Gigabyte GTX 570 (GV-N570OC-13I) Crashing While Gaming

[Syntax]

Hi Everyone,
I have recently bought a Gigabyte GTX570 Ultra Durable (GV-N570OC-13I).
While playing games such as Battlefield Bad Company 2 or Dirt 2. During the game my screen will go white and black then it will freeze/crash. I then have to hard reset the computer in order to get the computer responsive again. After the freeze/crash, windows reliability center says "video hardware error". I am currently using 266.58 Nvidia Drivers and also used 266.09 drivers, both drivers have the same result. I put my old 9800GTX card in and it has no problems.

Is this a faulty card?
Is there a way to fix it?
Should I RMA it?

My computer specs are:
Intel i7 930
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R REV.20 Motherboard
Gskill 6bg Ripjaws
Corsair HX850 Power supply

Thank you.

Regards,
Syntax

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte forum.

It could well be that there is a hardware fault on your card but first lets just get a bit more info.

What firmware is on the card and is it the latest ?

What slot are you running the card in ?

Have you got all the power plugs connected to the card and motherboard ?

[Syntax]

Thank you for the quick reply.

I do not know what firmware is on the card. I went to gigabyte website and tried to see if there is an update. But there is non available.

I am running Nvidia 266.58 Driver from nvidia's website.

Where can i get the lastest firmware?

I had an Gigabyte 5870 before and there were updates for the bios which solved a lot of problems eg BSOD.

I am running the card of the first PCI Slot@16X.

I have all the power plugs connected to the card and motherboard.

Thank you.

[Dark Mantis]

I think then that you need to RMA the card as we can find out what firmware is installed on  the GPU but if there are no updates then it really is a moot point. The only other option is to see what GGTS say.

Just enter your email address and click on the language of choice.
GGTS   http://ggts.gigabyte.com/

They do take a while to answer though so expect a delay.

[Syntax]

The strange thing is, running furmark for 15-20 minutes is fine without any issues. But the issues only appear when playing a game. It may start to happen within 5 minutes of gaming or sometimes 1 hour.

[Dark Mantis]

It would sound like a driver or firmware issue then. Obviously not heat related or you would have trouble when running furmark.

[Syntax]

I guess its more towards firmware issue then. Is there any way for me to update the firmware myself? Or do I have to send it in for RMA?

I have read on some other forums with people having the same issue as me. As soon as they downclock the card to default 732mhz, or increase voltages, it works fine.

I have not overclocked the card, as its overclocked from factory.

[Dark Mantis]

Yes there have been some instances of the factory overclocked cards failing due to the overclock so that may be worth trying.The trouble is that when anything is overclocked al components behave differently and so whilst in general it may work fione there are going to be individual cards that fail to work properly but would be fine at stock speeds.

[Syntax]

I paid that extra bit for a factory OC card. If I downclocked it, I could of got a normal GTX 570 and saved a little.

Do you recommend me sending the card in for RMA?

[Dark Mantis]

Yes in those circumstances I think it would be the best idea. You will need to contact you retailer for information on how to proceed.

[Schnitzel]

It crashes only in DirectX 11 games. I had the same problem. Flash BIOS, it will help 

[lubo188]

how to upgrade firmware? i using VGA Tools -- @BIOS 4.1 and new bios is F2. then write " The bios id not match" i ussing Win 7 64 bit... pls help (sry for my english)