PNY refusing to RMA 5070ti OC

[u/Late_Accountant_3641]

Not really sure what my options are, one of the primary games I play is path of exile 2 and the GPU crashes every twenty minutes in the game during mapping (high intensity moments in the game).

I've done hours of trouble shooting and the issue remains. The card passes all stress tests fine and no issues in other games.

I've shipped the card to pny (at my cost, shipping is expensive nowadays) and they said it passes their generic stress tests and returned it; however the card continues to black screen and crash every 5 to twenty minutes in poe2. I've tried another 5070ti and 9070xt and multiple different drivers etc and only this card has the issues on multiple driver versions.

Card was bought new from Best buy, but is out of there return window.

Not really sure what I can do? Am I just meant to toss 1k or sell it for parts or something on eBay? How can the warranty on a 1k item be so lackluster

[u/Ratjack]

I had exact same thing happen with my 3080. Constant black screen crashing. MSI said it was fine twice. Ended up being my PSU going out.

[u/Smith6612]

Just making sure... did you try a new, high quality power supply?

[u/AutomaticActuary7717 → u/Smith6612]

If it was the PSU, it would be strange because he said he tried another 5070 Ti with no problems.

[u/Nexicated → u/AutomaticActuary7717]

Depending on clocks and voltage the transient spikes can vary. If he tested another card that is running on lower settings it could be possible. Undervolting the problem card could rule that out tho

[u/Late_Accountant_3641 → u/Smith6612]

I've not; will try under volting today and will also buy a new PSU to try to confirm that as I don't have one available

[u/Noticeably-F-A-T- → u/Late_Accountant_3641]

While trying another PSU, try another cable as well. I had issues with one of those stupid cables and another one fixed the problem completely.

[u/Dwoge34 → u/Noticeably-F-A-T-]

I would not try another cable. unless it is the cable that came with the power supply, it could be mixed and matched around and could fry your gpu.

[u/KxrmaJunkie]

Doesn't sound like an issue with the gpu tbh

[u/V4nKw15h]

POE 2 had serious driver crash issue with Nvidia cards for the first year or more. They knew it, and were open about it. Their work around was to freeze the game, restart the driver, and continue. Eventually they found a solution and made a blog post about it.

Here's an AI summary of that incident:

Path of Exile 2 NVIDIA crashes have been resolved by GeForce Driver 610.88, released on July 28, 2026, and Patch 0.5.5b.

The issue stemmed from a driver bug where the shader heap size was insufficient for the game's demands in DirectX 12 mode. Developer Grinding Gear Games shipped a complete PC setup to NVIDIA to prove the reproducibility of the crash, leading NVIDIA to increase the internal parameter specifically for the game. 

---

I mention that in case that is the trigger for your crashes. You might be able to switch to Vulkan to avoid them. Or maybe you made some manually shader cache tweaks that are causing them.

[u/trueskill]

I’d say use something like ddu and remove the nvidia and amd gpu drivers you have installed. Then do a clean install.

Also maybe try a slight underclock and see if it’s stable too.

[u/Late_Accountant_3641 → u/trueskill]

Tried both of these already and neither worked unfortunately

[u/shredmasterJ]

If it’s just crashing on that one game, it’s most likely the game not the GPU.

[u/Redditor134]

Download AI terminal like gemini or whatever and have it review your event logs driver logs etc and it can tell you exactly why its crashing alot of the times. Could point you in the right direction of whats going wrong.

[u/Late_Accountant_3641 → u/Redditor134]

Oh I've done this, spent probably ten hours with Claude, pasting logs, changing BIOS settings etc. Claude thinks it's a binning issue were the card as poe2 has immediate ramp up times compared to a lot of the standard stress tests. 

I've exhausted AI at this point, and it's recommendation is to simply get a new card or keep trying to work with pny 

[u/Redditor134 → u/Late_Accountant_3641]

You say pasting logs. I have it in the terminal where it just looks for everything relevant and grabs it, itself. If you havent given one access to your actual system yet i still think thats worth a shot since its still possible you just havent given it ALL the relevant info

[u/Late_Accountant_3641 → u/Redditor134]

It had all the system codes etc. I don't feel comfortable granting AI that much access to my system as I do have personal information there as well. 

But I've gone above and beyond what a consumer should go through regarding such an issue, and any data/logs/command output/applications etc AI requested I run I did and shared the results

[u/MyLittlePwny2]

Run a memory stress test and disable all cpu overclocks or undervolts. You can also try disabling xmp and try running the memory at Jedec (stock) settings.

This sounds like a system memory issue more than anything.

