gigabyte 970 windforce crashes PC

[Cuntstantin]

Hello,


My friend has been having some issues with an used card he bought, a gigabyte 970 windforce.

Everytime the card is under load, specifically when playing hellblade senua's sacrifice his pc crashes, he gets a white screen and has no other option than to reboot his system. That happens anywhere from 10 to even 2 minutes of gameplay.
He has a cheap 600w PSU, so I think this may be the issue right here, but the thing is that I tried the card on my pc and I only have a 430w Seasonic S12II PSU (plus more 2 more fans and an extra HDD) and the card worked just fine with no crashes, I even tried a game that ran on the UE4 like hellblade, terminator resistance and I had no issues, also tried need for speed heat and crysis 3 and again, no crashes.

The temps on the card are just fine, without changing any fan settings the card doesn't get any hotter than 57°C, although that's because I changed the thermal pads on the memory, before it got as hot as 90°C since the original pads became pretty much a sticky paste.
While I'm not excluding the fact that the hot memory may have caused permanent damage, could it be that his 600w power supply can't handle the 970? He also has a 1050 and that runs just fine, no issues and no crashes.

I know that PSUs are important but I never thought  a 600w cheap PSU could be less efficient than a decent 430w PSU, could this be the case here?

[LienusLateTips]

5 minutes ago, Cuntstantin said:

I know that PSUs are important but I never thought  a 600w cheap PSU could be less efficient than a decent 430w PSU, could this be the case here?

*less output. Efficiency = less loss of power when converting from AC -> DC.

 

Yes. Yes, it can. That's why almost everyone who knows what they're talking about PSUs will strongly recommend a lower wattage PSU that's high quality vs a low quality one.

[Vishera]

12 minutes ago, Cuntstantin said:

I know that PSUs are important but I never thought  a 600w cheap PSU could be less efficient than a decent 430w PSU, could this be the case here?

Cheap PSUs are not reliable and can't handle the load as good as a good PSU,due to the low quality and cheapness of the unit.

[Cuntstantin]

30 minutes ago, LienusLateTips said:

*less output. Efficiency = less loss of power when converting from AC -> DC.

 

Yes. Yes, it can. That's why almost everyone who knows what they're talking about PSUs will strongly recommend a lower wattage PSU that's high quality vs a low quality one.

 

27 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Cheap PSUs are not reliable and can't handle the load as good as a good PSU,due to the low quality and cheapness of the unit.

Usually if the PSU can't handle a component shouldn't it just shut down the PC though, or a white screen crash is also possible?
I'm not very familiar with these situations