PC Graphics

[bassking]

I had been running a PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Red Devil Overclocked Triple-Fan 16GB GDDR6 PCIe 4.0 Graphics Card AXRX 6900XT 16GBD6-3DHE/OC. Played games like crazy. I didn’t overclock it, however it comes overclocked. I was using a Corsair year old RM 850X PSU. Although on the GPU box it recommends a 900W PSU.

A couple of nights ago, a loud sound in the middle of the game (BattleField 2042), and the PC rebooted. However, only one monitor displayed, and the windows screen was barely visible.  I ended up doing a fresh install of windows (11) and (10) multiple times, because every time I installed the GPU drivers, bad artifacts would start popping up random all over the screen, also message from AMD that the drivers crashed, like every few minutes. I did the DDU and AMD clean up utility, but nothing. Note, that if I didn’t install any AMD driver, there would not be any artifact issues. Eventually I took another NVIDIA 2070 Super card out of a different PC, and everything worked.

I am no PC or Video card expert, which is why I am here to ask questions. My thoughts are that with just the physical card in, and just using the Windows drivers, it’s just pushing the graphic through. However, once I start installing the AMD drivers, then the Radeon card want’s to drive and use the GPU engine?

I took the card back to the retailer, who suggested that the VRM or Moffit(?) probably blew. They exchanged the GPU with Red Devil AMD Radeon™ RX 6900 XT Ultimate 16GB GDDR6 AXRX 6900XTU 16GBD6-3DHE/OC. I also purchased a new Corsair RM1000X PSU, for a couple of reasons, (1) not sure since the card crashed due to it factory default to OC, and my PSU was only 850W was the issue, (2) or, the PSU was bad in the first place killed the GPU.

I am just curious what can lead to the above situations, and how I can reduce the issue from happening again?

Note I use for the purpose of smooth consistence power, a PC Back-UPS Pro BX1500M 1500VA UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector.

Thank you in advance.

[elstaci · Accepted solution]

Any electronic component can go bad at any time for any reason.

Maybe it was cheap or inexpensive electronic material or you had some sort of short or that part overheated and blew. The Artifacts was due to the part going bad on your GPU card. Basically your GPU card  became defective. 

If you were playing games for a long time without any issues than that does seem to indicate that your PSU was outputting enough power to run your PC with that powerful GPU Card installed. Otherwise you would have had power related  BSODs or computer crashing whenever the GPU card was under full load or other symptoms.

The 900 Watt PSU recommendations could be to ensure your PSU can handle Power spikes from the GPU card that might pull more power than the PSU can handle.

I  also have a UPS on my computer that has been a life saver. My Condo in the past used to have frequent Brown and Black outs that may have lasted a second, a flicker, to several hours.

Whenever the lights flickered my wife's computer would shut down but mine kept on working as though nothing happened even after 20-30 minutes of no power.

[bassking]

I appreciate all the information you provided! It all made clear since, especially with the PSU being able to handle that load for so many days and length of time. 

Thank you!

[elstaci]

Save the 850 Watt PSU as a future backup plus you can use it to check any hardware before installing it in your PC. All you need to do is short out two pins on the large 24 Pin Motherboard connector from the PSU to get the PSU to start up.

I personally bought a top of the line Corsair 850 Watt PSU, at that time, over 8 years ago and today it is still is outputting voltages like it is brand new.

[bassking]

Good ideas. I personally don't think the 850 had any issues. However, this new card pushes the over clock so the new 1000 will be a better fit for it. 

I have a different build with Ryzen 7 3800x, x570 MOBO, good memory etc. that one has a Corsair 750 I think a CS? I will switch that PSU with the 850, and like you mentioned keep it for a good backup. 

Thank you!