Sapphire Nitro 6650xt heatsink: is it meant to... bend?

A.S.D.I.C. · 15 May 2022 at 08:56

eddiew said:
Thanks for the thoughts folks. I have opened a return request. Just wanted to know if curved heatsinks was a thing that's ever done on purpose before I made a fool of myself

Frankly at this point, I'd rather replace it with a 3060. This was my "It's been over a decade since my last AMD card and it was awful, but I hear they're better now" card... kind of regretting that.

They are better than before. It was bad luck. And sapphire is a good AMD partner, only the tech Jesus knows what happened there.
Don't go Dark side, stay with AMD.

gpuerrilla · 15 May 2022 at 09:06

@eddiew some AIB's make gpu's for either side such as Asus. Just because Asus in this example sold you a wonky HS/shroud, isnt really AMD's fault. Give them another go or if under SoG timeframe ask for refund and switch to another AIB if you think they dont deserve a second chance.

A.S.D.I.C. · 15 May 2022 at 09:12

gpuerrilla said:
@eddiew some AIB's make gpu's for either side such as Asus. Just because Asus in this example sold you a wonky HS/shroud, isnt really AMD's fault. Give them another go or if under SoG timeframe ask for refund and switch to another AIB if you think they dont deserve a second chance.

It's a Sapphire card m8.

gpuerrilla · 15 May 2022 at 09:45

A.S.D.I.C. said:
It's a Sapphire card m8.

Just general advice buddy. Like I said if its within 14 days get refund and he can get another card from another brand. If its longer than that you can speak to the retailer and ask them to help but less flexible the longer the time period goes.

gpuerrilla said:
Give them another go or if under SoG timeframe ask for refund and switch to another AIB if you think they dont deserve a second chance.

Once you run out of that time you only have RMA option and down to retailer if they want to help better than that. I'm hoping that he has only had this a few days and still has refund option.

Wrinkly · 15 May 2022 at 09:56

It does indeed look as though the bend is intentional -

gpuerrilla · 15 May 2022 at 10:02

Good spot @Wrinkly - that does indeed look like its normal then.

eddiew · 15 May 2022 at 10:31

Wrinkly said:
It does indeed look as though the bend is intentional -

Huh... ok, whelp.

Edit: I was blaming this card for crashing... that might have been incorrect. Having put the old one back in, the pc is still unstable as heck. Not sure what's going on now, guess I need to work out what's actually at fault... guess I'm spending today doing a full windows reinstall before I can start on that

Edit edit: bluescreened during windows install with the old card... ok, now I don't think anything I have blamed on this one was fair. Something in my PC has really had enough, turns out.

Wrinkly · 15 May 2022 at 11:53

eddiew said:
Edit edit: bluescreened during windows install with the old card... ok, now I don't think anything I have blamed on this one was fair. Something in my PC has really had enough, turns out.

Try both resetting the BIOS and reseating all cables, RAM and any other cards you have. Swapping hardware in and out can nudge a component / cable out a little.

After that, try the GPU in another slot if possible.

vapor matt · 15 May 2022 at 12:00

I would check your PSU, what PSU are you using? will either be PSU or memory.

eddiew · 15 May 2022 at 12:10

vapor matt said:
I would check your PSU, what PSU are you using? will either be PSU or memory.

Brand new Corsair RM650x... bought specifically for a gpu upgrade. Old one is a 550W seasonic - reliable, but over 5 years old so I wanted to swap it out just for good measure.

I've currently fallen back to integrated graphics and the new psu. At least Windows has installed this time... now for some stability tests.

I can try reseating the ram, should it fail again... but I don't have a reason to believe it would spontaneously die on the day I fit a new gpu+psu. Possible I knocked it while plugging in the power cable though. Guess I can throw memtest at it too.

Gosh this is an annoying weekend :')

gpuerrilla · 15 May 2022 at 13:15

eddiew said:
Huh... ok, whelp.

Edit: I was blaming this card for crashing... that might have been incorrect. Having put the old one back in, the pc is still unstable as heck. Not sure what's going on now, guess I need to work out what's actually at fault... guess I'm spending today doing a full windows reinstall before I can start on that

Edit edit: bluescreened during windows install with the old card... ok, now I don't think anything I have blamed on this one was fair. Something in my PC has really had enough, turns out.

Yeah sounds like the new card was the scapegoat!

LtMatt · 15 May 2022 at 13:21

eddiew said:
Brand new Corsair RM650x... bought specifically for a gpu upgrade. Old one is a 550W seasonic - reliable, but over 5 years old so I wanted to swap it out just for good measure.

