Does anyone know about PowerColor brand?

[Spider With Web]

I just bought a Radeon PowerColor R7 240 the other day, it is not a capable card i know but it gets the job done for now (i dont have any demaning title as of now)

But guess what, the card are now dead after just 2 month usage, I did overclock a little from 720mhz to 750mhz and Overvolt it +1 through GlobalOverdrive

Whenever i play with it, i always monitor the temperature, it never go hot more than 55'c, it never freeze even once when i play Tomb Raider, until just recently im back to using my PC again from a vacation, it started to freeze after a minute of gameplay, not a blue screen, but a rainbow screen (it is very messy that you know it is broken).

However it always froze only when i play a game, it never happen to my previous card, well i do have this problem before with my laptop that came with a GT540m that are broken from overheating, but my R7 never overheat at all.

Is it the PowerColor fault? Since I haven't heard this kind of story before, anyone using PowerColor? If so, are there any problem too?

Here's my rig for reference:
Intel Core i7-2600
2x4GB DDR3 ram
1TB hdd
PC Radeon R7 240
And 380watt PSU

[[☥] - CJ -]

Powercolor is among the EU bargain brands, technically speaking.

I would avoid messing with Voltage, especially for those that are inexperienced in such matters.
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But yeah, take it back to the shop, but i wouldnt mention messing with the voltage.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

With Gigabyte, the original BIOS should still on on the 2nd backup cmos chip.
You can revert from the backup chip and then go up only as far as you'd prefer as far as redoing an update.

[Spider With Web]

🎃Sir Edmund's Spoopy Kitteh původně napsal:

I do know that PowerColor is a licensed producer of AMD Radeon video cards, and that they are manufactured by Foxxcon.

As for your issues with overclocking...It may have to do with the fact that your PSU is only 360 Watts. For any modern graphics cards that you wish to OC, I would really recommend that you upgrade to a 600~750 Watt power supply. I do know a good website (and no this is not advertising spam...the site is a tool...not a mrketplace) called PCPartPicker that can help you with at least finding the parts you need to upgrade. Send me a friend request if you have any firther questions concering those mattets.

I didn't know if the PSU are not up to it (well it is my fault for OCing even though the gain are not worth it yet i still do it)

There are so many question regarding PSU actually, thank you i'll check it out!

upcoast původně napsal:

Get that DDU and run it you might as well rule out the drivers then rma it.

I did and rma with Power color yearssss ago for HD3850 it went fine but they did charge a $9 fee for return shipping back to me.

Sure, if you buy a new card get the GTX1050ti/1060 6GB.

I also agree that overclocking gpus is min gain and not really worth the risk.

Ps, I'm surprised you could get a playable frame rate on that R7 240, the R7 260x is on par give or take with the GTX750ti so the 240 is really down there.

I hope it goes well for me too haha.
And yes it seem im gonna get myself a 1050Ti or 1060 (gonna compare it latter) after im done with this problem.

I can get playable framerate after a bit of tweaking, a stable 50+fps when i play tomb raider (dx9 mode) at 720p (dont laugh at 720p haha), i couldnt find the 260x back then, also i kind of scared of a used card that's why i choose a brand new 240 yet it died sooo damn soon.

[Spider With Web]

☥ - CJ - původně napsal:

Powercolor is among the EU bargain brands, technically speaking.

I would avoid messing with Voltage, especially for those that are inexperienced in such matters.
-

But yeah, take it back to the shop, but i wouldnt mention messing with the voltage.

I just hope they would cover my problem *sad

And yeah, the gain are not worth it yet why i still do it.

Yea I wont mention about the OC either haha

Big Boom Boom původně napsal:

Biggest newbie mistake, GPU sensor is only on chip not on VRM or VRAM. So when it says it's cool, it's only the chip.

Reviewers always use thermal imaging for this very reasons. Why did EVGA scrap ACX cooler for iCX is also for this reason. ACX with Pascal exposed quite a lot of people with inadequate cooling for everything apart from the chip, especially when OC. They actually skimmed quite a bit on VRM and VRAM unlike virtually all other brand. They gone overboard with iCX to make sure that never happens again.

I just hope i knew about that earlier now my card are 75% dead, still i regret buying this card.

Bad_Motha původně napsal:

OC'ing a CPU or GPU without a Voltage change rarely ever really will require MORE power. If so, it's usually very small. Due to the fact that CPUs and GPUs have a max supported TDP output range with maybe approx additional + or - 1-5%
You can't really force it to go beyond that. Not without changing things regarding Power/Voltages... and that has a brick wall of it's own; from the CPU, from the Motherboard, and also from the Power Supply.


You could also RMA the GPU and never buy PowerColor again.
You can always find Sapphire or MSI AMD GPUs for basically same pricing as PowerColor or PNY; and with a wider range of model selections, coolers, clocks, etc... Far better brands as well overall, not just their redesign offers but also support.

I should learn more, in the mean time i wouldnt want to mess with Clock/Power anymore, 2 month are surreal!

[Spider With Web]

upcoast původně napsal:

BTW, I just tried to rma a faulty visiontek R9 280x and visiontek has lived up to its' reputation and not honored the warranty so you might want to avoid visiontek in the future also.

I hope it goes well for PowerColor haha
I'll take it mind, thank you!

[Big Boom Boom]

You should read GPU reviews more, they tend to do tear down review on the components. I picked up Gigabyte G1 GTX 1080 as they are one of the cheaper GTX 1080 that has a solid cooling on every components (and a little RGB, apparently the almost identical Windforce model cheap out on RGB and backplate/VRM cooling).

[Spider With Web]

Big Boom Boom původně napsal:

You should read GPU reviews more, they tend to do tear down review on the components. I picked up Gigabyte G1 GTX 1080 as they are one of the cheaper GTX 1080 that has a solid cooling on every components (and a little RGB, apparently the almost identical Windforce model cheap out on RGB and backplate/VRM cooling).

Yes i will now! Wouldnt want something like this happen again, thanks!

[Spider With Web]

Big Boom Boom původně napsal:

You should read GPU reviews more, they tend to do tear down review on the components. I picked up Gigabyte G1 GTX 1080 as they are one of the cheaper GTX 1080 that has a solid cooling on every components (and a little RGB, apparently the almost identical Windforce model cheap out on RGB and backplate/VRM cooling).

Yes i will now! Wouldnt want something like this happen again, thanks!

[Big Boom Boom]

Read review on thermal imaging, tear down and price. Cards using same chip perform similar so just ignore it. The meat is in the PCB, VRM, cooler and aesthetics.