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PSU Problem or Graphics Card Problem?

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  • Power Supplies
  • Hardware Problem
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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September 6, 2014 4:57:09 PM

Hello everyone, I have been searching for about 8 months now for a fix to no avail. I have a custom built PC for gaming and it ran fine for about 2 months although I wasn't on all the time, once winter break came around, I had more free time and played more games and that's when the problem started. What's happening is anytime I run Sims 3, Train Sim 2014, or any other graphics-heavy games, I get a black screen and have to do a hard boot. Computer is un-responsive until I power it back on. When I play Terraria it's different, the screen will flash white and go to desktop and still play the sounds/music. So I have to close the program, and when I reload it, the computer restarts and tells me that the amd blah blah driver stopped responding and was successfully recovered. NOW then, I have done just about everything the NET has told, reinstalled drivers, cleaned graphics card, tested RAM, rolled-back graphics drivers to more 'stable' ones, nothing worked. One thing I've noticed when the screen goes black is that the PC is still running fans except for the vid card. The card shut off somehow but I know it's not overheating because I've ran tests like the Valley Benchmark for 15mins and the max temp was 60C. I'm starting to think it's insufficient wattage but I have a 500w PSU that came with my Raidmax case. I have led's all over the front and side panels so that may be drawing more power. I would also like to point out that I can browse the Web and watch full-screen YouTube videos at maximum resolution just fine.
Specs:
AMD FX 6300 six core
8GB RAM
Asus M5A99FX Motherboard
Gigabyte AMD Radeon 7850 2GB cross fire ready, OC edition
500w PSU (unknown brand) don't know anything about the 12v rails and that other stuff
Windows Ultimate 64-bit
I also have 5 120mm fans on the case.

More about : psu problem graphics card problem

September 6, 2014 5:07:38 PM

I used to have similar issues but it was with an nVidia GPU. These cards have the powermizer feature which controls the voltage of the GPU. Now, I'm not too sure about AMD but it COULD be similar. I've never dealt with AMD cards before but you could try seeing if there is a setting that allows you to disable the "powermizer" setting. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/feature_powermizer.html If all else fails, it could be that the quality of the PSU is bad, so you might need to change it.
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September 7, 2014 1:38:41 PM

yungg said:
I used to have similar issues but it was with an nVidia GPU. These cards have the powermizer feature which controls the voltage of the GPU. Now, I'm not too sure about AMD but it COULD be similar. I've never dealt with AMD cards before but you could try seeing if there is a setting that allows you to disable the "powermizer" setting. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/feature_powermizer.html If all else fails, it could be that the quality of the PSU is bad, so you might need to change it.

That only seems to be for laptops and tablets which the problem currently does not reside on. Thanks for the reply though
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Related resources
September 7, 2014 1:55:12 PM

SanditeSpartan said:
yungg said:
I used to have similar issues but it was with an nVidia GPU. These cards have the powermizer feature which controls the voltage of the GPU. Now, I'm not too sure about AMD but it COULD be similar. I've never dealt with AMD cards before but you could try seeing if there is a setting that allows you to disable the "powermizer" setting. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/feature_powermizer.html If all else fails, it could be that the quality of the PSU is bad, so you might need to change it.

That only seems to be for laptops and tablets which the problem currently does not reside on. Thanks for the reply though


I honestly think you have spent WAY too much time on this, (i know, I spent 8 monts on my 8350 when it was bottling my 290 the whole time... only fix was a faster processor. Got 4790k and then no more performance issues)

Not everything is night and day, I think you feel like it should be enough but remember cheap PSU's (an unknown brand PSU is sketchy, and raidmax can't be trusted) can degrade in wattage over a short amount of time.

I think the rest of your parts are fine... see if you can find a name brand (Corsair, Seagate, EVGA, XFX, Rosewill) psu that is 600w (600w runs my friends 8350 and 270x perfect, so it will run yours fine too). When you pick it out definitely look for a stat that says 12v wattage. THAT is the wattage the whole computer runs on basically, your cpu and gpu's power.
Your PSU may say 500w, but it may only have like 380-400w on the 12v rail, so the PC probably freezes or disables the gpu to stop the PSU from overpowering.
I'd recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
same one 2 of my friends run their 8350/270x on, and its 12v wattage is almost the entire 600w. I use Corsair's 850w model myself, so they can be trusted.
on sale too ;) 
you can always return it if it still doesn't fix it, but I think this is it. You've troubleshot way too long to not have swapped out a part...
Time is more valuable than money my friend
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September 7, 2014 3:16:57 PM

jkteddy77 said:
SanditeSpartan said:
yungg said:
I used to have similar issues but it was with an nVidia GPU. These cards have the powermizer feature which controls the voltage of the GPU. Now, I'm not too sure about AMD but it COULD be similar. I've never dealt with AMD cards before but you could try seeing if there is a setting that allows you to disable the "powermizer" setting. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/feature_powermizer.html If all else fails, it could be that the quality of the PSU is bad, so you might need to change it.

