Such a short life.... sigh Nitro Rx480?

Whats up Overclockers, I just had purchased a brand new Nitro+ OC Rx480 had it for less than 5 days and now its no good (or at least thats what I'm thinking). Perhaps someone could help with some troubleshooting or perhaps they had the same thing happen. First off my Rig:


MSI X99 Pro Carbon (This MB does not come with a Video Output, only way for video is to use an External Card)
Intel 6800k
Corsair RM850x PSU
27 LG 4k Monitor
DDR4 32g Corsair vengeance lpx 3000
Corsair Hydro H60
Windows 10
Crucial MX300 525gb SSD


The nitro was rated to have a 1342 boost OC, so I got to working on it to see if I could squeeze some more juice out of it. Using MSI Afterburner ( I didnt have the setting to take effect on startup).
This is where my last settings where at:

64c Max Temp
Memory stock clock (hadn't touched yet)
Voltage 0 (hadn't touched yet)
Power Limit +30%
Core Clock 1460Mhz
Max Watt draw (according to MSI AF) was 175W

I had just gotten the card up to 1460Mhz and was working on trying to stabilize it so thats why I had it up to +30% Power Limit (had it +18 before that). While running some Heaven, I was getting some frame/freeze/hangup after a while, so I went ahead and tried a +35% Power limit to see if that would get me stabilized.
I went ahead and tried to run Kombustor and the screen flickered and the PC looked like it reset it self. However the PC turned on (or atleast the motherboard was doing its thing, and the fans were spinning etc), but nothing showed up on the screen, just Black. I didn't get the Bios splash page nothing at all.

Here are the troubleshooting steps I did:

-Tried using the display port cable, along with all ports (There are 2 Displayports, 2 HDMI one DVI)
-Removed the card re-seated
-Removed the card re-seated and changed the power cable from PSU
-Removed the card and tried other pci slots
-Switched the bios switch on my MB (it has 2)
-Cleared the CMOS on my MB
-Switched the bios switch on the GPU card ( silent and boost modes are what its for)
-I have an old GTX 750 Tried running the GTX and the Rx480 at the same time (had them both in a slot) just to see if they would show up in device manager (GTX showed, Rx did not)
-Tried using AMD software to detect if I needed driver update, ran it and it said that I didn't have any AMD products only said I had the GTX
-Final Step tried was, Refresh Windows back to New (didn't have to many programs in so I didn't mind), re-tried Rx480 Still Black Screen nothing.

-Installed my old GTX 750 on the MB and tested all pci slots (GTX worked on all slots no problem, PC started right up, so MB and everything else works as Im using the PC right now).

So their you have it folks, any thoughts suggestions? Do you need any information? Does anyone have any Idea how to fix this or is my card toast? If the card toasted (did not smell any electronic smoke BTW), anyone have any good Idea how this could have happened, considering my temps where good and no extra voltage was added, Is simply increasing the "Power Limit" enough to do them in?

I appreciate any help thanks.

It sounds like you killed the card. First I'm not aware that AB can go beyond 20% for power limit. I thought that these cards had a lock of 20%. If you were able to push the power limit above 20%, I wouldn't be suprised if you hurt the card. Basically you are enabling more power draw from both the PCI-E connector and the PCI-E power port. Depending on how Sapphire put this card together, it could draw more or less from the PCI-E connector.

Time to RMA it!

Dolk said:

It sounds like you killed the card. First I'm not aware that AB can go beyond 20% for power limit. I thought that these cards had a lock of 20%. If you were able to push the power limit above 20%, I wouldn't be suprised if you hurt the card. Basically you are enabling more power draw from both the PCI-E connector and the PCI-E power port. Depending on how Sapphire put this card together, it could draw more or less from the PCI-E connector.

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Yes the version of MSI AF that I had just downloaded allowed +50% Power limit increase, I also was initially using Sapphire Trixx 3.0 intially like this guy which also allowed a +50 Power limit ( I stopped using it after a bit and uninstalled as it was doing some funky things and was buggy, kept having to reapply my saved profile, so stuck with MSI AF).

And this is Jokerproductions setting his max power limit to +50%
Which is what surprised me that the only real thing I had going aside from the Core Clock raise was the Power limit which I was at +35 when it crashed (so not even at 50). So I am perplexed by this outcome as to what was the cause.

