GPU Dying?

[Dibsey]

Greetings everyone. I’ve come here in desperation and on behalf of my 13yr old son who’s beloved (but old) gaming PC is having issues.
Basically on start-up white blocks appear all over the screen, the PC tries to load and then freezes to a black screen. The monitor goes into stand-by which suggest a GFX issue I guess?

My question(s) (assuming I’m right that the GPU is sick) is can I swap the current GPU GeForce GTX770 for something that wont cost the earth like a GTX660? Or is it even worth it? Would it be a simple swap or am I likely to encounter issues?

I can’t post the specs as we cannot get the PC to start and therefore run Speccy or something similar.

I’m on a very tight budget with a very sad teenager! Any suggestion or help would be very gratefully received!

[Rustys]

What is the make and model of the PSU
Age of the system (parts if different)
What are the rest of the specs of the system

[Dibsey]

The PSU is a Corsair CX600
I’ve managed to also ascertain the spec and date as below.
Build date was December 2013 (Chillblast PC’s)
CPU - i5-4670k @3.4ghz
16GB Ram
Motherboard - Asus Z87-C

[Dibsey]

Just to add something. I’ve managed to get into the BIOS(?) and using the integrated graphics the screen flicker and white squares have gone. I can however now see that the CPU is running at a crazy 88 Degrees Celsius
Even using the iGPU the PC is still failing to load beyond the log-in screen. I’m not confident that this old PC has much chance!

[Rustys]

using the integrated graphics the screen flicker and white squares have gone.

That show there is a issue with the graphics card.

CPU is running at a crazy 88 Degrees Celsius

Maybe about time to remove the old and apply new thermal paste.

When was the last time the dust was cleaned from the system properly?

Build date was December 2013 (Chillblast PC’s)

Things do wear out.

Even using the iGPU the PC is still failing to load beyond the log-in screen. I’m not confident that this old PC has much chance!

Maybe a good cleaning and thermal paste might help. There could also be Hard Drive failure.

The biggest issue is the parts are old and how long before they start to fail.

[hackerballs]

agree with cleaning a Re thermal paste.

That PC should run good if you had a better GPU. No, don’t buy a 660. Too bad you don’t live near me, I would sell you a 1060 6GB cheap.

That you only have 2GB of GPU Memory, is your problem for gaming. Both 770 and 660 have only 2GB so either of them is no good for todays games. Try to buy a card with at least 6 GB memory and his PC would run that fine. I would not go higher than a 1060 or similar. To go higher than that would require a new PC.

Unfortunately in today’s market, GPU’s are very hard to find cheap. The price of all cards have shot up in the last year due to shortages. It’s not going to get better anytime soon.

https://www.newegg.com/msi-geforce-g...quicklink=true

cheapest one I could find.

[Dibsey]

To complicate matters the PC will now not boot up due to a fan error! I’ve tried bypassing it but still no joy. All in all I think it’s time to retire this PC. It clearly wants to be left alone to die in peace!

I might have a try at the suggestions when I have the time (and patience) but for now I think a refurbished PC is the way to go!
I’ve pinpointed one that will play all of my sons games on at least recommended settings so hopefully that will suffice for a couple of years.

Thank you fellas for the sound advice and support. It’s really helped me decide the way to proceed and what course of action to take. (y)

[Rustys]

When you get ready to try again lets us know.

but for now I think a refurbished PC is the way to go!

For me it would depend on who refurbished it.