So I got the card back from the retailer and they found zero issues. They were testing the card on a motherboard sitting on a workbench, so they recommended I do that.
I chose to ignore the warning and instead have propped the card up using some zip ties to hold it to the top of my case to see if that made a difference (as well as installing an 850w Corsair PSU and swapping out the RAM). Well, it didn't, card-the card again gave a multi-coloured-multi-screen of death again when trying to load Mass Effect 3 or BF3 (Crashing on launch. I also swapped in a Corsair 850w PSU to see if that'd help. Nothing. So I've re-installed Windows and apparently have stable conditions with 3DMark11 using the drivers from the disc that came with the card. I'm hoping to spend some time further testing it and see if I can squeak the Catalyst 12.3 drivers on the system to see if that causes things to blow up.
I was also reading elsewhere that the card should throttle the RAM speed when you use only Active DisplayPort to DVI connectors. Yeah, I've tested that with three monitors and that totally doesn't do any throttling. So my conclusions are (at least in the case of my card):
- More than 1 monitor = higher temps than a single monitor (e.g. GPU ramps up it's speed from 300(?) MHz to 500 MHz and RAM goes to full 3D clock speed from its 2D speed.)
- Active DisplayPort Adapters do not allow for RAM throttling in a multi-monitor setup (or at least with 3 monitors)
- Weight may be an issue with the cooler (I will perform further testing)
- Drivers included with the card work with an otherwise troubled card (at least involving my system hardware and software combination)
I'll try and update this thread as things progress. Thanks!
P.S. Anyone have any experience with the PowerColor PowerJack?
UPDATE: After installing the Catalyst 12.3 drivers remotely and attempting to run 3DMark11, I crashed my system... I'm now hoping the motherboard will force a reboot so I can get at it again
😛 I had the fans cranked to 80% of full and the GPU was idling at 38c.
Going to
reset the BIOS via the CMOS switch this evening to see if it can give me some breathing room on the issues.
Windows 11 Pro | ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-E GAMING WIFI | AMD Ryzen 7800X3D | 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 6400 | ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 4070 TI