Recently had 2 graphics cards die. I'm curious if my PSU is bad

[Martin 71]

Hey, I had a 7970 that was giving me stuttering issues and a 670 that just started artifacting horribly, and I'm just curious if I have a dying PSU... I tested it with a multimeter and measured 12.2v on the PCI-e plugs, so I don't know if that's acceptable or not. Could I get some opinions? The rest of the system runs fine. Specs in sig, scratch the gpu because I had to rma the 670

 

[Pinhedd]

12.2v open circuit is a bit on the high side but it's still within the 5% tollerance afforded by the ATX specification (maximum would be 12.6, minimum 11.4). However, what's most important is what happens to the voltage under load conditions. You would have to graph the voltage when it's plugged in and gaming by using an oscilloscope. You can try using some monitoring software such as HWInfo64

 

[Martin 71]

Thanks for the help, is there any other way to test the psu without risking another GPU? I also would like to be able to order the PSU so it'll arrive at the same time as the RMA'ed card.

 

[Pinhedd]

Out of curiosity what driver suite were you using with the 7970? What games or applications gave you trouble?

The older graphics drivers for the 7970 prior to 12.3 didn't have full support and many motherboard manufacturers had to release firmware updates to deal with the new power saving modes (which are awesome btw). I heard a couple tales of the 7970 getting stuck in lower power mode. Stuttering isn't typical of a bad card, it's typical of a software problem. The artifacting on the 670 should never happen though.

 

[4Ryan6]

Hey, I had a 7970 that was giving me stuttering issues and a 670 that just started artifacting horribly, and I'm just curious if I have a dying PSU... I tested it with a multimeter and measured 12.2v on the PCI-e plugs, so I don't know if that's acceptable or not. Could I get some opinions? The rest of the system runs fine. Specs in sig, scratch the gpu because I had to rma the 670

Thanks for the help, is there any other way to test the psu without risking another GPU? I also would like to be able to order the PSU so it'll arrive at the same time as the RMA'ed card.

Regarding the power supply it's within spec. it would be nice if someone had reviewed the P/S like Johnny Guru but I couldn't find any outside links to any independent reviews of it, it looks nice though with all the led plugs lit.

So my question is are you overclocking your GPU at all?

A good solid 750w power supply should be able to handle the single GPU and CPU overclock, but if you're possibly overclocking the GPU too far it will artifact?

When most here consider power supplies they want just enough to get by not adding overclocking to the equation, if I was building your system from scratch I would have gone with a 900w to 1000w power supply, simply because it would be cruising with your power needs, it wouldn't be under any strain at all.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...56-057^17-256-057-TS,17-703-028^17-703-028-TS

 

[Martin 71]

The gpu had the stock overclock (ftw edition) but I think that 750w would have been enough to run my rig... or rather (should) as for the 7970, the main game that was stuttering was BF3 and it was pretty bad. I used all the driver suites until 12.6 before I sold it. (to tell the truth I've been having issues with microstutter with every ati card I've ever had (5770, 5850, 6870 xfire, 7970.) So I just decided to go green because the only other nvidia card I've ever had was amazing. (Still runs today) 7900gs. So that's the backstory, do you all think I should wait for my replacement 670 to arrive and then just use a multimeter to make sure there aren't any issues with the PSU with the new card? Oh, and is it possible that the 670 just died for a reason other than the power supply killing it? What else could cause the card to die?

 

[obsidian86]

what exact kingwin psu have you got

there is more to what makes a good psu then just decent voltages