[SOLVED] Underperforming GPU, not it's fault ?

[BolinhoDeArroz]

I recently got a new mobo and CPU, so I went through setting it up, done this a couple of times already so I was decently confident, everything seemed to be okay, most of the ground work was layed out already.
Time to turn the computer on, see some sparks and hear some sort of electric noise and smoke comes out, immediately turn it off and wait a little, the sparks seemed to have come from the top right (to the right of the RAM). A few minutes later I turn the computer back on and it boots like nothing ever happened, no issues at all. Computer is working just fine, all RAM is in, everything good, but the GPU is underperforming badly
I ran PerformanceTest and ran a couple of tests, CPU is impeccable, RAM is all good except for some high latency (I believe it always was like that, even before) but the GPU is really underperforming. like half the frame rate I would otherwise get from Heaven Benchmark.
Tried another GPU on the PC and the same thing happened, put that GPU back on the original PC and had better results despite the whole build being worse.

My possible culprits would be the power supply or the motherboard, but the mobo itself is new, could this be a case of the PSU being damaged and unable to provide enough power to the GPU?
I can't really afford a new PSU or motherboard at the moment to test it out so I'd like to try any suggestions and eventually I might be able to swap one of those out to test.

Specs:
ROG Strix B550-F
RTX 3060 TI 8GB
Ryzen 9 5950x
2x 16GB 3200 Corsair RAM

 

[Eximo]

Might have been the power provided to the PCIe slots that took a dump. Try switching slots.

Same company that was putting in capacitors backwards on the Hero board. I would probably send the board in for replacement, sounds like something popped, might not be critical to operation, but who knows what it did.

 

[BolinhoDeArroz]

Might have been the power provided to the PCIe slots that took a dump. Try switching slots.

Same company that was putting in capacitors backwards on the Hero board. I would probably send the board in for replacement, sounds like something popped, might not be critical to operation, but who knows what it did.

Will try it, thanks. I'm cautious of sending it back though because I just got an RMA on it since it originally came with defective RAM slots, but if it ends up being the case I'll try it.

 

[DRagor]

Mentioning you suspect damaged PSU but not mentioning what model it is ...
What you did between seeing sparks and booting the machine? Motherboard visual inspection? Checked all cables?

 

[BolinhoDeArroz]

Mentioning you suspect damaged PSU but not mentioning what model it is ...
What you did between seeing sparks and booting the machine? Motherboard visual inspection? Checked all cables?

Yeah it seemed all okay, the CPU fan connector was a bit loose but there's nothing I could to about it, it was plugged in alright though. Everything else was as I'd expect.

Might have been the power provided to the PCIe slots that took a dump. Try switching slots.

Same company that was putting in capacitors backwards on the Hero board. I would probably send the board in for replacement, sounds like something popped, might not be critical to operation, but who knows what it did.

This worked! Didn't even know that the GPU could fit in the top slot with all the mobo plastic things around it and the CPU cooler right next to it too, but it somehow fit just right and the issue is gone. It really is the mobo then, what a shame, got it replaced once already but I'll leave it as is, don't plan on doing SLI or anything so it should do for now. Anyways, thanks, I'll be looking forwards to replacing this one whenever I can upgrade this thing again.

 

[DRagor]

Well, if you put GPU not in the top slot then it is SUPPOSED to underperform. The second x16 slot operates only as x4 so it limits 3060ti speed in about half. Motherboard is fine, it's just you not doing your homework

 

[BolinhoDeArroz]

Well, if you put GPU not in the top slot then it is SUPPOSED to underperform. The second x16 slot operates only as x4 so it limits 3060ti speed in about half. Motherboard is fine, it's just you not doing your homework

But it was working fine on the bottom slot before, never had any issues with it, it just started underperforming after this incident.

 

[DRagor]

But it was working fine on the bottom slot before, never had any issues with it, it just started underperforming after this incident.

How it could work fine before if you just got new motherboard? If you mean it worked fine on your old motherboard - that's possible if the second slot on your old mobo has at least 8 lanes . Does not change the fact that this GPU on second slot of THIS motherboard will underperform because it has to.

 

[RodroX]

So first motherboard have defective RAM slots, second mobo have sparks and smoke around the RAM slots too (probably the VRM which is usually to the right of the last slot.

Was this mobo from newegg by any chance lol?