Did I buy a faulty graphics card?

Liamwoodds · 28 Jan 2020 at 00:42

Today I purchased a refurbished Zotac Nvidia Geforce GTX 780 Ti, as I am planning on building a new pc but wanted something to tie me over for a few months. I then installed Wow Classic and X rebirth. I then tried loading wow and setting it to Ultra but after about 2 minutes give or take the monitor went in to standby whilst the pc continued running as I heard a few background noises... I then had to do a hard reboot and then I tried the same on X rebirth, start up.. set to ultra etc... again it did the same. So I decided to download a benchmark software (passmark) and it passed everything fine until it did the 3d benchmark and it did the same. After some discussions with a friend he recommended I download msi after burner and do some trial and error. After a little while of seeing many blank screens and many reboots I have come to the conclusion the only way I can run my graphics card and play the mentioned above games in ultra without any reboots is by lowering the power from 100% - 70%.

Could anyone please shed some light on whether this is a gpu problem or something entirely different?

Mcnumpty2323 · 28 Jan 2020 at 02:04

Excuse me if I missed anything
Can't read blocks of text
Properly
Refurbished by who?
Manufacturers refurb?
Or some seller saying they refurbed it?
And what psu are you using.?

Liamwoodds · 28 Jan 2020 at 02:16

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Excuse me if I missed anything
Can't read blocks of text
Properly
Refurbished by who?
Manufacturers refurb?
Or some seller saying they refurbed it?
And what psu are you using.?

Hello, I purchased it from a company called Cex, the person who sold it to me over the till told me it was refurbished. My psu is just a generic 750w nothing special but I do believe it should be more than enough for this card. The card it self does come with a 2 year warranty from the retailer I purchased it from so if it is faulty I can return it.

Mcnumpty2323 · 28 Jan 2020 at 03:19

No idea what cex mean by refurbished
As never used them
Could be they just mean clean the fans on it
Or could be more thorough sorry
Can't answer that part
750w sounds plenty but isnt the whole story
It's also down to amps on the 12 volt
Rail
Some psus have 1 x 12v rail
Some have more than 1
Some have an option of combining
12v rails
Should be a sticker on your psu telling
You
The other thing to check is how hot
Is the card getting?
You can use afterburner or gpuz to see
That
And I assume if the card has 8 pin and 6 pin you plugged both in
Can check they latched home properly
As another option
It's a 250 watt card roughly
Which means needs around 20 amps on the 12 volt rail
Which isn't huge really
But overheating or inadequate power
Are first 2 things come to mind

Edit
Sorry for the terrible spacing
My signature explains why
Though this was worse than normal
As 3am and half asleep

Liamwoodds · 28 Jan 2020 at 03:33

Mcnumpty2323 said:
No idea what cex mean by refurbished
As never used them
Could be they just mean clean the fans on it
Or could be more thorough sorry
Can't answer that part
750w sounds plenty but isnt the whole story
It's also down to amps on the 12 volt
Rail
Some psus have 1 x 12v rail
Some have more than 1
Some have an option of combining
12v rails
Should be a sticker on your psu telling
You
The other thing to check is how hot
Is the card getting?
You can use afterburner or gpuz to see
That
And I assume if the card has 8 pin and 6 pin you plugged both in
Can check they latched home properly
As another option
It's a 250 watt card roughly
Which means needs around 20 amps on the 12 volt rail
Which isn't huge really
But overheating or inadequate power
Are first 2 things come to mind

Edit
Sorry for the terrible spacing
My signature explains why
Though this was worse than normal
As 3am and half asleep

I appreciate your input, I'll take the card in the morning so one of their on sight technicians can test it. Like I stated in the original post the only way this works with any stability is by lowering the power on the msi after burner from 100 > 70 % which I'm guessing that's like restricting the gpu.

Mcnumpty2323 · 28 Jan 2020 at 04:07

Liamwoodds said:
I appreciate your input, I'll take the card in the morning so one of their on sight technicians can test it. Like I stated in the original post the only way this works with any stability is by lowering the power on the msi after burner from 100 > 70 % which I'm guessing that's like restricting the gpu.

Yes it is
That's why overheating
Or inadequate power delivery
Are my 2 ideas
And thought I was the only
Insomniac in here lol
Good you got a 2 year warranty though
Got a cex here though never used it
Hopefully their staff know how to
Test it for you there and then
Rather than send it off somewhere

Liamwoodds · 28 Jan 2020 at 11:43

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Yes it is
That's why overheating
Or inadequate power delivery
Are my 2 ideas
And thought I was the only
Insomniac in here lol
Good you got a 2 year warranty though
Got a cex here though never used it
Hopefully their staff know how to
Test it for you there and then
Rather than send it off somewhere

Mcnumpty2323 · 28 Jan 2020 at 11:52

Liamwoodds said:

Plenty amps on that
Guess overheating would be the
Next to check

drakulton · 28 Jan 2020 at 12:18

I'd be surprised if cex actually bothered to take a card apart and replace the thermal paste. So by now it will have turned to clay or dust, and be not very heat transfery. If you can replace the thermal paste with some new stuff then the card may stop overheating and run at the normal power levels.
Having said that, it might be easier to take it back and get it tested. If it still black screens at cex, they're still unlikely to look into fixing it, so you might be able to get it for a parts or not working price, and have a go at replacing the paste yourself.

