8600GTS freezing

Since we're discussing vid card probs, thought I'd post one I'm having.

I've dropped a Palit 8600GTS 512mb into my 3GHZ 1Gig mem, XP machine. Plays great except if I have anti-aliasing enabled while playing Silent Hunter4 or Total War:Medieval2 then the game freezes usually 10-15 minutes in.

Doesn't seem to be GPU temp related, my powersupply's 400w, have updated my drivers, run Prime95 to test mem - all's good.

Any suggestions?

What brand and model PSU is it?

It could actually be nothing to do with power though. You may want to make sure both games are patched to current versions.

The 8600 GTS just might not be packing enough punch - I assume SH4 is very demanding?

400 watts is rather slim.

One of my friend's PSU broke on his system. It was a 250 watts, for his 1 Ghz P3 system and Geforce 4200 TI. I gave him my old 350 watts, which should be normal for that sort of system. So 400 watts for your relatively new, mid range system is on the edge.

Also, enableing Antialiasing makes the GPU eat up more watts as it uses more memory and accesses more transistors to give you that extra eye candy.

It is, but I can have AA turned on and still get good framerates, it's just that it freezes about 10-20 minutes later (and both games are patched). I've been attacking the same freighter now for about 12 times (don't know what brand PSU it is)

_33
I just assumed 400w would be fine - but maybe it's not. Does kind of sound like either overheating (which it doesn't appear to be), or a power supply issue. Might ring one of the local computer shops here - there's a nerd I know who knows all about this sort of thing.

Supposedly the minimum recommended requirements for an 8600GTS are 400W, with a +12V rating of 22 Amps.

Depending on how many Amps your +12 volt line carries and what other hardware components you have (multiple harddrives? more than one optical drive? how many sticks of memory? Any add-on PCI adapters?)

It's definitely possible for the PSU to be the weak link here.

Aha - I can't check the PSU specs right now, but it sounds like the card's sucking more juice (under AA) than the powersupply can handle. Thanks Xlsior!

If it has two power connectors make sure they are connected in parallel to the PSU (not on same cable in series).

Skid
It doesn't appear to have any other power connections.

Just looking at my PS, it appears to be 400w, with a +12v rating of 10 Amps, so if Xlsior's right in his figures, it is underpowered. Great.

I got my figures through google - not sure how accurate it was, buteither way it's not a good sign. :-?

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

This should help. Power supplies are the most overlooked part of a PC.

Make sure to tick 16X PCI Express and to also tick on capacitor aging percentage (probably 25% for your, but still, they might be more damaged as you obviously have a crappy grade B PSU, tier 4 or tier 5 if you will). Capacitors on your mainboard and graphics card get to leak, as they have poor quality current that fluctuates a lot from very poor PSU performance, which worsen your case.

Either you change the PSU, or you'll end up with the whole system being damaged.

By the way, I've re-calculated my system power consumption, and apparently at 100% load everywhere, it's eating something like 715 watts. I've got 1 graphics card (overclocked) + 1 CPU (overclocked), 2 DDR1 sticks (overclocked), mainboard is DFI Lanparty (FSB is overclocked), 2 HDDs, 2 DVD writers, a couple fans, USBs PCI cards. My Power Supply is 600 watts, but a tier 2, which is very good, but underpowered in some extreme situations for my current need.

EDIT: more help at http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088

Good site, that calculator one.

Anyways, freezing. I used to have that problem too, wasn't power related (though yours quite likely is) - might want to check for latest BIOS updates as well. Not sure if you consider them 'drivers' or not.

Toby

I'll look into the BIOS thing (although it's a brand new card - as a consumer I shouldn't have to be doing that sort of thing to avoid problems).

Have also had a chat to the local nerd at shop and will be taking it in later this week for a power upgrade. Might also whack in an extra gig mem in readiness for bioshock.

Well, there's your problem righ there ... ;P

MadJack: http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4875

Brand new cards are even more in need for bug fixes. The 'fresh' period where BIOS updates are still occurring is the time you really need to keep an eye on them. Remember back in the day where nVidia drivers actually increased the gfx card speed by significant amounts (ie GeForce 2 days)?

Well, the motherboard powers -everything-... it's important to ensure it's doing its job right.

Don't use AA x4Q or x8Q... I spent hours to find that's was the problem for me (8600GT) :| Now, no freeze, with AA x8.

Reno

Thanks for the info - unfortunately I also tested with no AA, the freeze took longer to occur, but still occurred. On at least one occasion it happened when there was a lot of particles.

It's going in tomorrow for the power supply upgrade - I'll post if that fixes it.

Is it freezes with 2D (not 3D in 2D) games ?

MadJack, new PSU? today? What's the news? I was getting worried that you might have damaged your motherboard or graphics card with that 400 watts PSU, as you system was getting more and more unstable in heavy conditions. Hope those capacitors aren't leaking.

Reno
Only freezes during heavy 3d games - not during normal operation. Don't have any heavy 2d games, so can't say there.

_33
;-) Lunchtime today - it's my second system, so I've not been using it since. Instead been running Silent Hunter4 on W2000 (even though it said WinXP/Vista only). Sank two heavy cruisers last night!

Turns out it was the power supply - have just played through an entire patrol without a freeze + max settings. Also the PC's running much quieter - thanks for the tip xlsior/all

Good to hear!

Nothing more annoying than mystery crashes.

I went out of my way to find a quiet powersupply when I build my current computer, and don't regret it one bit. You don't realize just *how* annoying the computer noise is until you have a virtually silent machine.

I have a similar problem, except I've got a 500 watt PSU and a 8800GTS, BF2142 freezes if I'm playing on a server with punkbuster; single player is fine. Not sure if a new PSU would help because it doesn't affect other games.

8800GTS must pull at least half of that 500 watts by itself. 500 watts, but 500 watts of quality PSU or 500 watts of cheap PSU? Did you check thepower consuption calculator that I linked earlier and see if your 500 watts is enough? Make sure to properly tick the options, and to mention % of degradation of your system's mainboard. Study your system and you may realize your 500 watts might bring it down some day (sooner than you think).

I had a similiar problem with my new 8800GTS card where the system would suddenly shut down (or freeze) after a few hours of playing Neverwinter Nights 2. Updating my motherboard's BIOS and disabling a few unused onboard components (AC 97 sound, serial ports, etc) has apparently fixed the issue. I should probably install a new power supply though...

Its an Enermax Liberty PSU, the computer is brand new except for the PSU

Enermax Liberty is good, I supposed you had a lower grade PSU than that. That PSU should be good. But 500 watts is under spec IMHO. Check the complete specs of the Enermax Liberty and calculate how much your systel consumes, and you'll have your answer right then.

If I'm using it right I'm getting abit over 500 watts. What would be a recommended PSU to buy?

Edit: A Enermax Liberty 620 Watt be ok?