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| Zaphod (Jon) United States. June 16 2012 09:16. Posts 9 | Profile # |
I would really appreciate some help with a problem I have with my current PC.
I built this computer 2 years ago mainly for playing Starcraft 2. It was based on a Toms Hardware mid range system build. I started with dual AMD 4850 cards in crossfire. At the time it would randomly crash while playing games. Sometimes it would crash a few minutes after I would start playing a game, sometimes I could play for hours with no problems. The crash was always the same in nature. The system would freeze with a really harsh buzzing sound that would quit after a few seconds. I would have to do a hard reset. Eventually I removed one of the 4850s and from the time I did that till a month ago it ran great, zero crashes. I figured it was the crossfire setup and figured that I would just upgrade my card in a couple years since most games were running ok with just the one 4850.
Fast forward two years and I decided to upgrade to a 6870 IceQ X 1GB. It seems like a really nice card. Very quite and factory overclocked to be close to a 6950. One problem is that the crashing has returned. It have cost me 4 games of Starcraft in the last 2 days.
First thing I tought it migh be is the power supply since the new card requires dual 6 pin connectors while the 4850 only required one. Since the old setup quit having the problems after I removed one of the cards reducing the amount of 6 pins to one I decided to try changing the rails that were powering the 6870. I use the adapters that came with the card to convert 8 4 pin connections into 2 6 pins. Unfortunately this did not fix it.
I am at a loss. I can't think of any other reason that a new card would start having the same problem as the old dual card setup after the system ran so steady for 2 years. Any ideas would be appreciated
Here are the specs:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.2 ghz
MB: Gigabyte MA790GPT-UD3H
GPU: HIS IceQ X 6870 1 GB
RAM: 4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 669MHz G Skill
PS: Corsair TX 650W
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit |
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| jaj22 United Kingdom. June 16 2012 10:40. Posts 1375 | Profile # |
On June 16 2012 09:16 Zaphod (Jon) wrote:
First thing I tought it migh be is the power supply since the new card requires dual 6 pin connectors while the 4850 only required one. Since the old setup quit having the problems after I removed one of the cards reducing the amount of 6 pins to one I decided to try changing the rails that were powering the 6870. I use the adapters that came with the card to convert 8 4 pin connections into 2 6 pins. Unfortunately this did not fix it.
This doesn't rule out a PSU fault, because 12V rails are usually not separately regulated.
You could use HWMonitor to check what value the 12V rail hits under maximum load, but it's not a complete test.
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| LiSAuCE United States. June 16 2012 11:13. Posts 33 | Profile # |
Forgive me if i'm not understanding your problem perfectly, but just changing the pins from dual 6 to 8 4 pin (or vice versa) does not change the total power draw of the card to the best of my knowledge. It could be very possible that your 6870 requires more power than a 4850.
Unfortunately, there isn't any software I know of that measures power draw. You may have to guestimate, or buy one of those special tools where you plug your pc in and it measure power draw.
To calculate how much watts each rail supplies, multiply the voltage of the rail and the amp to get the watts. (example, 12v times 20A = 240 for one rail) You may have to consult your manual. The 955 uses 125w. So factor that in when deciding which rail to use for your cards. The PSU manual should tell you which rail each connector uses.
That being said, I DON'T think its a power supply problem. Let me clarify. With your dual card setup it was very likely a power supply problem. Very few 650w psu officially support dual gpu. Although total wattage of PSU may be enough, watt distribution on rails would not be adequate. For an example, my old 650 had two rails, and no matter what, even with pci adaptor two cards would overload one rail. I had to upgrade to 750w for xfire that had adequate watts on rails. However, with a single 6870 and oc 955 my system ran off 650 beautifully. Right now, your problem is mostly likely faulty drivers. Uninstall the drivers you have right now. Then use a driver cleaning program. Then download the latest drivers from AMD. I believe it's up to catalyst 12.4. This should help solve your problem. Last edit: 2012-06-16 11:14:19 |
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| Zaphod (Jon) United States. June 16 2012 22:49. Posts 9 | Profile # |
| Ok. So I tried re-installing 12.4 after uninstalling and cleaning the driver. Seemed ok at first as I played about 4 games no problem but then the last one crashed just like before. I am contemplating doing a complete system re-install. |
| | In ur base, killing ur workers. |
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 JingleHell United States. June 17 2012 00:08. Posts 11262 | Profile Blog # |
The PSU should be fine for that rig. I don't know why people are obsessing over it. Unless you were folding or mining your rig into the ground, I'm just not buying it. Especially after changing to a 6870 single GPU.
