Help with my 6850 and my PSU!! :(

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cartman28279

cartman28279

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Hey everyone, I'm having a few problems here. Ok so about 2 or 3 months ago I had a question on here about my AMD Radeon 6850 that I bought..

The problem I had before was every time I started a game maxed out like, GTA IV, Just Cause 2, Skyrim, Counter Strike Global Offensive, and pretty much anything else, the game would play super smooth and everything plays perfect, but after about a minute or two playing it maxed out the screen just goes black then I have to restart. Then a few people replied and asked what PSU I had and I said I had this:

Xtreme Gear 500W ATX Model# XG-P500


A few people were unfamiliar with the PSU and the others who knew what it was said it was terrible. So they recommended I get a new PSU to fix my problems. So in the mean time I switched back to my AMD Radeon 6450.

And finally, the other day I purchased a CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W that they recommended I get. Then I got it yesterday and started to go to work at putting the PSU in my case. It took me awhile because it was the first time I have ever replaced a PSU, but after a few tests trying to get it to turn on It finally worked. After that I uninstalled my 6450 and changed back to my 6850 hoping for the best that it would work with the new setup.

Next, after installing everything from my 6850 CD, I restarted my computer and went straight Skyrim to see if it would play maxed out without ANY crashes what so ever, because Skyrim is where it crashed the most. So I launched Skyrim and went through the loading screens and the game finally started. Then I started playing and I had a great FPS on Ultra and everything looked beautiful.

But then.. something terrible happened. My screen went black, AGAIN!


I restarted my PC just hoping the reason the screen went black was because of a crash on Skyrim. But it wasn't a simple game crash like I thought, and I knew I was right back to where I started like before with my old power supply. I even tried Gotham City Imposters and Batman Arkham City and they both crashed on me as well. :(


After a little while I looked in my case and noticed something about the power supply. When I turn on my PC the fan runs for about 1-3 seconds then stops and doesn't run anymore. I looked up something on Google and some people said the fans only turn on on this power supply only if it gets to a certain temperature or something like that. But others said it ran the whole time. o_O

I was a little confused because I thought the fan has to run the whole entire time the PC is on. So would this be a problem to the 6850 crashing on about every game I play? Would the fan make the card not crash?

Because I really don't want to hear that there is a problem with the card or power supply because I'm getting nervous that I'll have to buy another card or take back my PSU. Because I don't have the money for that right now. :(

Pleeeaaassee does anyone know how I can fix this so I can play a game without crashing?


And by the way here are my current specs:


My Specs:

AMD Athlon II X2 260 3.2 ghz

Power Color Radeon 6850

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W

4 gb Ram

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OS

465 gb Hard Drive
 
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mace200200

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Lokordd

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I would also recommend newer drivers. Never use the drivers on the discs for anything, if it can be avoided. If that does not fix it then the card is probably bad. It should still be under warranty, so just go get a new one.
 
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dscudella

dscudella

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Firstly, let me know the person who recommended the Corsair TX PSU, I shall lay some baby powder down. Corsair TX no, CX yes.

Also the fan, as already mentioned, is thermal controlled. The unit heats up, the fan spins up.

I can't add anything that anyone else hasn't. Run MEMTEST for your memory and see what happens, if ANYTHING's wrong you'll know right away. The same thing for the video card. Run FURMARK, put it on fullscreen and run a burn in, not the timed benchmark. Start it and come back every couple minutes, this puts a 100% load on the GPU & VRAM (like Prime 95 for your video card).
 
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cartman28279

cartman28279

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@Lokordd, yes everything else has ran fine on my last card and I never had a single crash. I could put any of my games maxed out and it wouldn't crash. lol I got about 2 fps most games like GTA IV, and Skyrim maxed out on the 6450, but it still didn't crash though.

@ddscudella @mace200200

Could you send me a link for the memtest?



@ddscudella I'll try the FurMark program again, but last time I tried about a 2 months ago with my old PSU and 6850 together, it crashed after about 20 seconds.

How long is it supposed to last usally?




And I'll try the drivers here in a minute.
 
