Zotac 1080Ti AMP Extreme Artifacts & Missing nvapi.dll

[StormLightningSL]

Hi, everyone.

As the title says, since last night I suddenly have major screen artifacting, and the nvapi.dll file is suddenly missing according to the Zotac FireStorm app. As such I have not made any changes to my PC which might have caused that to happen.

Due to the missing nvapi.dll file, I can't even start the Zotac FireStorm app. Since the FireStorm app does not work, I am not able to change the GPU and Memory frequencies and check if the artifacting is because of the card getting old and not supporting the highest frequencies as well as before.

So, I uninstalled the old drivers (512.xx) using the latest DDU in safe mode, and installed the latest NVIDIA drivers 516.94 from TPU. Still missing nvapi.dll. I downloaded the latest nvapi.dll file from one of the "safe" DLL download sites, and put it in the \windows\system32 folder as it said to on the website. But, no go. The FireStorm app still says nvapi.dll is missing, and there is still a lot of screen artifacting.

I am very sure it is the graphics card that is giving errors. The rest of the system is mostly new(ish) compared to the GPU (what with the horrible GPU prices since a while, and no money to spare right now). The graphics card was purchased in 2014 and is out of warranty. Somehow, I feel I am doing something wrong.

What steps can I take to identify the possible issues? Could it be driver setup issues? Or, is the card just end-of-life? Is there anything I can do to salvage the situation?

 

[P4-630]

Zotac FireStorm app

Reinstall the app?

 

[AM4isGOD]

pretty sure you could uninstall the firestorm app, then try some games. The card will run at stock clocks, it does not need the app to work.

 

[Foxisfire]

I would try uninstalling firestorm and trying MSI afterburner instead. It worked with my EVGA 1080ti.

 

[qubit]

Before uninstalling anything, reboot the PC and go into the BIOS. If you see artefacting then the card is toast and needs to be replaced. Don't bother wasting any more time on it.

if not, uninstall the Firestorm app, reboot and see how it works. If ok, then reinstall Firestorm and it should work ok.

 

[StormLightningSL]

Over the weekend I was able to confirm that the card is kaput. Even booting into the BIOS is giving artifacts. I did try a few things, but nothing really worked. Yesterday, I talked with the local Zotac service center and they also said that the card is probably end-of-life and advised me to get a new one.

So, I've decided to accept that the card is done, and that I need to get a new one to last me another 4-5 years The PC is usable at this time, but the extreme artifacting gives me a headache after a while, so I'm using it just for emergencies.

I will be making a new post for advice on which card to buy next, and when would be the right time to go for it. Thank you all for your responses!

 

[StormLightningSL]

Before uninstalling anything, reboot the PC and go into the BIOS. If you see artefacting then the card is toast and needs to be replaced. Don't bother wasting any more time on it.

if not, uninstall the Firestorm app, reboot and see how it works. If ok, then reinstall Firestorm and it should work ok.

Btw, this is what convinced me that the card is dead for all practical purposes. So, based on this, I talked to the Zotac service center and decided to toss the card. Thank you for your guidance.

 

[Keullo-e]

I would try uninstalling firestorm and trying MSI afterburner instead. It worked with my EVGA 1080ti.

Afterburner works with every vendor's cards.

Btw, this is what convinced me that the card is dead for all practical purposes. So, based on this, I talked to the Zotac service center and decided to toss the card. Thank you for your guidance.

Sell it for parts. Maybe someone with skills can do something to it.

 

[qubit]

Btw, this is what convinced me that the card is dead for all practical purposes. So, based on this, I talked to the Zotac service center and decided to toss the card. Thank you for your guidance.

Shame your card is dead. I hope you can get a decent replacement.

 

[Mikael Andersson]

Btw, this is what convinced me that the card is dead for all practical purposes. So, based on this, I talked to the Zotac service center and decided to toss the card. Thank you for your guidance.

I would advice you to get a used RTX 2080 Ti as a stopgap measure while you are waiting for the releases of the RDNA3 and Ada Lovelace cards and the RTX 2080 Ti will give you +25% FPS in games on average over your end-of-life GTX 1080 Ti.
Oh, and I have a Zotac GTX 1080 Ti as well... it's this one: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/zotac-gtx-1080-ti-mini.b4666

 

[StormLightningSL]

I salvaged an old AMD R9 290 from the garage, and am using it for the time being. It only has 4Gb memory, and I can't play many of the high-end games right now, but I am sure I will be able to manage for a while, hehe. I want to try and make sure I don't get on the wrong bus this time around.

 

[AM4isGOD]

I salvaged an old AMD R9 290 from the garage, and am using it for the time being. It only has 4Gb memory, and I can't play many of the high-end games right now, but I am sure I will be able to manage for a while, hehe. I want to try and make sure I don't get on the wrong bus this time around.

Were are you based, try CEX for a cheapish GPU

 

[StormLightningSL]

Buying from any non-local source involves customs duty, which is pretty high where I am. Also, the used market is very small and mostly filled with junked cards.

So, I'm going to wait to see what happens when the new series of cards from AMD and Nvidia are pushed into the market. I'm hoping AMD has something good to offer with their new cards for not-so-extortionist prices

 

[1234chgm]

Reinstall the app?