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What kills a graphics card?

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  • Computers
  • Graphics Cards
  • Motherboards
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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October 7, 2013 12:12:04 PM

Hello computer wizards

A couple of weeks ago i bought a new PC.
Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3 motherboard
Intel Core i5-4670K CPU
16 GB RAM
CoolerMaster Thunder 700 W PSU
PNY GeForce GTX760 graphics card

Everything works well a few days or so. After that i start freezing out, crashing with BSODs and whenever i play a game or do anything that works my graphics card one of my screens starts flickering, the graphics card also sounds kinda loud, everything related to the workload of the graphics card.

After a long time of troubleshooting and tinkering with software i contacted the store i bought the stuff from and they told me to send the card back.

Later that week i receive a new card of the same model, i'm pretty sure the old one's broken as they'd probably send it back otherwise. So i go on and put in my new card and do some gaming. After about 3-4 hours of non coherent gaming i crash with a bluescreen, referring to win2k.sys, and after that i'm back to flickering and noise when the GPU work harder than surfing the internet.

I contacted them again and they asked me to send this card back aswell, and i also sent the motherboard and PSU back with it in case they'd want a look at either of them aswell, the risk of getting 2 bad cards is just too small.

So, my question is, what kills a graphics card?
Are my graphics cards really dead or is another component interfering in their operation?
Any ideas of what could cause my problems?

More about : kills graphics card

a c 188 U Graphics card
a b V Motherboard
October 7, 2013 12:40:45 PM

To rule out issues with your other components, you need to test the card in another PC, or a known good card in yours.

Usually the # 1 cause of failing cards is heat. Power supply can do the deed as well. Getting a bad card, especially two in a row, is a lot rarer. Although if they sent you a refurb card not a new one, it could have been bad when they sent it.
October 7, 2013 1:42:43 PM

hang-the-9 said:
To rule out issues with your other components, you need to test the card in another PC, or a known good card in yours.

Usually the # 1 cause of failing cards is heat. Power supply can do the deed as well. Getting a bad card, especially two in a row, is a lot rarer. Although if they sent you a refurb card not a new one, it could have been bad when they sent it.


I was hesitant to do this due to fear of damaging other components with whatever part was faulty of this setup. I may add that i tried running this computer with another PSU and it did not help, in case the psu is to blame it has already done permanent damage i'm afraid.

As for heat both my cards has been really hot, even older games pull them well above 60C and newer games have it pushing the fan so it hovers just below the 80C temperature limit.
a c 188 U Graphics card
a b V Motherboard
October 7, 2013 8:51:38 PM

80C is workable for a video card at full load, unless the heatsink or fan is bad or the card has issues, it should run fine at that temp. You may want to try a different brand or at least a different model vid card.
!