Did my PSU kill my R9 290X Lightning?

[Nutkins]

My 290X Lightning was artifacting, so I RMA'd it with MSI, who then sent me back a replacement. The replacement worked great for a week up until tonight, when I was playing BF1 and I got a BSOD. Thought it might have been something to do with my undervoltage on my CPU (as I had changed it that day), so just upped it again.

Only when I got back into BF1, it started artifacting again, either crashing to desktop, freezing or black screening (exactly how the previous card was behaving).

I made the problem worse when my idiot brain decided to run OCCT's PSU run. Took only ~15s for the system to black screen, GPU fans hit 100% and now the card appears dead (won't post in any PCI-E slot), but my old 5450 works fine.

Did my PSU kill it or was this just a card destined to die? Truth be told, I'm not all that bothered about it being bricked, I was looking for an excuse to pick up a 1070/1080.

The PSU in question is the SuperFlower Leadex 1000W Gold, bought back in 2014. I've had no noticeable issues with it so far, but the fact that I've had 2 290X Lightning cards do this makes me concerned that something else is at play, especially with the BSOD before it all.

 

[Nutkins]

I'd say yes, I had a R9 290 memory artifact and go completely after my Evga G2 1000w killed it, thinking it died tried a R9 Fury which was DOA or so I thought then a GTX 1070 which lasted all of 10 minutes installing drivers, replaced the PSU with a RMA and the GPU and now I'm fine.

I would definitely RMA considering you have warranty, next it will be motherboard or CPU or the whole godforsaken rig.

I think proving it's faulty will be difficult though, considering it wasn't an instant "kill". As I said, card worked perfectly up until yesterday evening, where it began artifacting and ultimately dying under OCCT PSU load. I've got a new GPU on the way, a 1070. One of the first things I think I will do is load it under OCCT, and hope it doesn't crap out. Hopefully that'll clear things up.

 

[Nutkins]

I think you would be bonkers to try a 3rd GPU with a PSU that has failed OCCT PSU test and two broken GPUS....

Get a PSU tester and/or send the PSU back under warranty. I could not go any further without confidence in the PSU.

Would it be better to file the RMA request with OCUK or direct with SF?

 

[Nutkins]

I took a bit of a risk, and put the 1070 under my current PSU. Had it sat under OCCT PSU for about half an hour and it didn't go bang. No artifacting, or anything out of the ordinary. Temperatures were in check too. Got through a good hour of BF1 too.

Apart from some coil whine coming from the GPU when under load (which I can tolerate), everything is so far so good.