EVGA 3060 ti FTW3 Ultra issue.

[l0ngsh0t_ag]

Hi all -

I purchased an EVGA 3060 ti via eBay from a well-known UK retailer. The card was quoted as being returned with a prebuild system with a motherboard fault.

Received the card yesterday, it had minor damage to the case bracket (described in eBay listing) which I very carefully re-set so the card sits entirely flush against the screw holes in the case again. First issue sorted, but there had clearly been quite some force used for the bracket to be as bent as it was but nonetheless, a minor repair.

I installed the card with two 6+2 pin Corsair extended PCI cables. The card shared the same driver as my previous one (checked and double checked with Nvidia website). Initially the 3060 ti ran fine. Left for five minutes before testing a game. I tested Battlefield 5, within 2 minutes, hard crash and slight pixelating around the area where the mouse pointer was. Sound was frozen.

I restarted, the card seemed to be okay. I left it for around ten minutes.. the driver stopped responding and recovered, then hard crashed entirely.

I had two brand new Corsair PCIe Type 4 power cables, so I installed those to make sure it wasn't a power delivery issue. At this point I will say it's a 650w PSU, this card requires 600w, and the total power draw is 585w so there is headroom.

After installing the new power cables, I retested. Battlefield 5 was fine in the menu for 10 minutes but then within 5 minutes of playing a multilayer match a hard crash with artifacting.

On restart, small green lines dotted around the screen. I turned the pc off and calmed down for a bit.

I restarted and got into Windows and despite one or two driver crashes, I managed to restart in safe mode, and performed DDU twice for good measure.

I reinstalled fresh driver, with 3060 ti installed. The driver installed fine, but then within 5 minutes on Windows desktop the pc hard crashed.

At this point, I took the 3060 ti out and installed a 1070 ti. Operation entirely normal. Tested 4 games. No crashes.

I then rage quit for the evening.

I continued testing this morning, no joy. The 3060 ti would instantly disable the inputs on driver initialisation, and I tested them all, and would remain black screen until the pc was turned off and cycle repeat.

I removed the graphics card again and performed another DDU. I tried reinstalling the graphics driver with the 3060 ti installed and as soon as the driver tried to initialise during installation, the above happens.

So, I removed the card, performed another DDU, but this time reinstalled the drivers with the 1070 ti installed. Driver installation fine. Game tests, fine. Turned off pc, installed 3060 ti, restarted.. black screens.

There is only one thing I can think to do now, to test further, and that is, after watching a video on YouTube, someone advised to start the pc up using onboard graphics. Once in Windows, disable the onboard graphics driver in Device Manager to try and force the GPU to co-operate. If I try this, I am worried that it still won't work.

Can anyone offer some advice?

Any help is appreciated. I am pretty experienced, but I have never had to fix a graphics card with this extent of problem before, so anyone with more knowledge would be really appreciated.

[kalniel]

It's either a duff card or your PSU isn't up to it. Probably the former given it's crashing in 2D load.

[Jonj1611]

Whats the system spec?

[l0ngsh0t_ag]

Whats the system spec?

Thanks for the reply.

System spec is:
i5 8600k @ 4.6
16gb 3200mhz
samsung 980 evo m.2

..and as previously stated, psu is 650w which is above recommended limit.

At this point, there are only two things I can think of to test further:

Disable on-board graphics driver to see if that forced the card to display after driver install (I have seen that this is a known issue with RTX 3 cards in Windows 10, and topic threads dedicated to the issue); or, disable the two HDD's I have installed to free up some more power for the PSU (which will take the headroom to just under 100w).

Else, I can only think to return the card.

[kalniel]

What's the PSU model?

[[GSV]Trig]

Just because your PSU says 650 doesn’t mean it’s a good one that’s up to the job, how old is it, what make/model?

[l0ngsh0t_ag]

Just because your PSU says 650 doesn’t mean it’s a good one that’s up to the job, how old is it, what make/model?

The PSU is a 2019 model Corsair RM650x so I know it's up to the job (if you pay attention you'll see hints of the make/model in the original post). The power supply isn't the issue, and I know it isn't the issue because the card has been returned and refunded as faulty by the retailer.

The tone in your reply appears somewhat condescending. Take it is a given that I am vastly experienced (three decades-worth of experienced) and know the difference between adequate and inadequate components.

[kalniel]

Trust me, no condescension, just willingness to help find the root cause - we've had a couple of threads in recent times where we didn't get the full details and it turned out a naff PSU was the fault. People who don't need help don't tend to post asking for help

It does point to it being rather more GPU being the issue then.

