Shouls i RMA my 5 hours old card? 7970

[weaselman]

Right look at what is it telling you. Im going to tell you why it works in safe mode first of all because windows uses a stock video driver windows created it does not utilize the full power, and features of the graphics card or all of its chipset features or options.

Now in normal windows mode, it falls over because once the Ati driver is loaded it obviously as a result is using and enabling more features of the card, requiring more power draw from your PSU. sorry but is true, Look at this way what is logic telling you. PSU.

 

[tokitz]

I've found out that it's the PSU but how come it working before then? And i just wanted to be sure that i didn't frye it, which i don't hope i did, but should i send it back just in case and then use my old graphics card because i can first get a new psu in 2-3 months... :s

And it's just funny that it happened after i pulled the MHz down from the RAM ?

 

[weaselman]

If the system works fine with the old card the Psu can cope with the power draw of the card.
But I have to say I don`t know how old your Psu is. But I can say after a a few years use power efficiency become less to usage heat and component wear and tear, heating up expanding and contraction of example Capacitors become less efficient for example degrading over all stability and stable output over time. If you look on a Psu some will say in life hours what it expected to run before the effects of usage and time take there toll. A bit of advice Have a check of the wattage the card requires at maximum load, And check what the card is also trying to draw in amps from the 12v rail at high load or Idle.
Have a good look at the Psu and what it can provide in amps. If it is under what the card states again its the cause of the problem. Amps are just as important as wattage output.
Example.

A 7970 will draw 190 to 222w of power at full load off a 12 rail. And need a 36 amp to keep it stable from the 12v power rail of a psu. You need to take a close look at this by the sticker on the psu with its output specs.

 

[Sakkura]

Not necessarily.

550 watts is pushing it for a 7970. If we assume that a good 550 watt PSU has at least 450 watts on the 12 volt rail we can break it down as follows:

250 watts for an overclocked 7970 (XFX Black Edition according to the OP)

75-150 watts for a stock CPU, but 100-200 watts for an overclocked CPU (inclusive)

Up to 10 watts for the PCH

Up to 20 watts for the memory

10 watts per platter hard drive

1 watt per SSD

4 watts per case fan (120mm)

Even a modest gaming PC will blow past 450 watts DC when equipped with a factory overclocked GPU and modest gaming CPU. My PC alone draws over 700 watts under Furmark conditions and up to 900 when mining bitcoins.

A good 550W PSU will have 500W or more available on the 12V rail. The XFX 550W has 528W (44A) for example. Which is enough for the OPs configuration.
Also, Furmark is not a realistic usage scenario.

Just get this PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

Only $64.99 and will run your computer nicely,

Or this Corsair 600w PSU for $69.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028


Your problems will soon be solved


"I had a similar problem after upgrading and my 450w was just slightly underpowered and couldn't carry the load"

Mind you running with to less of power, is a great risk to your other components, Its not wise to do this. You can always take off fans if your not overheating, or reduce the overclocking of your items, but the best solution is to upgrade the PSU to one that can handle your load

OP seems to be located in Scandinavia, so those particular links aren't much use. XFX and Corsair tend to provide the best value in Scandinavia, in my experience.

 

[Pinhedd]

A good 550W PSU will have 500W or more available on the 12V rail. The XFX 550W has 528W (44A) for example. Which is enough for the OPs configuration.
Also, Furmark is not a realistic usage scenario.


OP seems to be located in Scandinavia, so those particular links aren't much use. XFX and Corsair tend to provide the best value in Scandinavia, in my experience.

550 watts is barely enough and leaves little to no room for expansion. Furmark certainly is a realistic usage scenario, it's designed to torture a GPU in the same way a well written game would torture it.

 

[Sakkura]

550 watts is barely enough and leaves little to no room for expansion. Furmark certainly is a realistic usage scenario, it's designed to torture a GPU in the same way a well written game would torture it.

It puts more load on the GPU than any game will, but less load on the CPU than quite a few games.