That only seems to be for laptops and tablets which the problem currently does not reside on. Thanks for the reply though


I honestly think you have spent WAY too much time on this, (i know, I spent 8 monts on my 8350 when it was bottling my 290 the whole time... only fix was a faster processor. Got 4790k and then no more performance issues)

Not everything is night and day, I think you feel like it should be enough but remember cheap PSU's (an unknown brand PSU is sketchy, and raidmax can't be trusted) can degrade in wattage over a short amount of time.

I think the rest of your parts are fine... see if you can find a name brand (Corsair, Seagate, EVGA, XFX, Rosewill) psu that is 600w (600w runs my friends 8350 and 270x perfect, so it will run yours fine too). When you pick it out definitely look for a stat that says 12v wattage. THAT is the wattage the whole computer runs on basically, your cpu and gpu's power.
Your PSU may say 500w, but it may only have like 380-400w on the 12v rail, so the PC probably freezes or disables the gpu to stop the PSU from overpowering.
I'd recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
same one 2 of my friends run their 8350/270x on, and its 12v wattage is almost the entire 600w. I use Corsair's 850w model myself, so they can be trusted.
on sale too ;) 
you can always return it if it still doesn't fix it, but I think this is it. You've troubleshot way too long to not have swapped out a part...
Time is more valuable than money my friend


Thanks for the reply. The main reason being I'm waiting so long is because I just want to be sure of where to spend my money since I don't have a job :(  I have the money to buy a really great psu, but I just wanted to be sure that it was the psu and not the card being the problem. If the psu isn't the problem, I'll probably have to get a new card, cuz I would be out of options at that point. I would keep the psu of course, because I'm going to upgrade in the future anyways so I wanna good, solid psu. I would also like to ask what you mean by those numbers you mentioned "... 8 months on your 8350.... my 290.... got 4790k..."
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September 7, 2014 4:01:30 PM

SanditeSpartan said:
jkteddy77 said:
SanditeSpartan said:
yungg said:
I used to have similar issues but it was with an nVidia GPU. These cards have the powermizer feature which controls the voltage of the GPU. Now, I'm not too sure about AMD but it COULD be similar. I've never dealt with AMD cards before but you could try seeing if there is a setting that allows you to disable the "powermizer" setting. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/feature_powermizer.html If all else fails, it could be that the quality of the PSU is bad, so you might need to change it.

That only seems to be for laptops and tablets which the problem currently does not reside on. Thanks for the reply though


I honestly think you have spent WAY too much time on this, (i know, I spent 8 monts on my 8350 when it was bottling my 290 the whole time... only fix was a faster processor. Got 4790k and then no more performance issues)

Not everything is night and day, I think you feel like it should be enough but remember cheap PSU's (an unknown brand PSU is sketchy, and raidmax can't be trusted) can degrade in wattage over a short amount of time.

I think the rest of your parts are fine... see if you can find a name brand (Corsair, Seagate, EVGA, XFX, Rosewill) psu that is 600w (600w runs my friends 8350 and 270x perfect, so it will run yours fine too). When you pick it out definitely look for a stat that says 12v wattage. THAT is the wattage the whole computer runs on basically, your cpu and gpu's power.
Your PSU may say 500w, but it may only have like 380-400w on the 12v rail, so the PC probably freezes or disables the gpu to stop the PSU from overpowering.
I'd recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
same one 2 of my friends run their 8350/270x on, and its 12v wattage is almost the entire 600w. I use Corsair's 850w model myself, so they can be trusted.
on sale too ;) 
you can always return it if it still doesn't fix it, but I think this is it. You've troubleshot way too long to not have swapped out a part...
Time is more valuable than money my friend


Thanks for the reply. The main reason being I'm waiting so long is because I just want to be sure of where to spend my money since I don't have a job :(  I have the money to buy a really great psu, but I just wanted to be sure that it was the psu and not the card being the problem. If the psu isn't the problem, I'll probably have to get a new card, cuz I would be out of options at that point. I would keep the psu of course, because I'm going to upgrade in the future anyways so I wanna good, solid psu. I would also like to ask what you mean by those numbers you mentioned "... 8 months on your 8350.... my 290.... got 4790k..."


oh... i was just describing that I spent months on PC issues before too with my hardware and I understand how unfun it is... the only thing that I had left was switch out parts and it worked for me.

