graphics card broken???

[drewl5799]

Hey all, I have a evga geforce gtx 980, i bought it about 5 yrs ago. a few months ago rocket league would constantly crash but other games played fine, suddenly a few weeks ago every game would just crash back to windows about 20-30 seconds after starting. I checked heat and everything was running as normal.

I finally got around to swapping out my graphics card for an old gtx 580 i have and games seem to be running fine on them. Guess that definately means the graphics card is done then? Can they be repaired or will I have to buy a new one? At this time of year money is short and typically it is the most expensive part that needs replacing....

 

[Aretak]

Have you tried software solutions, like using DDU to completely wipe your drivers for a fresh install? If that did/does nothing, you could also try underclocking the card a little using MSI Afterburner to see if that stops the crashing. Try both the core and the memory seperately to see if it's one or the other causing the problem. You could also bump up the voltage slider to see if that makes any difference.

 

[drewl5799]

thanks for the reply aretak, i have used ddu to clean install drivers for the graphics card. still the same. I have afterburner but not really done much before - when you say underclock by how much? same for voltage - what should i up it to?

 

[Drumroll]

What's your PSU?
Every time a PSU started dying on me, random crashes, usually during games as the GPU pushes the PSU harder than most other things.

 

[drewl5799]

my psu is a super flower 850w

 

[flea.rider]

my psu is a super flower 850w

how old is it ?

 

[Aretak]

thanks for the reply aretak, i have used ddu to clean install drivers for the graphics card. still the same. I have afterburner but not really done much before - when you say underclock by how much? same for voltage - what should i up it to?

Just experiment with it. Drop them as much or as little as you like to see if you can find a point where it's stable. Either keep dropping the clocks gradually or drop them all the way and work back up until it crashes. You can do whatever you like with the voltage slider too really. You can't damage any modern Nvidia card in software.

And personally I feel it's unlikely to be the PSU at fault if it's handling a GTX 580 okay, given that card draws way more power than a 980.

 

[drewl5799]

hmmm, still not working, regular crashes. anyone recommend a replacement that is better than my 980 but not going to cost an outrageous amount?

 

[butter30]

Gtx 1660 ti or rtx 2060 super are good cards.

 

[pp111]

my psu is a super flower 850w

You know in all my years I have never had a single issue with a power supply ( other than them burst in to flames! ) so given the fact that your other GPU works I would say almost certainly it is your GPU to blame. GPU's have ( on average ) a pretty short lifetime. Five years isn't so bad for one that's used for gaming. No, they can not really be repaired. Even a faulty fan can be a serious problem. I agree with butter30, 1660ti is a good option, its a tad more powerful than the 980. Your bigger problem will be graphics cards are out of stock everywhere at the moment.

 

[Purgatory]

I would open the 980 up and change the thermal paste for starters in case its become the problem. Give the card a good clean out and make sure all the cooling is on right. it's been 5 years as you say so could be just dry thermal paste or a bad application from when it was purchased.