XFX HD4870 died, need help!

[aban714]

System Specifications:

I. Processor/CPU: Core i7 920 2.67GHz (oooohhh.... its old... i know)


II. Current Graphics Card: XFX HD4870 1GB GDDR5 stock


III. Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080


IV. Power Supply Unit Specification : Rosewill 650W


V. Case Specifications : Cooler Master CM690 Black


Purchase Details:

I. Budget : Around 200$, less is better...


II. Any particular preferences : No preferences, eVGA, XFX, Asus all seems nice


III. Do you plan to have any Multi-GPU solutions such as Crossfire or SLI? : Nope


IV. Have you previously looked at a product(s) which you feel would fit your needs? : Yeah..


V. What are your needs for this GPU? : Would like to be a little better than current GPU, don't need too much.


VI. Do you plan on overclocking the card you intend to purchase? : nope


Additional Notes

Hi all! I've been coming to this forum for more than 2 years, but never registered until today. So happy to be a part of AT community!

The thing is, my GPU died. Served me a good 3 years. I'm very happy with my experience with XFX HD4870. But what happens now is when the GPU gets on load, my computer automatically restarts. Initially, I thought it was the RAM or something else. But this only happens when i run a GPU intense game for sometime, say about 10 mins. no more. I was playing PES 2013 for 4 hours straight with my friends, all was good. But later when I started playing prototype 2 (30-40ish fps), it restarted without giving any warning of any sort. So, basically, I'm looking to replace the card with something of similar performance. I dont need any more because I will be buying a gaming laptop later this year.

Thanks all for reading!
Regards
aban714

 

[3DVagabond]

HD 7750 for ~$100 would give you the same performance. HD 7850 for ~$180 is the best performance in your stated budget. It's more than 2x as fast as your 4870.

 

[zaydq]

System Specifications:

I. Processor/CPU: Core i7 920 2.67GHz (oooohhh.... its old... i know)


II. Current Graphics Card: XFX HD4870 1GB GDDR5 stock


III. Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080


IV. Power Supply Unit Specification : Rosewill 650W


V. Case Specifications : Cooler Master CM690 Black

Purchase Details:

I. Budget : Around 200$, less is better...


II. Any particular preferences : No preferences, eVGA, XFX, Asus all seems nice


III. Do you plan to have any Multi-GPU solutions such as Crossfire or SLI? : Nope


IV. Have you previously looked at a product(s) which you feel would fit your needs? : Yeah..


V. What are your needs for this GPU? : Would like to be a little better than current GPU, don't need too much.


VI. Do you plan on overclocking the card you intend to purchase? : nope


Additional Notes

Hi all! I've been coming to this forum for more than 2 years, but never registered until today. So happy to be a part of AT community!

The thing is, my GPU died. Served me a good 3 years. I'm very happy with my experience with XFX HD4870. But what happens now is when the GPU gets on load, my computer automatically restarts. Initially, I thought it was the RAM or something else. But this only happens when i run a GPU intense game for sometime, say about 10 mins. no more. I was playing PES 2013 for 4 hours straight with my friends, all was good. But later when I started playing prototype 2 (30-40ish fps), it restarted without giving any warning of any sort. So, basically, I'm looking to replace the card with something of similar performance. I dont need any more because I will be buying a gaming laptop later this year.

Thanks all for reading!
Regards
aban714

Sounds like your temperatures are too high. Pull out the card, clean it really well of all the dust, re-install the card and run the games. Please download GPU-Z from here and install it. Tell us your maximum temperatures when you begin a GPU intensive game. Get the temps before you clean out the card and after. Let us know if this doesn't work and we'll work down the list of other things.

 

[3DVagabond]

Sounds like your temperatures are too high. Pull out the card, clean it really well of all the dust, re-install the card and run the games. Please download GPU-Z from here and install it. Tell us your maximum temperatures when you begin a GPU intensive game. Get the temps before you clean out the card and after. Let us know if this doesn't work and we'll work down the list of other things.

