Is half my GTX295 broken?

[xann27]

I have a BFG GTX295 dual PCB. Im not sure how to tell, but im thinking im having issues with my GPU, or maybe on side of the deal. playing games like Mass efect 2 and Need for Speed undercover and TRYING to play Crysis Warhead. even @ 8x AA with all settings @ "gamer" it brings my GPU to its knees. 3-6 fps. im running futuremark vantage and the first test all i see is like a waterfalland 1-2 seconds of action. like the whole thing was filmed from inside a waterfall. washes out the whole screen. tons of artifacting in every game.

i have the newest driver, even set the clocks on the card to stock (100% fan) and still looks like hell.

i took the card apart a while back and re-TIM'd it and used thermal pads (EK) on all the memory chips because the gap is too big for normal compound to work. so my warrenty is void.

i used the nVidia controll panel and turned of multi-GPU, and it seems to have absolutly no effect on the games, this is why i think something may be wrong with half the card. i called BFG's 24/7 tech support line and they told me to try this for a few days, and then swap back to the way it was to see if i notice a difference. this card is a $500 card, and i would die if i had to replace it....

[[AK]Zip]

Have you tried a fresh install?

[xann27]

Zip;4268291']Have you tried a fresh install?


you mean windows? or drivers? removal of the hardware?

[CryptiK]

Re-install drivers, games, and last resort OS. If nothing makes any difference, it could be a hardware issue.

Did this just start all of a sudden or did it happen after you pulled it apart?

[=[PULSAR]=]

Are you running a cpu OC?

[xann27]

it just started happening... i ran a few tests like ATItool, and had it running for 4 hours and it didnt find any artifacts or errors... hmm.

[Q56_Monster]

Go to device manager and look at your display adapters. If 2 are listed without error icons, there is nothing wrong with half your card. If you are running everything at stock and can't get past a few seconds of vantage, that's obviously a problem. RMA the card if you can, although not sure of BFG's policy on opening the card up....

Do you get any error messages in vantage?....maybe you have another application running in the background that you don't know about that's causing problems. You could try to drop processes out of Task Manager to see if that fixes your issues....takes some time though.

What are your temps? That whole waterfall thing you are seeing in vatage happens when you ar3e oc'd to the max and the driver is about to fail.....are you sure you have good temps?

I had a 295 that would not finish a benchmark @ stock....I had to RMA it.

[OldChap]

Once you have tried all the above and if you are sure the temps are ok then I suggest you try loading Folding @ Home or GpuGrid where you would have two separate instances of work being done ...Folding you can switch on and off the individual sides and with the help of rivatuner graphs etc home in on the problem

[awamphasis]

This is a problem with the drivers or windows.. I had the same problem with my 295GTX when I first installed it. Only 1 Gpu was running and Vantage had the waterfalland.. :) I had to reinstall windows before I could get it to work.

[xann27]

Go to device manager and look at your display adapters. If 2 are listed without error icons, there is nothing wrong with half your card. If you are running everything at stock and can't get past a few seconds of vantage, that's obviously a problem. RMA the card if you can, although not sure of BFG's policy on opening the card up....

Do you get any error messages in vantage?....maybe you have another application running in the background that you don't know about that's causing problems. You could try to drop processes out of Task Manager to see if that fixes your issues....takes some time though.

What are your temps? That whole waterfall thing you are seeing in vatage happens when you ar3e oc'd to the max and the driver is about to fail.....are you sure you have good temps?

I had a 295 that would not finish a benchmark @ stock....I had to RMA it.

i looked into the Device manager, and no issues there, scanned for hardware changes on both adapters. my temps are 55-60C even in vantage. i have the latest EVGA precision utility. and as far as background apps, i'll research some info on the interwebs and see if i can up the performance on this rig by shutting off some of the apps that are running. some of the ones running way way WAY in the back...

[BringerOdeath]

I had one of my GTX 295's fail that had a waterblock and I just put the stock cooler back on sent it to BFG and they sent me a new one. Just never mention when you RMA the card that you did anything unstock. that you never took off the cooler and that you never overclocked. Mine showed only one GTX 295 which meant one PCB died....:P

[Q56_Monster]

Hummm... you say you re did the tim and used thicker pads because the gap was too big... This leads me to think your pads may possibly be too thick causing the actual GPU to loose contact with the cooler. You may need to get thin pads (0.5mm), even the ones that come with water blocks are too thick. I'd break the card down again and see what's going on....see if the thermal paste made good contact with the GPU.

Here's some pads:

http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=580