[SOLVED] My GTX 770 finally died - few questions (Should I replace GPU or build a new system)

Gibbyness

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Aug 23, 2017
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Well, my GPU finally took it's last breath and I didn't even get to take it out for cheeseburgers one last time.

I built this PC back in 2012, and I'm debating replacing the GPU or building a new one (for a better PCI 4 slot, and CPU.) I just hate spending money I don't REALLY have, but I can make it happen if that's the most logical step.

my current PC looks like this:

  • windows 10
  • intel i5-4670k
    • OC'd to 4.5 on an AIO and currently even under max loads with stress tests and gaming doesn't seem to get past 60c.
  • 16GB DDR3 RAM
    • (just bought another 16GB that's on it's way in the mail literally yesterday before the GPU died, since I was maxing it out trying to play a game called Rust.)
  • GIGABYTE Z87X-UD3H-CF
  • Corsair AX760i PSU
  • Samsung EVO 128GB SSD
    • Purchased another 2TB that's also on it's way in the mail from the purchase yesterday

I currently game on 1080P 24" monitors, but if there were a way to game at 1440P I'd upgrade the monitors as well.

My main question is, what is the lowest GPU I can buy that will shift my bottleneck over to the CPU? and is it worth buying that vs building a new one.

I could realistically spend 1500 or so, but would like to keep this alive and continue to game with it as I'm a cheap ass and hate spending money where not needed.

I figured out that my GPU was dead because all of a sudden today my PC would randomly hang for a few seconds sometimes a minute with no response and the screens would go black sometimes and come back and then immediately hang again. Nvidia Container was showing a ton of CPU usage.

I pulled the GPU and disabled it and running on integrated graphics my PC is running top end again with no freezing or black screen flashing. I also factory reset windows before thinking to pull the damn card, but that didn't fix the issue. It only stopped and returned to expected function with the card removed.
 
Solution
I'll start looking at 3070s and the i7 for now.

I did try what @A_Goat recommended, and that was to underclock and maybe support the GPU so it's not sagging. I can't even use the computer when the card is in, as windows installs the driver to it and it immediately starts crashing (flashing wild colors, freezing up, screen going black, rinse repeat).

I did notice that while the NVIDIA drivers aren't installed, the PC runs fine and uses 1 screen plugged into the card to display. No crashing or anything, my Corsair link can read the fan speeds and temp and at idle it's around 38c while everything else is at 24-26c.

Do you guys think this is truly dead based on the above, or is there anything I can do to save the card?

It...
You could absolutely game at 1440p with your system, 60hz stable would be the goal but with certain titles reaching triple digits.
If you're really strapped for cash personally I'd sell the i5, use the cash to help pay for an i7-4790k, and then just slap in a new GPU.
I'd plan to eventually upgrade the CPU, so I'd go with a 6700-xt or 3070 minimum for the GPU if you want 1440p gaming.

In the mean time, you could also try some stuff to at least get your 770 working. You could underclock/undervolt/overvolt it and see if it remains stable. Also ensure it's not sagging in the slot, support it with something.
 
I agree, pick up an i7 then you can let things settle down. Only thing about the 6700xt and 3070 is I don’t know if/ how much the i7 would hold them back. I would recommend to get at least an rx 6600 or rtx 3060, although both of the other cards are definitely better. So I concur if you know you will upgrading the cpu at some point get the stronger card.
 

Gibbyness

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Aug 23, 2017
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so the consensus is to grab the i7-4790k and either a 6700xt or 3070.. I'm definitely an intel and nvidia fan over AMD, so the 3070 would be more likely for me.

I guess I didn't consider upgrading the cpu with current socket/mobo. does the i7-4670k give a lot of breath over the i5? I could try to sell the i5, never really sold used comps before, the i5 seems very solid, I only last few months OC'd it and it's running fine.

@A_Goat I can try a few things with the card. It didn't look like it was drooping but I'll see about supporting it and all that. I took it out and cleaned it with air for now.
 
Part of the reason for saying go to the i7 is because games are becoming more multithreaded. So you’ll want that extra horsepower. 4 threads really is out of date now days. As far as selling, I like to use eBay, just be sure to be honest about the description and be prepared for them to take their fees if you do that route but at least you aren’t worried about meeting strangers and not knowing if people will try to rob you.

Regarding the i7 though, the i7 would really be a band aid for a year or two. The buy it now price for the 4790k is about 100 dollars. The new i3 cpus are more powerful than that as they are now 4 cores 8 threads but should have a bit better single core performance.

