Is my card defective?

[ic500]

Hi all, I purchased an HIS 6950 2GB on amazon a month ago. It was running completely fine. I could play games(mostly Bad Company 2) for a couple of hours without any problems. However, after a week, whenever i hopped on Bad Company 2, my computer would freeze after 20 or so minutes of playing, I would then have to hard reboot it. The card is running at 75C on load with 50% fan speed. I have reinstalled drivers, reformatted hard drive, but it would still freeze. I also tested an old 5750 and I could play for several hours with no problems whatsoever. So did I receive a bad card and should I RMA it or do further testing?

PS: I have ran memtest, and passed. I also ran furmark, the temps on the card went up to 85C or so, but had no problems.

 

[EXT64]

What is your PSU (Power Supply)?

 

[ic500]

I have a 750w Ultra x4 psu

 

[EXT64]

That should be ok. Is the card OC'ed? How does it do in Furmark/Kombustor?

 

[ic500]

I did unlock extra shaders on the card and OC'ed it to 880/1300, it was running fine the first week. Now i have reverted it back to original bios and default clocks. I was running Furmark for about 30 mins, because i had to go somewhere, the temps were at 85C, average FPS was around 40-50, but there weren't any problems.

 

[EXT64]

Try using it for a while on stock and see if everything works normally. You could also try unlocked shaders but stock clocks. It might just be your card doesn't like the high clocks or extra shaders.

 

[ic500]

I just tried default settings on the card, no OC, regular shaders, and I still freeze while playing.

 

[EXT64]

Well, at this point it sounds like it is one of two things: the Power Supply or the Video Card.

Ultra PSUs are mediocre at best, however 750W leaves a lot of headroom so that should be OK.

So, the graphics card may be dying. Why? Who knows, it might not have taken to the unlocked shaders well. I'd recommend starting the RMA process, and return it if you don't get any other feedback here.

 

[17seconds]

People usually fail to mention that the 6950 has lower rated memory than the 6970 when they recommend unlocking the shaders, so overclocking the memory to 6970 speeds is more likely to cause problems.

 

[ic500]

I see, time to RMA then. Thank you for the help.

 

[ic500]

Best answer selected by ic500.