MSI 6970 Lightning Black-SOD

[eizen]

Hi

I upgraded my hot and noisy ATI 4850 to a MSI 6970 Lightning a couple of days ago.
All was working fine and then I started to get black screens while in a game or running Futuremark 11.
When this happens the computer freezes and requires a re-boot.

My current build is:
i7 920 2.66Ghz - 3.5Ghz OC
Gigabyte EX58-ud4p
2GB OCZ 1600 RAM (x3)
Hitachi 2TB 7200rpm HDD
wD Black 650GB 7200rpm HDD
DVD-Drive
Seasonic 600W PSU SLI ready
case - HAF 932

Troubleshooting:
Underclocking the ram via Afterburner makes the card run a bit more stable.
Temperature under load seem fine - max 70c
I set the CPU back to 2.66Ghz and nothing was OC'ed. Disconnected the extra fans, dvd drive and extra HDD. So I could use the "less power" but it still gave me black screens.
Drivers used: 11.2 to 11.6b

I was about to RMA the card when I read on the box that it requires a 650W PSU minimum (dope!). But looking at the cards review ( http://hardocp.com/article/2011/05/09/msi_r6970_lightning_video_card_review/9 ) it was tested in a setup simmilar to mine. So that makes me think that my PSU is fine since their load power usage was just 492W.

Should I order a new PSU or send the card back? Don't really want to purchase a PSU if the card is defective @_@

Thanks

Side note ~ if I do need a new psu is it worth getting a Gold Plus vesion? (time to read a bunch of PSU reviews)

 

[sirmonkey1985]

if you have a friend that possibly has an extra psu you could borrow one and test it..

as far as gold psu's go it really depends on where you live. if you live in california it will eventually pay for its self in 2-3 years, if you live in say an area like i do where electricity is dirt cheap and pennies for KWh, then it will take much longer to see the advantage. other then the power usage difference gold 80 plus psu's run much cooler and much quieter.

 

[Teenyman45]

While this topic is probably more appropriate to the power supply part of the forum, you need to look at more than just the peak / sustained load rating for your PSU. You also need to look at the maximum amperage for your power supply. Even if its just a single rail design you might not have enough amps. If it is a multiple rail unit, then you should also try splitting the load between two rails. When I ran a 5970 / 5870 trifie on my backup psu, I ran the 5970 on two separate rails.

Obviously, the older the power supply and the more heavily used the power supply the worse it will perform.

For your power requirements, 80+ gold is probably not going to be very cost effective over a silver or bronze unless you live somewhere with very high electricity rates. If your system uses 500w/h then with an 80+ gold you are drawing, at a minimum, in the neighborhood of 560w/h from the wall. With 80+ flat you are at about 625w/h and silver and bronze will be in between. At that point you are looking at 1kw of extra juice used every 16+ hours at maximum draw. Again, this at maximum load whereas idle will lead to far fewer watts saved. So how many months will it take you to reach the $20-$40 price premium for a gold PSU versus a less efficient one?

 

[apehangers]

I had a 5670 and a 650w (couple years old) psu. Installed a 6950, my system wouldn't even boot to BIOS, fans would spin up but that was it.

New psu worked wonders.

I'm pretty sure you need a new power supply.