GPU Problems: No Display, Black Screens, Low Performance, Artifacts

No display output

With a discrete GPU installed, plugging the monitor into the motherboard's output is a very common mistake.

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1. Confirm the cable is in the GPU's ports (lower, at the expansion slots), not the board's, which serve the integrated GPU.→ Moving the cable resolves it.
2. Check all supplementary power connectors. A missing one can boot without display.
3. Ensure the card is fully seated with the slot latch engaged. One end easily stays proud.
4. Try another slot, and swap between DisplayPort and HDMI.

Screen goes black in games, then recovers

The driver has stopped responding and restarted. Usually power delivery or clock settings.

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1. Check for daisy-chained power. Cards needing multiple 8-pins should use separate cables.
2. Reset all overclocks, including vendor tools. Some cards ship factory-overclocked.
3. Lower the power limit to around 90% and retest. Improvement points to PSU headroom.
4. Roll back to an older driver. New releases sometimes introduce faults.

Lower frame rates than expected

Either the GPU is not running at full speed, or the CPU is the limit.

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1. Watch GPU utilisation in game. Above 90% is normal. Stuck at 50–70% means the CPU is the limit.Tool: An overlay such as MSI Afterburner
2. Check GPU temperature and clocks. High temperature with dropping clocks is a cooling problem.
3. Check the PCIe generation and lane count. Secondary slots are often limited to x4.
4. Set the power plan to high performance; on a laptop, connect to mains.

Visual artifacts on screen

Dots, lines, or colour blocks suggest a GPU memory or core fault — but a bad cable looks similar.

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1. Swap the display cable first. A faulty cable produces the same symptoms.
2. Check whether it appears in BIOS. If so, it is hardware rather than driver.
3. Remove all overclocks. Excessive memory clocks produce exactly this.
4. Check temperature; hot memory can become unstable.

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