Help me diagnose my possibly faulty 980 Ti ?

[kirov117]

Hi guys,

I'm having a few issues with my recently bought GPU upgrade and was wondering if you could make it clear to me whether or not this product is in fact faulty or if I'm just doing something wrong.

So - I bought a Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti Xtreme and in games with at least respectable/demanding graphics, it produces this after an arbitrary amount of time: graphic artifacts start appearing, along with strange lines and multi-colored dots and very soon after the game freezes.

After the freeze, Windows either closes the game with the notification
"NVIDIA Display Driver has stopped responding", either it BSODs and stutters forcing a full restart.

I can reproduce this issue by running a GPU stress testing app like MSI Kombustor or FurMark

Some import details about this:

• Not single game related, this happens on anything more demanding - Witcher 2/3, Metro Redux, Crysis 3
• Not occurring only on Windows. I get this on Linux too, on War Thunder and on Minecraft with topped shaders
• I tried a few things with MSI Afterburner hoping to solve this - lowered/raised Power Limit, reduced Memory clock, reduced Core clock, manually setting fan to 100% - no help at all
• Tried re-seating the card or on another PCI-E slot + tried another monitor connection type - DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI - nothing helps
• Tried reinstalling Nvidia driver, including "Clean Install", with a driver sweeper or using previous versions. Tried 10 different versions on Win and 3 on Linux with no help.
• I haven't applied any overclock and temperatures always fell in safe zones (max 71C in-game)
• Initially, this card did not have this issue I think - most likely this started happening gradually
• Had another Nvidia card on the same configuration and OSes before - never did anything like this

A few screenshots:
1. Windows - MSI Kombustor - http://i.imgur.com/4AkIXOf.jpg - this is how it looks on freeze. Shortly after, Windows restarts the Nvidia driver
2. Linux - FurMark - http://i.imgur.com/NOzDwHi.jpg - observe the strange boxes. Shortly after program freezes.
3. Linux - http://i.imgur.com/VIfdsQM.jpg - after the issue occurs in a game and it freezes, I can sometimes manage to exit the game, but afterwards all windows are graphically corrupt

So, what do you think? Is this an RMA worthy card?

Thanks a lot !

 

[Bubbaleone]

Welcome to the forums, kirov117. IMHO, I'd RMA that card just on the fact that similar types/patterns of artifacts are occurring on both Windows and Linux regardless of which driver was used.

.

 

[Ketchup]

Are you still within the warranty period?
What power supply do you have?
What does the BSOD say? If you haven't tried to look at these before, WhoCrashed is an excellent program.
http://www.resplendence.com/downloads

 

[kirov117]

Are you still within the warranty period?
What power supply do you have?
What does the BSOD say? If you haven't tried to look at these before, WhoCrashed is an excellent program.
http://www.resplendence.com/downloads

Yes, the card is very new, only have it for one month.
The BSOD doesn't really show up, just the sound stuttering characteristic of it.
The PSU is a Xigmatek NRP-MC651 650W. It's a bit old, I know, but it's of high quality build and with high efficiency. Just after installing the GPU, I ran a parallel stress test with prime95 and furmark and the PSU help up nicely for 30 minutes, after which I closed the test.

Welcome to the forums, kirov117. IMHO, I'd RMA that card just on the fact that similar types/patterns of artifacts are occurring on both Windows and Linux regardless of which driver was used.

Thanks for the greet. Also, very nice to see another Lian Li case owner

 

[Ketchup]

Well, the power supply could be up to 8 years old, but it was a good unit when new, and rated 50 watts over what nvidia recommends for these. So I would probably go with the card first, as Bubbaleone mentioned, simply because of the type of issues you are encountering (and the fact that they will probably swap it at little cost to you).

 

[Burpo]

That appears to be bad VRAM.. RMA the card..