card killer

S

Sumax

n00b
Joined
Apr 19, 2004
Messages
37
OK, first my specs:
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 rev. 1.0
AMD FX-4300 Quad Core
CORSAIR XMS3 16GB ( 2 x 8GB )
was SLI w/ 2x 9800 gtx's
generic power supply 500 or 550 watt don't remember
Until the one in slot 1 started artifacting while reading forums.(still artifactng in another comp(fried)). A month later my second card died, Screen went blank during War Thunder on medium graphics. Now monitor says no signal and shuts off. but computer beeps later after windows starts up. I am going to have to roll back to my 7800gt till I get cash to replace video card. I suspect my power supply, which was a cheap one bought a long time ago. I have been worried about having enough power, but it was stable for over 6 months running dual 9800gtx's 1BFG and 1 EVGA. Any other ideas? I don't want to keep putting cards in and killing them.
 
so you were running 9800GTX setup with a generic 500W-550W PSU? thats pretty rekless.. that PSU should be a really champ to handle all that power.. but yes you have damaged your PSU with that overkill load.. how much old can i ask?. replace it with a good quality PSU, that its the more important component building a PC and should be always great quality to preserve the life of your system..
 
power supply or motherboard but my money is on the psu.
 
That's what I was thinking, I had been worried about power but when it worked for a while I let it go... SIGH... Now I have to replace both, was already planning to upgrade card to a R9 290 just not this soon.. Would a 650 be enough or should I go 750-850?? Most likely go with a EVGA or Corsair.
 
generic power supply 500 or 550 watt don't remember
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Which means it was a 400 watt supply at best....lol...somtimes we learn the hard way
 
Armenius said:
Exactly. Power supply is the one component I would never try to skimp on in an attempt to save money.
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AMEN to that! I have been preaching it for years. It is your main work horse, you never go cheap.

My Corsair TX 750 is going 4 years strong now. Had a Corsair 550 before and its still going in my nephews computer.
 
Sumax said:
That's what I was thinking, I had been worried about power but when it worked for a while I let it go... SIGH... Now I have to replace both, was already planning to upgrade card to a R9 290 just not this soon.. Would a 650 be enough or should I go 750-850?? Most likely go with a EVGA or Corsair.
Click to expand...

As a hole power supplys are more efficient when when there not running near max load and keep in mind even name brand supply's sometimes fail to meet there specs....i would go the 750-850 just to have the headroom. Think of it this way sometimes people will give away there cards for various reasons and you could go crossfire/sli when or if that time comes....and a 650 would really be stressed to handle that so you make the call
 
Sumax said:
That's what I was thinking, I had been worried about power but when it worked for a while I let it go... SIGH... Now I have to replace both, was already planning to upgrade card to a R9 290 just not this soon.. Would a 650 be enough or should I go 750-850?? Most likely go with a EVGA or Corsair.
Click to expand...

i'd replace the power supply first, then try the video cards again, just to make sure....never know, they may work again. if they do, then you don't need to spend the money on video card(s). if not, then there's not much harm in trying.

as for the video card replacement (if one is needed), i'm not sure if you're brand-loyal to AMD or not, but personally, if it was between an R9 290 (non-x) and a GTX 970, i'd go GTX 970 all the way. a quick look on newegg shows that the cheapest 970 is about $30 more than the cheapest 290, but the 970 will DESTROY the 290 in pretty much everything....and use far less power while doing so.
 
No matter what my budget is, I always try to spend good money on my PSU. I've had a whole system become useless because of one bad PSU. My recommendation is save some money and buy a nice semi-modular one.
 
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