Computer Issues GPU?

[Riptide]

Hi, I hooked up the new system and everything seemed to run great. I had just put in the new 8800 GT. I noticed a bit of lag playing company of hero's when things got busy. I didn't remember this happening when I was using the 7900GT. I then installed Need for Speed Carbon. I've maxed out the settings, and occasionally I'll start to get a ton of lag. I'm only playing single player. I've monitored my stats while playing, the CPU never went over 49%, and the RAM usage was also under 50%. The GPU temp was kinda high (maxed at 71C - usually around 65C).

Now when I start my system, I get a weird grey screen (after the win xp goes away, and before the windows login prompt). This will last for maybe 30 seconds. NSF Carbon will now frequently quit to desktop...

I'm using the 169.21 nvidia driver (GPU). I'm using 6.86_nforce nvidia driver for my motherboard. I've looked on asus's site but I didn't see anything else I should be using instead...

GPU: 8800 GT
MOBO: AN8 Sli Premium
LCD: 24" 1920x1200

Idea's anyone?

[Thrax]

Your video driver is out of date. Did you uninstall your 7900 before you removed it? Newest version of DirectX? How much RAM do you have?

[Riptide]

The 7900 never went into this build (that was part of the 'old' system). This was a fresh load with the 8800GT. I have 2 GB of RAM.

Looking on nvidia's site, I belive I have the latest drivers. I have direct x 10.

[Your Amish Daddy]

Might want to make sure you're not underpowering the card. What kind of PSU do you have, and could you post the model number, or in lieu of; the 12V amperage.

[Riptide]

It's a Kingwin power supply. It's between 600 & 700 watts (http://www.kingwin.com/powersupplies.asp).

It's about a year old. I'm running 4 HD's, X-FI sound card, 2 dvdrw's.

[Your Amish Daddy]

Uh...Look at the sticker on the PSU, and post the 12V rail amperage.

[mertesn]

Your GPU temp is actually fairly normal for an 8800GT. Some questions that come to mind:
Which version of the card are you using? 512MB? 256MB? What brand is it, and what clock settings does it use? What case are you using? Airflow can be important with a card that runs at those temps. What resolution and settings are you running your games at?

[Riptide]

THE 8800 IS A 512mb CARD. It's a BFG. I've tried several different resolutions. Some at max, or close to it. And others around 1024x764. As the lag that I get in NSF isn't constant (it comes an goes) I haven't noticed much of a difference. In NSF I've tried changing the settings from high to med, and that hasn't had much of an effect.

[Your Amish Daddy]

How much 12V amperage do you have??

[mertesn]

I should have thought of this sooner... Be sure you're running the absolute latest nVidia drivers. The G92 cards have issues with various power supplies that were resolved with one of the newer drivers. I think it's fixed in 174.44 or something like that. You'll have to get the beta version as nVidia still lists 169.21 as their current driver revision. A whole bunch of people ran into this problem with both single and SLI 8800GT setups.

[Riptide]

This is the URL to my power supply. The model is abt600ma1s

http://www.kingwin.com/product_pages/abt600ma1s.asp

I'll try getting the beta for the newer driver and see how that works. I forgot to mention that in addition to the 4 hd's, 2 dvd drives, I have 4 led light things in the case. If the newer driver doesn't work, I'm gonna try unplugging one of the hd's that isn't really being used.

EDIT: there's actually 2 drivers. 175.16 (released today) and 174.74. I'll try the newer one first and see how it works.

[Your Amish Daddy]

12v 44A. Hard drives 4 = 5 amps~, Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer=2, board and chip I estimate around 15A, DVDR/W's run 950mA to 2.5A depending on what they're doing..

5+15+5+2=27A. More than sufficient power if Kingwin could make a decent power supply. If that doesn't solve your problem, Let me know.

[Riptide]

Ok, so none of that worked. I unplugged my 500 GB hd, and tried each of the beta drivers. I uninstalled the old driver each time before installing the new one.

[Your Amish Daddy]

Try using the other PCI-E connector on your video card.

[Riptide]

Didn't work.

[Riptide]

If I were to reload everything (a pain) would that fix this? I mean if all I'm going to do is install the same stuff I have hooked up now should I expect a different result?

[Your Amish Daddy]

I seriously don't think it's a software problem, but what I'd do is test on a hard drive without critical information on it. Format it or what not; install OS on that and test.

Experimentation is fundamental to science. Also happens to be the most fun. I envy you.

[Riptide]

OK, I'll clear off the 500 GB drive and see what happens. If the same thing happens, I'll try with the 7900GT. If that doesn't help, I might look at using the mini atx MOBO I have in my 2nd system.

[GrayFox]

Were you running the game at 1920x1200 on your 7900 ?.

Thats a really high res im surprised it wasnt a slide show on the 7900.

My 8800GTS struggles with some games at 1680x1050.

[Riptide]

Really?

Honestly I can't remember what I was running the 7900 at. However I've even tried lowering the settings on carbon from the highest to med, and lowering the res to 1220x1024 (or w/e it is), and it didn't seem to make a difference.

I'll try again before I start wiping and reloading things. I haven't had time yet to play with it.

[_k_]

um this really isn't a solution, but i kind of had the same issue in your case with my last rig. I had a 939 x2 4200+, 1GB RAM, A8R32-MVP, and 8800GT. I was getting issues not in carbon(carbon was done with a 1900xt and not the same clocks) but in pro-street. I clocked the crap out of my cpu and ram, 2.56~ and 474 respectfully, and it ceased the issue almost completely....high settings with lots of cars and damage going on made it stutter a fraction of a second at times. But with that rig on carbon you should be fine. I had the 169.21 driver loaded, it seemed to be merely an issue of getting data to the video card to make it happy. This was an issue that i ran into repeatedly trying to run an 8800gt(g92) in my k8(939) it took lots of OC to make everything run smoothly unlike my 1900xt was all plug and play....kind of.

I would load up the 7900 after uninstalling 8800 drivers and mess with the settings on carbon to see if you get the same issue, my 1900xt ran it maxed out. It might be an issue of feeding the card data.