Also, I suspect that that 'ol Radimax PSU in your case doesn't have enough amperage or volts to handle the 7870.Almost all of the brands I listed before will have enough amperage and voltage to power any GPU. Like, that one I sent has 46Amp on the 12v rail (says in description of psu's). You're gonna want at least 36A on the 12v rail for your card. I bet yours is only a 32A. Another number to look for is voltage, you want at least 2.3v on the 12v rail (most of all the new ones have this)

If you truly want a future proof psu, get a 750w, since then you can run virtually any cpu/gpu combo for years to come. It sucks upgrading the psu multiple times, so if you plan on future upgrades, maybe only a 600w isn't a smart choice...

I doubt its the card itself, as it kinda sounds like the card is failing due to loss of proper power, but you'll never know unless you swap one of the two out :/ 
You can get 750w for around $100 that are great if you look around. If you have anymore questions about a PSU or what you should do, just ask. Run a link by me if you don't know if it's the PSU you need or not.

Personally, I'd get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Yeah, I know, its EVGA, but its got an award, and it will handle anything, plus its only like $79
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September 7, 2014 4:18:41 PM

jkteddy77 said:
SanditeSpartan said:
jkteddy77 said:
SanditeSpartan said:
yungg said:
I used to have similar issues but it was with an nVidia GPU. These cards have the powermizer feature which controls the voltage of the GPU. Now, I'm not too sure about AMD but it COULD be similar. I've never dealt with AMD cards before but you could try seeing if there is a setting that allows you to disable the "powermizer" setting. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/feature_powermizer.html If all else fails, it could be that the quality of the PSU is bad, so you might need to change it.

That only seems to be for laptops and tablets which the problem currently does not reside on. Thanks for the reply though


I honestly think you have spent WAY too much time on this, (i know, I spent 8 monts on my 8350 when it was bottling my 290 the whole time... only fix was a faster processor. Got 4790k and then no more performance issues)

Not everything is night and day, I think you feel like it should be enough but remember cheap PSU's (an unknown brand PSU is sketchy, and raidmax can't be trusted) can degrade in wattage over a short amount of time.

I think the rest of your parts are fine... see if you can find a name brand (Corsair, Seagate, EVGA, XFX, Rosewill) psu that is 600w (600w runs my friends 8350 and 270x perfect, so it will run yours fine too). When you pick it out definitely look for a stat that says 12v wattage. THAT is the wattage the whole computer runs on basically, your cpu and gpu's power.
Your PSU may say 500w, but it may only have like 380-400w on the 12v rail, so the PC probably freezes or disables the gpu to stop the PSU from overpowering.
I'd recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
same one 2 of my friends run their 8350/270x on, and its 12v wattage is almost the entire 600w. I use Corsair's 850w model myself, so they can be trusted.
on sale too ;) 
you can always return it if it still doesn't fix it, but I think this is it. You've troubleshot way too long to not have swapped out a part...
Time is more valuable than money my friend


Thanks for the reply. The main reason being I'm waiting so long is because I just want to be sure of where to spend my money since I don't have a job :(  I have the money to buy a really great psu, but I just wanted to be sure that it was the psu and not the card being the problem. If the psu isn't the problem, I'll probably have to get a new card, cuz I would be out of options at that point. I would keep the psu of course, because I'm going to upgrade in the future anyways so I wanna good, solid psu. I would also like to ask what you mean by those numbers you mentioned "... 8 months on your 8350.... my 290.... got 4790k..."


oh... i was just describing that I spent months on PC issues before too with my hardware and I understand how unfun it is... the only thing that I had left was switch out parts and it worked for me.

Also, I suspect that that 'ol Radimax PSU in your case doesn't have enough amperage or volts to handle the 7870.Almost all of the brands I listed before will have enough amperage and voltage to power any GPU. Like, that one I sent has 46Amp on the 12v rail (says in description of psu's). You're gonna want at least 36A on the 12v rail for your card. I bet yours is only a 32A. Another number to look for is voltage, you want at least 2.3v on the 12v rail (most of all the new ones have this)

If you truly want a future proof psu, get a 750w, since then you can run virtually any cpu/gpu combo for years to come. It sucks upgrading the psu multiple times, so if you plan on future upgrades, maybe only a 600w isn't a smart choice...

