Something is wrong with my gpu, is it fixable/salvageable?

Diagnosing and Troubleshooting GPU Artifacts: Is Your Graphics Card Still Salvageable?

Experiencing visual anomalies on your PC can be concerning, especially when they appear suddenly and persist despite troubleshooting efforts. If you’re noticing horizontal lines across your display, particularly on the upper half of your screen, it might indicate underlying graphics card issues. This article walks you through understanding these symptoms and exploring potential solutions to determine whether your GPU can be repaired or if it’s time for a replacement.

Understanding the Symptoms

A common sign of GPU trouble is the appearance of horizontal lines that stretch across the display. In this case, the lines are approximately the width of a pinky finger, spread across the top half of the monitor. They are staggered rather than aligned in a straight row and appear as colored streaks—mixing spectrum colors rather than pure black or white—with a one-pixel height. Such artifacts can indicate hardware stress, overheating, or impending failure of the GPU.

Initial Troubleshooting Steps

1. Driver Reinstallation:
   The first step often involves reinstalling graphics drivers to eliminate software-related issues. Using tools like Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), you can cleanly remove existing drivers and then install the latest version compatible with your GPU. In this case, the user reinstalled NVIDIA’s GeForce drivers for an RTX 2060 Super, with the GPU branded by Zotac Gaming.

2. Assessing Software Impact:
   Not all visual issues are caused by drivers. Testing various applications can help determine if the problem persists across software or is confined to specific programs. For example, the user noted that signing into Windows/ Microsoft services remains unaffected by the visual glitches, implying that the issue might be hardware-related rather than a driver or software glitch.

3. Monitoring Device Manager Warnings:
   Hardware devices in Windows Device Manager can provide clues. In this scenario, a yellow warning triangle next to the NVIDIA RTX device indicates a potential problem, such as driver conflicts, hardware faults, or resource issues.

Additional Diagnostic Steps

• Check Physical Connections:
  Ensure that the graphics card is securely seated in its PCIe slot and that all power connectors are properly attached.

• Monitor Temperatures and Usage:
  Use hardware monitoring tools (like MSI Afterburner or HWMonitor) to track GPU temperature, clock speeds, and memory usage. Overheating or thermal throttling can cause artifacting.

• **Run Hardware