New GPU Defective? [Solved]

[zombiebot]

Last month I upgraded from an EVGA GTX 660 SC to a Zotac GTX 970. I use MSI Afterburner to monitor my temperatures and whatnot. Lately I've noticed that sometimes after gaming my idle graphs are stuck at high. Usually when I'm done playing I leave my PC idle for temperatures to settle down, but it's been stuck at high. It feels pretty random. When I played Metro 2033 for a few minutes, everything seemed fine afterwards. Just by launching Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed, my idle temps get stuck at high. Today, I tested Ziggurat. Playing it for the first time and then exiting the game gave me no issues. But the second time around my issue came back. The only way to get back my normal idle temperature is to restart the damn computer.

I've tried doing a clean install of the latest nvidia drivers, reinstalling afterburner, running virus and malware scans, and even reattaching my video card. Nothing seemed to work, and I'm getting frustrated. I'm not sure if it's afterburner or my video card that's at fault.

Here is my issue: http://imgur.com/a/SADPJ

Here is the graph after initial PC boot: http://imgur.com/a/VmvrY

i7 3770 @ 3.4 GHz

12 GB RAM

460W PSU

Windows 7 Home Premium

I have a Dell 1920X1080 monitor and run at 60 Hz.

 

[Snazzymacguy]

Last month I upgraded from an EVGA GTX 660 SC to a Zotac GTX 970. I use MSI Afterburner to monitor my temperatures and whatnot. Lately I've noticed that sometimes after gaming my idle graphs are stuck at high. Usually when I'm done playing I leave my PC idle for temperatures to settle down, but it's been stuck at high. It feels pretty random. When I played Metro 2033 for a few minutes, everything seemed fine afterwards. Just by launching Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed, my idle temps get stuck at high. Today, I tested Ziggurat. Playing it for the first time and then exiting the game gave me no issues. But the second time around my issue came back. The only way to get back my normal idle temperature is to restart the damn computer.

I've tried doing a clean install of the latest nvidia drivers, reinstalling afterburner, running virus and malware scans, and even reattaching my video card. Nothing seemed to work, and I'm getting frustrated. I'm not sure if it's afterburner or my video card that's at fault.

Here is my issue: http://imgur.com/a/SADPJ

Here is the graph after initial PC boot: http://imgur.com/a/VmvrY

i7 3770 @ 3.4 GHz

12 GB RAM

460W PSU

Windows 7 Home Premium

I have a Dell 1920X1080 monitor and run at 60 Hz.

460W PSU?

 

[zombiebot]

Last month I upgraded from an EVGA GTX 660 SC to a Zotac GTX 970. I use MSI Afterburner to monitor my temperatures and whatnot. Lately I've noticed that sometimes after gaming my idle graphs are stuck at high. Usually when I'm done playing I leave my PC idle for temperatures to settle down, but it's been stuck at high. It feels pretty random. When I played Metro 2033 for a few minutes, everything seemed fine afterwards. Just by launching Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed, my idle temps get stuck at high. Today, I tested Ziggurat. Playing it for the first time and then exiting the game gave me no issues. But the second time around my issue came back. The only way to get back my normal idle temperature is to restart the damn computer.

I've tried doing a clean install of the latest nvidia drivers, reinstalling afterburner, running virus and malware scans, and even reattaching my video card. Nothing seemed to work, and I'm getting frustrated. I'm not sure if it's afterburner or my video card that's at fault.

Here is my issue: http://imgur.com/a/SADPJ

Here is the graph after initial PC boot: http://imgur.com/a/VmvrY

i7 3770 @ 3.4 GHz

12 GB RAM

460W PSU

Windows 7 Home Premium

I have a Dell 1920X1080 monitor and run at 60 Hz.

460W PSU?

You believe that's what's causing my issue? I've been meaning to change my PSU since changing video card, but I was told that it should be fine in the meantime. I wasn't having this issue until last week.

