How do I know if this card is dead or not?

lektrix

Golden Member
Aug 9, 2003
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I bought a used 4870 HR-03 GT the other day and it seems flaky....

I haven't been able to run BFBC2 for more than 40 minutes on 2 different occassions (crashed) and I also haven't been able to run more than 7 loops of Far Cry 2 Benchmark (tried 6 times).

It was previously modded to a 4890 bios with 4890 speeds (apparently rock stable) but it was never overvolted. The temperatures are great at 40 idle/60 load. I have the latest DX drivers, W7 x64 updates...

What could be wrong?
 

lektrix

Golden Member
Aug 9, 2003
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I’m not sure what it could be then because my 8800GTS ran everything fine. Nothing on my PC is overclocked. My E8500 processor is on stock 333x9.5 and my 4x1GB DDR2 RAM is underclocked to 333mhz and Memtested successfully for 8 hours overnight. I’ve played Battlefield Bad Company 2 and it has crashed at the 35-40 minute mark twice (the only times I’ve played). I’ve tried running Far Cry 2 Benchmark Loop 50 times but it always fails around the 5-7th loop (which is near the 25-35 minute mark). The other benchmarks (3DMark Vantage, Stalker COP) work fine but they only loop 1-3 max so I can’t really gauge whether they truly work or not. What else can I try? The only thing I can think of is running ATITOOL artifact testing for 45 minutes to 1 hour to see if it fails….
 

OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
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Anytime you flash a BIOS, there is never a guarantee.

When the person told you "rock stable," it could have meant anything, really.
 

lektrix

Golden Member
Aug 9, 2003
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I underclocked the card to 700/800 (stock 750/900) and I crashed in BF BC2 again around the 40-45min mark. This time my screen went black, I lost signal to video card, sound looped, and I had to do a hard reset for PC & LCD. How do I know if it's the VRMs? There are already heatsinks on it.......
 

lektrix

Golden Member
Aug 9, 2003
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You said it's running an after-market cooler? How are VRM temps? Are their heatsinks on the VRMs? They get really hot - small heatsinks often won't cut it.

After running 15 minutes of Furmark stability test on 700/800 (stock 750/900), these are my temps:

GPU Temp: 60 C
GPU Load: 99%
GPU Temp (DISPIO): 60.5 C
GPU Temp (MEMIO): 74.5 C
GPU Temp (SHADERCORE): 68.5 C
VDDC Current: 50.8A
VDDC Phase #1 Temp: 151.0 C
VDDC Phase #2 Temp: 155.0 C
VDDC Phase #3 Temp: 150.0 C


WTF?
 

ViRGE

Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
Oct 9, 1999
31,516
167
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After running 15 minutes of Furmark stability test on 700/800 (stock 750/900), these are my temps:

GPU Temp: 60 C
GPU Load: 99%
GPU Temp (DISPIO): 60.5 C
GPU Temp (MEMIO): 74.5 C
GPU Temp (SHADERCORE): 68.5 C
VDDC Current: 50.8A
VDDC Phase #1 Temp: 151.0 C
VDDC Phase #2 Temp: 155.0 C
VDDC Phase #3 Temp: 150.0 C


WTF?
That's very, very, very bad. Your card is burning up.