Signs of a possibly bad psu?

[mopardude87]

I think i may be a victim of a failing power supply.Not sure as only once since 2006 have i had a build where a psu went bad and well when it went bad it it just popped and took a i7 2600/p67/8gb with it. I got no issues during basic usage but today i ran the new Star Wars demo for DXR and had a pleasant system restart every time on launch. Noticed GTA V lost a large amount of frames as well as BF5 without DXR. Talking like a 20+ lost in minimums. BF5 with DXR did not crash the computer.

I do lack a multimeter so i gave thought to maybe running some stress testing to see if i can conclude if its psu or not.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Huh. My experience with GPUs and PSUs, generally, is that if the PSU is not capable of delivering sufficient wattage, that the system will simply BSOD or more likely reboot / shut down, rather than slow down.

So, if your GPU is slowing down, I would attribute that to something else.

One thing that can make a GPU slow down, is thermal throttling. Is the GPU staying cool? Has it been dusted? Re-pasted? (I've often heard stories of people re-pasting their GPUs, and doing a botched job, or not using a thermal shim over the GPU proper, and then they run hotter than before.)

Certain CPU/mobo combos, may have VRM heating / loading issues (FX series CPUs come to mind), that may cause external throttling of the CPU speed, due to VRM overheating, which could be contributed by the GPU heating inside the case, if you don't have good case airflow.

What does HWMonitor say? And can you run OCCT? Try running the CPU (OCCT) and GPU tests separately, and see if one crashes the system, but the other does not.

 

[mopardude87]

Got my build in a Fracter Design Mini with 2 140mm fans pushing 106 cfm each and a rear pulling 81mm cfm so temps for everything are very much in check. Got a Accelero extreme 3 on the 1070 ti and temps rarely hit over 51cel with the 2 modded 120mm fans i put on the cooler. I did some stress testing and honestly can't reproduce any issues at all. Heck in frustration i thought there was a W10 and driver issue and went about doing a fresh install of W7 and performance is practically the same at least in GTA V. System does feel incredibly more responsive then it did with W10 at least i have found out.

Absolutely no overclocking has been done to the system, not that i want to so that's why i run a i7 8700 non k . Unless my BF5 experience was due to 325.31 and GTA V is maybe due to a update? There was a period of time i quit playing GTA V but my entire system had technically nothing changed updated or rolled back besides a few W10 updates a few which appear to not be removable. It's why i figured i would test W7 which honestly never gave me a single issue of this caliber.

I did lower the resolution and saw a fps improvement in GTA V so that is more prone to showing me perhaps its not a hardware issue but software perhaps?

 

[BoomerD]

So...what psu do you have? It sounds like more of a software issue than a bad psu...or even a failing video card.
There have been quite a few issues with Windows update of late...maybe you're having one of those issues?
https://www.windowslatest.com/2019/04/12/microsoft-april-2019-updates-reportedly-causing-issues/

 

[mopardude87]

So...what psu do you have? It sounds like more of a software issue than a bad psu...or even a failing video card.
There have been quite a few issues with Windows update of late...maybe you're having one of those issues?
https://www.windowslatest.com/2019/04/12/microsoft-april-2019-updates-reportedly-causing-issues/

Corsair cx750 which i know isn't super great but i have had good luck with the cx series for years without a issue yet of course not pushing them but respecting their quality when i build around them . For a i7 8700 non k and a non overclocked1070 ti plenty of power of course. This issue is very strange cause i got BF5 running on W7 and i have the same exact frame drops as i did on W10 when i installed 325.31 . Checking gpu usage its pinged at 99-100% usage with a maxed out core clock of 1886 but instead of a constant 60+ its dropping as low as 31fps and this was in singleplayer. In frustration i went just now back to W10 and opting out of any updates which include 1809 and 325.31 .

If and when EA decides to fix their trash drm client perhaps i could log it in and reinstall BF5 and see if any issue persists with my frame rate. Currently reinstalling GTA V since at least steam has something that works LUCKILY. Gonna run 419.17 drivers since i know for a fact this version was flawless prior to the 1809 and 325.31 update.

 

[BoomerD]

Yeah...that's definitely not one of Coraair's better PSU offerings...
https://m.hardocp.com/article/2015/01/21/corsair_cx750_750w_power_supply_review/

and with the bad power regulation, I suppose it COULD be a bad PSU causing the problems...but I think I's still suspect software rather than hardware.

(of course, I've been WAY wrong before...like most of the time.)

 

[mopardude87]

I got a secondary psu in another computer i could test out but yeah i just tested BF5 and having the same exact issue. Will see if GTA V follows but i am sure it will. 2 fresh installs of a os with various drivers and the same issue follows. I got a feeling its hardware. I would also think with low fps i would also be getting much lower gpu usage but the fact its pinged at 99-100% is kind of contradicting that.

I could maybe run like 3dmark or something and see if the numbers follow what i should be getting before the psu swap.

 

[mindless1]

It is rare but I have seen some nVidia GPUs (don't remember which) which went out of gaming clock rates when the PSU was iffy, no bluescreens and the PSU wasn't failing (still worked as long as I used that system with its integrated video afterwards), just marginal for the system.

Something something same difference as their operation if you forgot to plug the power connector in so it depended on staying under 75W PCIe slot limit by downclocking?

 

[mopardude87]

I run rivatuner OSD and unless its showing up incorrectly its been posting upwards of a 1886 boost clock and drops to 1873 after a bit. Will check with gpu-z just in the unlikely case. As much as i stress the system i can't get a lock up crash or reset so idk.

 

[BoomerD]

It's possible (?) that under load, the voltage is drooping enough to affect the gpu's performance...I guess. Might be worth asking over at jonnyguru.com. They're my "go-to" for power supply information, questions and advice.

 

[mopardude87]

In a interesting twist, i swapped out the psu and sure enough the performance went right up. The best part was when i decided to go back to my old psu confident my issues would come back confirming it was a psu issue. Somehow someway my performance is back where it should be. I swear everything certainly appeared seated correctly and plugged in. Unless just maybe the video card was sagging causing maybe some signaling issues? It does have a accelero 3 cooler on it.

Been building computers since 2006 and i never seen anything like this. Kind of lost for words on what it may be.