Graphics Card Help!

[jamesbond007]

Alrighty, I recently bought a 7950GT to replace my 7800GT. The price was great and the performance boost is exactly what the doctor ordered!

Last night, I shut my machine down to do a card swap like normal. I removed the old video drivers using Driver Cleaner and reinstalled the new ones. At this time, I was using Vista SP1. Upon loading Windows, the screen would get garbled and display squiggly lines on my LCD panel! The boot screen and login screen on Vista looked fine, but it was when I went into the actual OS is when the display went haywire.

Since I had been meaning to reformat, a couple hours after dinking around trying to get Safe Mode to work properly and 'Enable Low-res VGA' mode in Vista, I got my stuff backed up OK and put XP SP2 back on. Everything worked GREAT for a long time in 2D, no problems, nada.

About 20 minutes ago, I finished loading Counter-Strike and the same thing happened again. I set the video settings to what I normally play at (1920x1200, max everything) and it worked great for about 5 minutes. Then the screen went nuts again and I had to once again do a hard shut down. (I can't recover after it goes nuts) I should clarify by saying that it displays the same squiggly lines/garbled screen as it did when I had Vista on.

I know the 79xx series runs quite a bit cooler than my old 7800GT did, so I'm assuming heat isn't the problem. I've been using the latest nVIDIA drivers available on the website for both Vista and XP. According to the nTune software, it idles around 58C and I'm not sure what the load temps are because the machine will crash so I can't exit to check.

I'm trying to find a chart that compares the power consumption of the 7800GT vs the 7950GT OC, but am coming up with nothing so far. Because it works for a few minutes in Counter-Strike leads me to believe it's either related to heat, power consumption, or the stock OC. My machine is kinda old; about 3.5 years old.

Dell XPS Generation 4 (Gen4)
3.4GHz P4/HT
3GB DDR2 RAM
460W Powersupply
(5) harddisks - this is where I'm thinking it may be power-related
Audigy 2 ZS
etc, etc

Thanks!
~Travis

 

[JustaGeek]

It does seem like a PSU issue, but it might also be the card itself...

Try to disconnect all the Hard Drives but the System drive, and see what happens.

 

[angry hampster]

Agreed with justageek. If it does it under load (Vista Aero or 3D gaming), there's a very good chance it's straining the PSU for all it's got.

 

[JustaGeek]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
Alrighty, I recently bought a 7950GT to replace my 7800GT. The price was great and the performance boost is exactly what the doctor ordered!

I am little worried about this great price. Is the seller someone you know, or perhaps someone just got rid of a faulty card...?

 

[jamesbond007]

It's a reputable seller and I don't think that his integrity is the issue.

Does anyone know if the 7950 would pull more juice? I guess just because it may have a lower TDP than the 7800 counterpart, doesn't really ensure the fact it consumes less power, too.

~Travis

EDIT: I found out online that the 7950GT consumes 82W and the 7800GT is 85W. Hm...

 

[JustaGeek]

Try to use the converter from 2xMolex to 1xPCIe with your PSU - I am running the 7950GT on my wife's computer with the "old" Antec True Power 480W, purchased back in January 2005, with the Molex - PCIe adapter. Works great.

And hopefuly this would give a more stable current to your Video Card.

 

[jamesbond007]

Are the rails that support the 2x3 (6-pin) PCIe power connector not always stable or reliable?

I'll give it a whirl before I take out the two harddisks when I get the chance.

 

[JustaGeek]

Hope you mean disconnect, not necessarily physically "take out".

And it might be just my impression, but sometimes the performance of my Video Card seemed better with one connector than the other on my Antec TP trio 650. It does not have the 3 rails clearly marked, so I don't know which one is drawing more power.

On the single-rail 480W there are 2 separate strands of wires, so I connected 1 molex to to 1 strand, and the other one to the other strand. I feel that this way the power is distributed more evenly.

But start with disconnecting the redundant Hard Drives...

Good luck!

 

[jamesbond007]

So this weekend I went to try it once more before I start tinkering with my hardware...

All is well! I had only restarted once and have tried numerous games, but mostly Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 2, and Quake 3.

Not sure what was going on, but I am a very happy gamer right now! Idle temps are around 60C and load temps never go above 64 and MAYBE 65C. Yeah, it's a toasty box, but it all works. Hey, it's a Dell!

Thanks for all the suggestions, fellas!

 

[Continuity28]

As a fellow 79xx user, I've had this problem before, and dealt with it.

By under or overclocking the memory a little, the problem is resolved. You'll see this same issue on many forums. I have no clue why it works.

My card (7900GT) came as 750mhz on memory, and using Rivatuner I noticed it was always stable on 760, so I flashed my card that way, and the issue never surfaced again.

 

[JasonandBecky]

So when you run a 3d app it goes nuts? Sounds like the card has a issue. I had the same problem on two 9800's some time ago. One card had a resister that was fried and when it ran 3d apps it would go harwire. The other one had bad ram on the card that would only show up under 3d apps also.

 

[jamesbond007]

Continuity28, what is odd is that while monitoring temps, I noticed the memory speeds increase when I'd launch CS:Source and then decrease when I'd go back to my XP desktop. Is that the 'OC' feature of the BFG 7950GT OC? (the overclocked feature kicking in?) It just seems so odd that it works fine now, but I obviously have no complaints as of this moment.

JasonandBecky, I carefully inspected the card after I bought it and it actually smelled new and had ZERO dust anywhere! It literally appeared brand new. Perhaps from a RMA? Either way, as I said before, it works great now and I didn't even have to touch my system. How's that for fixing a computer issue?

~Travis

 

[evolucion8]

The 7950GT has a lower thermal envelope and lower power consumption than any GeForce 7800 series.