Do i have a bad Graphics Card?

[Angelz]

Hey guys. I just bought a second Nvidia GTX 670 FTW for SLI. But when i run Skyrim, the game starts lagging, or blacking out, or totally freezing up my system so bad you have to force restart. Sometimes there's discolor in the game and i have tried just about whatever i can think of. I see people on Youtube running SLI with these cards and have no problems with theirs. Also, when you sometimes turn SLI on, the screen goes black, and stays black, and monitor goes to sleep. Sometimes when you turn it OFF, that's even worse. The second card starts going INSANE with it's fan RPM super duper high and doesn't stop. I bought this card here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/190773965396?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649


They said it's a Liquadation Sale. I'm in no mood to process this through the company if that's the case. I will just return the card back to him. I've done way more than enough returns through companies due to defects. I'm sick and tired of it and enough is enough. Everytime i buy something, new used or whatever, it's almost ALWAYS a problem.

 

[Angelz]

My system is custom made and most of it is still fairly new. I have

COSMOS II Case.
Intel i7 Core 3770K
Corsair H100 Cooling Solution.
Corsair Vengeance 2 x 8GB at 16GB Memory.
Gigabyte G1 Sniper 3 Motherboard.
ULTRA 1050watt Power Supply.
Samsung 830 Series 128GB SSDs in RAID0

 

[bamanec]

Two things come to mind, first it could be that your Power Supply is acting up by not being able to power the two cards in SLI. And the other thing that I would try is swap the the cards around and use the new as your main or the old as your main depending on what the difference would be from how you have it set up as of right now.

 

[Angelz]

Swap Slots? Oooo, good idea friend. I'll try that. I actually removed the card last night cause i was starting to get worried this thing was gonna damage my system. Oh yeah, i was told 1050 was enough for 2 cards though?

 

[bamanec]

I just saw that you have a very hight watt power supply which should run it no problem, but I would still try the second option that I mentioned, and or maybe see if you have two other 4 or 6 pin connectors to hook to one of the cards. It really sounds like a power supply issue to me. Cause when I overclocked my gpu's I would get that issue with games going black and or causing lag.

 

[Angelz]

Well the first one is actually more brand new since i bought that one Factory Sealed. It's served me very nicely for the last....4-5 months with no problems. This one i bought from that Ebay Bin but it was opened. Supposely like new. I just couldn't resist the price. lol. But i'll try that and see what happens and get back to you.

 

[bamanec]

I really hope its not the power supply, but I own an Ultra power supply love it its extremely powerful even at only 650 watt but it came with faulty SATA plugs

 

[Angelz]

Actually, i had just ran out of the 6 pin connectors. One of them is actually a 6 pin to 8 pin connector which the (Not freezing) card was using. I'm actually overclocking my processor using Easytune6. I pushed the big red button. Any chance that has to do with anything?

 

[Angelz]

LOL yeah! I love Ultra though. I didn't know even those cables could go bad.. X__X

 

[bamanec]

Oh another thing which may be way off, but hook up just the 670 and make hundred percent sure its at Stock speeds. Cause if it is any higher oc'ed than your other card will try to match the speed and it could cause problems.

 

[Angelz]

I'm gonna install the (supposely bad card) back into SLI but reverse their positions from last night as you instructed. Be right back.

 

[Angelz]

I don't even know how to overclock the graphics cards. I thought they were both running the same. I dunno though. lol

 

[trumpeter1994]

Guessing your PSU is in tier 5
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx
never heard of ULTRA and that could easily be your problem.
Regardless you have an EVGA card so if you have any problems with it your gonna be working with a company that is known for having EXCELLENT support.
I have a 670 FTW as well btw and I love the thing

 

[Swordkd]

Ultra is solid. Would have to see the exact model number but I'm sure it's a top 2 tier model. I also love Evga for their customer support.

 

[Angelz]

Back, i have done as instructed. Now to test Skyrim or...turn SLI on and Off to see if any problems continue. Trumeter, thanks for your input. Dang if it really is my PSU that's gonna be 200 dollars flushed down the river...

 

[Angelz]

http://images.highspeedbackbone.net/skuimages/large/U12-40502-ON_chiclet01_kb_5466881.jpg i think it's this one that i have.

 

[Angelz]

Alright... The swap was no good. Skyrim was laggy and blacked out. I turned SLI back off.

 

[bamanec]

And you also updated to the latest beta drivers, and what does it do if you run just off of the new card?

 

[Angelz]

Yes, i have "310.70-desktop-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-english-whql"

Hmmm... Good call there. I didn't think to run the system with just the 1 card i got yesterday. I'll try that too. ^^

 

[bamanec]

Also re-install the drivers and run them as custom there is a box that reads something like "clean install" check mark that when you do.

 

[bdiddytampa]

Have you tried just running the new/ recently bought card by itself? That way you might be able to see if its just that card, or some other issue

 

[bdiddytampa]

oh sorry just saw that bamanec suggested that, that would be my first course of action

 

[Angelz]

Yeah, i just got done removing the other card and am now running the 'newer purchased' card right now. Everything appears to be ok at the moment so i'll run some games and see if anything happens. Oh, you want me to uninstall and reinstall the drivers?

 

[bamanec]

Yes and run them as custom and "clean install"

 

[Angelz]

Okay, so i did as you (bamanec) told me to do by doing the clean install. I sat here and played Skyrim for 5 minutes or so. And guess what? The game was laggy, started to give temporary freezing and like a minute ago, the screen went black. X__X This is the recently purchased card by itself.