New Video Card problem? - Power Supply or Vista Drivers?

[Phlargo]

Solved??

Look in this other thread to see where we went from here.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=2036623&enterthread=y


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I just upgraded to a new 8800 GTS 320 and am running Vista Ultimate.

Here's the specs:
Core2Duo E6300 - running completely stable at 3.3 ghz
ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi/AP
2x1 gig Crucial Ballistix 6400 - running 2.25V
Antec Sonata II with the stock 450W PS.
Audigy X-Fi Extreme Music
Western Digital SATA WD500KS
Samsung 226BW (running at native 1680x1050)

My audio never skipped once with my old 7900GS. Titan Quest, while occasionally a lower framerate, never skipped or did anything strange. I pumped up the settings with the new video card and all of a sudden, I during busy action, game starts stuttering. Oblivion runs great.. until it feels like you hit a brick wall. Shouldn't I be putting away 1680x1050 on this card with these games with no hitches? Even during regular windows usage, Media player does the occasional skip when I hit another task pretty hard. Actually.. it seems it's skipping almost every time I click anything.

One thing that should be noted is that the case is running a little warm right now - processor cores idling about 40C - load at 55C (thank you Thermaltake Big Typhoon!). Graphics card idling at 69C - maxing out about 80C (with serious stress testing).

Am I dealing with funky 8800 drivers for Vista or a power supply insufficiency? Antec's supply indicates 15A and 17A on the two 12V rails - this should be plenty.. right? Can anyone suggest a further test or a solution?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

[Thor86]

Problem = stock 450W PS

 

[Phlargo]

I would like to say you're right - but PNY's site says 12V rails with 26A rating. My 12V rails total 23% more at 32A. Are the symptoms I've explained reasonable for a power dirth?

 

[Phlargo]

Anyone got anything on this? If I need to buy a power supply I will - but until I'm sure that's actually the problem, it seems kinda silly to shell out $50-100 on a piece of hardware that's not problematic.

 

[chizow]

It could very well be the PSU. Anytime you change something you can't expect the remaining parts to play nice just because they did in the past.

80C under load is pretty hot, so it could be a temperature deal too. In my old case at stock speeds my GTS was 80-83C always, even idle. I moved everything to an Antec Nine Hundred and it dropped temps 30C idle and now even OC'd it never runs hotter than 71/72C.

The Titan Quest stuttering could be the rubber banding that most everyone is seeing post-IT. It does look like a video paging problem that might be more severe on the 8800s than other cards, since the latest drivers reduce it a lot for me. Not sure about Oblivion though.

 

[Phlargo]

Yeah, I read about the rubber banding issue in the TQ-IT forums. I wasn't experiencing it at all on my 7900GS. Hopefully a future patch will clear it up if that's what it is.

Also.. you bring up a great point about my cooling setup - it's not so good right now - my case is in a cabinet such that all the exhaust builds up underneath the top - I'll try to figure something better out.

I did a clean install with a dual-boot MCE and Vista and I'm just about to make the big test. Wish me luck.