VisionTek Radeon 6870 - 2nd RMA for Overheating

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
S

splendorlex

Distinguished
Nov 10, 2007
50
0
18,630
I decided it was time to upgrade my old Sapphire Radeon 4830 in May of 2012, and went with the Tom's rec for my price range with the Radeon 6870. I bought a VisionTek, since that's what they sold where I work, and it's been trouble ever since. I've pretty much had heating problems from the start, and I've mostly tried to live with it rather than deal with the RMA hassle. But for the 2nd time since I bought it, the problems became too big and I'm RMAing the card. I RMAd it once back in July, and now I have it packaged and ready to go again here in early January. I've had hopes that since this SAME model is giving me similar issues I could get something else worked out, but no such luck.

So my real question is this, at a certain point should I just eat it on this card as a bad investment and pick up something else? I've been building my own systems for about 15 years, and I keep a clean, cool case, so please no suggestions about me doing something wrong. :) Should I just bite the bullet and pick up a 7850 from a different brand? Or even go back to Nvidia for the first time in a long, long time?
 
I wouldn't write off AMD all together because your cards overheating, it's more likely the manufacutars fault. For the price that the 6870's are going for I would look at a 7850, or a 650Ti if you'd rather save some money. The 7850 is worth it though.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/549?vs=680

I always like MSI cards, I put one like this in my friends computer a month or so ago, and I haven't heard any complaints from him: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127688
Unless your running a 1080p monitor though, a single gig card is enough: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202004 I don't hear many complaints about the Sapphire cards either.
 
I am looking at the 7850 if I can't get this 6870 to work. It is irritating since I spent $150 or so on that card, and I usually stick with a card for 2-3 years or more. I was just thinking how reliable my old Sapphire Radeon 4830 is. I put it back in and it still runs like a champ, I think I may even be able to play Skyrim if I dial everything down. :)
 
When you say overheating, is it shutting down your computer while gaming, or just beyond your comfort level?What sort of temps are you getting underload or precrash? Have you tried turning up the fan manually via the CCC, or changing the slope with Afterburner?
 
Up to 98 degrees in Skyrim. And that's with me already manually setting the fan to 100%. It isn't shutting down the system completely, what happens is eventually it causes my screen to "split" vertically, where the far right part of my screen is actually on the left. (The mouse even jumps over there!) It requires a restart of the system to get back to normal, as that split persists to the desktop.
 
Wow, is the gpu fan even working? Damn, that card is toast. Send it back, write down the serial to make sure they don't "fix it" and send it back to you. I wouldn't abandon AMD video card over this, it certainly isn't representative.
 
If you have high ambient temps in your area, try get something with a better aftermarket cooling, the gigabyte windforce cards are quite good, my gtx660 gigabyte barely cracks 60C under load, and i live in australia where it gets quite warm. It is the coolest running card i have ever owned.
 
Now I am sending the card back today, and they will be sending me the same card back, either refurbing this one or giving me a new one of the same exact model. The real question is should I just but a totally different card? Like a 7850 instead?
 
Yeah, I even had asked if I could get a different card. I even offered to throw in money if there was a price difference, I just didn't want another 6870. All to no avail. Maybe I need to find some VisionTek higher ups on Twitter and try there.
 
Just a quick update. The rep informed me they will be sending me a 6950 instead. Hopefully that one works! Happy with a free upgrade, especially if it stays cool. :)
 
Hey man I had this Problem When i upgraded to my VisionTek Radeon HD 7970 and the problem was the screen Refresh rate was too high so the card would just sit at 60C idle, then I turned to my Default screen refresh rate and bam 30C idle. if your new card you get overheats try to change those settings.
 




Good luck with your replacement, I am on VisionTek Radeon HD 6870 card number 3, not even optimistic that this card will last any longer then the last 2. I've gotten no more then a month out of them and I'm not even gaming more then an hour every week if even that much.

Will never buy another visiontek product ever again. Was my first and will be my last....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom