- Feb 27, 2014
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OK, polling the community while I await an RMA...
Here's the scenario: I recently ordered a Sapphire R9 270X (this one in particular: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202050&cm_re=sapphire_r9_270x-_-14-202-050-_-Product )
...as a companion card to my now no-longer-in-production HIS 7870 IceQ GhZ Edition (like-a zis: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161404&cm_re=his_7870_iceq-_-14-161-404-_-Product )
These cards share nearly everything in common from the technical side, aside from maybe a few MHz of clock speed, and I dug around as thoroughly as I could prior to my purchase to be comfortable throwing them in Crossfire. So... to the crux of it...
Yesterday the 270X arrived. As a good little obsessive, I ran a 3DMark Firestrike run on my HD 7870 in solo. Check. I replaced the 7870 with the 270X and ran that in solo, noting the approx. 10% performance increase. Check. I installed both cards, hooked up the CF bridge cable, installed the latest Catalyst beta drivers and then fired up the single GPU version of 3DMark Firestrike with the cards in crossfire and enabled.
Things started beautifully. I was seeing a near 2X framerate increase over the single cards and was thrilled. Then GPU test 2 started. It ran flawlessly for about 15 seconds, then froze. Then my primary monitor (plugged into the 270X via HDMI) displayed nothing but the infamous grey and blue lines. A few attempted reboots and the nothing more would be displayed than those infernal bars.
So, I removed the card and noted that it was hot. Like, really hot. I know GPU's are supposed to run warm, but this was notably hotter than any GPU I have yet put my hands on. Anyway, I let the card sit and get cool, thinking maybe it just overheated good and proper. No dice, still dead.
Now the card is RMA'd and I am awaiting the replacement. What I am wondering is as follows:
-Is there any reason running the benchmark in single GPU mode would have precipitated this failure, considering the cards were set up in crossfire? (This seems, to me, incredibly unlikely and a terrible failure mode, if the case)
-Is there any reason to believe that the setting these two (reportedly) thoroughly compatible cards in crossfire would have killed the newer more capable of the two, which was running as the primary card in the setup?
-Is there any reason that, if my 850W PSU is beginning to fade (only a suspicion of mine), that a power draw failure mid test could cause such a catastrophic hardware failure?
-Is this just, as I hope, simply a matter of a dead card and, finally, am I nuts for planning to throw the replacement card right back into Crossfire and try again?
Anyway, thanks for sticking with my ramblings. Any potential insight is appreciated!
Here's the scenario: I recently ordered a Sapphire R9 270X (this one in particular: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202050&cm_re=sapphire_r9_270x-_-14-202-050-_-Product )
...as a companion card to my now no-longer-in-production HIS 7870 IceQ GhZ Edition (like-a zis: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161404&cm_re=his_7870_iceq-_-14-161-404-_-Product )
These cards share nearly everything in common from the technical side, aside from maybe a few MHz of clock speed, and I dug around as thoroughly as I could prior to my purchase to be comfortable throwing them in Crossfire. So... to the crux of it...
Yesterday the 270X arrived. As a good little obsessive, I ran a 3DMark Firestrike run on my HD 7870 in solo. Check. I replaced the 7870 with the 270X and ran that in solo, noting the approx. 10% performance increase. Check. I installed both cards, hooked up the CF bridge cable, installed the latest Catalyst beta drivers and then fired up the single GPU version of 3DMark Firestrike with the cards in crossfire and enabled.
Things started beautifully. I was seeing a near 2X framerate increase over the single cards and was thrilled. Then GPU test 2 started. It ran flawlessly for about 15 seconds, then froze. Then my primary monitor (plugged into the 270X via HDMI) displayed nothing but the infamous grey and blue lines. A few attempted reboots and the nothing more would be displayed than those infernal bars.
So, I removed the card and noted that it was hot. Like, really hot. I know GPU's are supposed to run warm, but this was notably hotter than any GPU I have yet put my hands on. Anyway, I let the card sit and get cool, thinking maybe it just overheated good and proper. No dice, still dead.
Now the card is RMA'd and I am awaiting the replacement. What I am wondering is as follows:
-Is there any reason running the benchmark in single GPU mode would have precipitated this failure, considering the cards were set up in crossfire? (This seems, to me, incredibly unlikely and a terrible failure mode, if the case)
-Is there any reason to believe that the setting these two (reportedly) thoroughly compatible cards in crossfire would have killed the newer more capable of the two, which was running as the primary card in the setup?
-Is there any reason that, if my 850W PSU is beginning to fade (only a suspicion of mine), that a power draw failure mid test could cause such a catastrophic hardware failure?
-Is this just, as I hope, simply a matter of a dead card and, finally, am I nuts for planning to throw the replacement card right back into Crossfire and try again?
Anyway, thanks for sticking with my ramblings. Any potential insight is appreciated!
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