 

[Snazzymacguy]

Last month I upgraded from an EVGA GTX 660 SC to a Zotac GTX 970. I use MSI Afterburner to monitor my temperatures and whatnot. Lately I've noticed that sometimes after gaming my idle graphs are stuck at high. Usually when I'm done playing I leave my PC idle for temperatures to settle down, but it's been stuck at high. It feels pretty random. When I played Metro 2033 for a few minutes, everything seemed fine afterwards. Just by launching Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed, my idle temps get stuck at high. Today, I tested Ziggurat. Playing it for the first time and then exiting the game gave me no issues. But the second time around my issue came back. The only way to get back my normal idle temperature is to restart the damn computer.

I've tried doing a clean install of the latest nvidia drivers, reinstalling afterburner, running virus and malware scans, and even reattaching my video card. Nothing seemed to work, and I'm getting frustrated. I'm not sure if it's afterburner or my video card that's at fault.

Here is my issue: http://imgur.com/a/SADPJ

Here is the graph after initial PC boot: http://imgur.com/a/VmvrY

i7 3770 @ 3.4 GHz

12 GB RAM

460W PSU

Windows 7 Home Premium

I have a Dell 1920X1080 monitor and run at 60 Hz.

460W PSU?

You believe that's what's causing my issue? I've been meaning to change my PSU since changing video card, but I was told that it should be fine in the meantime. I wasn't having this issue until last week.

I wouldn't leave it out but in my eyes 460W seems awfully low for your system.

 

[zombiebot]

Last month I upgraded from an EVGA GTX 660 SC to a Zotac GTX 970. I use MSI Afterburner to monitor my temperatures and whatnot. Lately I've noticed that sometimes after gaming my idle graphs are stuck at high. Usually when I'm done playing I leave my PC idle for temperatures to settle down, but it's been stuck at high. It feels pretty random. When I played Metro 2033 for a few minutes, everything seemed fine afterwards. Just by launching Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed, my idle temps get stuck at high. Today, I tested Ziggurat. Playing it for the first time and then exiting the game gave me no issues. But the second time around my issue came back. The only way to get back my normal idle temperature is to restart the damn computer.

I've tried doing a clean install of the latest nvidia drivers, reinstalling afterburner, running virus and malware scans, and even reattaching my video card. Nothing seemed to work, and I'm getting frustrated. I'm not sure if it's afterburner or my video card that's at fault.

Here is my issue: http://imgur.com/a/SADPJ

Here is the graph after initial PC boot: http://imgur.com/a/VmvrY

i7 3770 @ 3.4 GHz

12 GB RAM

460W PSU

Windows 7 Home Premium

I have a Dell 1920X1080 monitor and run at 60 Hz.

460W PSU?

You believe that's what's causing my issue? I've been meaning to change my PSU since changing video card, but I was told that it should be fine in the meantime. I wasn't having this issue until last week.

I wouldn't leave it out but in my eyes 460W seems awfully low for your system.

I kinda figure myself as well. But what's weird is that it doesn't happen when I play more demanding games. I played the Metro Redux games just fine and after my gpu power usage, memory clock, and temperatures drop to normal.

I've been toying around with Sonic Racing and Ziggurat, and those games make my power usage stay high even after closing them.

 

[Mousemonkey]

It's a driver/application issue and so changing the PSU won't make any difference. There was mention of a fix that affected 144mhz displays in the latest drivers, this may or may not affect you though.

http://uk.download.nvidia.com/Windows/361.43/361.43-win10-win8-win7-winvista-desktop-release-notes.pdf

 

[Snazzymacguy]

Last month I upgraded from an EVGA GTX 660 SC to a Zotac GTX 970. I use MSI Afterburner to monitor my temperatures and whatnot. Lately I've noticed that sometimes after gaming my idle graphs are stuck at high. Usually when I'm done playing I leave my PC idle for temperatures to settle down, but it's been stuck at high. It feels pretty random. When I played Metro 2033 for a few minutes, everything seemed fine afterwards. Just by launching Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed, my idle temps get stuck at high. Today, I tested Ziggurat. Playing it for the first time and then exiting the game gave me no issues. But the second time around my issue came back. The only way to get back my normal idle temperature is to restart the damn computer.

