7600GT games are pausing sometimes, not entirely stable?

[OneOfTheseDays]

The problem is that games are sometimes pausing for 5-10 seconds at a time, or crashing to the desktop immediately. The system is a Gateway GT4010 (athlon 3500+). I'm running it with an Nvidia 7600GT, but the powersupply is only 300watts. Do you guys think the powersupply could be causing the problems here?

EDIT: When I lower the clock/memory speeds from 580/760 to 500/700 all games work properly and there are no pauses/stutters. Now is the problem to blame the videocard, or my power supply? Is there any way to know without buying a new powersupply?

 

[TheRyuu]

So, are you overclocking it to 580/760?
It might be your PSU, but I didn't think the 7600's sucked up that much power. But if it's a cheapo gateway PSU, or something like that, it's a very real possiblility.

Also, OCing the GPU can also cause instablility (don't ask me how) cause with my 7800GT's I would OC to 490/600 and it would crash, but then when I brought the speeds down to 470/550 it wouldn't crash anymore.

And, if you want a new PSU, the FSP are cheap and reliable.

 

[framerateuk]

Maybe the card is just a poor overclocker? I couldnt get much out of my 7800GT, maybe youve just not had great luck with this card.

 

[A554SS1N]

Don't they recommend at least 350watt PSU for this class of card?? Some 300watt generic PSU sounds pretty weak to me - but it could simply be as stated before that it just can't run stable at overclocked frequencies.

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: Sudheer Anne
The problem is that games are sometimes pausing for 5-10 seconds at a time, or crashing to the desktop immediately. The system is a Gateway GT4010 (athlon 3500+). I'm running it with an Nvidia 7600GT, but the powersupply is only 300watts. Do you guys think the powersupply could be causing the problems here?

EDIT: When I lower the clock/memory speeds from 580/760 to 500/700 all games work properly and there are no pauses/stutters. Now is the problem to blame the videocard, or my power supply? Is there any way to know without buying a new powersupply?

I have the same problem

 

[imported_Imp]

It may be O/C instability, but your system and that PSU is bad. The 7600gt 'requires' a 350w PSU to run at stock. Let's not forget about the rails...

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: Imp
It may be O/C instability, but your system and that PSU is bad. The 7600gt 'requires' a 350w PSU to run at stock. Let's not forget about the rails...

I have tried mine on all 3 450+ watt PSU, it is not a power supply issue.

 

[Rockhound1]

First of all, the stock clock speeds for a 7600GT is 560 MHz on the GPU and 700 MHz on the memory; however, some cards are factory overclocked. So, the 580/760 described by the OP may be the factory overclock on his particular video card. Can you confirm this for us?

Also, can you tell us what temperature your GPU is running at when it starts stuttering? It may be overheating because the heat sink isn't mounted correctly.

I wouldn't rule out the PSU being the problem yet, but there are some other things you can check before buying a new PSU.

Give us some more information. Tell us what band and model graphics card you have. Also, tell us more about your system. You might want to look at the specs on the PSU while you are at it to determine the power output on each of the rails.

You might want to install coolbits and let the program determine the optimum frequency of the GPU and the memory. It will automatically test and determine these numbers for you.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I've seen post about this around the net, turn clockspeed down to base model clocks, or in some cases, as the couple stated here, even lower and the issues disappear. Beefy PSUs in some cases too. Maybe some boards aren't giving enough power through the PCIe slot? or the GPU and/or ram isn't up to spec? Overheating is a good thing to eliminate of course.

Personally, I think you guys should RMA and see if you have the same problem again. I say that because I picked up the XFX XXX 590/800 to play around with as it had the $30 MIR and free DVD of GRAW offer, and it has been issue free for the week or so I've been using it. CoD2, Q4, Halo, KOTOR2, and the GRAW demo, all I've played so far, run problem free.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

should have updated this thread, turns out EVGA sent out a bad first batch of cards that couldn't handle being overclocked above reference speeds. they sent me a new one and it works fine.

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: Sudheer Anne
should have updated this thread, turns out EVGA sent out a bad first batch of cards that couldn't handle being overclocked above reference speeds. they sent me a new one and it works fine.

Ok good I will RMA the card I have. Did they send you a replacement card first? I just do not want to be down over the weekend.