HD 6850 Saphire problems

[DucK_]

Alright guys I Built this pc back last November and I'm having a little trouble. Three or four days ago while playing starcraft I noticed that i had some horizontal grayish lines flickering up on my screen. So i exited the game and everything was normal. Booted sc2 back up it ran fan. A couple of hours ago while playing Civ 5 for the first time my screen turned gray with vertical lines in an even pattern. I had to to do a hard restart and everything is working good now(booted Civ 5 back up). I noticed the temps shot up a little faster than normal when I monitored it the second time. It went up to 73c and usually idles around 41ish. But then auto fan never went up past 42% I put it up to 100 and it brought it back down to 62c. I am headed out of town tonight so this is gonna bug the hell out of me until I can get home and really look into it ,so I was wondering if you guys might have any thoughts or ideas what is causing this problem? It has been since August since I have actually opened my pc and cleaned the parts individually.Overheating?Signs of a dying gpu?Drivers? Thanks for any help.

Radeon HD 6850
I5-2500k
8gb ddr3
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W

 

[drjiga]

Sounds like you're getting artifacts. Does the issue occur under heavy load and/or after the game has been running for a while?

Three things to try: 1) change the input, switch the monitor cable from one dvi port to the other, also, if available try via HDMI, 2) Test the monitor by using a different one or connecting a flatscreen TV, if available 3) If the motherboard has multiple PCI-E, try using a different one

Have you ever stress tested with FurMark or similar tools?

P.S. I have two Sapphire 6850s in xfire, no issues

 

[dscudella]

First thing I would do (and the easiest) is to take your PC to the garage or outdoors, take off both side panels and spray it out with compressed air. Also remove the video card itself and spray in between the cooler and PCB and the fan itself. I have a side intake fan (no dust filter) right over my 6850 and it collects dust like it's no ones business.

After that's done check your drivers. Install the newest (12.11) and see if that makes a difference.

My Sapphire 6850 Idles around 35c but hits 70c at 100% load (Furmark) and is OC'ed on stock voltage. That should give you a baseline.

My fan profile is a steady slope:
50c 50%
60c 60%
70c 70% (I've never seen it higher than 71c at 100% load)
80c 100%

 

[DucK_]

Both times the crash has happened or glitch has happened in the first 20 mins of game play. I ran furmark when I first built this with good results. And yea dscudella I am also leaning toward some type of an overheat issue. My case has 5 fans and one is on the side without a dust filter also. My idle temps are the same as always its just under load temps have been higher than normal(Its freezing in my room lol). I really haven't payed much attention to my temps the past couple of months until this issue came about. Drivers are up to date.

 

[DucK_]

Update:

Just ran another Furmark and it shot up to 78c fairly quick so I stopped it. Now it really makes me think that I have heat issues. It just sucks that i have to wait until Saturday to see what cleaning it does.

 

[dscudella]

I would say that the card is packed with dust (could be why the fans not spinning up) or maybe your TIM went bad. If your temps are still high with artifacting (GPU or Mem overheating) after dusting off, go to step two.

Order some Thermal Paste (AS5, Cooler Master, Corsair), take the cooler off and completely remove the old TIM with rubbing alcohol and either cotton balls, Q Tips or an old, clean, cotton T Shirt and re apply.

 

[DucK_]

Best answer selected by DucK_.

 

[DucK_]

Yea thanks for the help man. I really hope it doesn't come down to that. I plan on upgrading my card with income tax(or my bonus if we get it this year).