCzCh3nHAMhEAQYAiABEgI5wvD_BwE

Recommended PSU is 850 watts for GPU alone.

The PSU may simply be unable to meet the power requirements being demanded by your build and all the more so because of the new RTX 3080.

The 850 watt is for the total system and Super Flower is a quality PSU most of the best EVGA PSU's of the past were made by them.

@op
Changes are that the card is faulty so if it has the same symptoms if you install it in the other computer with the 750PSU it would confirm it.

 

[bam2500]

The 850 watt is for the total system and Super Flower is a quality PSU most of the best EVGA PSU's of the past were made by them.

@op
Changes are that the card is faulty so if it has the same symptoms if you install it in the other computer with the 750PSU it would confirm it.

Would it matter that the old computer is still on Windows XP? Also, the old power supply has (4) 8-pin PCI-E connectors but they are two on one 12v rail and two on another 12v rail, would that cause a problem? I was leaning toward the GPU since it was doing it on the regular desktop with nothing else going on.

 

[Ralston18]

@rolli59 - good point, well taken. Thanks.

@bam2500 - my thought is to take a closer look at your computer's power requirements.

Best Power Supplies of 2021 - Top PSUs for Gaming PCs | Tom's Hardware

Not with the intent of immediately going out and purchasing a new PSU.

Just use 2 or 3 of the calculators to total up the power demands of your computer. Do your own manual wattage tally as well. If a component provides a ranges of wattage values - use the high end value.

Look for a consensus value of the total required wattage.

Determine how much margin you have between PSU wattage and system wattage requirements.

 

[rolli59]

The card will most likely not be supported on an XP system and probably needs to have a mobo with UEFI bios to work.

 

[bam2500]

@rolli59 - good point, well taken. Thanks.

@bam2500 - my thought is to take a closer look at your computer's power requirements.

Best Power Supplies of 2021 - Top PSUs for Gaming PCs | Tom's Hardware

Not with the intent of immediately going out and purchasing a new PSU.

Just use 2 or 3 of the calculators to total up the power demands of your computer. Do your own manual wattage tally as well. If a component provides a ranges of wattage values - use the high end value.

Look for a consensus value of the total required wattage.

Determine how much margin you have between PSU wattage and system wattage requirements.

@Ralston18 I used https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator and it says 608W with adding in everything in my computer and any external devices.

 

[dotas1]

The 850 watt is for the total system and Super Flower is a quality PSU most of the best EVGA PSU's of the past were made by them.

@op
Changes are that the card is faulty so if it has the same symptoms if you install it in the other computer with the 750PSU it would confirm it.

I agree that it's a good PSU but I would NOT recommend trying it in the other system because:

I do have a much older power supply (almost 9 years old now)

A 9 year old PSU of questionable quality/unknown brand mixed with a 3000 series GPU is a disaster waiting to happen. You might damage any/all hardware of that system including the very expensive GPU. Big NO.

To me it seems like it's GPU related and if you want to try in another system, make sure it has a good PSU that has not been in service for more than a few (3-4) years.

 

[bam2500]

I agree that it's a good PSU but I would NOT recommend trying it in the other system because:

A 9 year old PSU of questionable quality/unknown brand mixed with a 3000 series GPU is a disaster waiting to happen. You might damage any/all hardware of that system including the very expensive GPU. Big NO.

To me it seems like it's GPU related and if you want to try in another system, make sure it has a good PSU that has not been in service for more than a few (3-4) years.

I figured it being 9 years old would be too old. I managed to find the paperwork on it. It is a Antec HCG750 80 Plus Bronze.

 

[rolli59]

I figured it being 9 years old would be too old. I managed to find the paperwork on it. It is a Antec HCG750 80 Plus Bronze.

Good quality in its time.
I am writing this on a rig that still has a 12year old Corsair TX650 with all voltages still fine.

 

[bam2500]

Good quality in its time.
I am writing this on a rig that still has a 12year old Corsair TX650 with all voltages still fine.

If I cannot find somebody who has a rig that they would let me try this GPU in is there a brick and mortar store that would have some kind of service that would allow me to try it out or what is my best option?

 

[geofelt]

First, I would download and save the nvidia driver file using the 1060.
Install the driver as a clean install. That will remove old driver files as well as possibly bad settings.
Assuming that goes ok on the 1060, try the 3080.
You might want to rerun the driver install with the 3080 in place.

Yes, the particular 3080 is a highly overclocked version that needs three 8 pin connectors.
I think I read that the the 3000 series can be particularly demanding with transient power demand spikes that an older gen psu may not be able to handle.
While your psu is of excellent quality, it may not be able to handle this particular type of demand.
One option is to buy a new gen psu with plenty of power.
Buy from a shop with a good return policy. Expect to pay a 15% return fee.

Thought:
Is there possibly a mobo bios update that might be relevant?