Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition (Black Screen)

[Busdriver101]

Full name : SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
Link to Store : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102983

I recently bought this card as an upgrade to my GTX 275 Geforce
I have Uninstalled NVIDIA in all ways I could think of, and installed the new Radeon software

I got everything working runs great, but randomly my screen goes black sound cuts out and seems like the computer enters a "sleep" mode, without actually sleeping (fans still running)
NOTE : I have all sleep/power settings off and set to run forever.

Also this happens while playing games or just idle it seems nothing effects it.

I'm including links to a DXDIAG and a GPU-Z record I was running while a blackout happend.

DXDIAG : https://www.dropbox.com/s/brqtnlhojdhxkcw/DxDiag.txt

GPU-Z : https://www.dropbox.com/s/tvtpwpkso5br5bl/GPU-Z Sensor Log.txt (View in Notepad for non-text wrapping)


As I write this I see a setting in my Catalyst control center under Overdrive category that Graphics OverDrive was check on, I have unchecked it and will see if that was the cause of this somehow.

 

[lehtv]

I have Uninstalled NVIDIA in all ways I could think of

Did you use Driver Sweeper and CCleaner registry fixer?

 

[Busdriver101]

Just ran them now, I'll post back if issue persists.

 

[Busdriver101]

Still happening

 

[kuroimahou]

My card does the same, ordered a 660-Ti and as soon as it arrives I RAM the 7870.

This is a hardware problem, long story short, Sapphire didn't care for AMD's BOM, used cheap parts instead. Read more here, that's probably as official it will ever get.

You can find two more lengthy threads about the problem, one at guru3d, another on sapphire's own forum.

The problem is very random, you might believe you fixed it and it works for a few days and then it will be back. Which makes RMA problematic, so I plan to give them the links maybe that will get my card replaced.

I wasted way too much time on this.

 

[3DVagabond]

Just a guess, but after reading the link, assuming there are cards out there with marginal capacitors, I would steer clear of this model for a while. Even if it's only a 1% out of box fail rate (Which it's likely higher. Companies typically understate numbers in situations like this.), capacitors are components who's properties degrade with use. There is a possibility that these cards could suffer from early failures. Even if they work fine new.

Again, just surmising, possibly Newegg has put these cards at very low prices to burn through the questionable cards. Especially considering the numbers of black screen complaints you see in the Sapphire 7870 user feedback. Probably cheaper to deal with the 1%(?) returns than to take the recall route. (Or maybe they direct import them themselves and Sapphire USA isn't even in the support loop for Newegg? Newegg is huge and has their own Newegg China division.)

Disclaimer: I have no proof of this. It's just me thinking out loud as to what I would or wouldn't do and my reasoning. So, take it with a grain of salt if you prefer.

@kurimahou, You should have gotten a 7950 if you were going to spend ~$300 on a card instead of the 660ti. That 192bit memory bus is going to kill the performance of that card more and more over time. This capacitor issue is not a problem that effects all AMD cards.

 

[kuroimahou]

I bought it for roughly 250$ on a sale, otherwise I would have bought a 7950 as you recommended, most likely the DC2.

 

[dragantoe]

is this why the sapphire hd 7870 dropped to $200?