New MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III - Faulty card?

[expertsonline]

Hi All,

I just purchased and built this system yesterday. Specs are as follows:

CPU : i5 - 2500k
MOBO : Asus P8P67
RAM : Gskill RipJaws X 2x4gb CL9
GFX : MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III 2GB
PSU : FSP 750W AURUM CM Gold
HDD : Crucial m4 64gb

I have been having issues with the gfx card with driver crashes and BSOD. I thought it was a bad driver installation and tried several different versions. However a few hours back it started glitching seriously on the bios screen, leading me to believe it is a hardware issue.

So far the following three possibilities come to mind:
1) PSU problem
2) GFX Card Problem
3) MOBO Problem

To isolate the issue i have put my old 8800GTX in the system and a it is working fine.

This leads me to believe its either a faulty card or the PSU has voltage spikes that broke the card.

I will let my 8800 GTX run for a while to eliminate the PSU. Does anyone else have any suggestions on how to confirm if the PSU is fine? I have checked the 3.3v/5v and 12v voltages in the bios and they are almost dead on.

I am not too sure how to check for PSU spikes...any ideas?

Planning to return the card tomorrow, but wanted to confirm I am not overlooking anything.

Thanks

 

[bystander]

Given that it fails at post, and the 8800 is doing ok (granted, this has lower power requirements, but not a lot lower), I'd guess there is a problem with the card. Unfortunately these things happen.

I also wish I knew a good way to test the PSU, so I'll see what others have to say.

 

[shredder777]

The card is definitely faulty, but if you want to cover all options, hook the psu to a spare computer or a friends computer and see if it works.

 

[expertsonline]

Thanks all. RMA'ed the card and got a new one. Works nicely.