GPU issues / Graphics card problems

Hey guys, a close friend of mine is running into some trouble, but I wanted to run it by you all first to see what you think! He’s working with this setup:

ASUS ROG Maximus (MS-7577) (2 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 4 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR3 DIMM, Audio, dual gigabit lan, IEEE-1394)
Intel Core i5-2500K QuadCore, 2800 MHz (14 x 200)
System Memory 2048 MB (DDR3-1333 DDR3 )
sapphire r9 280x vapor x 3gb ddr5
320gbhdd

So, here’s the issue—it happens right on the graphics card while he's playing Middle-earth: shadow of Mordor. He says the whole computer just shuts itself off; all the indicator lights on the motherboard stay lit up like everything is fine, but the fans—on the power supply, the GPU, and even the CPU—just stop spinning entirely. Personally, my gut feeling is that it might be overheating, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. When he first got the card, he was running a 400W power supply, but he just upgraded to a 550W unit, so everyone keeps telling him it's a PSU issue, though I'm not so sure about that. During a stress test, his temps hit GPU Vram1 94 C, with the core at 85C and Vram2 at 78C, while the fan was spinning at about 60%. However, when he's just doing regular stuff—listening to music or watching movies—everything stays nice and cool around 35C, which I think is actually pretty great! So, the big question is: what's causing this? I already helped him swap out the drivers, but the problem persists. Looking forward to hearing from you guys!

When was the last time you actually sat down and cleaned the dust out of your PC?

It could be the power supply. A Chieftec unit isn't exactly built to handle a 280x; I can only imagine what kind of wattage we were dealing with back then when it was just 400W...

Is the GPU new or used? Based on the reviews, those temps are running a bit high—not quite in the danger zone yet, but still. You think it might have been used for crypto mining?

Regardless of what's causing this specific issue, that CPU is definitely going to bottleneck a 280x, and 2 GB of RAM is way too little for any modern gaming.

Total mess here 😬

Like darkbadger12 mentioned, I guess you really need at least another 2GB of RAM and a decent cooler if you're planning on actually overclocking that CPU. You've got a top-tier motherboard there, which just means you have a massive bottleneck for that R9 280X.

Your GPU temps are high, sure, but they seem manageable. It’s entirely possible something else is overheating—maybe the processor? Plus, that new power supply doesn't look like much of anything special.

Larry Ortiz5: It’s spotless—not even a speck of dust to be found.
Timothy Kim60: I know, I actually already set aside 4 GB of 1600MHz RAM for him, so he'll end up with 6 GB total. As for the processor, I did try to suggest an upgrade to him myself, but he told me he just doesn't have the budget for it right now.
crimsonstag84: I actually lent him my old LC POWER LC-CC-95 cooler, and the CPU is sitting pretty at a max of 26C-34C! Given those temps, how high do you think I can push the clock speed?

Head into your BIOS and bump the FSB from 200 up to 240, then set your CPU voltage to 1.350V before saving everything. You should probably run a stability test using Prime95 on the small FFT setting; I guess an hour or so would be enough. Just keep an eye on your temps—they really shouldn't climb past 60°C.

But before you even tackle that, I wonder if 😬