I've tried doing a clean install of the latest nvidia drivers, reinstalling afterburner, running virus and malware scans, and even reattaching my video card. Nothing seemed to work, and I'm getting frustrated. I'm not sure if it's afterburner or my video card that's at fault.

Here is my issue: http://imgur.com/a/SADPJ

Here is the graph after initial PC boot: http://imgur.com/a/VmvrY

i7 3770 @ 3.4 GHz

12 GB RAM

460W PSU

Windows 7 Home Premium

I have a Dell 1920X1080 monitor and run at 60 Hz.

460W PSU?

You believe that's what's causing my issue? I've been meaning to change my PSU since changing video card, but I was told that it should be fine in the meantime. I wasn't having this issue until last week.

I wouldn't leave it out but in my eyes 460W seems awfully low for your system.

I kinda figure myself as well. But what's weird is that it doesn't happen when I play more demanding games. I played the Metro Redux games just fine and after my gpu power usage, memory clock, and temperatures drop to normal.

I've been toying around with Sonic Racing and Ziggurat, and those games make my power usage stay high even after closing them.

Does this by any chance happen to you in GTA V - if you have it?

 

[zombiebot]

It's a driver/application issue and so changing the PSU won't make any difference. There was mention of a fix that affected 144mhz displays in the latest drivers, this may or may not affect you though.

http://uk.download.nvidia.com/Windows/361.43/361.43-win10-win8-win7-winvista-desktop-release-notes.pdf

I found many threads related to this issue but with users with higher refresh rate monitors. Mine can only reach 60 Hz. I have this latest driver installed. maybe trying an older driver might help. What would you recommend?

 

[zombiebot]

Last month I upgraded from an EVGA GTX 660 SC to a Zotac GTX 970. I use MSI Afterburner to monitor my temperatures and whatnot. Lately I've noticed that sometimes after gaming my idle graphs are stuck at high. Usually when I'm done playing I leave my PC idle for temperatures to settle down, but it's been stuck at high. It feels pretty random. When I played Metro 2033 for a few minutes, everything seemed fine afterwards. Just by launching Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed, my idle temps get stuck at high. Today, I tested Ziggurat. Playing it for the first time and then exiting the game gave me no issues. But the second time around my issue came back. The only way to get back my normal idle temperature is to restart the damn computer.

I've tried doing a clean install of the latest nvidia drivers, reinstalling afterburner, running virus and malware scans, and even reattaching my video card. Nothing seemed to work, and I'm getting frustrated. I'm not sure if it's afterburner or my video card that's at fault.

Here is my issue: http://imgur.com/a/SADPJ

Here is the graph after initial PC boot: http://imgur.com/a/VmvrY

i7 3770 @ 3.4 GHz

12 GB RAM

460W PSU

Windows 7 Home Premium

I have a Dell 1920X1080 monitor and run at 60 Hz.

460W PSU?

You believe that's what's causing my issue? I've been meaning to change my PSU since changing video card, but I was told that it should be fine in the meantime. I wasn't having this issue until last week.

I wouldn't leave it out but in my eyes 460W seems awfully low for your system.

I kinda figure myself as well. But what's weird is that it doesn't happen when I play more demanding games. I played the Metro Redux games just fine and after my gpu power usage, memory clock, and temperatures drop to normal.

I've been toying around with Sonic Racing and Ziggurat, and those games make my power usage stay high even after closing them.

Does this by any chance happen to you in GTA V - if you have it?

Sadly I don't own that game. However I do note that while playing a more demanding game (such as the Metro Redux games), my gpu didn't get stuck at a higher idle temperature. It dropped to normal. Just by launching Sonic racing, it increases it.