For example you could have an i3 12100 for 130 or so from Newegg, It appears the i5 12400F is around 169. You could get a decent board like a b660 for around 100, then add in the ram and reuse your other pieces. Granted you don’t have to go that way but if you stay with windows ultimately you’ll spend now or later since windows 10 gets retired in 2025. If you wait a little they may drop prices on cpus though since raptor lake should be coming up at some point. AMD is releasing am5 cpus at the end of the month so Intel should be getting ready to release as well.
 
so the consensus is to grab the i7-4790k and either a 6700xt or 3070.. I'm definitely an intel and nvidia fan over AMD, so the 3070 would be more likely for me.

I guess I didn't consider upgrading the cpu with current socket/mobo. does the i7-4670k give a lot of breath over the i5? I could try to sell the i5, never really sold used comps before, the i5 seems very solid, I only last few months OC'd it and it's running fine.

@A_Goat I can try a few things with the card. It didn't look like it was drooping but I'll see about supporting it and all that. I took it out and cleaned it with air for now.

Yes, a used 4790k can be had for under $100 on ebay/local sellers. Though it may be a challenge to sell your i5, I'd still try.
The primary benefit of the i7 is the hyper threading, which will benefit modern games, and will likely OC just as easily as your i5 did.

I still use an i7-6700k for 1440p gaming, which is just barely better than the 4790k.

And with the 770, if you're gonna try anything, the goal is to reduce the strain... so that means limit it's performance.
 
Looking on eBay it looks like those i5 cpus are competing for between 13-25 bucks. So it looks like the i7 is the final update for that platform people are looking for. You could check as well but it appears you can get a 4770k for around 60 bucks used as well, but the 4790k of course has a higher clock speed so on that platform you want the higher clocks.
 
4770k would be fine as well, for 60 bucks its great!
They both overclock similarly, the base and boost are far lower,but who cares when you can overclock.

Also try to overclock the ram, pretty much all ram will go to 1866 from 1600. When you get the ram to 1866 simply keep trying.

Also no point in trying to avoid the bottleneck, get the fastest card you can afford, take it forward to the next machine.
 
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Gibbyness

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Aug 23, 2017
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10,510
I'll start looking at 3070s and the i7 for now.

I did try what @A_Goat recommended, and that was to underclock and maybe support the GPU so it's not sagging. I can't even use the computer when the card is in, as windows installs the driver to it and it immediately starts crashing (flashing wild colors, freezing up, screen going black, rinse repeat).

I did notice that while the NVIDIA drivers aren't installed, the PC runs fine and uses 1 screen plugged into the card to display. No crashing or anything, my Corsair link can read the fan speeds and temp and at idle it's around 38c while everything else is at 24-26c.

Do you guys think this is truly dead based on the above, or is there anything I can do to save the card?
 
I'll start looking at 3070s and the i7 for now.

I did try what @A_Goat recommended, and that was to underclock and maybe support the GPU so it's not sagging. I can't even use the computer when the card is in, as windows installs the driver to it and it immediately starts crashing (flashing wild colors, freezing up, screen going black, rinse repeat).

I did notice that while the NVIDIA drivers aren't installed, the PC runs fine and uses 1 screen plugged into the card to display. No crashing or anything, my Corsair link can read the fan speeds and temp and at idle it's around 38c while everything else is at 24-26c.

Do you guys think this is truly dead based on the above, or is there anything I can do to save the card?

It is well old enough that it's possible the card has simply degraded from use.
But, if you care to, you could also try to perform a clean driver uninstall. I prefer the free DDU software (Display Driver Uninstaller).
Afterwards, locate the specific driver/minimal driver install and download from Nvidia for your GPU, no geforce experience. See if that changes anything
 
Solution

Gibbyness

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Aug 23, 2017
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10,510
So I did the safe-mode, DDU wipe, fresh clean most recent Nividia driver install.

Anyone see anything concerning with the data in the attached chart? This is the log from GPU-Z, and some things to note during this log period of time, the display driver was resetting (crashing and recovering) about every 40 seconds, with 1 monitor. I could still use the PC in-between the crashes. Once I switched to two monitors at the end of this log, the PC went unusable and completely seized up.

I guess I'm just wanting to validate the GTX770 really is dead, and that it's not the PSU or something else causing this out of no-where (albeit obvious after 10 years of use) display issue.

gpu_log link
 
So I did the safe-mode, DDU wipe, fresh clean most recent Nividia driver install.

