Please Help! Msi 7870

[yamahahornist]

So I ordered my Msi 7870 hawk about a week ago and I have been having some issues! Don't get me wrong when the card works its amazing, but I have been getting A TON of bsod. I have a Gigabyte Z77X-D3H mobo btw. The card will not overclock at all! I keep getting the bsod; I thought it might be my ram or my cpu, but I ran stability test on everything and they where fine. The weird part is it will pass stability tests! I have ran Evga Oc Scanner X, FurMark, and Msi Kombustor and the overclocking I have done passes all the tests. I even did a four hour test with FurMark. I had it @1200mhz (core) and 1300mhz (memory) @1.3 volts then in a League of Legends game it crashes. So then I put it at 1.35volts and I think everything is fine. I played GW2 for about 5 hours and it was fine! The next morning I get on and in 20 mins BSOD O_O I am about ready to give up on this card! Should I RMA the card?
Sorry for the long read! Thank in advance for the help!

System:
i5 3570k @4.1ghz
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H
Msi 7870 Hawk
Corsair 500 Watt PSU
8Gb Patriot Ram @1600mhz

 

[EzioAs]

Have you tried running it at stock speed to see whether you get blue screen or not?

 

[yamahahornist]

When I run it on stock speeds it works (that I know of) I am thinking about refunding it and getting the Msi 660ti It makes no sense that a card cant overclock 50~100mhz with a .1v increase! I also have tried with and without ULPS enabled, still no fix. I turned my GFX voltage protectors down, still doesn't work!

 

[EzioAs]

You try that first. If the problem persist, it could be because of some other thing (which I'm guessing is the psu wattage)

 

[yamahahornist]

Try what? Running at stock speeds or getting a 660ti? Thanks for the help btw!

 

[lowcountrysmoke]

Honestly I think 550 watt is minimum you want for that set up

 

[EzioAs]

Sorry about that, some misunderstanding.

That psu can only supply up to 408W on the main 12V rail so you're it makes sense that you run into problems if you overclock your video card (and you OC your cpu as well). My recommendations would be keep you current card and run it at stock speed, and replace your psu later with something like a GS600 or a TX650/550M

 

[yamahahornist]

I think I am going to get the 660ti. The benchmarks are way better, its reliable, and uses less power then the 7870 hawk.

 

[ndslite]

don't get the 660ti. the new 12.11 beta drivers blow away the 660ti. The 7870 is a great card. the 660i is also limited by its 192bit memory bus. My advice is to get a new power supply. Your OCing your CPU and your trying to OC your GPU with a 500 watt supply? atleast go for a 750watt. make sure to check the 12V rail ampage

 

[yamahahornist]

I upgraded to the new 12.11 beta drivers and was still getting bsod (also no perforamce improvement) even with a 50mhz boost. There is something wrong with the gpu. I RMA'ed it already for the 660ti. Also the corsair 500's 12v puts out 456w. I also tested the psu with a gpu test and cpu test running and the psu was fine.

 

[rdc85]

Anyway try changing (borrow) PSU as people above said first.....

 

[photonboy]

I upgraded to the new 12.11 beta drivers and was still getting bsod (also no perforamce improvement) even with a 50mhz boost. There is something wrong with the gpu. I RMA'ed it already for the 660ti. Also the corsair 500's 12v puts out 456w. I also tested the psu with a gpu test and cpu test running and the psu was fine.

Since you RMA'd already, this is for NEXT TIME I guess:

#1 - When you have a BSOD you need to tell us what it says. There is a setting in Windows to FREEZE on the BSOD to give you time to write down the information.

#2 - If your graphics cards handles FURMARK it sounds like it's operating fine.

#3 - The FIRST THING you should test is your RAM using MEMTEST ( www.memtest.org ). If that's your probably you'll still have issues.

#4 - BIOS updates for your motherboard can often solve stability issues.

#5 - After ensuring your BIOS is up to date, you need to make sure your RAM profile is set to "XMP" and that the frequency and timings are proper for your RAM.

#6 - Never overclock the CPU when testing.

 

[yamahahornist]

Best answer selected by yamahahornist.