Yes, I was thinking the same thing but neglected to post it. Also, does your XFX 4870 have a lifetime warranty? If it is defective you might be able to simply RMA it.

 

[aban714]

Here are some readings done with HWmonitor. (plz note that I do this from time to time and log them in a document)

Date: 13th August 2010, (just after unboxing), running game NFS undercover, didnt record fps, was running smoothly no lags at all, settings maxed out, GPU temps out of the box : 63c, after 2 hr gaming session GPU temp max : 70c

Date: 7th march 2011, running game starcraft 2, settings maxed out, fps : 27-33 average, GPU temps before opening game : 67c idle, after 30 min session GPU temp max : 71c

Date: 5th june 2012, running game skyrim, settings ultra preset, fps : 29-36 average, GPU temps before before running game : 68c idle, after 1 hr gaming session GPU temp max : 71c

A little while before I started up HWmonitor, GPU temp idle 68c. Started skyrim. Loading.... BBBAAAMM!! Restarts.... So I started cleaning. Removed copperplate from GPU, cleaned thoroughly, started up, HWmonitor reading GPU idle : 64c. Started skyrim. Loaded successfully. Played for about 3 mins..... Restarts

Here are some additional details about my PC :

Mobo : Gigabyte X58 UD4P
RAM : 3GB corsair dominator DDR3 1600MHz
HDD : 1TB samsung 7200rpm
cpu cooler : Xigmatek dark knight ( i think )

I'm starting to think it might be the RAM or HDD. Or just windows might be messed up. I think I'm going to format the whole drive and reinstall windows. what do you guys think?

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Any HD7850 would be an amazing upgrade for you.

You could also keep an eye out for deals on 7870/gtx660's. They may dip down to $200. They will all be a huge step up from your 4870.

 

[zaydq]

Okay, how much memory in your system? I would pull out one of the memory sticks, and test. If fail still occurs, reseat the one you removed and remove the other stick. Keep going if you have more than 2 and see if any combination will allow the system to play the game. I doubt hard drive failure is your issue here. It could also very well be your PSU but we'll get to that.

 

[aban714]

zaydq.............man......YOU WERE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!!
So i did what you said. I have 3X1GB cosair dominater RAMs. I removed one of them, booted up, started playing........ after more than an hour.... didnt restart or anything. Everythings perfect. Back to normal. Thank you for that.

So I think I'm going to buy me some RAM. My brother is coming from UK next week, think I'm going to ask him to buy me one. Can you guys suggest me some good ones. I think this time I'm going to go for more than 3GB.

P.S : Just noticed a mistake I made in my previous post. GPU max temps are 70c, not 79c. idle around 64c, max never went above 71c. edited and corrected.

 

[Termie]

zaydq.............man......YOU WERE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!!
So i did what you said. I have 3X1GB cosair dominater RAMs. I removed one of them, booted up, started playing........ after more than an hour.... didnt restart or anything. Everythings perfect. Back to normal. Thank you for that.

So I think I'm going to buy me some RAM. My brother is coming from UK next week, think I'm going to ask him to buy me one. Can you guys suggest me some good ones. I think this time I'm going to go for more than 3GB.

P.S : Just noticed a mistake I made in my previous post. GPU max temps are 70c, not 79c. idle around 64c, max never went above 71c. edited and corrected.

That was some fine troubleshooting advice from zaydq.

Your Corsair RAM likely has a lifetime warranty. They are very good about covering their products. Otherwise, I'd go for a 3x2GB set, or just 3 separate sticks of 2GB. No reason to buy a 3x1GB set at this point in time. Any Corsair or G.Skill DDR3-1333 will do.

 

[zaydq]

zaydq.............man......YOU WERE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!!
So i did what you said. I have 3X1GB cosair dominater RAMs. I removed one of them, booted up, started playing........ after more than an hour.... didnt restart or anything. Everythings perfect. Back to normal. Thank you for that.

