Trouble with GeForce GTX 970 Graphics Card?

After reading this forum, I ordered a GeForce GTX 970 card from Dell. The new card arrived today. After swapping the old Quadro 2000 with the new GTX970 card in my Dell T5600 workstation, Rhino V5 graphics responded much faster. I was impressed for the first few minutes until the screen went completely blank. It appears that new card does not like Rhino and shuts down completely (ie. black screen). The only way to wakeup the card is by power reset the workstation. The driver is up to date. Before returning the card back to Dell, has anyone experienced the same, and how did you fixed the problem ? Thank you

Hi, a complete freeze could be due to multiple reasons, some of them hardware and some possibly software.
1st few things I could think of for you to test:

  1. Monitor the 970 GPU temperature using a tool like GPU-Z. (If running very hot then check fan and also PC case fans)
  2. Install the Nvidia Geforce drivers using the [ ] CLEAN INSTALL option (Right At the bottom of the 2nd install window)
  3. Are you using 64Bit windows? 970s have lots of onboard ram which leaves very little address space for the PC on a 32 bit system.
  4. Have you tried the 970 in another pc? Michael VS

This can be a power issue as the 970 requirements are:
Power Connector : 2x6-pin
Power Consumption ; 148W

Both 6 pins should come directly from the power supply.
Do they, or are you using a splitter?

What is the power supply in it now?-and how old is the machine.
okay i googlelyed it …probably 825watt.

Yeah, did a search too and that machine comes with either 820W or 635W.
And the 970 GTX has a minimum 500 W power supply “need”, so neither of those power supplies should be a problem, unless it is a dual xeon machine with many drives that use a lot of power. (But the Xeon doesn’t use more than 100W so it should still be ok)

Michael, Jorgen, and Chris.

Thank all for the suggestions.

Michael - thank you for directing me to GPU-Z utility. As the temp and fan speed readings go up, the card fan remains idle and does not spin. The card shuts down eventually (i.e. blank screen). I suspect the card is faulty and have left a message with PNY.

The card is connected to Dell T5600’s two 6-pin terminals. The system is running 64bit Win 7 OS with 2 Xeon’s. The power supply label says 6amps, so 6amps X 120VAC = 720W, which should be enough.

Will keep the group posted once I heard back from PNY.

Happy New Year !

If the power supply somehow crapped out by hooking up that card…I think it depends on the quality of the overload protection.
-i would really crack that dell power supply open…void the warranty regardless… take a really look at the build quality…and to see if anything is amiss- I am guessing only but it’s probably a 90$ power supply.
A real quality power supply is number one.
“The worst thing is a power supply operating on the edge, because efficiency drops, the thing runs hotter, the capacitors age faster.”
…and it ends up sending crap to all you components.

I only had to talk to one PNY technical support rep, and collectively we determined that the new card was defective (the cooling fan was dead on arrival). PNY said I had two options -

  • Return the defective one directly to them and they will send a new one in about two weeks after they received the bad one.
  • Return to Dell Canada where I purchased from and ask for a replacement.

I went with the second option because of the wait time. Man, it turned out to be a very frustrating experience, but I persevered.

Spent at least 6 hours over a two day period on the phone mostly on-hold waiting from one rep to another. I must have explained the situation to at least 10 Dell reps, bouncing back and forth by them between Dell Canada, Dell USA, and some outsourced reps in India or maybe in Philippines. The new card arrived within 3 days and now everything is working as it should be. Now, I will send the bad one back to Dell Canada with a free shipping label.

Lessons learned

  • This forum is great! Without it I would not know GPU-Z. Thank you Mvyess. It helped me to troubleshoot and be able to converse intelligently with PNY.
  • Dell is one big cluster fxxx. Great service, if you can find the right person to deal with.
  • Be wary about buying computer parts online. Had I bought it from eBay, I am not sure if there would be a resolution.

Rhino is now running faster with GeForce GTX 970 graphic card than Quadro 2000. How fast? I have not quantified that yet.

Thank you all and bye for now.

Hi @gchliu, Glad you got it sorted out. Regards Michael VS