On Tuesday, June 30 I purchased WC3 reforged. On the third mission in both my monitors went black. No amount of restarting or unplugged/replugging components and cables restored signal. I removed the video card and booted up using my integrated graphics and verified that everything was OK with the rest of the PC. I contacted the company and have already sent the card back for replacement under warranty. There were no previous symptoms of the card failing.
So, my question is, is this just a bad coincidence, or could WC3: Reforged have bricked my card? How could this be avoided when the new card is installed?
I run Windows 10 on an Asus Z87-A motherboard with an intel i7-4770k CPU. The Video card was a PNY GeForce 760. Happy to provide any more details if it would help.
Yes it could have bricked your card. However this would be indirectly as a result of the card being faulty and failing under that type of workload. The type of workload is perfectly within spec and so a well engineered GPU will cope with it without issue. Hardware and software developers spend a lot of effort to prevent user level applications from being able to damage hardware and nowhere in the graphics APIs that control the GPUs is any function offered that would intentionally cause such problems.
This is very much similar to StarCraft II and the 8800 GT. StarCraft II used to be fatal for NVIDIA 8800 GT graphic cards due to an inherit design defect. No one knows how many were killed but at least several hundred by my estimates. However that was because the GPU VRM of the 8800 GT has insufficient cooling and the GPU itself did not have power limits like modern GPUs have. For comparison my GTX 760, now an old GPU, can run StarCraft II in passive mode for hours without issue thanks to design improvements. At worst its framerate drops once thermal limits are hit.
StarCraft II was one of the first games I know to efficiently use programmable shaders in such a way as to maximize GPU hardware utilization. It did so to such an extent that the early third generation with programmable shaders GPUs were physically not built to cope with. Modern GPUs will (should) cope with these loads perfectly since in response to the increased power usage from the efficient shaders the GPU will lower boost clock speed as it bounces off the power or thermal limits.
Make sure the GPU is operating with stock (as specified by Nvidia reference cards) power limits. Make sure it is not factory overclocked. Make sure it is running the latest GPU BIOS from the manufacturer.
Also make sure your PSU is functioning reasonably well. As the GPU is the highest power user in a computer it is often the most susceptible to power quality issues from the PSU. Avoid very cheap PSUs and go for gold or better ratted units of 500 watts or more depending on your GPU. For something like a RTX 2080 Super a PSU of 750 W ratting or more from a reputable manufacturer is recommended. Lower end GPUs can get away with less. Last year I had a cheap (unratted) PSU fail after a few years and literally kill my motherboard.
The manufacture will replace these cards?! They are 7 years old. Unfortunately I would say they are reaching end of life and so them failing will occur sooner rather than later.
The manufacture will replace these cards?! They are 7 years old. Unfortunately I would say they are reaching end of life and so them failing will occur sooner rather than later.
It’s actually the second one I’ve had. The first failed in late 2018 (bought late 2013). It has a lifetime warranty, which doesn’t seem to be the case for current cards out there.
I appreciate your lengthy reply. Thanks
It raises questions where they will get the replacement considering NVIDIA probably does not make the GPU die anymore and the last production lines for it would have shut down many years ago. However one certainly cannot argue with that service, wow!
Fortunately even something like a GTX 1650 Super will make a good replacement for it if they might have to substitute more modern GPUs.