phish

I have Gigabyte Geforce 9600GT that has been corrupting graphics in-game and crashing the display driver upwards of 40 times a day. It also black screens and has been randomly freezing the PC since about Wednesday. I took it in to the shop where I bought it at the beginning of the month since it's still under warranty only to have them tell me they couldn't duplicate my issues and as far as their concerned there is no problem. Graphical corruption in game looks identical to this complaint about a 9800GT. (Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT artifact pixels & failure)

Crashes in windows mostly are made more frequent with Windows Mediaplayer open, though it's not the root cause since it will crash VLC or MediaPlayer Classic as well. Crashes are more frequent with Media Player, though the screen flickers and comes back. With VLC and MediaPlayer Classic the video output dies (sceen displays "no signal" message) for a 30seconds to a minute before coming back. Crashes are non-existent in Aero Basic. Normal GPU temperature with desktop crashes and freezes is ~41C, while in-game corruption occurs at any temperature. Normal temperature after closing most games is ~70-75C. (Temp is measured using RIVATuner and the GPU Monitor desktop Gadget) Rarely Windows will freeze while loading showing a regular flash of the HDD activity LED. I've been unable to replicate this behaviour with the video driver uninstalled, ie it only happens with the driver installed.

It's also beginning to black out certain windows in the same pattern as in the in-game corruption, only with larger black rectangles instead of the wonky ones in-game.

System specs are:
Win7 x64 Build 7201
Intel Core2Duo E8500
Gigabyte EP45-DS3R Main Board
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=2842
Gigabyte PSU
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...e=Superb%20550
Transcend aXeRAM 2x2GB @ 1066mhz
Gigabyte Geforce 9600GT 1GB
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=2804

System also has 3 HDDs - 1x250GB SATA, 1X320GB IDE and another removable 250GB laptop drive in a bay using eSATA and drawing power from the same cable as the IDE HDD. The system has 3 fans including the CPU fan drawing power off the MB and a fourth fan on the GPU (since Gigabyte saw fit not to fit it with one) drawing power off the same line as the IDE and removable drive.

Crash


Graphical corruption in-game (not on my system - it's from the 9800 thread - but it looks exactly the same as on my card)


Desktop after corruption (My System) It's hard to make out, but pixels get screwed up. Broken pixels move as windows are moved/opened or the mouse is moved.

wrench97

The power supply is a little weak for the card it's a 450w with a peak load of 550w.

What temps are you seeing on the card?

phish

Highest I've seen is ~80C, normally it runs @ ~70C in Fallout. Wolfenstein pushed it up to ~80C last night. If it's the PSU I'm going to tear the rep who helped me build this thing a new *******. I wanted to go with a 750W but was repeatedly assured this PSU is more than I'll ever need for the card.

phish

Normal temp in Windows rarely goes above 41C

emosun

Looks like it's under powered and overheating. That power supply isn't goof enough. And that card should never exceed 70c , way to hot.

wrench97

XFX recommends a minimum of a 600w unit for their 9600GT> http://www.xfxforce.com/en-gb/produc.../9600GT.aspx#4

I don't think that's the only problem but may be a contributing factor, try cleaning the heat sink with a can of compressed air available at office supply stores and see if the temps in game go down, if not I would say RMA the video card.

phish

I've gotten the temp down to below 60C. Seems the connection between the extra fan for the GPU and the PSU was loose. It's still crashing while watching video thought the temp is down to ~33C. I'm planning on replacing the CPU and GPU around December with a quad core and a HD48xx x2 ATI card. What kind of wattage should I be looking for to replace the PSU?

wrench97

For the HD4850 x2 at least a 700w the HD4870 x2 at least 800w, I think you'll find the single rail Corsair's the most cost effective of the Quality PSU's on the market.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139009

phish

Final question - Has ATI announced any DirectX11 cards yet and will it be worth buying one before this time next year?

Phædrus2401

There's been no word from either manufacturer yet, except I think Nvidia said that any DX11 cards will be released late next year (summer or later, I assume).

I'd say that a 4800 series card would be a good mid-term investment now.

phish

Thanks for the advice guys.

phish

Would you recommend any of these 2 PSUs? 1000W is probably overkill, but I'm planning on upgrading the entire PC in the next 6-8months and don't want to get caught short.
http://www.pricecheck.co.za/products...U+FPS-Z1000EM/
http://www.jump.co.za/product/zalman...ml-9503126.htm

wrench97

They are re-badged FSP units almost identical to the OCZ GameXStream while not a terrible supply for the money the corsair units are better.