EVGA GTX 980 Ti SC GAMING ACX 2.0+ (Card B)

Seller Note “Was working flawlessly until last week – It started crashing randomly on games (Crashing to desktop – Nvidia driver reset notification) now it crashes the entire PC only after a minute of use (green screen appears, sometimes black)”

Summary

  • Lovely condition cosmetically, like new and happy to find an example without the usual 12v VRM short! 🙂
  • Resistances
    • Vcore – 2.5
    • VMem – 65.9
    • PEX – 297
    • 5V – 1.87K
    • 3.3V – 824
    • 12V – PCI K++ PCI-E ~30M
  • So, no short, but with that fault description I still expect a possible VRM issue, hopefully not a core issue
  • Observations
    • Card loads driver fine
    • Appears stable for desktop use
    • Exhibits VRel limits in all kinds of load even when the core isn’t working at 100%
    • Subnautica seemed stable, but the core was only at 40% load and it was VRel limiting
    • Kombuster HD did run for a few seconds and then crashed to a blank screen, later to recover fully to desktop about 10 seconds later
    • The card feels quite hot, 70s for core and 80s for hotspot, but these aren’t abnormal readings

Next Steps

  • At this stage, I would suspect an issue with the VCore VRM. Whilst it isn’t shorted, it might have a failing MOSFET and perhaps end up shorted with enough abuse
  • Take the back off and check each VRM phase with an oscilloscope