Seller Note “Card lights turn on when pc powered on but does not send power to the monitors. The card has been taken apart and thermal paste removed, so will need to have paste re-applied.”
Summary
- OK, so despite what the seller said. I found one broken fan blade and the card basically functional. I swapped the cooler with the one from MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4Gb (Card A) and repasted the card core.
- I have lost my initial test notes, but the brief notes are that I found the thermals to be an issue (core temperature reached 80°C and throttled, probably in Kombuster HD).
- I have another similar card that had a VCore VRM short (fixed) MSI GTX 970 GAMING Card C. I have been analysing the VRM thermals in particular and found that quite a lot of heat is generated there under full load e.g. 100°C+
- I decided to retest this card for comparison – For Kumbuster HD the card runs flat out limiting on TDP:
- The core temperature seems fine – steady at 65°C and the hot-spot around 75°C.
- However, as with card C, the VRM heat measured with a thermal camera on the back of the PCB seems high – even worse on this card at 112°C.
- The max VDDC voltage seems to hold steady at 1.2060V (card C is 1.218V). For me, 1.2V seems quite high, but I guess it depends on the relative current vs other types of graphics card i.e. could still be much less power.
- For Subnautica, the card is only about 80% load, with core 59°C and hot-spot ~70°C, looking very steady overall. VRM PCB temperature is ~100°C
- 3D Time Spy – fine, a little below average like card C (3129 / 3313 ave.)
- I wonder why the seller saw no display? Also check:
- Ports – all seem fine
- VRAM – MATS passed fine, 10/25/50Mb
Next Steps
- Play testing with horizontal mount.