Am I just unlucky with faulty gpu

[Robzere31]

Few weeks ago I brought an MSI 280x GPU & after a week of problems with it artifacting I returned it & upgraded to an MSI 290
However, a few days into owning it I'm getting black screens after running any game for more than a couple of minutes.
Tried the usual, changed drivers, updated everything you can think of swopped cables DVI , HDMI all the same.
Am I just unlucky at getting two faulty MSI cards or is there an underlying problem?
Maybe time to admit defeat & go nvidia!

System is as follows.
4770k @ 4.5GHZ (also tried running at stock)
8GB Avexir 2133mhz
MSI Z87_G45 motherboard
1000w Bequiet psu

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Robzere31]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-239-MS

This is the card I have, it's the twin frozr one. The 280x I had had the same cooling.
Temps on the card are not high, seems to get upto 65-70c

 

[Robzere31]

Well after a few more tests including underclocking the card by 25% i'm still getting black screen forcing a hard reset.
Games ran longer at the reduced clocks, but still locked up after 15-20 mins, so I'm returning the card for one last try at AMD before calling it a day & moving to Nvidia.

Strange that running back to back tests of Firestrike, it ran fine, but 2 mins of Grid 2 caused a black screen as did AC4

 

[Robzere31]

Running at stock speeds, so there shouldn't be any need for overvolting.

 

[Robzere31]

Before you send it back as faulty, which it sounds like it is. Flick the bios switch to position 2 and see if the issue still occurs.

Did that last night & no improvement. Asked for an RMA number, just waiting for them to send one. Had a reply sugesting I update my drivers, update direct x, re-install windows etc which I've already checked & my Windows install is only 6 weeks old,
but simple fact is the card is faulty so needs to go back.

 

[Robzere31]

Yeah sounds like that is the case. 13.12 WHQL drivers?

Tried the 13.09 WHQL, 13.12 WHQL & the 14.01 beta