Power Supply Dying?

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brisa117

brisa117

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Mar 16, 2010
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Hello all!

Specs first:

CPU: 6700k
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 (Rev.1)
RAM: 32GB DDR4 G.Skill @2800
Graphics Cards: Radeon HD 7970's (2x)
PSU: XFX Black Edition 850w
Storage: One Samsung 830 and a couple HDDs here and there
Cooling: Corsair H110gt

So recently, I've run into a few complete power loss shutdowns during gaming. Before you ask, I haven't monitored my temps while this happens, but I suspect my PSU since it's literally the oldest component in my system. It's made it through five years of upgrades. haha. Any thoughts? I know diagnosing PSU problems without replacing the PSU is not clear and cut by any means, but I thought I would ask my favorite forum before I bought another PSU.

Thanks!
 
Solution
rcald2000
@Brisa, Understood. I just contacted XFX technical support on behalf of your issue, and spoke with Kevin (technician). He doesn't think the issue is related to the age of the unit, that that 850 watts is sufficient for two 7970's in Crossfire. My personal understanding is that each of those cards has a 250 watt TDP, but he said he found an article on overclockers.net that those cards can reach a 350 TDP each. Assuming that's true, which I'm not sure I believe that as I haven't yet found the figure he was referring to, 850 watts wouldn't be sufficient. I agree that a two 350 watt GPU's can't be serviced by a 850 watt PSU, but I'm not convinced that those two cards can reach such a high wattage.

The one troubleshooting tip he...
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VincentGeddon

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I would check the temps of those 7970s just to be safe. I had 2 as well once, and one ran really hot due to being so close to the other. Your power supply should be good at the 850w but due to age and prior stress could be close.
Check this out:
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/amd-radeon-hd-7970-review,8.html

For an easy attempt at diagnosing I would remove one card and do some gaming just to see what happens. No crash without second card might = too much stress on the PSU.
 
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brisa117

brisa117

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Update: Unplugged one card, played Rocket League on the same settings as before (max settings, two 1080 monitors, two players -- I highly recommend it). Had the AMD driver crash a few times, but after I closed all unnecessary background apps, no crashes. This includes RAPTR's screen recording. I'm thinking I'll switch out cards tomorrow and see if I still have problems.

Could a troublesome graphics card make a computer shut down, no BSOD?
 
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brisa117

brisa117

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Update: I've now tried running my test scenario with only one graphics card. Additionally, I have alternated which card I used and played multiple hours on the system without crash. So.... hitting my limit on an aging PSU?
 
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rcald2000

rcald2000

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@brisa, I don't know if your PSU is to blame, but it's certainly possible. I personally wouldn't think that five years is very old for a tier 1 power supply, such as yours. But you mentioned that your power supply is approximately five years old. If it happens to be just under that time, you should submit a warranty claim. Don't overthink it, just do it. All they can do is say no. I'd be very curious to see if they stand by their products. If you use the second link below, it should take you no more than 5 - 7 minutes to register your product and account, so that you can submit the claim. Just do it, and let us know how it goes.

*** XFX US & Canadian warranty ***
http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/support/xfx-warranty

*** XFX - product registration before submitting a warranty claim ***
http://www.xfxsupport.com/Account/Login.aspx

*** Tom's Hardware power supply quality (tier) list ***
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
 
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brisa117

brisa117

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That's a good idea that I had already considered. Unfortunately I've disassembled the unit a few years ago to sleeve the cables. Pretty sure that voids the warranty.
 
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rcald2000

rcald2000

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Nov 3, 2009
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@Brisa, Understood. I just contacted XFX technical support on behalf of your issue, and spoke with Kevin (technician). He doesn't think the issue is related to the age of the unit, that that 850 watts is sufficient for two 7970's in Crossfire. My personal understanding is that each of those cards has a 250 watt TDP, but he said he found an article on overclockers.net that those cards can reach a 350 TDP each. Assuming that's true, which I'm not sure I believe that as I haven't yet found the figure he was referring to, 850 watts wouldn't be sufficient. I agree that a two 350 watt GPU's can't be serviced by a 850 watt PSU, but I'm not convinced that those two cards can reach such a high wattage.

The one troubleshooting tip he suggested was to try one card alone and see if the system shutdown, which of course you had already done and determined that it appeared to be stable with one card. Anyway, feel free to contact them and troubleshoot directly. XFX is open to 9 pm PST: 800-880-3225 option 1
 
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Solution
brisa117

brisa117

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I'm absolutely floored. You went WAAAAAAY above and beyond any help I've ever received on ANY forum (and Tom's has always been the most helpful).

Assuming that they CAN reach 350w each, I would agree with the assessment that the PSU is not adequate. But on the other hand, I've had the two cards running in Crossfire since... I think early 2013. I think I would have run into a problem before now. Especially considering that they were running with an FX-8350, which from my understanding draws more power than my current (non-overclocked) i7-6700k.

Additionally, I'm not completely up on how power draw works in relation to performance, but I don't think Rocket League tips the scale on most-demanding games. I was able to play tripple monitor on a single card without issue. I think I would have maxed out my cards on another game like Bioshock Infinite or Skyrim (****looks at Steam library, realizes that I don't play very demanding games***). But who knows. My plan is to purchase a new (single) graphics card when the next round comes out (for VR reasons), so now I'm stuck between buying a new PSU or waiting out the issue for three more months. I'm sure complete power failures aren't exactly good for my spinning drives though. CHOICES!

Thanks again for your amazing response!
 
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