Zeebedy · 28 Jan 2020 at 12:22

Some CEX stores dont have test bench facilities. My local doesnt, and they only give a look around the card for damage, and a quick "smell" for burning etc..

Mcnumpty2323 · 28 Jan 2020 at 12:28

I would just check temperature
With gpuz or afterburner then if it's overheating you can tell them what to look for
take it back to cex I wouldnt
Bother trying to replace the thermal
Paste
They may just replace it with out testing it assuming they have more
Of them

Vince · 28 Jan 2020 at 12:34

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Plenty amps on that
Guess overheating would be the
Next to check

I wouldn't be so sure, clearly the supply is quad rail and £24 to buy new off of the shelf. Do you really think such a cheap supply will be solid and delivering what it says on the label? My money goes on the supply. Total junk that supply.

Lets do some maths based on the label. The card has a 250w tdp, and the calculation on the rails:

61A over 4x12v, so 61x12 = 732. 732/4 (4 because of quad rail) gives a max of 183w per 12v rail. Therein lies the problem.

It even stands to reason why 70% works, 0.7x250 = 175w (so your under the max on a rail)

The option then is split the load across more than 1 rail or do yourself a favour replace the crap supply. the second option is the right option.

Bacon? · 28 Jan 2020 at 13:12

Worth bearing in mind performance of old cards, and that is defo an old card now, do lose their ability to perform at the same settings as they age. And it may be a case of requiring lower clocks or a higher voltage than stock settings

Jacky60 · 28 Jan 2020 at 14:03

Liamwoodds said:
I appreciate your input, I'll take the card in the morning so one of their on sight technicians can test it. Like I stated in the original post the only way this works with any stability is by lowering the power on the msi after burner from 100 > 70 % which I'm guessing that's like restricting the gpu.

Cex are quite good at breaking things they test in my experience. I'd get a refund if I were you and buy something else. Their second hand prices are certainly higher than I'd pay too.

Liamwoodds · 28 Jan 2020 at 14:42

Well I took the card in for them to test it, apparently all they do is put it in a rig and if it loads windows they pass it. According to the guy I spoke to they don't benchmark or anything else just to see if Windows boot. I have been given a full refund. I plan to order one from their online website and if the problem is the same then I know for certain it is the psu as stated above. Yes I know the psu is fairly below par as this was an eBay pre built system purchased many years ago. Just figured 850w would still be sufficient to running this card. I do appreciate everyone's input as this is knowledge I can used towards my build in the coming months.

subbytna · 28 Jan 2020 at 15:09

Liamwoodds said:
Well I took the card in for them to test it, apparently all they do is put it in a rig and if it loads windows they pass it. According to the guy I spoke to they don't benchmark or anything else just to see if Windows boot. I have been given a full refund. I plan to order one from their online website and if the problem is the same then I know for certain it is the psu as stated above. Yes I know the psu is fairly below par as this was an eBay pre built system purchased many years ago. Just figured 850w would still be sufficient to running this card. I do appreciate everyone's input as this is knowledge I can used towards my build in the coming months.

I'd avoid CEX and see if there's anything decent on Gumtree. You can get rx560 or 570 for under £100. RX570 is a cracking card for 1080p gaming.

Vince · 28 Jan 2020 at 15:22

Liamwoodds said:
Well I took the card in for them to test it, apparently all they do is put it in a rig and if it loads windows they pass it. According to the guy I spoke to they don't benchmark or anything else just to see if Windows boot. I have been given a full refund. I plan to order one from their online website and if the problem is the same then I know for certain it is the psu as stated above. Yes I know the psu is fairly below par as this was an eBay pre built system purchased many years ago. Just figured 850w would still be sufficient to running this card. I do appreciate everyone's input as this is knowledge I can used towards my build in the coming months.

850 would be fine on a single or dual rail but that supply isnt either of those. The maths on those rails clearly shows that on a single rail there isnt enough to power the card at full chat. It also shows why your 70% works. My money puts the card as being fine.

stooeh · 28 Jan 2020 at 15:40

A 780Ti looks like it wants 42A so would need to come from 2 different rails. PSU looks well dodgy so I would be blaming that first

koooowweeee · 28 Jan 2020 at 15:43

Bacon? said:
Worth bearing in mind performance of old cards, and that is defo an old card now, do lose their ability to perform at the same settings as they age. And it may be a case of requiring lower clocks or a higher voltage than stock settings

That's just a faulty card your describing.

Liamwoodds · 28 Jan 2020 at 15:45

Vince said:
850 would be fine on a single or dual rail but that supply isnt either of those. The maths on those rails clearly shows that on a single rail there isnt enough to power the card at full chat. It also shows why your 70% works. My money puts the card as being fine.

Thanks, I'm not very knowledgeable on these things so if anything it was definitely worth posting as I'm learning a lot. I honestly thought if the psu wattage was high enough it would be able to run most gpu's.