Is my Radeon 7850 defective?

[solarmuffin]

I just recently got a brand new computer from geeks.com. The model is a CyberPowerPC and the graphics card inside is an AMD Radeon HD 7850. The computer and card work well when I do anything else on the PC like surfing the web, watching youtube, etc etc. ( I also have Win8 btw). But when I try to run games, I either get a grey screen, or I get a screen that is the color of my desktop with lines going through it (either green or a lighter color than the background - e.x. if background = grey then lines = light grey or green. If background = royal blue, then lines = light blue or powder blue.)

I also notice fragments when I toggle through the mail table on Win 8, picking between Inbox, Outbox, Junk, etc makes small flurries of fragments go off at the top for a few seconds, then it stops. I ran Furmark, and the PC ran it for awhile, hitting a max temp of 58c before it crashed and I was able to ctrl+tab back to the desktop. But on games, I cannot tab back, it's just stuck and requires a hard reset.

 

[vmem]

yes, you should send it back for RMA, something is definately wrong with your card or computer. contact CyberpowerPC and they should fix it up

 

[solarmuffin]

That was a really fast reply, I am sort of stunned, haha. But is there a way to determine if it is the card or if it is something else on the computer? I am not that great with computers, so I would like all the help I can get. I just got off the phone with CPPC and they said they could send me a replacement card if this was the case, but I am hoping I can determine if it is the card or not, so that I do not have to go a long while without a computer or using my old one again.

 

[L Helps]

It is most likely your videocard

 

[ikaz]

Well first thing to do if you haven't is update your video card drivers.

 

[vmem]

While there are things we can do to help you troubleshoot etc, you BOUGHT this from a PC building company, this wasn't a DIY computer. therefore you should fully take advantage of the warranty and return period and make sure then fix and send you a working product. it's just good practice for any company to do so

 

[solarmuffin]

That is a good point. I have already put in the call and the replacement card should be here Monday or Tuesday. As for the drivers, I tried without the latest drivers (stock), with the latest, with some older drivers, and so on. with the older drivers it seemed to last a little longer today than it did any other time, but it eventually did the same thing and grey/color screened to my background's color and needed a hard reset.

 

[vmem]

That is a good point. I have already put in the call and the replacement card should be here Monday or Tuesday. As for the drivers, I tried without the latest drivers (stock), with the latest, with some older drivers, and so on. with the older drivers it seemed to last a little longer today than it did any other time, but it eventually did the same thing and grey/color screened to my background's color and needed a hard reset.

generally the type of stripping you see and needing a hard reset indicates something is seriously wrong with the video card (hence why the video output is messed up). typically it's because a user had overclocked too high and burned something, or their card has aged and became defective. in your case, perhaps the system was damaged during shipping? hope that replacement card fixes everything