[SOLVED] My GTX 970 went into flames. How is this possible?

[asheesh1_2000]

Hi,

I recently overclocked MSI GTX 970 using MSI Afterburner. I was well with in safe settings. I did increase the voltage input to max levels and individually increased the clock speed to 60% however I left the fan control on auto, which I think meant that fan speed will be adjusted automatically depending on the heat generated.

After two weeks of successful gaming, y'day night while playing Division 2 on max settings, the screen went off, the room was filled smell and my GTX card was on fire.

I do not understand.

First of all I was using the official overclocking software from MSI which I believe would not let me go beyond the safe settings. Second, even if it did go, is there not any safety shutdown built in the graphics card which makes the PC shutdown?

I was aware that overclocking does decrease the life of the card and this is the first time I did it, but this was insane. The card was literally throwing my finger long flames out of it.

 

[Phaaze88]

Make and model of the power supply?

 

[asheesh1_2000]

Make and model of the power supply?

CORSSAIR RM1000

 

[Rodrigodrt]

well, I assume you were using MSI afterburner, what do you mean by increased the voltage values to max? do you mean power limit or did you manually overvolted the card? also what do you mean by increased the clock speeds to 60%

 

[asheesh1_2000]

well, I assume you were using MSI afterburner, what do you mean by increased the voltage values to max? do you mean power limit or did you manually overvolted the card? also what do you mean by increased the clock speeds to 60%

So in the MSI Afterburner, the top slider is for the core voltage which I scrolled all the way to right. The second one is Power Unit % which I also dragged all the way to the right. I did not touch the temp limit and left it on Auto. Dragged the Core Clock to 60% to the right and Memory Clock to 40%. Left the fan speed to auto.

 

[Phaaze88]

Sounds like you unknowingly roasted your GTX 970 when you scrolled the core voltage slider.

If I remember correctly:
-On the 10, 16, 20, and 30 series cards, core voltage adjustments are more finicky. The gpu sees them as 'suggestions' and doesn't actually follow them to a T.
You can't kill these cards through software.

-Different story with Nvidia's older cards though.
Again, IIRC.

Did you follow/read any 900 series OC guides?

 

[hotaru.hino]

First of all I was using the official overclocking software from MSI which I believe would not let me go beyond the safe settings. Second, even if it did go, is there not any safety shutdown built in the graphics card which makes the PC shutdown?

When you tell a card to allow higher voltage and draw more power than what it was originally designed to handle, safety is thrown out the window. I'm going to guess the VRM blew and caught fire, and while I'm sure it could handle spikes of power beyond what it was designed to take, this isn't something you can really monitor. The VRM may be able to take a dozen spikes, it may flat out die from one, especially if it was strong enough.

Either way, you asked the card to suck up more power than it could handle and it decided to go down in flames. Next time when you overclock, don't set the sliders all the way to the right without testing to make sure it can handle everything up to that point.