I doubt its the card itself, as it kinda sounds like the card is failing due to loss of proper power, but you'll never know unless you swap one of the two out :/ 
You can get 750w for around $100 that are great if you look around. If you have anymore questions about a PSU or what you should do, just ask. Run a link by me if you don't know if it's the PSU you need or not.

Personally, I'd get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Yeah, I know, its EVGA, but its got an award, and it will handle anything, plus its only like $79


Thanks again! I forgot that I should have shown this in my previous reply so, sorry for the redundancy. I just want your input. This are the specs on the side of the psu.
http://imgur.com/yQRC7wf
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September 7, 2014 5:26:09 PM

SanditeSpartan said:
jkteddy77 said:
SanditeSpartan said:
jkteddy77 said:
SanditeSpartan said:
yungg said:
I used to have similar issues but it was with an nVidia GPU. These cards have the powermizer feature which controls the voltage of the GPU. Now, I'm not too sure about AMD but it COULD be similar. I've never dealt with AMD cards before but you could try seeing if there is a setting that allows you to disable the "powermizer" setting. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/feature_powermizer.html If all else fails, it could be that the quality of the PSU is bad, so you might need to change it.

That only seems to be for laptops and tablets which the problem currently does not reside on. Thanks for the reply though


I honestly think you have spent WAY too much time on this, (i know, I spent 8 monts on my 8350 when it was bottling my 290 the whole time... only fix was a faster processor. Got 4790k and then no more performance issues)

Not everything is night and day, I think you feel like it should be enough but remember cheap PSU's (an unknown brand PSU is sketchy, and raidmax can't be trusted) can degrade in wattage over a short amount of time.

I think the rest of your parts are fine... see if you can find a name brand (Corsair, Seagate, EVGA, XFX, Rosewill) psu that is 600w (600w runs my friends 8350 and 270x perfect, so it will run yours fine too). When you pick it out definitely look for a stat that says 12v wattage. THAT is the wattage the whole computer runs on basically, your cpu and gpu's power.
Your PSU may say 500w, but it may only have like 380-400w on the 12v rail, so the PC probably freezes or disables the gpu to stop the PSU from overpowering.
I'd recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
same one 2 of my friends run their 8350/270x on, and its 12v wattage is almost the entire 600w. I use Corsair's 850w model myself, so they can be trusted.
on sale too ;) 
you can always return it if it still doesn't fix it, but I think this is it. You've troubleshot way too long to not have swapped out a part...
Time is more valuable than money my friend


Thanks for the reply. The main reason being I'm waiting so long is because I just want to be sure of where to spend my money since I don't have a job :(  I have the money to buy a really great psu, but I just wanted to be sure that it was the psu and not the card being the problem. If the psu isn't the problem, I'll probably have to get a new card, cuz I would be out of options at that point. I would keep the psu of course, because I'm going to upgrade in the future anyways so I wanna good, solid psu. I would also like to ask what you mean by those numbers you mentioned "... 8 months on your 8350.... my 290.... got 4790k..."


oh... i was just describing that I spent months on PC issues before too with my hardware and I understand how unfun it is... the only thing that I had left was switch out parts and it worked for me.

Also, I suspect that that 'ol Radimax PSU in your case doesn't have enough amperage or volts to handle the 7870.Almost all of the brands I listed before will have enough amperage and voltage to power any GPU. Like, that one I sent has 46Amp on the 12v rail (says in description of psu's). You're gonna want at least 36A on the 12v rail for your card. I bet yours is only a 32A. Another number to look for is voltage, you want at least 2.3v on the 12v rail (most of all the new ones have this)

If you truly want a future proof psu, get a 750w, since then you can run virtually any cpu/gpu combo for years to come. It sucks upgrading the psu multiple times, so if you plan on future upgrades, maybe only a 600w isn't a smart choice...

I doubt its the card itself, as it kinda sounds like the card is failing due to loss of proper power, but you'll never know unless you swap one of the two out :/ 
You can get 750w for around $100 that are great if you look around. If you have anymore questions about a PSU or what you should do, just ask. Run a link by me if you don't know if it's the PSU you need or not.

Personally, I'd get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Yeah, I know, its EVGA, but its got an award, and it will handle anything, plus its only like $79


Thanks again! I forgot that I should have shown this in my previous reply so, sorry for the redundancy. I just want your input. This are the specs on the side of the psu.
http://imgur.com/yQRC7wf


12v rail says it has 22A on its side... rememeber how I said you want at least 36A? I'm not 100% sure if that's the only factor at hand, but I'm 90% sure its that PSU.

