Graphics card sudden death

strumpusplunket · 21 May 2022 at 14:35

My trusty old GTX 1080 Ti kicked the bucket very suddenly last night. I was just heading back to the shrine in Nioh 2 before bed when all of a sudden the display went off and the PC wouldn't POST again, displaying the "bad VGA" LED.

I have ordered a new card, but also a bit concerned about the cause of the old one's demise. I had an examinatoin of the card under the HSF and can't see any visibily damaged components or leaking caps.

Now, I'd had the card for about three-and-a-half years and someone else had owned it for several months before that. It's done a very decent amount of gaming, but to pop its clogs so suddenly - no artifacting, no performance issues, no crashes - was a major surprise. Just working fine, then a brick.

What's the possiblity this was caused by a power spike from my PSU? Obviously I don't want to risk my new card going the same way. I have a decent PSU, I think - Bitfenix Gold 750W. Less than five years old. The PC is running okay now with my old HTPC's GT1030 in it, so nothing else appears to be damaged.

Would anyone else be looking to replace the PSU as well, just in case? Or is that just paranoid thinkning and overkill?

Quartz · 21 May 2022 at 14:50

Pardon the obvious but have you checked that it isn't the power output from the PSU that's failed?

strumpusplunket · 21 May 2022 at 14:58

Quartz said:
Pardon the obvious but have you checked that it isn't the power output from the PSU that's failed?

Actually, no. I imagined (perhaps incorrectly) that it would at least POST even just drawing power from the PCIE slot.

(I know it worked with one of the 8-pins unplugged since I had some issues with it shutting off in games before I figured out one of the plugs wasn't sitting in the socket.)

But, yes, it would be annoying if it turned out that it's the PSU's VGA line that is at fault. I guess I will know tomorrow when I try the new card...

humbug · 21 May 2022 at 17:07

Do you have a friend with a PC? It is a bit odd that it goes from working perfectly to dead just like that, not saying it can't happen but.... as you say usually there is a sign that its on its way out.

strumpusplunket · 21 May 2022 at 18:14

humbug said:
Do you have a friend with a PC? It is a bit odd that it goes from working perfectly to dead just like that, not saying it can't happen but.... as you say usually there is a sign that its on its way out.

Ugh, it is odd, isn't it?

Damn, I knew I should have posted on here before ordering a new card!

There are the kids' PC upstairs I could grab a card/PSU from to test things if the new card doesn't let the system POST tomorrow (if I can convince them to come off them long enough to let me test the parts...)

Goddamit. That was all rather stupid of me, really. Well, I guess I was planning on upgrading the 1080 Ti sometime this year or next anyway...

humbug · 21 May 2022 at 18:17

strumpusplunket said:
Ugh, it is odd, isn't it?

Damn, I knew I should have posted on here before ordering a new card!

There are the kids' PC upstairs I could grab a card/PSU from to test things if the new card doesn't let the system POST tomorrow (if I can convince them to come off them long enough to let me test the parts...)

Goddamit. That was all rather stupid of me, really. Well, I guess I was planning on upgrading the 1080 Ti sometime this year or next anyway...

The best thing to do to confirm it is the card is just put the card in the PC you want to test it in, provided the PSU can power it up.

strumpusplunket · 21 May 2022 at 18:19

humbug said:
The best thing to do to confirm it is the card is just put the card in the PC you want to test it in, provided the PSU can power it up.

Yeah, that does make the most sense. I will see if one of the kids is amenable to that.

strumpusplunket · 21 May 2022 at 18:46

Ok, just checked and card is indeed ded.

But it does still leave me worrying about my PSU a bit. I wouldn't have thought a decent PSU with safety protections should deliver enough of a spike to kill a card, but then I do remember hearing of cards being fried by power spikes in New World, so I don't know what to think on this.

Thanks for the input all. Helped to reorder my chaotic thinking.

Tetras · 21 May 2022 at 20:33

I wouldn't suspect the psu is killing cards, unless there's some other reason to do so. But, that said, I don't know how long I'd expect a 1080 Ti to last either.

strumpusplunket · 21 May 2022 at 20:44

Tetras said:
I wouldn't suspect the psu is killing cards, unless there's some other reason to do so. But, that said, I don't know how long I'd expect a 1080 Ti to last either.

Yeah, whilst you'd ideally want it to last longer, I imagine it's not unheard of for a high end card to give up the ghost after a bit more than four years' heavy use. I think my 980 Ti had a similar lifespan actually. Though with that one there were signs it was starting to breakdown, with some weird display corruption at times, and odd lines on the screen. This one - 100% fine then shut off, never to go again. Wondering if other people have any experiences of this and possible causes.

