Is my gpu dying?

I have the 425m, OCed to 772mhz when I game, been stable for over 3months. Lately games(HoN, WoW) would run fine for a bit then starts lagging horribly. EVGA ingame monitor shows clock downed to 222mhz but the temperature stays fine at ~70. Exiting the game does not fix it, everything gets a good 5seconds delay, restoring the default clock does not help either, has be be rebooted. Tried to game with default clock and the problem still occurred. And sometimes my screen would just blackout and never come back, had to force reboot.

Are these signs of gpu dying?

 

Hey there, try to contact dell. Just don't tell them that you messed up with clock speeds. And the clock speed you were running cannot be handled by a 425M, although the temps might be fine, and don't forget to get those dust filters on the intake back, as they won't service it if anything goes wrong.

Anything over 730/740MHz would be unstable for this card.

This can be caused by voltage increase too. So quickly call dell if you're in warranty, and just tell'em the problem, they'll replace the mobo, and you'd be fine.

EDIT: You chose a great place to post questions, as the dell forum is overpopulated.

 

I already have a replacement in production due to other issues(the usb port on the back stopped working, and mild currents running across the palmrest when connected to AC power), the gpu problem just came up yesterday.

Just trying to figure out if I killed my gpu by OC it too much. It has been stable at 772for over 3months though, but I will take your advice and not OC my replacement too much.

And yeah I thought I'd get an answer faster and better here than the dell forum

 

First off, you are card is NOT dying. Instead nVidia GPU's has a failsafe system where in case where instability arises, the card failsafes to its low-performance 3D core and memory clocks. This behavior is normal as it has happened to me over numerous occasions back during the era of the 8400M GS (and boy did I OC that sucker to the limit and to this day still is working and kicking, yet it is retired to the point of just running on stock speeds).

The reason it does that is not due to temperatures. (70C is pretty normal actually for a GPU these days) but it is because you are playing the fringes of the GPU's upper bound clocks and fortunately, the GPU knows when to failsafe when it feels uneasy.

Now you might feel like the laptop's been running fine for the last three months that way, but you must of not played games too often when it is OC'ed like that. The effects don't show until you make it max out its load from game rendering and the effects will show when you start pushing it. Having an OC stable is one thing as many OC's I have done in the past can be stable even on idle, but will falter when load starts to accumulate on it.

Is the GPU hurt? No. Should you get it replaced? If you can to be safe? Should I try to OC that high again? I don't think so.

Yeah, make sure to not mention Dell about any overclocking, and most technicians will repair for you with no problems. Also set everything back to stock, especially with mods.

Fortunately for you, you are getting a nifty replacement so yeah good luck with the OC on the new machine, but try to stick to the bounds of the 425M normal OC clock ranges to be safe.

 

Oh, and the replacement won't fix your issue of the current flowing through the palmrest. It's not the palmrest, but the matte trim bordering the palmrest and the touchpad - that's stinging when connected to AC power. After all, you can't do anything about the electric shocks.

And Star Forge is correct, your GPU's failsafes throttled it down to protect it from further damage. I'm also on stock clocks for a long time.

EDIT: Do tell me if the replacement fixes your electric shocks. I also get them at regular periods, especially when I'm bare-footed.

 

Oh okay, guess 772 is not a stable OC after all, will go light on it when I get the new machine.

And yes I will let you know if the new machine fixes the shock issue, though it's gonna be an xps 15 instead of 14.

 

Good luck with your next machine. The xps 15 does have better cooling than the xps 14, but for the mods you did - you'll have to do them again. And you're getting the 2nd gen processors, right? As well as the 540m gpu or 525m? Dude you're very lucky.

 

It's basically the same value as what I paid for the xps 14, except with better specs. i7 2630qm and gt540m, FHD display and blu-ray player plus backlit keyboard.

Don't really mind the repasting, shouldn't be too different from the xps 14, but it will be a pain to update all the drivers and move all the files.

 

hasn't there been reports that the latest driver throttles the card for no reason?

 

That's possible, I will roll back to the older driver and see if it fixes it.

Edit: It's indeed the driver, I rolled back to 270.61 and everything seem to be working fine again.