Hd 7870 Faulty card?

[Malilk]

Hi guys,

Just installed a new hd 7870 this morning. Set up was fine, deleted old drivers,installed new ones, everything is fine.

Tried to play sniper elite. After ~30 secs into the game (not the menus the game itself) i get artifacts all over the screen and it freezes. Attempt to play skyrim and same problem.

Read the threads about similar issues with the card but this seems different. After a little investigating I noticed the problem occurs 5-10 secs after it enters "high performance mode". Doing a simple render test using GPU-z artifacts appear and the display driver restarts soon after activity hits 100%

I've under-clocking it and increasing power available in CCC but it hasn't fixed it

Is it just a bad card or could it be something else?

Pc specs: Amd Athalon II x4 620
Gigabyte ma770-ud3
radeon hd 7870 oem
2 corsair 2GB ddr2

 

[popatim]

What power supply do you have and how old is it?

 

[Malilk]

I honestly can't tell. All it says on the PSU is switching power supply along with its technical specs and a serial number. No indication of a manufacturer. It is a 550w thats 4-5 years old.

 

[MakotoSGT]

I honestly can't tell. All it says on the PSU is switching power supply along with its technical specs and a serial number. No indication of a manufacturer. It is a 550w thats 4-5 years old.

uninstall new driver, install old one.

 

[Malilk]

Ive tried 12.11b,12.10 and the one that came with the card itself (either 12.8 or 12.7) same thing happens. should i go back further?

 

[MakotoSGT]

thats enough.
i guess it appears when you give your gpu a heavy load, you sure your GPU is at good tempratures when u do some heavy gaming?

 

[Malilk]

I only got it today so i haven't had the chance to game. It artifacts and freezes ~10 seconds after the clocks speed up.

I tried running the gpuz render test again and this time the screen went entirely green. when i force restarted it artifacts appeared from boot then it blue screened. so i think its almost definitely the card.

My only concern is when my last card (5770) gave out it went the same way. artifacts under load then artifacts from boot (it lasted 4 years though). Could the PSU be breaking the cards or is it just manufacturing on AMD's part?

 

[MakotoSGT]

its the GPU, take it back...
Sigh, atleast you can boot up with ur gpu. mine wont even boot up. :\

You bought it today, so u wont have any problem with taking it back to the retailer to fix it for you. good luck

 

[Malilk]

Lucky i've an old gt 220 to fall back on till i get the next. thanks for your help

 

[popatim]

I'd be replacing a 4-5yr old no-name PSU with a nice quality unit. Keep in mind the 7870 needs about 15a continous from the 12v line

 

[Malilk]

I'd be replacing a 4-5yr old no-name PSU with a nice quality unit. Keep in mind the 7870 needs about 15a continous from the 12v line

I'm thinking of doing that anyway. Better safe than sorry. Any recommendations?