 

[Mousemonkey]

It's a driver/application issue and so changing the PSU won't make any difference. There was mention of a fix that affected 144mhz displays in the latest drivers, this may or may not affect you though.

http://uk.download.nvidia.com/Windows/361.43/361.43-win10-win8-win7-winvista-desktop-release-notes.pdf

I found many threads related to this issue but with users with higher refresh rate monitors. Mine can only reach 60 Hz. I have this latest driver installed. maybe trying an older driver might help. What would you recommend?

I would go to the Nvidia site and download the oldest driver that supports the 970 and see whether that cures the problem, if it does then I would work my way through all the subsequent drivers until the problem reoccurs.

 

[zombiebot]

It's a driver/application issue and so changing the PSU won't make any difference. There was mention of a fix that affected 144mhz displays in the latest drivers, this may or may not affect you though.

http://uk.download.nvidia.com/Windows/361.43/361.43-win10-win8-win7-winvista-desktop-release-notes.pdf

I found many threads related to this issue but with users with higher refresh rate monitors. Mine can only reach 60 Hz. I have this latest driver installed. maybe trying an older driver might help. What would you recommend?

I would go to the Nvidia site and download the oldest driver that supports the 970 and see whether that cures the problem, if it does then I would work my way through all the subsequent drivers until the problem reoccurs.

I actually installed my old GTX 660 and I discovered that I still get this issue. Where should I look now? One user from a Steam forum suggested I look into my motherboard.

 

[Mousemonkey]

It's a driver/application issue and so changing the PSU won't make any difference. There was mention of a fix that affected 144mhz displays in the latest drivers, this may or may not affect you though.

http://uk.download.nvidia.com/Windows/361.43/361.43-win10-win8-win7-winvista-desktop-release-notes.pdf

I found many threads related to this issue but with users with higher refresh rate monitors. Mine can only reach 60 Hz. I have this latest driver installed. maybe trying an older driver might help. What would you recommend?

I would go to the Nvidia site and download the oldest driver that supports the 970 and see whether that cures the problem, if it does then I would work my way through all the subsequent drivers until the problem reoccurs.

I actually installed my old GTX 660 and I discovered that I still get this issue. Where should I look now? One user from a Steam forum suggested I look into my motherboard.

Did you use the same driver version on the 660 that you used on the 970?

 

[zombiebot]

Yeah I used the latest driver. Just to make sure that my newer video card wasn't faulty.

 

[Mousemonkey]

So you used the same driver and have the same issue?

 

[zombiebot]

Before changing video cards, I tried an older (by like a month) driver (358.91) on my 970. That was the first driver I've installed when I first got the new card. I'm not sure if it ever had this issue before and I just never noticed. I usually just check my temperatures while gaming, not at idle. But ever since last week when I played Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed (for the first time in many months), I noticed that my idle temperature wasn't lowering, and that my power usage was higher than usual. So I also have the issue on the just-a-bit-older nvidia driver.

Anyways, yes, I used the same driver and I get the same issue on both cards.

Might be a silly question, but could my monitor possibly contribute to this mess? Just a while ago I had a stupid thought that maybe it was the monitor that was at fault, but then I remembered that I had my screen off during a virus scan, so that wasn't it. But now I'm curious if it's still possible, even though it's only a 60 Hz monitor.

 

[zombiebot]

I found the culprit. I bought a new monitor last month and it came with a program called Dell Display Manager. With it running in the background, it wouldn't let my card drop it's clock. Killing the program fixes the issue, so I just uninstalled it. Now I get my usual idle temperatures and power consumption again!

 

[Mousemonkey]

I found the culprit. I bought a new monitor last month and it came with a program called Dell Display Manager. With it running in the background, it wouldn't let my card drop it's clock. Killing the program fixes the issue, so I just uninstalled it. Now I get my usual idle temperatures and power consumption again!

So I was correct on Sunday when I said that it was a driver or application issue! :lol: