Problem with GV-N560OC-1GI (again artifacts)

[obywatelgs]

Hello everybody.

I have seen that in the past many people reported similar problems with GV-N560OC-1GI (and also GV-N460OC-1GI or SOC versions) . But since the threads were rather old I would like to know if the issue shouldn't be already resolved by Gigabyte and my Gigabyte GTX560 Ti OC card that I bought one month ago shouldn't be free of this problem. In other words, is it something wrong with my hardware or is it again variant of the old OC problem.

At the beginning GPU worked without problems but after 2-3 weeks it started to produce artifacts in games and 3D applications. Some games were heavily crashing. When testing with OCCTPT 3.1.0 it couldn't pass the shortest 6min GPU:OCCT test (up to 200 errors). It was however passing GPU memory tests (OCCTPT GPU:MEMTEST, memtestG80 1.1 and memtestCL 1.00).
When I switched to different GPU everything was fine. Just to clarify: Windows was fully updated with latest drivers installed. I also didn't overclock my system.

In the past people suggested to either downclock the GPU or increase the voltage. I tried downclocking with EasyBoost and to make system fairly stable I had to set memory clock to be around 900MHz and core clock to be around 880MHz.

However, today (after not really using PC for a few days) everything seems to work ok. GPU passed GPU:OCCT test few times (1 error in one 1h test). All games seems to work without problems (even Dirt 2). Nothing really has changed in my hardware or system configuration, so I don't understand it... but it works. Normally I should be happy here, however I have already created RMA request and the card was supposed to be send back to the shop next Tuesday. And since now it is working it will be probably rejected by the service as non-defective. I'm only worried that at some point it will stop work again.

Could I ask anybody for advice? Do you think that what I described can be a hardware issue and I should send the card to the service anyway? Or maybe it was rather connected with wrong factory OC and if the problem arise again I should be able to get from Gigabyte a BIOS that will fix the problem?

Thank you in advance.

Spec:
ASRock Extreme4 Z68
Intel i5 2500K
Gigabyte GTX560 Ti
G.Skill 8GB KIT
Rasurbo Real&Power 650W ATX 2.3
Windows 7 64

[obywatelgs]

I forgot to mention that now the card seems to work fine without a need of downclocking. I might see some flickering in Heaven DX11 Benchmark 2.5 but I wouldn't notice it if not the previous problems.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

In general the best way to fix this problem is to update the firmware it would seem. People have cured it by the methods you described via downclocking and reclocking it but the latest BIOS for the card seemed to have good results.

[obywatelgs]

Hello,

Thank you for the answer. I guess I should have the latest BIOS as I bought the card in May. When I checked with EasyBoost it proposed me to update to the BIOS F3 from 2010-09-27. I have the F11 version, so I skipped it.

I read somewhere that the card will work fine if the voltage is increased above 1V. In my card, under load, the voltage is exactly 1V. I read also that Gigabyte can send people a custom BIOS which increases the voltage (to 1.05V or 1.1V), so I will probably ask for one.

Anyway I canceled the RMA process for this card as it works quite fine at the moment and I think that service would just send me the card back. I hope that I did right and the hardware is not deffective. With factory settings it is still failing sometimes 1h OCCT tests but I don't see artifacts in games. With slight decrease of clocks it is stable. I hope that BIOS fix will help.

[Dark Mantis]

I don't know if F11 is the latest firmware version for this card but as you say ask GGTS for help and any updated fixes they can supply you with. There have been several "fixes" by different people and I guess it is just trying to find the best one for you.

[obywatelgs]

Thank you for help and sorry for late update. I just had to also RMA my monitor, so I don't have my computer for few more days. I will ask GGTS for a fix when the monitor is back. I hope it will do the trick.

[Dark Mantis]

It might be a good idea to ask the question now as it can take some time for a response from them often so you might as well send it now and hopefully there will be an answer for when you get the monitor returned. Go to an internet cafe or something if you don't have a spare computer to use.