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Problem 280x, any tips?

Bennie-Mac

Bennie-Mac

Bennie-Mac

Soldato
Joined
10 Sep 2008
Posts
11,973
Location
Bangor, Northern Ireland
Hey guys, I bought a 280x off another member here and it seems to be crashing for no reason, E.G Civilization V will crash in the middle of nothing in particular, same for XCOM (these arent particularly graphically intensive games) and will also fail to complete a simple Heaven benchmark, even on lower graphics settings, crashing at around the 30-40 second mark.

Im on the latest non beta drivers and temps are hovering around the 60degree mark at full load, it seems to be completely fine and then will just freeze and crash the game/application.

Im not sure if it could be related but I also seem to be getting interference with the onboard sound card, unplugging speakers will shut it up but muting has no effect, its like a buzzing noise when doing anything movement related.

Can anyone give me some assistance as to what the problem might be before I hopefully am able to send it off for an RMA?

Thanks :)
 
No its a Powercolor one.

Ive done some playing about and it might be overheating the VRAM, it nudges low 70s yet the fans dont seem to speed up enough to compensate.

Edit - Here is a GPU-Z screenshot running Heaven Benchmark 4 at ultra, no crashes this time. VRAM 1 maxes out at 69 degrees and the fans highest is 30%.

bg0.png
 
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ghost.florian said:
First off, is it overclocked ? If so, what core clock/mem clock are you running ?

Does it crash in all games ? If so, have you tried checking what temperature it reaches when it crashes ?
Have you tried doing the 3D Mark test (11/vantage) to see if it crashes there too ?
Click to expand...

No its not overclocked, its running stock 1050Mhz GPU clock and 1500Mhz Memory.

I only have 2 games on this PC but yes it will crash both of them. Will check the temps it reaches and report back later, though I have to go out soon so I probably wont get a chance until later this evening.

Will give 3Dmark a go as well.


Just ran Heaven 4 for longer and got a crash, not long after completing one loop through.

VRAM1 this time reached 71 degrees and the fan speed was at 30%, then it crashed. GPU temperature reached 64 degrees.

f0m.png
 
Oops...I just read it as VRAM duh...:) Ill get the new beta drivers, but Im not holding my breath on it fixing the issues.

Have to leave now though so I'll play about with it some more later on and report back. Thanks for the advice!
 
Quickly ran 3Dmark 11 basic and it crashed shortly after the 3rd scene, temps werent as high as Heaven, VRM1 was 64 when it stopped.

2da.png
 
EdButler said:
What kind of crash are we talking? Which of below apply...

Application Quits to desktop, BSOD, Instant reboot, DirectX Error, Other windows error, Sound loop, Screen Freeze, Black Screen, Atrifacts
Click to expand...

No BSOD or instant reboots, its usually a black screen followed by application quits to desktop, but it can occasionally screen freeze with looping sound and I'll have to do a hard reset.
 
ghost.florian said:
One more question: what power supply are you using ? Are you sure the cables are physically well connected ?
No offence at my suggestions, I'm trying to think of all possibilities :)
Click to expand...

Ive got a Corsair CX600 Bronze, and the cables are connected nice and tight yes.

Im all for you suggesting obvious things, as that's just the sort of thing I would normally screw up :D
 
Well, home now so can finally mess with the computer more.

Uninstalled all drivers with Driver Sweeper, clean install of 14.4, disabled all start up software, ran AIDA64 with no issues.

Ran a Heaven Benchmark on Extreme settings and now im getting artifacts.

Brvue9o.jpg

Also now getting artifacts in general usage (top right corner) :(

gcRbHwF.png
 
ghost.florian said:
Alright, so no more crashing but you now have artefacts. Can you maybe try to underclock your card a bit ? If this helps, it means you are dealing with a defective card.
Click to expand...

Righto ive clocked it down from 1050 to 895MHz and no crashes or artifacts as of yet. Got through 3dMark no problem and ran Heaven looping for about 15 minutes and no issues. Getting roughly the same temps as before so overheating doesnt seem to be the problem.

Edit - Just to confirm it would still crash at stock, it just started throwing artifacts into the mix as well.

Looks like its a dodgy card then?
 
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ghost.florian said:
Out of curiosity, what GPU did you have before this one ? I first thought it was the PSU as well, but 600W should be enough and I guess your old card was running fine.

If you can live with it being a bit underclocked, it's effectively still a 7970, which is a cracking card.

Maybe you can play around with tweaking the gpu / memory / both, until you reach a point where there are no artifacts.
Click to expand...

I had a 6850 OC but got rid of it and had just been using the onboard HD4000 for a while. No issues with the old card. While yeah I could keep it underclocked and use it ok, its a bit disappointing since I was expecting 280X performance. I think i'll just RMA it and hope they replace it.

Thanks a lot for your help fella :)
 
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