Please come in and sing to my ONE week old DEAD XFX 5870

T

TechloGoblin

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 20, 2009
Messages
256
Can we get the chorus to "Another One Bites The Dust" going on in here?

I have a ONE WEEK OLD build and one of my XFX 5870's bit the dust. I suspect she was a little touched from the factory. I have (2) XFX 5870's in crossfire and sometimes the card in question would just not show up in ATI's CCC or it would show up as an "Unlinked Adapter" (meaning it saw the card, but the Crossfire between the two cards was not being used. The only overclocking I did was to 900/1300 via ATI's CCC. Temps were always ~35c at idle, and never going beyond ~50c at load (watercooled) ((I did ask XFX before purchase and this is not an issue as long as the card did not drown and can be RMA'd in "stock" condition))

I was playing some mild gaming sometimes for upwards of ~5 hours with no problems in sight...the only issue being what I mentioned above with the card sometimes not showing up as a Linked adapter in CCC. Then all of a sudden when I was playing a game the other night, BOOM lockup. PC needed a hard shutoff. Fire her back up and only the main 5870 showing up in CCC. Rebooted several times and finally the other card showed up (the case was never opened so the card didn't unseat, etc.). Started gaming and ~15-25 mins into it boom a less fatal lockup which would "unstick" after 20 seconds..this happened about 3 times before another fatal lockup.

The card in question has not appeared in CCC since then. She is deader than a doornail. I thought at first that perhaps it was a driver issue, but she has had some quirky behavior since initial bootup. I checked other programs (Everest, GPU-Z, etc.) and the 2nd card does not appear anywhere since the fatal lockup. I did some slight googling and it appears others have had similar issues with the XFX 5870's. Since these are all reference cards at the moment and XFX does nothing but slap a sticker on perhaps XFX got a bad batch? Tomorrow I start the RMA process.

Wish me luck on that "double lifetime warranty" which I need after a WEEK.
 
A graphics card is a she? :rolleyes:

I'm sorry, just nitpicking here.

What PSU do you have? Specifically the brand.
 
jeremyshaw said:
A graphics card is a she? :rolleyes:

I'm sorry, just nitpicking here.

What PSU do you have? Specifically the brand.
Click to expand...

Corsair HX1000

Also note: I have been gaming with the single 5870 on and off today for several hours at a time without issue.
Also you mentioning the power supply made me think of this...I posted this thread the other day: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1466370
From what I can read this is considered normal, but it does NOT happen with just my single working 5870 that I have left. Now that my 2nd 5870 is dead, I can almost certainly ascertain that it was the culprit. I do not know if that is a huge factor if capacitor whine is considered normal, just an interesting observation.
 
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So you haven't actually tried reseating the cards or swapping their posititions?
 
I assume you did try each card alone with the other one not installed at all? Rule out the board as an issue.
 
Copyright said:
I assume you did try each card alone with the other one not installed at all? Rule out the board as an issue.
Click to expand...

Since I am watercooling them, it's not exactly an easy "swap".

This morning I put the stock cooler back on, and was able to test it in another setup. The PC would not boot/show a screen at all. When I put the nvidia card back in it booted fine. This isn't my first rodeo and based on all happenings I had to put 2+2 together and assume the card died. I wanted to test it in another system but it took a little time to be able to do so with the stock cooler.

I can say with 99.999999% certainty this sucker is dead.
 
Dang, you sue you don't have leaks...maybe overtightened the waterblock on the gpu? RMA time regardless. :(
 
With such low yields on the 5800's I always wondered if that would give those cards a higher chance of failure. I mean even the best yielding chips can fail, it just happens, but how long are the good chips tested before they get the passing grade?
 
PS3 said:
Dang, you sue you don't have leaks...maybe overtightened the waterblock on the gpu? RMA time regardless. :(
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No. Believe me I am a real nitpicker on this kinda stuff. I'd do it 100 times if it means getting it right. Wasn't tight, no leaks, etc. I monitored temps religiously as it was a new build. Everything was spot on. This 2nd card gave me the "jeebies" from the start with the whine(I didn't know it was this particular card at the time, but now certainly appears so) and sometimes not showing up. When it DID perform it was flawless in actual rendering (no artifacts, no tears, etc.).

