Graphics Card Failure?

iateyourfood

Honorable
Apr 21, 2012
2
0
10,510
Greetings,
Something does not appear to be right with my computer. First off, here's my current setup:

mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157162
cpu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103472
memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166
video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130469
PSU: no link, but it's 600w

I wanted to upgrade my video card, so about a month ago I bought an EVGA GTX560. I installed it and it worked like a dream. I tested it with FurMark, wanting to see what it could really do, and it started making this weird noise that was more than just the fan getting faster. It then started to make the same noise while playing Skyrim, and about every other time I booted my PC, the screen just wouldn't come on. I know the PC booted cause I heard Windows start, but no screen. So after a few days, I RMA'd it and got my money back.

Well Thursday, I went a different avenue and ordered an XFX HD 6870 and received it Friday (man, do I love newegg). I installed it after work and again, it worked great. Played Skyrim, ran fine. Tried FurMark...and it made the same noise. Tried Skyrim again, and the noise was there. Tried Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and it took about 5 minutes to load the game, with the screen flashing black at least twice. Definitely something that had never happened before. When the game did load, the noise was there again. So I rebooted, and that's all she wrote. I couldn't get a picture to come back at all. I kept rebooting but the screen just never came on again. The fans on the card were on, it was powered, I reseated the card...I was just getting nothing out of it. In fact, when that card was in, I tried my onboard graphics just for laughs, and that worked.

So I guess I'm just looking for any ideas as to what may be the problem. I feel like it can't be that the card isn't powered, especially since two different cards/manufacturers/chipsets exhibited the same problems. I did note that my current card uses only one 6 pin connector, whereas the two new ones both use two 6 pin connectors, but I feel like my psu should be able to handle that. The XFX only needs 500w. Is there something I'm missing? Has my computer just become a murderer of video cards? Or do I just have awful luck and will need to RMA another card.
 

sk1939

Distinguished
Check not only the "watt" ratings, but also the amperage of the different rails as well. The 6870 really likes it "A", and I believe requires something like 25A on the 12V rails.

Additionally it could be your motherboard since people in the Newegg reviews have posted about trouble with both the PCI-e slot and SATA controller.

"Never have I had one that runs so poorly and unreliably.I've swapped in/swapped out, used two different GPUs. I can get the board to run decently under linux, but windows stability is non-existent. Tech support has also not been helpful."