SOLVED Problems with my ASUS Radeon HD 7970

[Neostarwcc]

Okay so my extra video card (Radeon HD 7970) went faulty about 2 weeks ago and I sent it back to ASUS about a week and a half ago. I just got my replacement in the mail yesterday. They had sent me their newer model of the 7970 (the one with four DP ports and 2 DVI), I've never had nor heard of DP ports so my first question is this. Is it better than HDMI? It probably is if it's now the standard on newer video cards. How much better? If it isn't much better, should I bother buying a DP cable at all? I never bothered with DP on my gtx 780 TI because it has an optional HDMI port and I already have HDMI cables up the wazoo and I thought it was an HDMI port since they look exactly the same.

Second question/problem I ran the card temporarily in DVI mode to test it and the card will boot into windows and even let me game sometimes for 3-4 minutes and then the display will go black. My previous card crashed with rainbow colors and failed several stress tests and even ASUS agreed that it was destroyed and needed to be fixed so that's why they sent me a replacement. You can't get out of the black screen either I've left it on for 20 minutes and it doesn't fix itself.


I haven't stress tested this card but it seems to be a driver issue as every single time I uninstall the drivers I can use my computer for 45 minutes - an hour just fine with no problems. But I've tried about 4 separate drivers from ATI and the crappy ones windows update keeps trying to stick in they're all causing the black screen even when not gaming, so... I don't know. Could be the card, could be the drivers, but if ASUS just tested this card 4 days ago... I don't see how it can possibly be fried and if it was fried why can I use it just fine with no drivers? It doesn't make sense.

BTW PSU AND MOBO specs are:

Corsair TX850
ASUS Rampage IV Formula.

and other computer:

Corsair TX850
ASUS Maximus V Formula.

 

[Neostarwcc]

Okay so, I hooked it up to a separate computer today with no drivers and I was able to run it fine, I then installed the latest stable driver from AMD and it ran fine. I then proceeded to run a stress test.

It ran through a 15 minute 1080p stress test perfectly fine and got decent FPS (52 avg 61 max) I was able to use the card for about 30 minutes after that with no problems and then out of the blue, I got a black screen again. I've now been using the card with no drivers for close to two and a half hours and nothing's happened yet. Could the video card even possibly be dead/no good if I can run it just fine in a stress test? It can't possibly be the drivers now because I've installed every single driver out of the sun from the most recent beta drivers to drivers from a year and a half ago I've had to have tried 27 different drivers now, they all cause the black screen. Yet what makes no ****ing sense is, it runs through a stress test just fine AND I can use it for constant hours on end with no drivers installed. Yet the minute I stick drivers in within 3 minutes it'll give me a blackscreen no matter what computer I use, I'm stumped as friggin hell.

 

[Nebulous]

Have you tried another PCIE slot?

 

[Neostarwcc]

Yes I've tried all three and they all do the same thing. I was going to make try formatting my hard drive but no point now that I know that it does the same thing in other computers. So it's quite possibly the video card, but then why would it run through a stress test fine and run all day with no drivers? It makes no sense.


I tried another hard drive for the hell of it with a fresh windows 7 installation it's so far let me install the drivers and use it for 15 minutes in 800x600 mode. I'll report back if/when it becomes black again and after an hour period if it no longer becomes black I'll increase the resolution to 1920x1080 again.

 

[Neostarwcc]

Nope same thing happened Contacted ASUS Customer Support and they don't have a clue either but they don't think it's the video card and won't replace it. So, no idea not a clue.

 

[iLoki]

Is the card factory OC'd? If so, I wonder if it might be a card that was binned too aggressively? Might be worth dropping the clocks to see what happens.

 

[Neostarwcc]

Is the card factory OC'd? If so, I wonder if it might be a card that was binned too aggressively? Might be worth dropping the clocks to see what happens.

No it wasn't a GHz edition it was regular but I resolved the issue on my own, it was the cable I was using. Bought a DP to HDMI cable 3 days ago got it last night and it fixed it immediately. Able to use my card now.