My friend told me that his graphics card might be broken. It has been displaying artifacts. It happened before, and he managed to fix it by blowing it with a hairdryer. It happens occasionally.
I asked him how long he had been using it, and he said it was about a 14-year-old graphics card.
He is currently using an integrated graphics CPU. It's just a temporary solution.
A couple of days later, he gave me the graphics card to take a look. I opened it up for a simple test, cleaned the dust, and wiped the gold fingers. Out of laziness, I didn't test it on the machine (dodged a bullet?).
The next day, when he came to pick it up, the problem was still there. I asked him to take a picture and send it to me. When I saw the picture, I realized that the so-called artifacts were not the kind of colorful garbled text that I understood. His artifacts were some horizontal white dots. Another symptom was that it would black out. Hearing about the blackouts made me think it was a power supply issue with the graphics card. He couldn't use it anymore and asked me to help him sell it as second-hand. I agreed.
The next day, when I got the card, I thought a broken card would be around 60. A good card would be 150 or higher. I couldn't tell if the graphics card itself had power issues without an oscilloscope; I could only check if the core was shorted, but there might be other methods. I didn't see anything in the videos, so I decided to directly test it in my big case. That big case has a 450-watt power supply. I generally keep my computer builds under 450 watts. I think anything more is just wasting electricity.
However, if you're using a new, powerful computer to make money, like a 1000-watt power supply, and you're increasing your earning efficiency, that's understandable. Or if you have money and nowhere to spend it, buying a 1000-watt computer to play games every day, providing emotional value and promoting family harmony, is also fine.
If you say you bought a 1000-watt computer because it generates a lot of heat, and to keep warm in winter, you connected a ventilation pipe to the case's exhaust to warm your hands, I can only say that's quite clever.
Back to the point. I took out my old Sapphire graphics card; that card lock was really tight, and the gap between the graphics card and the CPU cooler was about 4 cm. This graphics card is an old antique with three fans and a backplate. But its performance is not even as good as AMD's integrated graphics. The law of diminishing returns for discrete graphics is also becoming more pronounced; they are getting smaller and stronger. When I was using the iPhone 4, I said I would wait until phones could run StarCraft 1 before I changed my phone. About 4.5 to 5 years later, someone actually installed Windows on a phone and played StarCraft.
I also wished that when integrated graphics on desktop computers could play StarCraft 2, I would upgrade my computer. I did upgrade, but it was just for energy efficiency; I got a second-hand i3 10100 CPU as an enhancement. However, the GPU was weak. I could only play Warcraft 3. Playing Civilization VI felt not so smooth. But it's good to reduce gaming time.
Continuing on. The gap was small, so I usually find a complete pencil to poke it; you can use any tool that can control the force well. I feel using wood is a bit safer. I opened the lock to remove the graphics card and replaced it with my friend's graphics card. It powered on, and after ten minutes everything was normal. I thought I would run a stress test. I started it up and ran it for a minute, then remembered my power supply's wattage and quickly checked my phone's JD order; it was indeed 450 watts. I bought it in 2014. I quickly closed the stress test. I found no issues. After watching for about ten minutes without problems, I contacted my friend, saying the graphics card was fine, and it was likely his power supply that was broken. The graphics card could sell for more money now.
I put my graphics card back in. I powered on and watched the Civilization VI tutorial. I was originally going to shut down and leave, but while checking information, I saw an unfinished label and clicked to continue watching, which took about ten minutes to finish.
As it was nearing the end, my computer screen also showed the snowflakes from my friend's photo; the screen went black for a second, then blacked out again for a second, but it felt like it lasted a bit longer, then blacked out for about two seconds. I picked up my phone to record the screen to show my friend. I also checked the case, and it was indeed my own graphics card. My friend saw it and said it looked exactly the same as his. He told me to shut down quickly while it was still lit, or the time would get longer. So I shut it down.
I wondered if there was a virus, so I booted up and scanned for ten minutes; there were no issues.
I thought the power supply was damaged.
Should I buy another second-hand power supply? I had previously bought a 550-watt one.
In summary: my friend's computer only needs integrated graphics to work; CPU power, motherboard power, and hard drive power can stabilize it. This indicates that those circuit parts are normal. His normal operation doesn't mean mine is also normal; I can only swap and test it. My integrated graphics using a 550-watt power supply is also a waste. It was just right to test the overall performance of the second-hand 550-watt power supply. The worst-case scenario for swapping power supplies is that neither works; the best is that both work.
The 450-watt SeaSonic power supply is still semi-modular. I swapped it into the integrated graphics computer, and it felt quite refreshing. It powered on, and after an hour of standby, there were no abnormalities.
The 550-watt power supply was installed in my old discrete graphics computer, and after running a stress test for half an hour, there were no issues. The only problem was the fan noise. Now when I see fans, I think of maintenance issues, which is also why I'm considering integrated graphics. Integrated graphics usually have three fans: one case fan, one CPU fan, and one power supply fan (if you switch to a transformer type, you can reduce one; some say it might boom). AMD's box size is good for everything. However, I feel the cooling is relatively poor; modifying the cooling would require cutting the case. Additionally, I prefer mechanical hard drives. So I still want to buy an AMD integrated graphics desktop. However, mobile integrated graphics are indeed strong and cost-effective. All of the above considerations are for second-hand items, not brand new ones. I only look at brand new for mechanical hard drives.
The LED temperature of the graphics card is about 40 degrees, and all three fans have started running. If it's on standby or watching videos, only two fans start. It's about 20 degrees.
After all this tinkering, it seems I saved myself from buying another second-hand power supply. I'll observe for now. It feels like I'm not fully released; it's just a temporary reprieve. Haha.