Clearly my MB didn't fry, or anything as all my PCI slots where still working when I used my 750 on it.

DaveB said:

Time to RMA it!

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Thankfully I can still return it to the store; but the question is do I get the exact model card again? I mean is this what I am to expect of Sapphire? Or do I go with another Brand 480?

Also, again, my Max Watt Draw according to Afterburner was only 175 watts max, I'm seeing videos and posts where people are showing 220w draw with no problems.

Again, I am wondering if there is another troubleshooting step that I missed.....

It's not recommended to use Kombuster/Furmark on the 480's as there has been instances of the card drawing too much power from the PCIE slot which exceeded it's power limit draw. Also those bench mark programs makes the card's power delivery/VRM section overheat past their rated wattage thus killing the card.

It's best to use 3DMark Time Spy or Fire Strike. Linky .

My 480 @ stock refused to go beyond 1350/2200. After putting it under water, it does 1390/2250 with 50% voltage increase and 25% powerlimit increase in AB. 1400 will black screen no matter how much voltage I use.

Stay away from Kombuster/Furmark.

You shouldn't be using those programs on ANY card.

Purchase EVGA 1060 they rate there cards to run on anything including Furmark they don't like RMA's.

It's a nitro card with 8 pin connector the PCIE power is a non issue here.

I run +50% power limit on my card, no problems.

I never run furmark, but that wouldn't be a problem either as cards/drivers have hidden instruction sets in them not to destroy themselves.

You just got unlucky it seems.

I thought my card was kaput it was doing what yours is, but it was windows 10 updating driver without me knowing (have since deactivated automatic driver updates of course)

The 480 is now neck and neck with the 1060

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...0-vs-RX-480-Updated-Review-(Hardware-Canucks)

Also coming is the Crimson ReLive driver update.

http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-software-crimson-relive-driver-leak/

There are some really interesting things coming in this update including the Chill feature that will reduce power/heat and even frame times and input lag. I wouldn't change teams just yet, grab a replacement 480

Nebulous said:

It's not recommended to use Kombuster/Furmark on the 480's

My 480 @ stock refused to go beyond 1350/2200. After putting it under water, it does 1390/2250 with 50% voltage increase and 25% powerlimit increase in AB. 1400 will black screen no matter how much voltage I use.

Click to expand...

I will stay away from those programs, just in case thanks.

wingman99 said:

Purchase EVGA 1060 they rate there cards to run on anything including Furmark they don't like RMA's.

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Thought about an Nvidia but wanted something with AMD Freesync in it

Saul Goodman said:

It's a nitro card with 8 pin connector the PCIE power is a non issue here.

I run +50% power limit on my card, no problems.

I never run furmark, but that wouldn't be a problem either as cards/drivers have hidden instruction sets in them not to destroy themselves.

You just got unlucky it seems.

I thought my card was kaput it was doing what yours is, but it was windows 10 updating driver without me knowing (have since deactivated automatic driver updates of course)

The 480 is now neck and neck with the 1060

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...0-vs-RX-480-Updated-Review-(Hardware-Canucks)

Also coming is the Crimson ReLive driver update.

http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-software-crimson-relive-driver-leak/

There are some really interesting things coming in this update including the Chill feature that will reduce power/heat and even frame times and input lag. I wouldn't change teams just yet, grab a replacement 480

Click to expand...

Just in case there was something wrong with a driver or something I ended up refreshing windows and starting clean again. To make a long story short, I went to the store and returned the card back and picked up the same card again. Now I stuck the card in the slot and in less thatn a Minute the card/pc was up and running. Looks like there was something definitely wrong with the other old card as I had given it one more shot in the PC before taking it back to the store.

Perhaps your right, It was just one of those unlucky cards. Thats what I hope it was and not some tinkering that I did. Quick question, with your settings that you have on your card; what are your max voltage spikes showing on GPUZ?

GotEmAll said:

I will stay away from those programs, just in case thanks.
Perhaps your right, It was just one of those unlucky cards. Thats what I hope it was and not some tinkering that I did. Quick question, with your settings that you have on your card; what are your max voltage spikes showing on GPUZ?

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All Video cards have set limits on tinkering, however not Bios mods, so don't worry there made for adjustments otherwise they would not allow them.