Vapor-X 5870 How to keep it alive.

[justin4pack]

Hi guys, so i recently upgraded my comp and my 5870 is giving me a weird issue. I can play BF3 on ultra at around 50-60fps but i get an issue where my screen will go plaid. sometimes it will come out of it but then i see artifacting. other times it will stay and i will have to reboot. this happens initially after about 30m of gaming and then once i reboot its ok for a couple hours. Temps on load bf3 are around 65-70. I would love to hang on to this card awhile longer and upgrade later on after the new nvidia comes out, but if the card keeps doing this im going to need to buy a temp replacement, dont really want to have to do that so any advice?

 

[nurturedhate]

Usually if you are seeing artifacting or corruption after some time, 30 minutes as you say, it would lead me to believe it is a temp issue. Is your 70c load temp during this corruption? Have you cleaned the card out recently? An older card could have dust build up around the memory. Do you currently have the card overclocked? If so have you tried putting it back at stock?

 

[Belegost]

Generally the plaid is an issue with memory overheating, check for dust, also if that card has a heating that contacts the ram chips it may be time to refresh the tim.

One way to check whether the memory is at issue, keep the gpu core at the same clock, around but drop the ram 15-20% and see if that helps the problem.

 

[justin4pack]

Great, Yes it is OC throu the CCC. so i will back off the Mem clock a bit and see if it helps. it has been recently cleaned, when i put the new system together. Also what do you mean refresh the tim?

 

[RavenSEAL]

If it's overclocked, then you most likely need to lay back on the clocks or pump up the voltage.

 

[Belegost]

Thermal interface material. The gunk between the heating and the chip. Depending on the type used it can dry out, and or for the pads that are common for ram cooling if he heatsink is jarred it can break the bond leaving an air gap. Though first you have to know whether the ram on that particular card is cooled by the heatsink at all.

 

[SlowSpyder]

If it's overclocked, then you most likely need to lay back on the clocks or pump up the voltage.

I had (and really, really liked) a couple Sapphire Vapor-X 5870's. They do not use the reference PCB, the voltage is locked, not adjustable. But, the good news is that Sapphire gives it a small voltage bump from the factory, something like 1.2v. So, I was able to get my single card up to abotu 940MHz stable. Nothing amazing, but good performance and nearly silent.

OP, downclock your memory 25-50MHz to see if the problem goes away. If the vram is going on you that may help out. As others have said, check for dirt/dust to make sure the cooling is working correctly on the memory.

 

[Stuka87]

If its overclocked, definitely put it back to stock and see if it continues. If not, then you know its an issue caused by overclocking. If it does continue, then you may be looking at a failing card.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

If its overclocked, definitely put it back to stock and see if it continues. If not, then you know its an issue caused by overclocking. If it does continue, then you may be looking at a failing card.

As you can read above. It is factory oced a bit