Anyone see anything concerning with the data in the attached chart? This is the log from GPU-Z, and some things to note during this log period of time, the display driver was resetting (crashing and recovering) about every 40 seconds, with 1 monitor. I could still use the PC in-between the crashes. Once I switched to two monitors at the end of this log, the PC went unusable and completely seized up.

I guess I'm just wanting to validate the GTX770 really is dead, and that it's not the PSU or something else causing this out of no-where (albeit obvious after 10 years of use) display issue.

gpu_log link

I'm not gonna download that, but I'm afraid it's not exactly a good sign if it's crashing just from displaying the desktop lol.
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
The only real test for the GPU would be to test it in another PC.

If you do get a 4790K, make sure to update your BIOS with your old CPU before you install it. Like most Haswell motherboards, these didn't support the Haswell Refresh/Devil's Canyon CPUs from release (Z97 motherboards did).
 

HeartOfAdel

Commendable
Apr 7, 2021
86
14
1,545
so the consensus is to grab the i7-4790k and either a 6700xt or 3070.. I'm definitely an intel and nvidia fan over AMD, so the 3070 would be more likely for me.

I guess I didn't consider upgrading the cpu with current socket/mobo. does the i7-4670k give a lot of breath over the i5? I could try to sell the i5, never really sold used comps before, the i5 seems very solid, I only last few months OC'd it and it's running fine.

@A_Goat I can try a few things with the card. It didn't look like it was drooping but I'll see about supporting it and all that. I took it out and cleaned it with air for now.
As everyone has said, you can easily upgrade to i7 4790K and play almost every game at 60fps. But cpu might need a slight oc.

  1. However, I'd not recommend going for RTX 3070, 6700xt and 3060 Ti at 1440p because there will be a noticeable cpu bottleneck and you'll end up feeling dissatisfied with your system's "unbalance". It may make you want to upgrade everything else to match the gpu (Especially with 3070).
  2. The other thing unmentioned here is that resolution has an affect on cpu performance as well. 1440p is going to task your cpu more than 1080p. Let's say your cpu bottlenecks gpu at 120fps at 1080p, but whenever you try reach a cpu bottleneck at 1440p it's likely to give you a 10-20% lower maximum fps.
  3. You should also overclock your ram if you run a fast gpu. Set your ram to 1.65V and try to reach 2133-2400mhz cl10-11.

So if you want 4790K to last, stay at 1080p and go for RTX 3050 or 3060, RX 6600 if stretching it.
If you want 1440p, RTX 2070 Super is the limit, 3060 and RX 6600 are fine as well.
But I'd recommend going for Nvidia, their gpus are gonna last longer due to DLSS/FSR.
 
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sham63

Commendable
Oct 18, 2021
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1,510
The only real test for the GPU would be to test it in another PC.

If you do get a 4790K, make sure to update your BIOS with your old CPU before you install it. Like most Haswell motherboards, these didn't support the Haswell Refresh/Devil's Canyon CPUs from release (Z97 motherboards did).

Why update the bios? He already has a 4670k.
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
Why update the bios? He already has a 4670k.

Ummm, for the exact reason I said? The 4790K is a Haswell Refresh/Devil's Canyon CPU, while the 4670K was from the initial Haswell release a year before. Z87 motherboards did not come with the microcode to run the refresh. On the OP's particular motherboard, the BIOS that would allow them to run Devil's Canyon CPUs didn't come out until March 2014.
 

Gibbyness

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Aug 23, 2017
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10,510
I'm not gonna download that, but I'm afraid it's not exactly a good sign if it's crashing just from displaying the desktop lol.

Understandable, I was hoping I could post it here as an excel view, almost copied the text directly but it was too much and looked terrible.

I moved on, put the GTX 770 on a shelf to remember EVGA by, and bought a new 2060 ;)
 

artk2219

Distinguished
Understandable, I was hoping I could post it here as an excel view, almost copied the text directly but it was too much and looked terrible.

I moved on, put the GTX 770 on a shelf to remember EVGA by, and bought a new 2060 ;)

That works, you could also check and see if your motherboard supports it and pickup a xeon instead of an i7. They're basically the same chip, but with locked clocks and it supports ecc ram. It's basically the server version of the i7. There isn't a xeon that's a match to the 4790k, but if you're looking at a 4770(k) they're worth considering.