At first I was hoping it was just a driver issue, but alas she is dead in the water.
 
playing d.a. here... what resolution and game were you playing to which you needed to oc 5870's in crossfire?

and mild gaming for 5 straight hours... really... i mean come on, there is nothing mild about 5 straight hours of anything...

:D
 
jamhamm said:
playing d.a. here... what resolution and game were you playing to which you needed to oc 5870's in crossfire?

and mild gaming for 5 straight hours... really... i mean come on, there is nothing mild about 5 straight hours of anything...

:D
Click to expand...

I am gaming currently at 1900x1200. Waiting for Eyefinity to work with Crossfire. Since it was a new build I am a firm believer on going big up front, and reduce the amount of "upgrading" to nil. I will not need another PC for 5-6 years. My older rig (an Athlon1.6ghz) was what I was using up til this point.

Since you are playing D.A. you should not assume I am the only one gaming on it! I happen to be a nice sibling and allow my brothers to use it for some decent gaming as well...Shame on you D.A. ;)
 
lloose said:
How much did you overclock?
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It's in the original post. I only used the standard ATI CCC panel and went to 900/1300
or 50/100 mhz clocking over the original. As I mentioned I really do believe it was faulty from the start (not in game performance, but in sounds..not showing up sometimes upon reboot, etc.)
The single card is running flawlessly at 900/1300 without ANY issue.
 
Hope your RMA goes well. I've had experiences with XFX before and all I had was bad stuff happening, but who knows maybe I'm just unlucky. Anyway, good luck.
 
Sounds like you have it pretty much nailed down. I am sure the machine you stuck your card in to test had a good PSU in it. Like you said this isn't your first rodeo. To be honest I think I have read about more dead XFX cards then any other brand so far but then again XFX is the one everyone wants for warranty reasons. Good luck to you.
 
I wonder... if XFX put more money into the cards they created... then they would have less RMA requests...

of course, unless if the savings outweigh the cost!
 
jeremyshaw said:
I wonder... if XFX put more money into the cards they created... then they would have less RMA requests...

of course, unless if the savings outweigh the cost!
Click to expand...

The thing is right now they are all reference cards. ATI is just sending these companies the cards and they put a sticker on which says "XFX", "Sapphire", etc. (unless it's a special model like the Vapor). So it's even more confusing why XFX seems to have a higher death rate. From what I read recently once they are no longer reference models XFX seems to use cheaper parts to save money on the cards. I can not confirm this, but it's what I've read. Supposedly they had a real debacle with some 4xxx ATI cards.

I'll let everyone know how this goes.
 
Sapphire is believed to actually create most of the cards for most vendors. Then stick on the stickers.

XFX (Pine Group) does their own, and they do cut corners (you brought up the 4xxx series)... a few threads on that somewhere.
 
The main reason there are higher reports of failing XFX cards is because they are the preferred brand for ATI cards.The reason they sell the most is because of their warranty and RMA process, which is being put to good use.
 
SicKlown42012 said:
The main reason there are higher reports of failing XFX cards is because they are the preferred brand for ATI cards.The reason they sell the most is because of their warranty and RMA process, which is being put to good use.
Click to expand...

That makes more sense then whatever I posted on it.

XFX sells more = more reports of failing XFX cards.
 
Aren't the cards all sold out? Meaning unless XFX got more to begin with, that wouldn't explain RMA numbers if XFX's are actually a large number vs. other brands.
 
SicKlown42012 said:
The main reason there are higher reports of failing XFX cards is because they are the preferred brand for ATI cards.The reason they sell the most is because of their warranty and RMA process, which is being put to good use.
Click to expand...

That's what I had written when I said there seems to be more dead XFX then anything else.
 
Spoke to XFX today. Waiting on the RMA # they promised would be issued within the next 1-2 days. They seemed pretty cool on the phone and gave me no trouble at this stage. The next real test will be when they receive it and give it a once over. I'm not expecting any issues.
 
TechloGoblin said:
Spoke to XFX today. Waiting on the RMA # they promised would be issued within the next 1-2 days. They seemed pretty cool on the phone and gave me no trouble at this stage. The next real test will be when they receive it and give it a once over. I'm not expecting any issues.
Click to expand...
Just make sure to clean it up, put the stock cooler back, and package it well. You should then be good. :)
 
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