Potential GPU Issue in a friend's rig?

[profoundnoah]

Hey Guys,
So my friend has been having issues with his rig recently. He is a youtuber who creates a lot of game play videos and also occasionally streams to twitch. He has had a plethora of issues with his rig. The first being a failing 4790k (messing up with the encoder), which I replaced with my old 3930k. He also recently acquired a GTX 780 ACX (with an unlocked BIOS) from a friend. The main issue is, whenever he tries to record his videos in mp4, the image always comes out blurry, regardless of his settings, and we've tried various other recording software. This forces him to record in lossless .avi, which results in a much larger file size, therefore slowing down his production period to nearly 3 days. He has also been experiencing a few out-of-place crashes. I should also mention, he has tried recording with both NVIDIA NVENC and 264, so the image comes out crappy regardless of which piece of hardware he uses to record.

TROUBLESHOOTING:
Clean installation of windows on a bare SSD multiple times.
Both CPU and motherboard swap, along with different SATA cords and ports.
A complete disk and ram check.
Driver Re-installation
Codec Re-installation
Various Different editing and recording software.
Different bitrate and other settings
Recording to HDD instead of SSD.
All have still led to low quality mp4 footage.
The only factor in the equation that hasn't been tested is the GTX 780.


It turns out that his 780 required him to increase the voltages up to 1.162V in order to get the thing stable, but ever since then he's been running the card stock with no stability issues. Both of us are relatively experienced in the tech field, but we're both stumped at this. All help and recommendations are appreciated. Does this sound like a bad GPU, or something else?

 

[Barty1884]

Realistically, the changes of a CPU 'failing', are <1%. Of all components, those tend to be the most robust. If there's an issue, you're much more likely to find the source in the motherboard itself, the CPU socket or even the PSU.

The unlocked BIOS on the GPU may be making it unstable. The sole purpose of those 'unlocked' BIOS's (which I wouldn't recommend) is for substantial overclocks and greater voltage control. Whether the GPU is 'bad' is unknown, unless you reflash the original BIOS and run it at stock.

The fact the images come out blurry is likely artifacting due to any overclock (or the 'theory' of an OC being present via the unlocked BIOS).

You mention out-of-place crashes.....can you elaborate? What is he doing immediately prior?

Please post the full specs though, including model numbers.

I'm inclined to think (from the info present) that you're dealing with either an unstable OC, or an insufficient/low quality PSU (or a combination of both), but it's impossible to say without knowing the full spec.

 

[profoundnoah]

Realistically, the changes of a CPU 'failing', are <1%. Of all components, those tend to be the most robust. If there's an issue, you're much more likely to find the source in the motherboard itself, the CPU socket or even the PSU.

The unlocked BIOS on the GPU may be making it unstable. The sole purpose of those 'unlocked' BIOS's (which I wouldn't recommend) is for substantial overclocks and greater voltage control. Whether the GPU is 'bad' is unknown, unless you reflash the original BIOS and run it at stock. Also something to note is that he puts his finished AVI into handbrake after, converting it to mp4. This is a lengthy process, but the finished mp4 is clean and has very few if any artifacts.

The fact the images come out blurry is likely artifacting due to any overclock (or the 'theory' of an OC being present via the unlocked BIOS).

You mention out-of-place crashes.....can you elaborate? What is he doing immediately prior?

Please post the full specs though, including model numbers.

I'm inclined to think (from the info present) that you're dealing with either an unstable OC, or an insufficient/low quality PSU (or a combination of both), but it's impossible to say without knowing the full spec.

My apologies for not listing the full specs.
intel core i7 3930k
Asus X79 Sabertooth
Enermax White Cluster Air Cooler
8 GB PNY DDR3 1866 Cas 10
Samsung 830 128 GB
1 TB WD Blue HDD
EVGA GTX 780 ACX
Corsair TX 750W PSU.

He has everything set to stock clocks, and will be testing the BIOS shortly. These crashes will occur randomly, for example, one occurred after an instance of gaming, the other occurred when just on the desktop. They are not often, but they are still noticeable. He has also scanned for any instance of malware/virus on the PC.

 

[profoundnoah]

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A picture of what it looks like.
Update: After reflashing the BIOS, he is still encountering the same issues in terms of low quality MP4.