Is my graphics card dying/dead?

[supertdubzz]

Hello, I recently built my 1st computer and everything was running smoothly for 3 weeks until today.

When I launch a game, (WoW, Bioshock) the graphics start glitching and it looks like beams of colored light are shooting out of anything that moves, then the whole screen seems to get pixelated with weird colors and finally the game just stops working. When I return to windows (esc. key or alt+f4) and check the EVGA Precision the card temp has already increased from 30c to 50c in maybe 10 seconds, and the gpu usage was up to 80% while the game was on.
Previously: Even after hours of playing WoW I have only logged temps of 47-48c!!

Windows, this forum and even winamp visuals work fine. I have uninstalled and reinstalled both the drivers that came with the card and the current ones from nvidia. I have also checked directX to ensure it is up to date. The problem still persists.

I would like to know if this sounds specifically like the graphics card malfunctioning or possibly an issue somewhere else.

Please note that everything ran smoothly for 3 weeks, gaming fps was 60+ in WoW and Bioshock/Oblivion all ran great! My AMD CPU has been and still maintains temp's between 19c and 35c while gaming.

Nothing has been overclocked.

I will list my system specs here FYI

EVGA Nvidia GTX460 768mb
AMD 440 RANA triple core 3.0ghz processor
ANTEC 520c psu (has 40a on +12v)
MSI 870A-G54 mobo
G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2gb DDR3 memory @ 1.5v 9-9-9-24
Zalman CNPS10X Performa CPU Cooler
WD Caviar Black 640gb HDD
Lian-Li PC60-FNW Case


Please let me know if you think this is a bad graphics card, unfortunately this is a replacement only card from the egg guys!

-Frustrated Gamer

 

[nforce4max]

Have you tried any other games and do you have FRAPS or any thing else to take screen shots with?

 

[wolfram23]

Yeah it sounds like the card died on you. Might be a VRAM issue... anyway, looks like you'll probably have to exchange it.

Have you tried running FurMark just to see if it performs?

 

[supertdubzz]

Here is a pic of the screen

 

[coozie7]

Looks like a VRAM issue:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/artifacts.html

But it could be temperature related, download GPU-Z and Furmark and run them together to log the temperatures and stress the card.

 

[nforce4max]

vram with out a doubt, this is common when one or more of the vram chips fail resulting in data corruption. Raise the fanspeed even though the core is fine and fairly cool. Also inspect the card for missing thermal pads and rma that brick.

 

[supertdubzz]

So... Furmark failed to even run, got the same data corruption as in gameplay. I am taking out the graphics card after this post to RMA.

Thank you all very much for your help and expertise! This website is awesome!!

 

[supertdubzz]

Best answer selected by supertdubzz.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey