Is this a bad GPU, or bad PSU?
Hello everyone,
I'm currently testing a new GPU for review. I've been able to test the GPU, but it has also given me significant troubles.
Upon first installation, I booted into windows and installed the drivers, and everything was fine. The first time I rebooted my PC however, the PC beeped through POST and booted without issue, but there was no display. Not sure of the problem, I turned off my PC for a few moments unplugging everything. Booted up, everything was fine.
I swapped in some other GPUs for tests, and when I came back to this new GPU, the same thing happened. I've had little luck actually getting the PC to boot while being able to see anything.
Now, I think my PSU may be at fault. It's a 550w PSU, and this particular new GPU is the most power hungry one I've ever used with a TDP of 225W.
At ICOK when I first installed my Radeon HD 5770, I was having a very similar issue. PC wouldn't boot with the display functioning, but the GPU was actually fine. Thrax and I ended up unplugging everything, pulling the CMOS battery and waiting for a few moments, and everything was fine. Intermittent problems still cropped up every once in a great while.
I gave this same treatment to the new GPU, and I now have it functioning, but things are still a bit wonky. Startup after I installed the drivers had a false start, and POST restarted. I've had twice now in Windows when the screen flickered black, as if there was a display device struggle.
I ran a few benchmarks on the new GPU while it was working, and though it had good numbers, they seemed nowhere near where they should have been. The ultra high end of the past generation was right near this new one. I was able to test this new GPU at AMD HQ a few days ago on their workstations, and the numbers were astronomical, far beyond the results I got on my own machine.
That may be a result of my significantly slower system spec bottlenecking the results, but thats a topic for another day.
So I fired up Everest to take a look at the GPU details and saw this:
Notice the GPU Clock. It's at 400MHz, where the Original is 825MHz (where the GPU should be, which is faster than the previous gen).
So is the GPU being throttled back? Is this an indication that the weak PSU is causing the GPU to be conservative? Or is the actual GPU just borked?
I'm currently testing a new GPU for review. I've been able to test the GPU, but it has also given me significant troubles.
Upon first installation, I booted into windows and installed the drivers, and everything was fine. The first time I rebooted my PC however, the PC beeped through POST and booted without issue, but there was no display. Not sure of the problem, I turned off my PC for a few moments unplugging everything. Booted up, everything was fine.
I swapped in some other GPUs for tests, and when I came back to this new GPU, the same thing happened. I've had little luck actually getting the PC to boot while being able to see anything.
Now, I think my PSU may be at fault. It's a 550w PSU, and this particular new GPU is the most power hungry one I've ever used with a TDP of 225W.
At ICOK when I first installed my Radeon HD 5770, I was having a very similar issue. PC wouldn't boot with the display functioning, but the GPU was actually fine. Thrax and I ended up unplugging everything, pulling the CMOS battery and waiting for a few moments, and everything was fine. Intermittent problems still cropped up every once in a great while.
I gave this same treatment to the new GPU, and I now have it functioning, but things are still a bit wonky. Startup after I installed the drivers had a false start, and POST restarted. I've had twice now in Windows when the screen flickered black, as if there was a display device struggle.
I ran a few benchmarks on the new GPU while it was working, and though it had good numbers, they seemed nowhere near where they should have been. The ultra high end of the past generation was right near this new one. I was able to test this new GPU at AMD HQ a few days ago on their workstations, and the numbers were astronomical, far beyond the results I got on my own machine.
That may be a result of my significantly slower system spec bottlenecking the results, but thats a topic for another day.
So I fired up Everest to take a look at the GPU details and saw this:
Notice the GPU Clock. It's at 400MHz, where the Original is 825MHz (where the GPU should be, which is faster than the previous gen).
So is the GPU being throttled back? Is this an indication that the weak PSU is causing the GPU to be conservative? Or is the actual GPU just borked?
0
Comments
What's in the rest of your system (cpu, #hds, etc)?
Sweep all the old drivers then attempt to reinstall,
If your testing what I think you are, you may need more juice to go with that bacon boulder.
Just wish I had an extra PSU to swap out and test with.
I'll give driversweeper a shot when I get home and see what happens.
My system specs are in my sig, my mobo is nothing impressive, but I've never had any issues with it. I currently have 3 optical drives, 3 HDD, the GPU, an arctic cooling Freezer Pro 7 heatsink, and a sound card (but it pulls power through the PCI slot).
Thinking of overload, I removed all but one of the optical drives and two of the HDDs. It didn't remedy the problem until I pulled the CMOS battery.
Yeah, if your going to be testing cards of that caliber, you really need to consider more PSU. Your 550 watt has probably aged where its not longer effectively a 550 watt unit.
If my guess is correct, with over-clocking thrown in, your going to have a system that loads at a hair over 300 watts. Rule of thumb, at least double your PSU size in an 80 plus model, and you should have enough for now. Honestly, I would consider sizing at 250%, just so you absolutely know you have the overhead for the types of applications you run. 750 is the smallest I would buy in a quality PSU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371025&cm_re=Antec_750-_-17-371-025-_-Product
Thats on sale, and it will get it done with plenty of headroom. Actually, $90 after rebate is a steal for that unit.
More importantly, the GPU he's testing draws 17A, but his PSU only has 2x20A rails. I doubt a single rail on that PSU can provide more than 15A reliably.
If the real load is 450 watts, I can honestly see getting into that 850 - 1000 watt range of PSU. to know that I am comfortable.
Bobby, how would you feel about a new case? I'm thrilled with my Antec CP-850 and thats $109 on newegg, though you have to pair it with an Antec CP 183 or a twelve hundred gaming case, that brings you to $209 with combo discounts.
Its the combo I run, and I've had nothing but smooth sailing with it. Its a worthwhile investment if your going to be testing that level of hardware.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.359987http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.359987
I'm trying to crunch a lot of numbers right now. It looks like I need a new PSU, and I'm also still considering upgrading the rest of my system to remove any possible bottlenecks.
There's that whole California thing I'm doing in a month in a half, which makes me very weary of spending the money to buy such upgrades. Still, looks like the PSU is going to be a must.
I'll know more tomorrow, I will update then.
I bought(borrowed) a nice Antec 750W PSU, hooked it up and booted the system. Benchmark results didn't change a bit (in fact, they were just slightly lower). When I restarted the system, black screen, no display.
So the situation is unchanged by having a more than ample powersupply.
I then tried Driver sweeper, wiped both traces of NVIDIA and ATI drivers, rebooted and reinstalled and.... no changes.
So what's next? Is it the GPU, or is it the rest of my system?
Specs are in my sig, it has not aged like a fine wine.
Thoughts?
What OS are you running?
Worth the trouble to try a repair installation then re load the driver, see where you end up?
I mean, how big of a bottleneck is your hardware? Hard to say, its a decent dual core CPU, 3GB of reasonably fast Ram, now we are fairly sure the card is getting enough juice. I mean, it we are talking 15 or 20% off the mark from the AMD test system, sure, I could see that, when you say massive difference, are we talking less than half?
If so, I'm not sure your hardware is that big of a graphics bottleneck. Is PCIE spec 2.0 set properly in your BIOS? Is the card getting adequate voltage through the PCIE slot? Could the mobo be damaged? Have you pulled out the card and re seated it in the slot just to be certain?