Is it PSU or GPU? Who to blame?

dalaylamaninkalbi

Commendable
Oct 9, 2016
50
0
1,630
Hi to all,

I know that this title is one of the most asked ones; yet I couldn't be sure about what causes this problem in my PC exactly. For quite a while I had a GPU heating problem with my 6 year old HD 5870 but I managed to solve the problem via setting fan curve on MSI Afterburner. Normally I played 3 hours of Bioshock Remastered without a crash but Metro: Last Light Redux and a new indie game called The Uncertain are keeping giving black screens in 30 min and sometimes even less than that. When black screen appears, all the temps are quite okay for GPU (68-69) and CPU(38-39).

However I saw that my 12V fluctuated to the 11.437 while gaming. I have no idea about normal voltage values so I wanted to know: Is it PSU to blame? If there any other values that I should post here, please tell me.

BTW here is my PC specs:

Processor:AMD Phenom II X4 955 AM3 3.2 GHz 8MB Cache 45nm,
Mobo:ASUS M4a87td/USB3
RAM:KINGSTON 4 GB DDR3 CL9,
GPU:HIS HD5870 GDDR5 1GB 256 Bit ATI DX11,
Case with PSU: COOLER MASTER RC-690 650W

Thank you all in advance :)
 
Solution
Well can you use your computer like alt+tab, bring up task manager during the black screen? If so I wouldn't think its power related. If you have to manually reboot then I could vary well be this issue. But there are other things at play like drivers, Have you reverted back to older drivers and see if it works?

Or better yet You can go to most electronic stores and buy a PSU and try it, if its not the issue, you can return it.
The voltage drop is within the safe operating mode of all the components, And if you alt+tab and what not, you will see voltages fluctuate a bit, thats if the software is even accurate which they tend to never be with power supply readings.

I would start by uninstalling the drivers, you can use Display Driver Uninstaller http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/display_driver_uninstaller.html

It will remove everything related to AMD/ATI graphics cards.

Reboot and download the newest from AMD's website and restart when asked.


My other system with a pair of HD5850's do not like to be overclocked with dual monitors, if you have your 5870 overclocked and dual monitors, you may want to try default clocks and see if things work better.

You can also Download and runt he heaven benchmark which will stress the card, I would run it for 30min to get a real idea if the card is stable, watch the temps!!

If temps get pretty high, the Reference HD5870's are not all the hard to take apart, but you will need thermal paste and do not rip the thermal pads the cover the VRM's and the memory chips, just clean the dust out. There are many videos of people doing this as the 5870 is a pretty hot card to begin with.


Other than that, hows the HD5870 treating you, I miss my HD5850's, there were still able to play BF4 at high settings and what not, They aged well. Mine the 1 HD5850 will not display anything anymore, not sure why, but it works fine as a 2nd card in crossfire on my old 790FX board.

 

dalaylamaninkalbi

Commendable
Oct 9, 2016
50
0
1,630
Hey,

Thanks for your answer. I tried uninstalling and re-installing drivers but nothing changed, unfortunately my problem still continues. My 5870 is not overclocked btw. As I said, normally without the MSI Afterburner fan curve my card jumps to 80-90 degrees but thanks to the fan curve it stays around 64-65 (which i assume is normal when on load) but still no solution, I am getting black screens. CPU temps are quite ok too. That's why I suspected on PSU in first place...

I am kinda hopeless, any other ideas maybe? :/

 
Well can you use your computer like alt+tab, bring up task manager during the black screen? If so I wouldn't think its power related. If you have to manually reboot then I could vary well be this issue. But there are other things at play like drivers, Have you reverted back to older drivers and see if it works?

Or better yet You can go to most electronic stores and buy a PSU and try it, if its not the issue, you can return it.
 
Solution