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Question

Screen blinking and artifacts - Gpu or Psu

Feb 24, 2018 8:34AM PST

Hi, my computer is causing some weird artifacts. (And, Yes i'm sure it's not the monitor that is causing it, tried different monitors and cables all with the same result)

The monitor graphic works fine every 5minute (I'm typing this post using this computer) then it does this weird artifacts as shown in the video, after that it blinks and works for more 5 minutes and this goes on and on....
(In the video i'm having the screen on a black image, so you can see the artifacting with better contrast.)

As you can hear in the video the psu is ticking (doesn't sound as bad IRL), but it have been ticking for about 2 years. This problem with the artifacting and blinking screen accured for about 1 month ago.

I'm personally hoping that it's the psu that is giving up and not the graphics card that is giving up.

The graphics card is a 780ti that I bought about 4 years ago. It's pretty good even by todays standard and I don't have the money to spend on a expensive graphicscard again.

I've read online that the psu can cause this problems due it can't deliver the required power to the graphics card.

What do you think is it the PSU or the GPU? Or is it another component that is causing this issue.

PC specs:
Ram: 2x4 corsair 1600mhz
Cpu: Intel i5 2400 3,1 ghz
MB: MSI P67A GD65 b3
GPU: EVGA GTX 780 Ti Superclocked (Evga reference cooler)
PSU: Silver Power SP-SS620 (620Watt)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQKvtsZT9O8

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
I see that CPU has onboard graphics.
Feb 24, 2018 8:51AM PST

Unplug the GPU and test with the i5 graphics next.

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Thanks for the reply!
Feb 24, 2018 9:09AM PST

Thanks for the repy!

The only problem is that my motherboard doesn't have any video outputs.

Is there any way to check the psu status?

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Answer
I looked at the CPU specs first.
Feb 24, 2018 9:33AM PST

Onward.

So the motherboard didn't have so the test will have to be with any other GPU.

I can't tell how old the parts are so let's use the 50% derating on the PSU and see if that's enough Watts for the 780 GPU today.

The PSU is a sad dual rail unit with +12V split like this:
+ 12V1 - 24A
+ 12V2 - 24A

Since PSUs degrade with age we take half of that or 12 Amperes at 12 Volts to get 144 Watts. For this experiment we look up the 780 reviews and get the Watts there.

From https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/b2604/evga-gtx-780-ti-sc I get 250 Watts TDP.
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_780_Ti_SC_ACX_Cooler/24.html measures even higher.

Even if your old PSU dedicated a single rail to the GPU it's only 288 Watts at 100% load which we know isn't going to hold up over the years.

If only that PSU was a single rail, I would not call the PSU suspect.

The only way to tell is to swap in another GPU of similar power draw. Or swap in a better single rail PSU and see if that helps.

-> In parting, I didn't cover canned air cleaning of vents, fans and heatsinks. I hope you have done that already.