I've currently fallen back to integrated graphics and the new psu. At least Windows has installed this time... now for some stability tests.

I can try reseating the ram, should it fail again... but I don't have a reason to believe it would spontaneously die on the day I fit a new gpu+psu. Possible I knocked it while plugging in the power cable though. Guess I can throw memtest at it too.

Gosh this is an annoying weekend :')

I wanted to say that when you said the pc restarts itself. Good luck with the debug!

Armageus · 15 May 2022 at 13:35

eddiew said:
Brand new Corsair RM650x... bought specifically for a gpu upgrade. Old one is a 550W seasonic - reliable, but over 5 years old so I wanted to swap it out just for good measure.

I've currently fallen back to integrated graphics and the new psu. At least Windows has installed this time... now for some stability tests.

I can try reseating the ram, should it fail again... but I don't have a reason to believe it would spontaneously die on the day I fit a new gpu+psu. Possible I knocked it while plugging in the power cable though. Guess I can throw memtest at it too.

Gosh this is an annoying weekend :')

I'd swap back to the seasonic and try that. 5 years is nothing really, given that Seasonic probably had 10 year warranty period anyway.

vapor matt · 15 May 2022 at 13:37

Just because the PSU is new does not mean its not faulty, or gone bad. try old PSU with old GFX card and see if stability returns.

eddiew · 15 May 2022 at 13:50

gpuerrilla said:
Yeah sounds like the new card was the scapegoat!

I mean, not intentionally so... but yes. I think it's actually working fine, especially now we know that the heatsink on this model is indeed meant to curve. It was doing a perfectly good job in the two games I tried (WoW and Elite Dangerous) - outside of the system crashes, which I now don't believe were it's fault.

vapor matt said:
Just because the PSU is new does not mean its not faulty, or gone bad. try old PSU with old GFX card and see if stability returns.

Armageus said:
I'd swap back to the seasonic and try that. 5 years is nothing really, given that Seasonic probably had 10 year warranty period anyway.

I did, it crashed as well

I've had bluescreens with:

new psu + new gpu
new psu + old gpu
old psu + old gpu
Did not try old psu + new gpu because of recommended minimums.

At this point I don't know if there's a hardware fault elsewhere, or Windows had really gotten itself in a tizzy. Somewhere along the way Windows stopped booting entirely and just sat on a black desktop forever. Repair did not repair.

Currently running Prime 95 on a completely fresh windows install with just the iGPU and 2x m.2 ssds, no extras at all, only software is Corsair Link so I can turn the cooling up to max. I'll start adding bits back if it survives an hour or so; other storage drives, soundblaster fx, and probably the old GPU because I know that's been fine for years.

If all that builds and runs cleanly for a couple of days, then I'll consider another fresh install (or system restore to clean state) with the new card. Don't really think there's a fast way to go about this, just going to have to be scientific with it and not change too many variables at once. Although one variable I have changed, now I think on it... the CPU 8-pin power cable is now in a different outlet on the PSU. But it would be fine if one of them turns out dodgy; I am never going to run a GPU that needs multiple power connectors, and if I do, a new power supply isn't so bad.

eddiew · 15 May 2022 at 15:21

Stability test failed even with iGPU :eek:

Starting to think it's time for new core hardware...

Wrinkly · 15 May 2022 at 15:27

eddiew said:
Stability test failed even with iGPU

Starting to think it's time for new core hardware...

If you are getting in to Windows, run 'sfc /scannow' within a cmd prompt with admin rights. It will check the file system for errors.

The last test you can do is test it out of the case, with the motherbaord on top of it's box. Is it possible to test with one stick of VRAM at a time?

eddiew · 15 May 2022 at 15:47

Wrinkly said:
If you are getting in to Windows, run 'sfc /scannow' within a cmd prompt with admin rights. It will check the file system for errors.

The last test you can do is test it out of the case, with the motherbaord on top of it's box. Is it possible to test with one stick of VRAM at a time?

Running a memory diagnostic now actually, still both sticks. I can start pulling them one at a time, but maybe my first call should be dial back my overclock. 8700k @ 5ghz for 4+ years... it's been very faithful, but I won't be surprised if it's time has come. It's done remarkably well to date.

StephenJ · 15 May 2022 at 16:16

For your stability tests i would say put everything to stock including the ram

vapor matt · 15 May 2022 at 16:16

first thing to do is remove your overclock :confused:

you cant test stability of anything while still overclocked, then install windows so its a good install. then over clock again a bit at a time until your instability returns. don't change to much at once either, one thing at a time.
If you had stated you were overclocked a lot of reply's would have been to remove it first.