I think that EVGA I linked you is the cheapest and best 750w gpu you can get and should last you and run all your PC upgrades too. I'd recommend getting that.
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September 8, 2014 12:27:31 AM

How can you say it only happens to laptops and tablets when you obviously happened to my desktop? But whatever, your post.
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September 8, 2014 2:19:22 AM

yungg said:
How can you say it only happens to laptops and tablets when you obviously happened to my desktop? But whatever, your post.

I was stating that the product you shared with me only applies for pc's that have batteries, aka, laptops and tablets. I'm on a desktop, so that wouldn't work for me. And besides, I have my power settings on 'balanced' anyways
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October 12, 2014 7:05:38 PM

I got a Corsair HX750, plugged it in and played Minecraft and the pc crashed within 30 minutes of gameplay, so a new psu didn't work. Could it be the gpu then? It only happens during games like I said earlier. Also, could the lack of amperage on the old psu cause a video card to be faulty? I was also thinking about plugging in the card into another PCI slot on the mobo, maybe just a bad connection?
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Best solution

October 12, 2014 9:35:21 PM

SanditeSpartan said:
I got a Corsair HX750, plugged it in and played Minecraft and the pc crashed within 30 minutes of gameplay, so a new psu didn't work. Could it be the gpu then? It only happens during games like I said earlier. Also, could the lack of amperage on the old psu cause a video card to be faulty? I was also thinking about plugging in the card into another PCI slot on the mobo, maybe just a bad connection?


Hmm... well keep the HX-750w anyway, it will come in handy if you ever upgrade even more.

I would definitely test the next PCI slot next, dunno how much good it could do, but if it works, you can narrow it down to the MOBO being faulty. If those don't work either, I would look into that GPU's Warranty... definitely not your PSU or CPU's fault. Really doubt the GPU could have been choked of amperage to the point of it being faulty, but it could be a possibility. Hopefully your warranty will cover it anyways if that is the case. quite unfortunate :/ 
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October 14, 2014 1:17:58 PM

jkteddy77 said:
SanditeSpartan said:
I got a Corsair HX750, plugged it in and played Minecraft and the pc crashed within 30 minutes of gameplay, so a new psu didn't work. Could it be the gpu then? It only happens during games like I said earlier. Also, could the lack of amperage on the old psu cause a video card to be faulty? I was also thinking about plugging in the card into another PCI slot on the mobo, maybe just a bad connection?


Hmm... well keep the HX-750w anyway, it will come in handy if you ever upgrade even more.

I would definitely test the next PCI slot next, dunno how much good it could do, but if it works, you can narrow it down to the MOBO being faulty. If those don't work either, I would look into that GPU's Warranty... definitely not your PSU or CPU's fault. Really doubt the GPU could have been choked of amperage to the point of it being faulty, but it could be a possibility. Hopefully your warranty will cover it anyways if that is the case. quite unfortunate :/ 


Putting the card on another pci slot did not work. I tested it using the Valley Benchmark and my card failed within 3 minutes. It only warmed up to 58C so it's not overheating. I've got a faulty card :(  Anybody know of high end/quality video cards? I was looking at this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
I currently have an AMD Radeon Gigabyte 7850 2GB
My budget is no more than $350.
Thank you in advance! :) 
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October 14, 2014 5:35:40 PM

Well your card could not have been defective at any better time
Get a GTX 970. They just came out, and they are exactly in your price range.
The 970 beats the 780,290, even the 290x at times. It is basically a bit slower than a 780ti with 4gb of VRAM, all for only about $340.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=E...
Pick your choice ;)  you ill be beating my $575 290 (got it February 2014), incredible how things depreciate so quickly isn't it.
I'd personally get the MSI gaming, but the EVGA Superclocked is out now too. They're selling fast, pick one up before they are sold out agai
Hopefully you can send your 7870 in for warranty too :(  I would still upgrade, but at least get it working so you can sell it)
your 6300 might slow the card down a bit, but you won't notice it horribly. You can always upgrde your CPU in the future if it is really noticeable
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October 14, 2014 7:58:19 PM

The GTX 970 is a beast of a card. I'm not sure if my other components or even the size of my case would be suitable for such a card! I made a new thread regarding of what kind of card to get, now that we know what component is failing. If you guys/gals would please leave your advice/suggestions over there that would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you everyone for your help on here :) 

New thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2335429/gpu-sugg...
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