Gtx 970 died


Guys my GPU just went up in smoke, my worry is did it take any other parts with it. I’m also concerned if my PSU was at fault. What you all think should I replace my 6yrs old PSU when getting the new GPU

1 Like

Use a PSU tester and make sure the voltage isn’t too high on any of the power rails.

:thinking:

1 Like

That really sucks. The PSU is usually one of the first components to go. I’m surprised it lasted 6 years. Hopefully nothing else was damaged in the process.

What brand is your GPU? What brand is your PSU? lets start here so I can figure out if the internals of the PSU are solid which makes them last very long…

You can fake turning on the PSU by the way and get a multimeter out to see the voltage… unfortunately its not always voltage that does this its power supply ripple which you cant and wont see on a PSU tester and/or multimeter

Can’t you just set a voltmeter to AC to find the ripple voltage?

1 Like

Not all meters do it… because it depends on the multimeter. It works with my Fluke, but it also has a mode for measuring DC and AC components simultaneously which is much more useful. A cheap, nasty meter gives totally outrageous readings. It’s best to try with a known source first.

1 Like

my EVGA 970 died the same way, tested my PSU and no problems. think the 970 was just a bonkers gpu in general.

My EVGA 970 FTW died on thanksgiving of last year, my pc just shut off and would not boot. When I took the gpu out and just booted the system it started fine and could run of integrated graphics. I then took out my old gtx 670 ftw out of my HTPC and put that in and it worked. I never did actually check the voltage but I got a new GPU and its been working fine ever since.

It really depends upon the power supply watt rating, brand/re-brand and quality of parts–if I recall on Jonny’s PSU reviews the typical PSU as it ages will lose 5-10% of its max wattage depending upon the capacitor type(solid capacitors should last 10yrs & regular capacitors vary much more). If the OP was pushing the PSU beyond the “optimal” range as it got older, you can really over-stress a PSU and it can have a power spike. Even decent bronze/silver models can fail within a 1-2yr time frame–had a Corsair CXM 750 go toast in under a year.
Inspecting a PSU for certain possible failure points is worth doing every so often, even that isn’t always a safety measure as any PSU can fail from many factors–I had a old PSU suffer a mini-fire with smoke, nothing serious but an interesting testing “WTF” moment.

nVidia has had a few turd generations which were prone to an interesting range of issues/failures and it may have played a role in EVGA ditching their “lifetime warranty”–Fermi(400-500 series) had VRM stability issues across many OEMs(didn’t matter if they were reference or brand specific custom designs).

I had the FTW as well… its all coming together now…

yup it died conveniently half a year after the warranty was up. definitely feels like it was planned…

I have had the unfortunate experience of a 80+ platinum EVGA 850 watt power supply kicking the bucket after 3 years. Solid capacitors and all. Fortunately it was under warranty, though EVGA was making the RMA difficult since their support personal didn’t know the difference between boot and post. This may not always be the case, but they definitely don’t last as long as some components. There’s a good reason data centers use redundant power supplies.

Some have 10 year warranty, but to be honest i generally get a new PSU every time i build. Because fans, dust, and time and technology moves on.

Do yourself a favor and buy a nice modular unit.

To be fair to PSU makers, i’ll bet most people’s power supplies are full of dust and crap and no one ever cleans them properly because they are “not user servicable”, etc. and to be honest taking the cover off one is dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.

1 Like