Tetras · 21 May 2022 at 20:56

strumpusplunket said:
Yeah, whilst you'd ideally want it to last longer, I imagine it's not unheard of for a high end card to give up the ghost after a bit more than four years' heavy use. I think my 980 Ti had a similar lifespan actually. Though with that one there were signs it was starting to breakdown, with some weird display corruption at times, and odd lines on the screen. This one - 100% fine then shut off, never to go again. Wondering if other people have any experiences of this and possible causes.

There's always been symptoms when it's happened to me, too. Never had one working 100% then poof, dead. 4 years heavy use sounds reasonable.

humbug · 21 May 2022 at 21:09

4 years in my view is not reasonable, not even at 8 hours gaming per day. we don't expect our CPU's, Motherboards.... to have such short lives.

I have never kept a card for more than 3 years and it seems its not uncommon for high end cards to last not much beyond that, which is a worry as i do use my card a lot and i'm sort of done with upgrading my GPU's every couple of years or so, now i just want to get a good card and keep it for several years.

Aretak · 22 May 2022 at 00:50

Cards do just fail like that sometimes. Usually when a power stage/MOSFET dies. Just one out of however many there are on the card may have had a tiny defect right from the factory that's gradually gotten worse over the years to the point that it caused a failure. In a best case scenario something like that could be repaired fairly easily with a multimeter and a soldering iron, but it's not uncommon for them to take the core with them when they go by sending it 12 volts as a parting gift. Power cycling the card will also likely cause more damage in such a scenario. Some cards come with fuses these days to prevent just that.

strumpusplunket · 22 May 2022 at 08:06

humbug said:
4 years in my view is not reasonable, not even at 8 hours gaming per day. we don't expect our CPU's, Motherboards.... to have such short lives.

I have never kept a card for more than 3 years and it seems its not uncommon for high end cards to last not much beyond that, which is a worry as i do use my card a lot and i'm sort of done with upgrading my GPU's every couple of years or so, now i just want to get a good card and keep it for several years.

I agree. It's not reasonable for such an expensive part. The fact we just have to expect this and build it into our calculations is a concern.

I can't extrapolate to a trent, but my last two Ti cards dying after around four years is a bit worrying. That's why I went for a card with a five-year warranty this time. That was actually the decisive factor in which brand to go for. I also do not want to plan another upgrade for a good few years.

Aretak said:
Cards do just fail like that sometimes. Usually when a power stage/MOSFET dies. Just one out of however many there are on the card may have had a tiny defect right from the factory that's gradually gotten worse over the years to the point that it caused a failure. In a best case scenario something like that could be repaired fairly easily with a multimeter and a soldering iron, but it's not uncommon for them to take the core with them when they go by sending it 12 volts as a parting gift. Power cycling the card will also likely cause more damage in such a scenario. Some cards come with fuses these days to prevent just that.

That's interesting to read. I really don't know much of anything about the technical issues with card power and such. Kind of reassuring to think there's nothing necessarily too unusual about my case, though.

d_brennen · 22 May 2022 at 08:18

Autopsy and pics!

strumpusplunket · 22 May 2022 at 08:44

d_brennen said:
Autopsy and pics!

There's nothing of interest to show at all. I took the HSF off, everything looked tickety-boo, so I put it back on again. No melted power intakes, no bulging or leaking caps, no PCB damage. It's all a bit of a dull and uninteresting brick, unfortunately.

Scania · 22 May 2022 at 10:00

My 1080ti (MSI Lightning X), a bit of a monster card with 3 psu connectors, behaves like this in my spare PC,ie completely dead, I’m assuming it’s psu can’t handle it….

strumpusplunket · 22 May 2022 at 12:22

Scania said:
My 1080ti (MSI Lightning X), a bit of a monster card with 3 psu connectors, behaves like this in my spare PC,ie completely dead, I’m assuming it’s psu can’t handle it….

I am a bit agog at the power demands of some of the new cards (the 3xxx series seem considerably higher even than the 1080 Ti). Three 8-pin intakes seems excessive!

I doubt anything similar is the case here, though. There's a decent 750W PSU in my PC, and the card was running fine for over three years and now won't even post, either in this rig or my eldest's (who has a 2070 Super running okay in it normally).

Jay85 · 22 May 2022 at 12:50

The last time i had this issue, where by the card just suddenly died was due to a bad power cable from the PSU. I changed the PSU and the card was fine, there's always a small chance that it could take out the gpu as well but its unlikely unless its a power spike.

Scania · 22 May 2022 at 17:34

strumpusplunket said:
I am a bit agog at the power demands of some of the new cards (the 3xxx series seem considerably higher even than the 1080 Ti). Three 8-pin intakes seems excessive!

I doubt anything similar is the case here, though. There's a decent 750W PSU in my PC, and the card was running fine for over three years and now won't even post, either in this rig or my eldest's (who has a 2070 Super running okay in it normally).

My lightening X was initially in SLI with a 750W Corsair PSU with no issues, I now have a 1200W Phanteks psu albeit with just one 1080ti (sold the other SLI one then regretted it!) power requirements do indeed seem getting pretty absurd!