[Apex]

The PSU is a 2019 model Corsair RM650x so I know it's up to the job (if you pay attention you'll see hints of the make/model in the original post). The power supply isn't the issue, and I know it isn't the issue because the card has been returned and refunded as faulty by the retailer.

The tone in your reply appears somewhat condescending. Take it is a given that I am vastly experienced (three decades-worth of experienced) and know the difference between adequate and inadequate components.

So i'll add my two pence to this.

Brand name 450watt psu, doesn't matter who just that it was a brand name and above the requirement for the system this went into (this was a few years ago) lowish end gpu but it did require extra power (so more then the 75 watt that pcie can give via the slot) i sent two different cards back because of odd system issues in 2d and 3d, turns out guess what, swap the psu out for a 650watt psu and didn't have those problems going forward (in fact the psu is fine to this day)

a)i sent two cards back and at no point did the store go - no fault found, they just accepted and refunded me, so this runs counter to your claim of "I know it was faulty because they refunded me".
b)the psu was above the requirements of the whole system even at 100% load yet i still had it crashing and other odd system issues, again counter to your claim
c)at no point did you actually say what bits you add, we aren't mind readers
d)your 30's years counts for nothing if you arn't willing to describe the basic's; any support person worth their salt knows this and i know that being the 25yrs i've spent in support roles from first line to third line and so on.

In the end it sounds like it was a bad gpu, not that this doesn't happen but i find its far more rare these days for that to be the case and more the case that some other bit has gone screwy.

[[GSV]Trig]

The PSU is a 2019 model Corsair RM650x so I know it's up to the job (if you pay attention you'll see hints of the make/model in the original post). The power supply isn't the issue, and I know it isn't the issue because the card has been returned and refunded as faulty by the retailer.

The tone in your reply appears somewhat condescending. Take it is a given that I am vastly experienced (three decades-worth of experienced) and know the difference between adequate and inadequate components.

No tone from me.

Hope you find a solution.

[l0ngsh0t_ag]

Trust me, no condescension, just willingness to help find the root cause - we've had a couple of threads in recent times where we didn't get the full details and it turned out a naff PSU was the fault. People who don't need help don't tend to post asking for help

It does point to it being rather more GPU being the issue then.

The comment wasn't directed toward you. It was the "just because your PSU says..." statement. Simply isn't necessary. That person could simply have worded their reply just as you did without the sarcasm.

[l0ngsh0t_ag]

So i'll add my two pence to this.

Brand name 450watt psu, doesn't matter who just that it was a brand name and above the requirement for the system this went into (this was a few years ago) lowish end gpu but it did require extra power (so more then the 75 watt that pcie can give via the slot) i sent two different cards back because of odd system issues in 2d and 3d, turns out guess what, swap the psu out for a 650watt psu and didn't have those problems going forward (in fact the psu is fine to this day)

a)i sent two cards back and at no point did the store go - no fault found, they just accepted and refunded me, so this runs counter to your claim of "I know it was faulty because they refunded me".
b)the psu was above the requirements of the whole system even at 100% load yet i still had it crashing and other odd system issues, again counter to your claim
c)at no point did you actually say what bits you add, we aren't mind readers
d)your 30's years counts for nothing if you arn't willing to describe the basic's; any support person worth their salt knows this and i know that being the 25yrs i've spent in support roles from first line to third line and so on.

In the end it sounds like it was a bad gpu, not that this doesn't happen but i find its far more rare these days for that to be the case and more the case that some other bit has gone screwy.

a) You misquote me. That isn't what I said. I said the card has been returned and refunded as faulty. That means it has been refunded BECAUSE it is faulty. They confirmed it was faulty, thus, it was faulty. No counter to my claim there. The issue is that you either didn't fully understand my words, or used my words to suit your own context.
b) I had had, up to the point of installing the card, no system instability with the power supply in any such way (given, I did not say this in the original post). The PC suffered instant instability as soon as the card was installed (as explained in the O.P.). The very fact I could remove the card and re-establish complete stability, as I explained in the O.P., should have given you some indication of the root of the instability.
c) I mentioned that I was using Corsair power cables. I mentioned that it was a 650w power supply. I mentioned that I used two brand new Corsair Type4 cables. You could have deduced from the information that it was a Corsair 650w (at least semi-modular) PSU. Narrow down the models they offer and you can conclude that the only models which fit that description would be compatible with the card. You don't need to read minds when you can engage your own and notice the detail.
d) I refer you back to the last point. Could you not use your 25 years' experience to come to that conclusion? The basics were there. Paying attention to detail is critical.

The card was refunded as it was faulty. I now have another card, which is working absolutely perfectly, with my Corsair RM650x PSU. Thanks for the help.