Is my GPU about to die?

Teracide

Solid State Member
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8
Location
USA
I recently (less than 2 months ago) bought a GTX 660 from newegg. As of late, when I've been playing one of my games, it will black-screen, flash my computer for a split-second as if I had no GPU installed (like 480x320 resolution), then flash back again and my card will be working again. I know that was a rather vague description of the problem, but it's all I have to go by.

It started doing this about a week ago. Is this a driver issue perhaps? I had a beta driver installed on the card until a few nights ago when I tried to install the latest non-beta driver. When I was installing the driver, my computer went black-screen and just stayed that way, while occasionally letting out a few loud beeps. After nearly having a heart attack, my screen came back and it finished installing the driver.

I REALLY hope it isn't the card that I just bought. As far as I know, Newegg doesn't offer any kind of a warranty. Would I have to contact MSi? Would anyone happen to know if they have some form of a warranty?
 
I downloaded CPUID to see if maybe my card was overheating, but all 3 cores are only at 52C-56C.

Earlier when my GPU black-screened, it recovered, but I went from my normal 75-90 FPS, down to like 18FPS. That's what really worried me. I thought my card was done for. That's when I installed the non-beta driver and got the really long black screen and the loud beeps.

I hope the info I gave helps with diagnosing the problem. I'm really worried. Nearly on the verge of freaking out.
 
Mmm I had similar problem, it can be that the GPU is being stupid and set the fan at 45% constantly when it should be utilizing the rest of the 55% when it get hotter, but nope, it thinks it better to stay at 45% and burn the card.

You can try MSI Afterburner and see what the GPU fan is at and raise it to 85% when you're going to play a game. When you're finish playing the game, make sure to remember to reset the Gpu, so it doesn't wear out.
 
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So I found out what my problem was, I think. After downloading MSI Afterburner, it appeared as though the card was using more power than it should have been. This was causing the card to lose power and shut down when it couldn't get all of the wattage it needed from my PSU. I limited the amount of power it was allowed to use, and haven't run into the problem since.

I'm still curious about the the long, drawn-out black screen and loud beeps my computer gave off when I tried installing the new driver, though. I'll have to see if it does that again when I attempt to install another driver, later on.
 
Awesome that you figured out the problem, but suck that you couldn't solve it completely. We had similar version of graphic card which led me to believe that it might have been the fan problem, but appears to be a PSU issue instead. On the bright side, PSU is generally cheaper than a graphic card, but make sure to buy PSU that have a small excess of watt to use.

Have a good one. :)
 
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What brand? Yha 450/60 should be enough but as psu get old they start to lose power.

Adding further/explaining to Paton's post:
Depending on the brand, the power output can decay a lot quicker than a more durable and well known brand.

Add a low quality brand + year(s) of wear means your power output can be much lower than 450, which could explain your issue regarding the GPU. Not only that, but continuous psu failures or lack of power can damage your mother board and/or other components on your computer...which is no bueno
:(
 
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