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7950 black screens when bumped - time to upgrade?

Tags:
  • Boost
  • Sapphire
  • Graphics
September 4, 2014 10:45:20 AM

I've had a Sapphire 7950 (non boost) for about 2 years now. The issue is as follows: Whenever the PC is bumped, there's a decent chance that the video will crash and go to a black screen. The computer keeps operating as usual; music continues to play, although the computer does not want to shut down correctly when pressing the power button (requiring holding it down for a hard shutdown). I'm sure I've isolated it to the graphics card because directly tapping the card, even a little bit, can trigger the issue. I can trigger the black screens in bios by tapping the card. The problem has been occuring at varying degrees for about a year, until recently when the problem got worse. It now crashes at the slightest vibration, and sometimes can't boot.

Otherwise the card has been great, runs cool, and even sits at a very stable overclock. No artifacts or display corruption.

I can't be 100% sure this is related, but from the start, the card has had notoriously bad sag. I'd say it's drooping at least a cm, and the PCB can very easily be flexed. On a hunch, I macgyver'd up a ziptie support so the card sat level and it surprisingly seemed to help. I haven't had a crash for a few days.

Has anyone experienced an issue like this? I'm pretty sure that whatever the problem is, it's not something that can be fixed, so I'm getting ready for an upgrade. The second question I have is whether I try to hold out a little bit longer for the r9 285x or if there is any better deals going on right now. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!

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