[SOLVED] My GTX 980 just died! Everything was fine.... now what do I do?

[Brogan]

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII KNEW IT! I knew this was gonna happen sooner or later. I had planned years ago on upgrading last fall with the 3-series cards, and we all know what happened. I tried in Sept to catch newly listed cards. I used Distil on multiple sites. But I realized things weren't changing any time soon, so I was fine sticking with the 980. It's a good card!

Well... it was. I guess karma caught up to me. And I have no backup GPU.

Money is tight, though I do have a good chunk of Amazon reward points to spend, but I had that last year, too. Don't want to over-pay now either.

Anyone got suggestions?

 

[Eximo]

GTX 980 aren't too bad on ebay. That or try your luck for a 3060 if you don't want to overpay too much.

 

[kiddynamite]

Meant to be maybe. Grab a 1070 GTX and you will get better performance as well compared to 980 model and what not. Good Luck...

 

[Brogan]

I've tried looking, but how big are the risks with buying from Amazon Renewed Store?

I mean, I've always bought new, and while I know ppl do it all the time, I don't think I could even go eBay in this time of ruthless gpu scalpers. But there's a 1080 Ti on there that ships from Amazon, not some storefront. Comes with a guarantee and has a support #.

Anyone bought cards renewed on Amazon?

 

[Myst_8362]

I have, 2 of them Actually. 1st one was a Rx 590 it was fine second... well not so much (it caught fire on a test bench)

 

[Brogan]

Thanks. Were you able to get support or recompense for the 2nd one? Or was it past the warranty date?

 

[Myst_8362]

Scervie was great, bargained for a new Rx 590 so :]

 

[Brogan]

So, just to be sure... I want to make sure I've moved through the 'autopsy' correctly and I'm not missing anything.

Basic timeline was this.

I'm playing a game (Witcher3), and all of a sudden I hear a sizzle sound, a pop, and immediately see and smell smoke arising from my PC. Strong burning plastic smell. And the PC shuts off.

I'm unsure what part exactly 'just died', so I do a visual scan but don't see anything out of the ordinary. Unplug the PSU then plug it in again and push power. Motherboard lights come on for an instant, sys and cpu fans come on for an instant, GPU fans do not start up. PC shuts down.

So I remove the 980, plug monitor into the HDMI of the mobo, and push power. Starts up and I go into BIOS.

Have not attempted to reinsert the GPU again, but didn't notice any installation issues when removing it (it has not shifted or come out of the slot).

Is that enough to confirm it's bricked? And if so, how should I dispose?

Thanks to anyone who read this.

 

[DSzymborski]

If we're talking about a power failure with a smell, we're way behind the point you should be even trying it since we haven't even begun to sort out what power supply you have/had. No GPU decisions or evaluation should be made without looking at the power supply first. That the power supply works without the GPU doesn't mean it's fully functional or even if it was a power supply you should have been using in the first place.

 

[Karadjgne]

Use your nose. Good sniff test. Burned electronics and plastics have a very distinctive and very long lasting aroma. If it was the gpu, you'll know it. Stands to be a good bet, although it could also be the motherboard, it's not unknown for it to arc against the tray, could be wiring going through grommet holes with no grommet or around a sharp edge and got moved when pulling the gpu. That would definitely trip the protections in the psu, and give a burned plastic smell.

Honestly I'd disassemble the entire pc and go through it with a fine tooth visual comb. Inspect anything and everything from motherboard to psu to gpu to wiring, looking for scorch or weld marks, soot smudges etc.

 

[Brogan]

Thanks, guys.

Will be checking everything. And PSU is an EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2.

 

[cryoburner]

But there's a 1080 Ti on there that ships from Amazon, not some storefront. Comes with a guarantee and has a support #.

It's probably worth asking, what sort of price is this refurbished 1080 Ti selling for? A 1080 Ti is typically only slightly faster than a 3060 (non-Ti) in terms of rasterized performance, while lacking hardware for raytracing acceleration, a feature that is seeing increasing adoption and may become the norm for "ultra" graphics settings in the coming years. It also lacks hardware support for DLSS upscaling, something that can improve performance in an increasing number of games with what is usually a minimal reduction in image quality. If they were selling for a similar price, I would take a 3060 over a 1080 Ti. A new card would also likely include a few years of warranty coverage, whereas a refurbished 1080 Ti will almost certainly have a much shorter warranty, and may have seen a few years of use, seeing as that model first came out around 4 years ago.

Of course, I'm sure the pricing of either is going to be quite bad right now compared to the $330 MSRP that the 3060 was supposed to be selling for. >_>

 

[Brogan]

It's probably worth asking, what sort of price is this refurbished 1080 Ti selling for? A 1080 Ti is typically only slightly faster than a 3060 (non-Ti) in terms of rasterized performance, while lacking hardware for raytracing acceleration, a feature that is seeing increasing adoption and may become the norm for "ultra" graphics settings in the coming years. It also lacks hardware support for DLSS upscaling, something that can improve performance in an increasing number of games with what is usually a minimal reduction in image quality. If they were selling for a similar price, I would take a 3060 over a 1080 Ti. A new card would also likely include a few years of warranty coverage, whereas a refurbished 1080 Ti will almost certainly have a much shorter warranty, and may have seen a few years of use, seeing as that model first came out around 4 years ago.

Of course, I'm sure the pricing of either is going to be quite bad right now compared to the $330 MSRP that the 3060 was supposed to be selling for. >_>

Good info, thanks for the reply.

Ended up getting an unused 2080 Super bought and returned 2 months ago, for much less than the current MSRP. In the middle of stress testing it now. Everything seems good so far.

 

[animekenji]

GTX 980 are

GTX 980 aren't too bad on ebay. That or try your luck for a 3060 if you don't want to overpay too much.

GTX 980 are $300-$350 on ebay right now, which is ridiculous pricing.

 

[Eximo]

Yes, though when I was looking back in May there were many recently sold for around $200. Prices are going up across the used market as even used supply is taxed.