5770 black screen during games

[SooperD]

Hey guys.. Had my Sapphire 5770 Vapor-x for a while now.. Been working fine for most of its time.. but today its been nothing but problems.

I installed Skyrim and within about 15 mins of gameplay the screen went black (like the signal to the monitor was lost) then the game reappeared for a few seconds, then another black screen which quickly flashed to the game and then back to the black screen. I hit Alt F4 and after a few seconds the desktop appeared. If i go back into the game the black screen episode starts again.

I have been using the fan on 90% for games recently (BF3) and have had no issues until now. The temps are only ever reaching 83C so its not too hot for what the card can handle but it does seem to act like a temperature issue. (The vapor-x is factory clocked to 860 and i was experiencing a similar problem to this and reduced the core speed to 820 which fixed it for the last few years ive owned the card) Is this a sign of the card dying ? Ive tried underclocking the card to 750mhz core and can play a round of BF3 then the black screen starts.. If i leave it, the monitor will then display "No signal input" and then the computer will freeze completely forcing a hard reset.

System specs are;

Q6600 @ 3ghz - 65c under load
Gigabyte X38-DQ6 mobo
4gb DDR2 800 Ballistix
Sapphire Radeon 5770 Vapor-x
2x250gb Seagate HDD

I have tried older drivers and used driver sweep after uninstall to ensure correct installtion of drivers..

Is it time to look at a new card ? 6870 a good replacement ?

Thanks in advance.

D

 

[fb39ca4]

Is your PSU up to the task?

 

[SooperD]

Sorry forgot to add that info.. Its a 700watt.. Unsure of the make as i bought it years ago. Think it may be a jeantech.. It has a voltage display on the rear which is always under 200.

 

[swifty_morgan]

could be lots of things. the newer games are more demanding putting extra strain on the card. try lowering your in game settings and see what happens.

 

[tomate2]

since you said you tried older drivers i assume you tried the newest one too?
like swifty i think you should lower your game settings too... maybe your gpu not handling the newest games

 

[SooperD]

Yea currently running latest catalyst drivers.

My card has easily handled all games including BF3 at high settings until 2 days ago. Could it just start suffering all of a sudden ? Its weird how i can play a game for 10-15 minutes (temps at around 80C) then the black screen starts. If i go back to desktop the temps are lower than 80C but as soon as i go back to game the black screen starts within a minute.

Ive tried lowering clocks 100mhz below stock and above stock but no joy..

Any other ideas ?

 

[SooperD]

Pulling my hair out now.. Tried various different things, including reinstalling directx.

It just doesnt add up. I repasted the GPU this morning, the card is now in the 2nd PCIE slot on my motherboard and also tried the 2nd DVI output on the card. Im continuously searching for things to try.. It has seemed to start doing this after installing Skyrim, but why would this cause this problem ?

Thanks in advance for any more advice or help.

 

[swifty_morgan]

sounds like your card is feet up. if you lowered the ram speed and the cards processor speed and you looked for game patches......... and looked for game driver patched from amd, it's finished. buy a new card.

 

[SooperD]

Yea im thinking your right Swifty. Cheers for the help.