Again, unless your PSU just took a shit for either long term loads or bad luck, it shouldn't be the problem.
Check your event viewer, see what it has to say about the crashes. |
| | http://jinglehelltech.blogspot.com -- Pics of my rig in Profile |
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| Zaphod (Jon) United States. June 17 2012 08:45. Posts 9 | Profile # |
| I checked the viewer and there is nothing around the crashes. It crashed last night at 11:30 but the last event was at 10:00. Just shows the critical event when I start it back up. |
| | In ur base, killing ur workers. |
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| JingleHell United States. June 17 2012 08:54. Posts 11262 | Profile Blog # |
On June 17 2012 08:45 Zaphod (Jon) wrote:
I checked the viewer and there is nothing around the crashes. It crashed last night at 11:30 but the last event was at 10:00. Just shows the critical event when I start it back up.
Well, it could be your PSU, but frankly, it's a decent model from a decent brand, and more than sufficient for either setup you listed. Try reseating everything, check temps, and run some stress tests.
Are there any common factors in your crashes? Does it ever crash when you're not using it, or during light use? |
| | http://jinglehelltech.blogspot.com -- Pics of my rig in Profile |
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| Zaphod (Jon) United States. June 17 2012 09:39. Posts 9 | Profile # |
It never crashes when I am not playing a 3D game. The main variation is amount of time I am playing. Sometimes it is 10 minutes, sometimes 3 hours, sometimes it never does after ruining it for 6 hours. It is very inconsistent.
I ran a FurMark stress test on the GPU for 22 minutes, well longer than it takes to crash it on occasion. Temps topped out at 77C under 100% load.
It would bum me if it was the power supply. I would definitely get another Corsair with more wattage if I end up going that route. According to AMD I only need a good 500W source to power a 6870, 600W for crossfire. |
| | In ur base, killing ur workers. |
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| JingleHell United States. June 17 2012 09:53. Posts 11262 | Profile Blog # |
On June 17 2012 09:39 Zaphod (Jon) wrote:
It never crashes when I am not playing a 3D game. The main variation is amount of time I am playing. Sometimes it is 10 minutes, sometimes 3 hours, sometimes it never does after ruining it for 6 hours. It is very inconsistent.
I ran a FurMark stress test on the GPU for 22 minutes, well longer than it takes to crash it on occasion. Temps topped out at 77C under 100% load.
It would bum me if it was the power supply. I would definitely get another Corsair with more wattage if I end up going that route. According to AMD I only need a good 500W source to power a 6870, 600W for crossfire.
Yeah, that's why I'd be shocked if it was your PSU. A TX 650 works fine for SLI on 460s and 560Tis. Personal experience.
Since you were running CFX, I assume you have another PCIE slot, have you tried swapping which one your card is in, just to verify it's not motherboard related?
Also, something you can try is running Furmark with all but one threads worth of P95 running. If that doesn't cause a crash, it's probably not your PSU, since that would be a heavier load than any gaming load. At that point, it would suggest a DX or driver issue, since Furmark is OpenGL, IIRC. |
| | http://jinglehelltech.blogspot.com -- Pics of my rig in Profile |
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| Zaphod (Jon) United States. June 17 2012 23:33. Posts 9 | Profile # |
So looking through the event viewer I saw lots of instances of 4107 capi2 errors. I dug around a bunch and found that this error started being coming back when I built the system. I ran a fix for it and played last night with zero crashes. Solution? Maybe.
Jingle, I will try that stress test if it crashes again. Also, I had considered using the other PCI-E slot but it is only a 8X slot. Not sure if that would be a performance hit or not. |
| | In ur base, killing ur workers. |
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| JingleHell United States. June 17 2012 23:38. Posts 11262 | Profile Blog # |
| It wouldn't be a noticeable difference on the other slot, but if it works now, don't use it, that's just something you can try to check for a motherboard issue. |
| | http://jinglehelltech.blogspot.com -- Pics of my rig in Profile |
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