[u/Due_Initiative3879 → u/MyLittlePwny2]

Could be the xmp profile too

[u/BuHoGPaD]

Have you tried this card in other systems? 

[u/Affectionate_Oil28]

Don't sell it and don't ship it again yet. A 5070 Ti from Best Buy is a 3 year PNY warranty from the receipt. Best Buy's return window being closed doesn't end it. PNY's own terms say they test it and you pay freight which is why the first round came back "passes our stress test."

The piece they don't have is the comparison. Same PC, same driver, a different 5070 Ti and a 9070 XT run PoE2 and this serial blacks out in 5-20 minutes. Open a new ticket, don't reuse the old one, and send the receipt, both serials, a short phone video of the black screen, and an HWiNFO log that runs through the crash (core clock, power, hotspot). Ask them to test it in PoE2 or to replace it on that result and get the answer in writing before you pay to ship it again. Phone number on the warranty page is 1-800-234-4597. A second shipment with no new agreement comes back the same way.

If the credit card you used adds an extended warranty or you're still inside its purchase protection window file that with PNY's no fault email attached. Those claims are built for a manufacturer that tested it and sent it back. Best Buy only helps here if you bought Geek Squad or their protection plan.

One thing left to try while that ticket sits: a hard power limit, not another small underclock. PNY's OC cards ship boosted and a limit around 80% stops the spike a slight clock offset doesn't. If the maps hold at 80% and die at 100% that's the binning story in a form you can hand them. Vulkan instead of DX12 and Reflex off are the last PoE2 toggles worth trying. The general PoE2 Nvidia black screen bug was a driver issue and a second 5070 Ti that doesn't do it means this isn't that bug.

If a supervisor still closes it after the comparison the next stop is the card issuer and then a BBB or state attorney general complaint. The warranty doesn't transfer so an eBay sale dumps a card you can still claim.

[u/Late_Accountant_3641 → u/Affectionate_Oil28]

This is a direct quote from their support during the RMA process: 

"Thank you for providing the additional details regarding the crashes in Path of Exile 2. Please note that our graphics cards are evaluated using NVIDIA-certified testing procedures. We do not perform testing based on individual games or specific gameplay scenarios, including extended endgame mapping in Path of Exile 2. We understand that the issue has not occurred with other graphics cards and appears to be isolated to this particular game. However, our evaluation must follow our established testing procedures. If the card passes our testing, we cannot confirm a hardware defect based solely on the reported game-specific crashes. We appreciate your understanding."

I will look at the hard power limit tomorrow, thank you for that suggestion. I've tried the under clock with no success.

[u/Due_Initiative3879 → u/Late_Accountant_3641]

Have you tried running other games do you have the issue on any game or is it specific to that?

[u/Affectionate_Oil28 → u/Late_Accountant_3641]

One short reply you can try:

"This card crashes in Path of Exile 2 on this PC. A second 5070 Ti and a 9070 XT do not. Your test does not load that failure. Please escalate to a supervisor and replace the card or send a prepaid label. I won't pay to ship it for a repeat of the same bench."

Leave their quote under that. The line about refusing to test a game is the part you attach everywhere else.

Another test to try. Put the core clock offset back to 0 so it isn't stacked on the underclock that already failed. Set the power limit to 80% in Afterburner or the NVIDIA app, apply, and run the same maps for a full hour. If it holds you can play and you have a result for them: stock power crashes, 80% doesn't. If it still blacks out the crash isn't the boost spike.

Call the credit card company you used to paid with and ask whether a manufacturer refusal during the original warranty is covered. A lot of extended warranty benefits only start after PNY's 3 years so read the guide before counting on a check. If you're still inside a purchase protection window this email is the denial they ask for.

Take the same email to the Best Buy you bought it from. The return window is over. Ask them as the seller to help with a manufacturer who won't look at a failure you can reproduce. If a supervisor waves you off then file a BBB complaint and your state attorney general's consumer complaint with the quote, the receipt, and the other card results.

[u/Sharpz93]

is it just PoE 2 or do other games do this too? I remember the devs released a video about having to ship a PC to NVIDIA so they can recreate the crashes due to shader and map compilation.

[u/Late_Accountant_3641 → u/Sharpz93]

Just poe2, no other games

[u/BradyBum → u/Late_Accountant_3641]

Have you tried underclocking?

[u/Late_Accountant_3641 → u/BradyBum]

Yes, 300mhz, no change

[u/MyLittlePwny2 → u/Late_Accountant_3641]

If you've done -300 on core and the card passes stress tests, then problem isnt your card. Atleast not directly. Most likely your CPU or ram are unstable. Try disabling XMP entirely and just put the cpu back to stock. Run the game for a while? If that resolves the problem then youll have to tune your memory/voltages manually.

