GTX-780 Broken?

PhysicsMan94 · 3 Jul 2013 at 17:10

I got my EVGA GTX-780 SuperClocked edition yesterday and installed it in my computer to finish my new build - switched it on and everything worked fine, installed the 320.11 drivers from the disc that came with it and all was good.

Then, just to test a game I installed Crysis 1 from Steam and started to play it - during the first cutscene after starting a new game big blobs of colour started flying across the screen and also lines of colour (I think it's known as artifacting). Changing the graphics settings from very high to high to medium stopped the problems for a few seconds and then they persisted again.

So then I decided to install the 320.49 drivers to see if that would fix the problem - but it did not, however I realised yesterday that I did not restart my computer after installing the new drivers. Today I started my computer again and it was all okay until I tried Crysis 1 again in which the crazy, flying colours and all other kinds of weird stuff happened again - I exited the game but to my dismay there were lots of strange coloured pixels all over the desktop and whenever I opened a program all sorts of lines started stretching across the screen repeatedly.

I restarted my computer again but the problems still persisted, then I rolled back my drivers to 320.11 and the problems were still there. At the moment I am downloading 105 important windows updates which I noticed on the control panel to see if that does anything, but I doubt it.

I plugged my laptop into my monitor (Dell UltraSharp U2713HM) to see if the monitor is the problem but it worked fine so it can't be the monitor.

Does anyone have any ideas? Is my GPU screwed - will I have to RMA it?

Rest of my system specs are in my signature - I have not overclocked the CPU or anything yet as I only finished building it yesterday. Also, on EVGA Precision X it said that the GPU was at 35° whilst on the desktop so I don't think that's a problem - I did notice, however, that the core clock speeds dropped to 375MHz whilst the problems were occurring on the desktop whereas I have the SC 780 which has a stock clock of around 940MHz; is this normal?

Thanks for any help.

PhysicsMan94 · 3 Jul 2013 at 18:23

Update:

Installing those 105 important windows updates hasn't solved the problem - neither has swapping the drivers back to 320.49 again after the roll back. I tried to plug an HDMI cable into the motherboard I/O panel and into my monitor but it says that there is "no signal from computer" - which is annoying as I could've isolated it down to definitely being an issue with the GPU, but now I just have absolutely no idea what to do or what is going on.

Dammit, this is not a good start for my first computer build

Drangueos · 3 Jul 2013 at 18:32

well.. looks like that your graphics card is the problem... try to change the PCI-E slot and the power cables that goes to the card..

if you can, try the card in another computer.

DarkTheSupreme · 3 Jul 2013 at 18:54

Does it happen in any other games?

May just be a driver issue with Crysis.

PhysicsMan94 · 3 Jul 2013 at 18:56

DarkTheSupreme said:
Does it happen in any other games?

May just be a driver issue with Crysis.

As I said, it now messes up even on the desktop (all sorts of lines spreading across the screen and other weird graphical issues) so it can't just be Crysis.

dave28 · 3 Jul 2013 at 18:58

edited out

dave28 · 3 Jul 2013 at 19:00

PhysicsMan94 said:
As I said, it now messes up even on the desktop (all sorts of lines spreading across the screen and other weird graphical issues) so it can't just be Crysis.

Ok is there intergrated graphics on the motherboard or CPU. If there is then take out the GPU and used those to see if it still happens.

DarkTheSupreme · 3 Jul 2013 at 19:00

PhysicsMan94 said:
As I said, it now messes up even on the desktop (all sorts of lines spreading across the screen and other weird graphical issues) so it can't just be Crysis.

Ah, I missed that.

If that's the case, I would just RMA it.

PhysicsMan94 · 3 Jul 2013 at 19:21

dave28 said:
Ok is there intergrated graphics on the motherboard or CPU. If there is then take out the GPU and used those to see if it still happens.

My CPU has integrated graphics, so I tried that (mentioned in my second post I think) with an HDMI link to the I/O panel and my monitor but the screen just showed a message saying "No signal detected from computer" - do I have to disable the PCI-E slot before trying this in order to get it to work?

TheHand · 3 Jul 2013 at 20:57

PhysicsMan94 said:
My CPU has integrated graphics, so I tried that (mentioned in my second post I think) with an HDMI link to the I/O panel and my monitor but the screen just showed a message saying "No signal detected from computer" - do I have to disable the PCI-E slot before trying this in order to get it to work?

Remove the VGA to work... it detects that's there is a VGA installed

PhysicsMan94 · 4 Jul 2013 at 01:06

Thinking about it now - do I need to disable the onboard graphics on my CPU? That could be what is causing the problems - my monitor might be trying to refresh images twice leading to lots of artifacting on everything even the desktop. What do you people think? Could that be the problem?

TheHand · 4 Jul 2013 at 09:55

PhysicsMan94 said:
Thinking about it now - do I need to disable the onboard graphics on my CPU? That could be what is causing the problems - my monitor might be trying to refresh images twice leading to lots of artifacting on everything even the desktop. What do you people think? Could that be the problem?

The CPU graphics is disabled as soon as you put you VGA on the Motherboard

old gamer · 4 Jul 2013 at 10:19

might be worth checking the 780 in another pc before rma, as its a new build it could be a possible fault with the psu or pci slot on the motherboard

Aurhinius · 4 Jul 2013 at 12:34

I might be wrong but there was a long thread about a recent nvidia driver reportedly killing 780 graphics cards.

Yours might be one of them by the sounds of it anyway.

EVGAdominik · 4 Jul 2013 at 12:34

Hi,

if you are able to try it in a different system I would suggest to give this a try, this is the most simple way to get guarantee if the fault is with the card or not. In case you want to RMA it just send an email to [email protected], state that you want a RMA Ticket and that troubleshooting is already done.

PhysicsMan94 · 4 Jul 2013 at 13:11

EVGAdominik said:
Hi,

if you are able to try it in a different system I would suggest to give this a try, this is the most simple way to get guarantee if the fault is with the card or not. In case you want to RMA it just send an email to [email protected], state that you want a RMA Ticket and that troubleshooting is already done.

Oh, so I shouldn't RMA it with the reseller if I need to return it?

PhysicsMan94 · 4 Jul 2013 at 16:06

Alright, so I turned off the PCI-E slot that the 780 is in and plugged an HDMI cable into my monitor and the motherboard - everything was fine with this set up and there were no graphical glitches, so I think that I can definitely isolate down to an issue with the graphics card. I think I'm going to go ahead and RMA it with EVGA then, that is if I ever get this damn GPU out of its slot as it is proving quite difficult...

andybird123 · 4 Jul 2013 at 16:45

My advice would always be to rma it with the vendor you buy it from. Legally in the uk you get extra protection if you always deal with the supplier first.

PhysicsMan94 · 5 Jul 2013 at 02:27

andybird123 said:
My advice would always be to rma it with the vendor you buy it from. Legally in the uk you get extra protection if you always deal with the supplier first.

I see, well I may do that then. But I did not buy it from OcUK though unfortunately, so it may actually be easier to RMA it with EVGA...

EVGAdominik · 5 Jul 2013 at 09:23

Hi,

generally you can also handle RMA with the seller if you want to. If the seller can replace it right away in your country this is probably the fastest solution. If the seller would need to send it back to EVGA by himself or would give you a partial refund I would suggest to deal the RMA directly with us. If the product is faulty out of the box we will pick it up from your house. If you need your system and do not want to have downtime we do also offer advanced RMA were you can get a cross shipment but you have to pay a security collateral for this.