My Asus 5770 Cu Core video cards are unstable

[nissanman]

Hi all.

I couple of months ago, i finished building my new PC. Everything went smoothly. I bought an HIS 5770 for it but i was having issues where the fan would randomly stop and start. However, the card overclocked very well and voltage tweaking worked fine.

Not happy with the fan stopping and starting, i sent the HIS back and got an Asus 5770 Cu Core as a replacement (requested by me). Upon installing the card, everything worked fine, until i tried overclocking it. The card refused to overclock higher then 50mhz. The voltage tweak feature on the card also did not work. I just assumed that the Asus card i got just wasnt good at overclocking and the voltage tweak not working was due to outdated software.

Anyway, i now have a second cu core 5770 in my system and have found that my computer will not sustain gameplay for much longer then 45 minutes before my computer either BSOD's or the screen goes brown with vertical lines, and this is at default clocks. I tried removing the first card and using the second as a single card, but it to is unstable, overclocks just as bad as the first card and voltage tweak does not work, even with up to date software, which seems to rule out a faulty video card. I have been getting random crashes ever since i got my first asus card also. The temps on both cards are fine, not usually going above 70c while gaming.

What could be the problem here? I have a Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H motherboard. Could the cards be incompatible with the board? My power supply is a Corsair HX650W, so its way more then enough for my setup. Looking online, this card should be able to overclock very well, but like i said, mine wont oc very well at all and are unstable even at stock clocks.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Nathan.

Edit: Just to clarify, both cards produce the same set of problems, doesnt matter what card i use as the single. Which seems to rule out a problem with either card (i doubt they will both be faulty in the exact same way.)

 

[nissanman]

Anybody? This problem is getting on my nerves. $220NZD for each of these cards and they cant even sustain gameplay at stock clocks. Also should mention i am using the latest 11.6 drivers from ATI and the problem occurd when i was using the 11.4 previews aswell.

 

[red1776]

Hi Nissan,
is your PCIE slot (s) set to 100Mhz?
and does this problem occur no matter which card you have in either PCIE slot?

 

[nissanman]

Hi Red, thanks for your reply. The PCIe slots are set to 100Mhz. The PCIe voltage is at the default setting of 1.8v aswell. The cards are overvolted from the factory to 1.25v each.

 

[red1776]

okay, are you having any other problems with the system?, including other than the GPU's during gaming?

2) have you run any kind of stress test on the system and or ram?

3)I have a nagging feeling it's the MB, but possibly a setting rather than a defect. have you reset the bios to default settings and tried gaming?

Run a stress test on the GPU's like OCCT or Furmark (watch temps especially with Furmark) and see how long it takes to fail...or if it does.

***monitor temps with this tool as well and see if they match what you have been seeing.

http://www.ozone3d.net/gpushark/

 

[nissanman]

Ive had a couple of BSOD's while just in windows. Most of them were mentioning the display driver. I ran Prime95 and memtest on the system, and they pass without error.

Once, when i was quitting out of Dirt2, i got a BSOD which said "The video memory manager has encountered an unexpected fatal error"

My issues appear to be video card related, but both seem to have problems. Faulty or incompatible motherboard maybe?

 

[red1776]

or an incompatibility with another piece of hardware or software program.
added anything new to the system as of late?

I guess before you RMA the MB I would run a PSU test and make sure your voltages are not dropping as well. Its rather rare for a PCIE slot to go bad.
also if you have downloaded any other GPU programs in addition to the one that came with the Asus 5770's (Smartdcotor i assume) they often do not play well together. Could account for the fans doing the start/stop behaviour

 

[nissanman]

i doubt my PSU is bad. It powers my whole system fine and my old HIS single card ran MUCH better then one of these Asus cards as a single. I tried resetting all my bios options back to default, which didnt make a difference. Im only using one program for fan control, which is MSI Afterburner. I use to have SmartDoctor, but i didnt like it so i got rid of it. Voltage control didnt work in either program.

Im starting to think my motherboard is the problem here. I think i will try a new one first.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131631&Tpk=m4a89gtd pro usb3

Maybe that one, for the best possible combination (Asus Video cards, Asus motherboard, like my old, problem free computer)

Edit: I just remembered, with my old HIS 5770, sometimes the system would not boot up. The screen would remain black and the fan would kick in at 100%, there would also be a red light lit up on the card. These Asus cards however fire up first time every time.