Faulty card or not enough power?

[Legthigh]

Picked up a GTX470 today and i'm getting red artifacts on screen (before and during windows has booted, havent tried games yet) is this more than likely a faulty card or could it be that I'm not giving it enough juice? PSU is a Corsair 520w.

Thats powering an i7 950, 6GB RAM, 2 x 7200 HDD's and a DVD-RW.

It handled my 2 x 8800GTS in SLI no problem.

 

[BigRazer93]

Have you OC'ED the CPU or is that @stock?

 

[Legthigh]

Its at Stock.

Though the 470 is a 'superclocked' version if that makes any odds.

 

[BigRazer93]

I'm having a look at some reviews on the net about the load consumption on these cards, and seem to be peaking at 400W. Have you come from an ati card to an nvidia? 1st thing I would do is reseat the card, and make sure both 2 x 6 pin power connectors are connected properly.

 

[Legthigh]

Thanks for the replies mate.

I've tried the card in another system, this time with a 600w PSU and again its artifacting on the BIOS Screen and in windows.

I've come from dual 8800GTS 512's in SLi

 

[BigRazer93]

Thanks for the replies mate.

I've tried the card in another system, this time with a 600w PSU and again its artifacting on the BIOS Screen and in windows.

I've come from dual 8800GTS 512's in SLi

Sorry for my lack of attention on your first post!

Since you have tried it in a different system, I think its safe to say its DOA, looks like VRAM issues I suspect Hope you get it sorted.

 

[Legthigh]

Thanks again mate, I'll return it

 

[kylew]

Even if the PSU wasn't up for running it, it wouldn't show up as artifacts when idle. It's an issue with the card itself, with it happening in another PC shows it's definitely the GTX470.

 

[Legthigh]

Thanks mate, do you guys think the PSU I have would be up for running the card no probs once I get it replaced?

 

[kylew]

Of course, 2 5850s use a lot less than 620w, you'll have more than enough overhead.

 

[BigRazer93]

Of course, 2 5850s use a lot less than 620w, you'll have more than enough overhead.

+1... You will have some room ahead but not enough to sli them beasts

 

[kylew]

+1... You will have some room ahead but not enough to sli them beasts

Ffff! don't know how I did that, I think I need some sleep.

 

[BigRazer93]

Ffff! don't know how I did that, I think I need some sleep.

I'm sorry but what you have said has just completely thrown me Please explain, its getting late

 

[kylew]

I'm sorry but what you have said has just completely thrown me Please explain, its getting late

For some reason I thought I'd read something about GTX470 SLi, but thought of 5850s. I'm feeling the tired brick quite badly so I've put it down to being tired.

 

[BigRazer93]

For some reason I thought I'd read something about GTX470 SLi, but thought of 5850s. I'm feeling the tired brick quite badly so I've put it down to being tired.

Haha, you should get to bed early fella

 

[Legthigh]

Thanks guys, won't be SLi'ing for a while yet, the mrs has already gone nuts with todays upgrade

 

[Rroff]

Bit of a work in progress atm but if you feel like testing it see if this throws up any errors

http://aten-hosted.com/files/vramtest.zip

Make sure power management mode in the nVidia control panel (under manage 3D Settings) is set to prefer maximum performance - due to it trying to test VRAM it doesn't load up the GPU core enough and power management kicks in dropping speeds with adaptive. Press space to stop/start testing - don't need to run it beyond the amount of VRAM on your card.