Hey all. I've been having a lot of trouble with my R9 290X and just shipped out the card again for it's second RMA, so I decided to test some other components to see if they could be causing problems to my card.

I recently got a PSU tester to test my PSU, but I have a 6 2 pin power connector which can't fit the 8 pin tester port because the cable has a lip to make sure the cable stays in place. Is there an easier way to test that connection than just removing some of the plastic on the connector port? I also tested the 6 pin part alone and I was getting 11.7 on /- 12V, 4.9 (sometimes a low voltage warning) on the 5V test and 3.2/3.1 on the 3.3V test, is this an acceptable variance or should I try to get a new PSU/Cables?

I also noticed there is a BIOS update for my mobo, would this improve any problems that might exist with the PCI-E slot the card is plugged into? I've put another card into that slot and it works mostly fine. There are some artifacting, sometimes driver crashes, and yesterday it managed to BS while playing Goat MMO Simulator (albeit at 2550X1080, which the card supports but I don't think is really meant to handle, at least in game) (this card has always been a bit problematic and remember the artifacting happening on another computer) Any Help is greatly appreciated!

Info:

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

Graphics Card - HIS Radeon R9 290X 4GB IceQ X² Video Card

PSU - Corsair CX 750W 80 Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

Tester - 1.8" LCD 20 4-pin Power Supply Tester w/8/6/4-pin Connectors