So I think I'm going to buy me some RAM. My brother is coming from UK next week, think I'm going to ask him to buy me one. Can you guys suggest me some good ones. I think this time I'm going to go for more than 3GB.

P.S : Just noticed a mistake I made in my previous post. GPU max temps are 70c, not 79c. idle around 64c, max never went above 71c. edited and corrected.

Great! Glad we figured out your issue I would do what Termie said and try to see if you can return the bad ram chip. Though, RAM is so cheap nowadays it couldn't hurt to just replace all the chips to new ones.

That was some fine troubleshooting advice from zaydq.

Thank you, I definitely didn't want him to jump the gun on the GPU and then have to still deal with the issue after the fact.

 

[reallyscrued]

There is win in this thread.

HD 7750 for ~$100 would give you the same performance.

Can anyone attest to this being true? Doesn't the 7750 have half the memory bandwidth?

 

[zaydq]

There is win in this thread.





Can anyone attest to this being true? Doesn't the 7750 have half the memory bandwidth?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/513?vs=535

They're pretty close to each other according to these benches.

 

[3DVagabond]

There is win in this thread.





Can anyone attest to this being true? Doesn't the 7750 have half the memory bandwidth?

I didn't do an in depth analysis. Just went from memory and a bit of extrapolation. The 5770, and therefore 6770, were about the same performance as the 4870. Figured that the 7750 should be about the same performance. Checked a couple of synthetic benches and they were about equal. Didn't do a 20 game comparison, or anything.

 

[aban714]

Thanks guys for the support. I'm still monitoring everything just to be 100% sure that the faulty RAM was the problem. Well, after I took one off (must be the faulty one), the issue seems to have gone. Played prototype 2 for 2 hrs, problem didnt occur. So i guess thats it. Can you guys confirm that one of these will be compatible with my mobo, Gigabyte X58 UD4P. These are the ones I'm currently looking at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMZ...10?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1349278489&sr=1-10
http://www.amazon.co.uk/G-Skill-Rip...0666/dp/B0047UUZ1I/ref=pd_sim_sbs_computers_7

Regards
aban714

 

[Termie]

Thanks guys for the support. I'm still monitoring everything just to be 100% sure that the faulty RAM was the problem. Well, after I took one off (must be the faulty one), the issue seems to have gone. Played prototype 2 for 2 hrs, problem didnt occur. So i guess thats it. Can you guys confirm that one of these will be compatible with my mobo, Gigabyte X58 UD4P. These are the ones I'm currently looking at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMZ...10?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1349278489&sr=1-10
http://www.amazon.co.uk/G-Skill-Rip...0666/dp/B0047UUZ1I/ref=pd_sim_sbs_computers_7

Regards
aban714

Yes, both of those will work, but notice that they're completely different sets and a bit overpriced, actually.

The Corsair is a 3x2GB, DDR3-1600, cas8 set, while the G.Skill is a 3x4GB, DDR3-1333, cas9 set. The Corsair is basically twice as much money per GB, but is a higher-speed product.

I found a G.Skill set that seems to be a much better value than both:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/G-Skill-Rip...1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1349280640&sr=1-1

This is a 3x4GB, DDR3-1600, cas9 set. Keep in mind that unless you're overclocking, you can't hit 1600 on the i7-920 platform, but you might as well buy a better product for less money.

As an aside, for some reason the Amazon UK website advertises the G.Skill sets for Sandy Bridge, when they are the wrong configuration for an SB motherboard. No matter - they'll work for yours.

 

[peonyu]

If you can play a game for ~10 minutes then the card is fine but the cooling is not. usually if the card is "dying", it will play a game for a few minutes - crash out, then the next time you try a game it will last a less amount of time than before, after a few repeats of that even windows will not boot. Like others have said it probably has dust bunnies in it, 3 years is a hell of a long time to build up dust.

What i would do is clean it up, verify its good [or not], then sell it on ebay and buy a 7750 or 7850.