Could a new graphics card shut my computer down suddenly after an hour or so? Overheating?

Jud the Prof

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Mar 7, 2014
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I surrendered and installed a Sapphire AMD R7 260x graphics card in my noble one-year-old i-5 3570 desktop to improve my video for Netflix movies. Now the computer ***shuts down*** by itself suddenly after an hour or so. I removed and reinstalled (from another server) the graphics card's driver, but the machine still shuts down automatically in mid-movie. Is overheating the issue? My case has two fans; the CPU has a big Cooler Master tower with a fan. But iunfortunately I must mount my graphics card in a PCI slot right alongside my 560 watt supply. As it turns out the GPU's fan blows directly on top of the PSU only a half inch away. Is it overheating the PSU? Or is the GPU overheating because air circulation is compromised? The PSU is a relatively expensive Seasonic with a Gold rating. I have an Asus mother board P8 Z77-M Pro and use an OCZ SSD. Anybody know what's happening?
 
Solution
Better set the case on a flat hard surface.
Your config is very similar to mine, I also use rear blowing tower cooler for the CPU.
I also have a bottom mounted PSU but my case is not that small.
Also most probably the PSU is getting air from the bottom and blowing it out at the rear, at least my psu does this way.
Video card also gets air from the direction of the PSU and should blow mostly from the rear.
The airflow sounds really good as you are describing it, I doubt if this is an overheating issue. You should check the temperatures to be sure, though.
I do not use netflix (do not live in USA) but there seem to be some complains in the net about similar issues that are software based.
One proposed solution was to clear cookies, but...

LavyDunois

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Feb 25, 2014
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Download HWMonitor or Speccy to check your temperatures. It could indeed be overheating but it could also be your PSU.
Maybe your PSU can't supply the power needed for the GPU to run. Since it's shuts down in the mid of a movie it might be running at peak power for to long and the PSU will shut down to prevent damage.

Do you have a link for your PSU?
 

Jud the Prof

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Mar 7, 2014
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Jud the Prof

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Dear Nikola Aslanov: I have a Fractal Design ATX Mini. It puts the PSU at the bottom rear where the PSU fan blows downward toward the floor. The case sits on top of tall feet over a medium-pile rug. I've always thought there was plenty of ventilation for that PSU, but maybe not. For the case proper, two fans in front suck air in and blow directly at the CPU's tower of cooling fins. That tower has a fan blowing in the same direction to the case's rear exhaust fan. So lots of iair moving through inside----or so it would seem to me. By the way, I don't hear a lot of fan noise. Fans seem to run happily around 600-700 rpm. The fancy $135 PSU from Seasonic has a stepped fan----it doesn't turn on until it needs to under load. I can't honestly say that I've ever heard it turn on. So I'm stumped.
 
Better set the case on a flat hard surface.
Your config is very similar to mine, I also use rear blowing tower cooler for the CPU.
I also have a bottom mounted PSU but my case is not that small.
Also most probably the PSU is getting air from the bottom and blowing it out at the rear, at least my psu does this way.
Video card also gets air from the direction of the PSU and should blow mostly from the rear.
The airflow sounds really good as you are describing it, I doubt if this is an overheating issue. You should check the temperatures to be sure, though.
I do not use netflix (do not live in USA) but there seem to be some complains in the net about similar issues that are software based.
One proposed solution was to clear cookies, but this is really a wild guess.
 
Solution

Jud the Prof

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Mar 7, 2014
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Dear tom's HARDWARE people,

I should have updated this thread months ago. It turned out that the fan system of my (former!) Sapphire graphics card was defective: it never came on at all, ever! Back it went to Amazon. My replacement, an Asus R7 260x card, has functioned normally in the same PCI slot right next to my power supply. Netflix movies look better than ever. More: I've very little experience as a gamer, but I have tried recently to see what it's all about (!). I bought a copy of "Thief, Deadly Shadows," an ancient 2004 offering-----thought I'd like a stealth format rather than a shoot'em up----and can report that it runs beautifully in high rez (1080 x 1920 pixels) at lots of frames per second. So far, so good.