Question Why did my GPUs die?

[kosmaaa]

Hello. I've had my MSI RTX 3070 VENTUS 3X OC fail in May of this year and my PALIT GTX 970 JETSTREAM fail last month.


About the 3070:
never ran hot, never was overclocked, was a mining card, was undervolted by me, lasted 6 months from purchase

About the 970:
ran hot, was underclocked because it would crash, wasnt a mining card, lasted 4 months after the 3070 died, i don't remember how long it lasted before that. Pretty sure it was destined to die anyway.

Both have had their GPU core damaged. In the case of the 3070 it started with texture artifacts and went into monitor flickering black and then crashing when drivers were loaded. In the case of the 970 it died spontaneously.

What could be the cause? Software? I haven't formatted in 7 years and basically frankensteined old data into the new ssd when I upgraded. Could it be MSI afterburner? Or could it be the PSU or BIOS settings?

Specs:
CPU: ryzen 5 2600 (no oc)
Motherboard: MSI AORUS ELITE B450 (RMA'd because of short circuit)
RAM: ADATA XPG GAMMIX D10 2X16 GB
PSU: be quiet! Pure Power 11 FM 850W 80+ Gold
SSD: Samsung 980 1TB
Always ran the latest W10 version and NVIDIA drivers, sometimes was a few versions behind but nothing severe.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Eximo]

GTX 970 are getting a little old, so a failure there may just be a coincidence.

Used mining card would have had many hours on it, and we don't know under what conditions it was mining. If they underclocked it for power efficiency or stuck it in a rack of 200 running up against the thermal limits constantly.

 

[Tac 25]

OP

mining cards can pass stress tests perfectly fine. Then be dead a few weeks / months later. That's just how they are.

 

[kosmaaa]

OP

mining cards can pass stress tests perfectly fine. Then be dead a few weeks / months later. That's just how they are.

You think so? I'm 100% certain the 970 was destined to die because of it's prior issue related to crashing and me having to underclock jt but I really don't understand the 3070's case. I guess I'll just have to be more careful with my purchases. Thank you for your reply.

 

[Phaaze88]

Mining and gaming don't apply stress on gpus in the same manner.
In the 3070's case, it is the memory controller built into the die that mining tends to do in. Since it's in/part of the silicon, if things go south, there's pretty much nothing to be done about it beyond decreasing the memory clock, but one can only go so far with that method.

As for the 970, it's often the power delivery/VRM that gaming does in. Someone MIGHT be able to repair it, but it's not always salvageable.

Well, nothing lasts forever. You got a long run out of the 970.

 

[kosmaaa]

Mining and gaming don't apply stress on gpus in the same manner.
In the 3070's case, it is the memory controller built into the die that mining tends to do in. Since it's in/part of the silicon, if things go south, there's pretty much nothing to be done about it beyond decreasing the memory clock, but one can only go so far with that method.

As for the 970, it's often the power delivery/VRM that gaming does in. Someone MIGHT be able to repair it, but it's not always salvageable.

Well, nothing lasts forever. You got a long run out of the 970.

Right. What would cause such a reaction in the 3070 though? I wasn't necessarily playing a demanding game at the time of it's death. It didn't just spontaneously go black screen and cause a GPU error unlike the 970, it was still alive to some extent albeit slightly crippled. Could it just be all the wear it obtained through me gaming on it finally killing it? I'll probably still turn off my MSI afterburner just in case and just ask the next time I buy a GPU for some benchmarks. Sucks because I probably could've RMA'd it had I not opened it Thank you for your reply.

 

[Phaaze88]

Right. What would cause such a reaction in the 3070 though? I wasn't necessarily playing a demanding game at the time of it's death. It didn't just spontaneously go black screen and cause a GPU error unlike the 970, it was still alive to some extent albeit slightly crippled. Could it just be all the wear it obtained through me gaming on it finally killing it? I'll probably still turn off my MSI afterburner just in case and just ask the next time I buy a GPU for some benchmarks. Sucks because I probably could've RMA'd it had I not opened it Thank you for your reply.

Hard to answer without knowing how well the previous user took care of it. Could it have been crunching away 24/7, the memory was being run too hot, or the card was hooked up to a real jank power grid? Maybe they never really cleaned it until they were ready to sell it.

 

[Tac 25]

You think so? I'm 100% certain the 970 was destined to die because of it's prior issue related to crashing and me having to underclock jt but I really don't understand the 3070's case. I guess I'll just have to be more careful with my purchases. Thank you for your reply.

I'm referring only to the 3070 which was mined.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I think that the 970 died because it was old and the 3070 was just bad luck. Sometimes things like that just happen. My old XFX GeForce 6200 AGP died while it was in storage and I wasn't using it. It worked perfectly up to the day that I replaced it with my Palit GeForce 8500 GT but then I tried giving it to my sister to replace a dead Radeon AGP card but when I installed it and hooked it up, no joy. Meanwhile my 8500 GT works to this day and so too do all of my other old cards.

Go figure, eh?

 

[Order 66]

I think that the 970 died because it was old and the 3070 was just bad luck. Sometimes things like that just happen. My old XFX GeForce 6200 AGP died while it was in storage and I wasn't using it. It worked perfectly up to the day that I replaced it with my Palit GeForce 8500 GT but then I tried giving it to my sister to replace a dead Radeon AGP card but when I installed it and hooked it up, no joy. Meanwhile my 8500 GT works to this day and so too do all of my other old cards.

Go figure, eh?

I consider myself lucky that I have never had a card die on my but then again I haven't been using the same computer for more than 5 years anyway.