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cartman28279

cartman28279

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@dscudella I used Furmark again and it crashed at like 30 seconds..

What should I do then? Because I really don't want to buy a new card right now, and I don't have a warranty since I got the card off of Ebay about 70$ cheaper than it's original price.

 
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dscudella

dscudella

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Unfortunately, I would say you got a lemon. Contact the seller (hopefully he/she is well respected / a lot of positive reviews) and let them know that the card is defective and that you would like a refund. You will most likely have to pay the return shipping and won't get your refund until they receive the card.

I always advise people NOT to buy components off eBay. It's just too risky and you just don't know what you're going to get. Just make sure to conduct all communications through eBay and keep all of the emails until they get the card and you get your refund.
 
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cartman28279

cartman28279

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Ok, I might try that soon but do you think it would be ok to call now considering I got this almost 3 months ago?



And btw, it's a trusted seller I bought it from, and they have a site too. http://ncix.com/
 
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dscudella

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Wait, did you buy it off Ebay or NCIX? NCIX is a very well respected computer components retailer, much like Newegg. Did you buy it new or used? If you bought it used you might be SOL. If you got it new then contact them for an RMA.

NCIX also has a representative that does a lot with the community and can be reached via youtube & twitter. Send me a private message and I'll send you his twitter name.
 
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cartman28279

cartman28279

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I got it off of Ebay used, so yeah I think I am SOL..


But do you or anyone else know what the problem with the card might be? Because I would like to see if it's possible to fix it or get it fixed somewhere.
 
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cartman28279

cartman28279

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Also, I don't know if this would matter right now, but when I first got my 6850 2 months ago and used it with my old power supply, it worked like a charm on any game I played on and lasted for about 6 hours, then it started to mess up like it is now. So from the very beginning do you think my PSU damaged the card?
 
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cartman28279

cartman28279

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How good is this card? Because I may be able to get this one.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161396



And if I can't get that I actually I might get another 6850, because when mine did work for me it, it played everything great.



Are any of these two worth it? Because they're both at a great price. And if so which one should I choose?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150515&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150618





 
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dscudella

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If you're stuck on the 6850, look up the 7770. It's only 2-3 FPS slower than the 6850, overclocks EXTREMELY well (uses less power & produces less heat) and can be had for as little as $100.

For instance: MSI Radeon 7770 1gb $118 shipped $108 after rebates.

An overclocked 7770 128-bit will beat a 6850 256-bit and costs ~ $30 less.
 
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cartman28279

cartman28279

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Oh nice. But before I would do anything I'm a little unsure about this because I was kinda thinking about getting something a little more powerful, like the HIS 6870 in my last post that I asked about.

Because I'm going to upgrading the future to a i5 2500k and I just wanted a lot of performance to come out of my pc, lol.

So if I had enough to get either one of these, do you think I should get the 6870, 6850, or the 7770?

Thanks for the help so far, I really appreciate it!
 
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dscudella

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The 6870 is a good card. It's old though and it's price hasn't really come down much to reflect it.

Take a look at what you posted:
HiS IceQ Radeon 6870 1gb 256-bit $178 shipped $168 after rebates

This will crush the 6870, is only $7 more and has 2gb VRAM which means no bottlenecking at higher resolutions:
PowerColor Radeon 7850 2gb 256-bit $185 shipped $175 after rebates.

Edit: The 7850 also uses less power and produces less heat, a solid win in my book. The 68xx's are dead. The 69xx's are still contenders but only if you can find them on sale or clearance.
 
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cartman28279

cartman28279

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This might be a stupid question, but this will last me a long time if everything works with it, right? I'm just saying this because I play games all the time, and in the long run I wouldn't want anything to give out on me, lol. But yeah I really want to try to get that card you posted though.

Thanks
 
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dscudella

dscudella

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The 7xxx is the current line. Their's really no telling how long they will last. AMD's new line up of Radeons come out sometime during the first 3 months of 2013. I would say that the 7xxx's will be relevant for at least a year plus some.

As much as I hate to say it, the new line up of consoles comes out next year too. This could shake up PC hardware.
 
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