[u/BradyBum → u/Late_Accountant_3641]

Whats ur ram and cpu? Have u tried turning graphics to medium/1080p.

[u/jbshell]

Sounds like a software issue maybe. Tried reinstalling the OS, board BIOS up to date? GPU slot speed in BIOS manually set to the highest speed allowed(instead of auto)?

[u/Late_Accountant_3641 → u/jbshell]

Yep, done all this, tried auto, gen5, gen4 issue remains. 

Did full OS wipe, full BIOS update, and maybe 4 different Nvidia driver versions

[u/renzbo19 → u/Late_Accountant_3641]

this could be a psu issue, try borrowing one from a friend of yours

[u/daslows → u/renzbo19]

How could this be a power supply issue if he is testing with another 5070 TI and not having the same issue?

[u/renzbo19 → u/daslows]

worth the try anyways, op basicallt exhausted all available options software side, wouldnt hurt changing the psu to see if it fixes the problem

[u/daslows → u/renzbo19]

If it was a psu that hardware fault would be showing in more than one game and also on other GPUs.

It’s a waste of time and money (if he doesn’t have another psu).

It very well could be the gpu, that can be seen with stability issues that only show in certain games. It’s a shitty problem to have and on that will likely never get resolved through RMA.

[u/Late_Accountant_3641 → u/renzbo19]

Wouldn't that show with other cards? Psu is basically brand new, high rated on that PSU tier list chart and 1,2kW

[u/Ludamister → u/Late_Accountant_3641]

Not necessarily. Silicon lottery differs between cards of even the same SKU. Your ASIC quality can determine if you need far more voltage to run the same clocks, have more aggressive transient spikes, etc.

[u/sporkeh01 → u/Ludamister]

Yea id also recommend he ups the voltages ever so slightly to see if that stabilises it. A little 0.25mv across the board.

[u/sporkeh01 → u/Late_Accountant_3641]

Id try what the other guys suggesting. Up your voltage ever so slightly in afterburner and see if that settles it (e.g a positive offset).

It's possible your card hits a specific frequency during this specific game whereby it's not getting the voltage it needs Vs what stock gives it. If a specific frequency step was starving for voltage and causing crashes, this extra padding usually completely stabilizes it.

This would also explain passing benchmarks, other games, other cards are stable in your rig and PNYs own testing.

[u/KatieS2255]

Just a random GPU question that sometimes works, does this card have an OC/Silent mode switch on the card? If it does, swap it to whatever option you don’t normally use. Sometimes if a card has this the OC bios/driver is f-ed up and needs to be reinstalled or simply not used. This is a trick we sometimes use when a card is acting funny for no reason. I often see this with ASUS cards but I’m unfamiliar with PNY and if they have it (I’ve owned PNY, I simply don’t remember)

[u/imaginary_num6er]

You’re not using Intel 13th or 14th gen chips?

[u/Late_Accountant_3641 → u/imaginary_num6er]

9950x3d

[u/damageundone]

I have this card and the same issue until I changed to gen3 pci express in the motherboard. I see you changed yours but just sharing my experience. I literally went through every fix until I found that and it worked. Only poe2 was crashing as well. It would recover in game if I let it go, it wouldn’t crash to desktop. I would hit escape and just wait 10-15 seconds, in the event viewer it would have the gpu crash and recovery errors. Oh, I also turned resizable bar ON.

[u/th3_shit_rebellion]

your motherboard pcue slot is dead, this happened to me in 2015 with my 980 lmao

[u/whitesnorlax]

this was happening to me and it turned out to be my psu going out.

i put in a new gpu and it was fine for a while but eventually crashed again.

swapped to a new psu and it was 100% fixed

[u/Obosratsya]

Sounds like PSU or mobo honestly.

Are you on Intel? If so and on 13th or 14th gen, update your bios asap. It will bring back stability if the crystals got damaged. My 13700k has been fine but I updated anyway. I turned off turbo boost to keep the CPU at base clocks for the duration of the update. I have a backup 13900 if anything but havent had to use it.

[u/Ceseuron]

If the card only misbehaves with one game, but works fine in other similarly graphic intensive games then the problem isn’t the GPU, it’s the game.

It sounds to me like the GPU isn’t actually crashing, you’re just hitting Windows Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR).

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/display/timeout-detection-and-recovery

You can increase the TDR delay via the registry to see if that helps:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/oneapi-toolkit/installation-guide-windows/latest/gpu-adjust-timeout-detection-and-recovery-setting.html

Does the card do this for all games or just PoE 2?