Problems with 7800gtx

[jim1976]

Yesterday I bought a MSI 7800GTX (Rig in sig for more specs)

My problem is the high temps that my gpu presents even though my case(coolermaster stacker) does not have that high (around 30c). I suspect though that my xp90c could be driving hot air to the vga and cause higher idle and load temps( 59-61 idle)

My main concern is that it throttles after some time even at default speeds. For example if I open my pc and ran immediately 3dmark05 it will score a normal 7600. But if I play for a while and then run 3dmark05 it will score a 5500. No talk about o/c since I tried via Coolbits yesterday and it presented immediately some artifacts and rebooted.

Do you think the vga is defective or it has just high temps due to any other reason?

 

[jim1976]

bump

 

[marciorr]

Did you see if the cooler is working? Your case must have air coming in and air going out, to have a proper flow.

 

[lopri]

What are the temps of other things? CPUs, chipsets, and possibly ambient temp.

 

[jim1976]

Well yes fan is working, that's one of the things you check immediately but I'm worried about the airflow. I have a 120mm fan in front but that cools the HDDs and cannot push air in the case. Case temp is not that high though, but it's very possible that XP90c drives hot air to the gpu.

But basically what I'm asking is this. Is it normal for a gpu to throttle at default speeds after some time just because of a cpu cooler? It is supposed not to throttle before 115 C i think. Idle temp after some time in Coolbits is 56C.

 

[jim1976]

Dunno what's going on but I noticed something weird but very important last night. All these throttling issues I mentioned were based on the benchmarks results I use. (Aquamark3,3dmark05).
Then I thought to use Fraps to record my FPS on FEAR demo 1600X1200 all on. I played the game from start to the end and recorded it. Frapslog showed 49fps when gpu was supposed to throttle (aquamark3 showed 60fps just b4 I played FEAR instead of a normal of 90fps!!).
Today I ran Aquamark3 on cold gpu and showed the normal 90fps. I played FEAR again using FRAPS trying to use the same course from start to the end. It recorded 52fps, which is not that kind of a difference from last night that pc was on for 6-7hrs.
What I'm trying to say is that the vast difference in performance that is depicted in benches after hrs of use in my gpu isn't true in real gaming speed using fraps.
I mean Aquamark3 60->90fps(major difference) and FEAR 49->52(not that big).
I'll try to play Battlefield 2 using FRAPS to record my FPS in the 2 situations and see if this weird issue is true.

What do you think about that? What can make the benchmarks fall so much in gpu performance after some time when gaming experience doesn't seem to follow the same route?

 

[Jeff7181]

No... a video card should never throttle at stock speeds. They should run fine even with case temps about 35 degrees. My friend's 6600GT had some overheating issues too. Maybe MSI is the problem.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
No... a video card should never throttle at stock speeds. They should run fine even with case temps about 35 degrees. My friend's 6600GT had some overheating issues too. Maybe MSI is the problem.

Ok that's perfectly understood Jeff that's why I'm making all this fuss about it.
But did you read my last reply?

What I'm trying to say is that the vast difference in performance that is depicted in benches after hrs of use in my gpu isn't true in real gaming speed using fraps.
What do you think about that? What can make the benchmarks fall so much in gpu performance after some time when gaming experience doesn't seem to follow the same route?

 

[Jeff7181]

Benchmarks typically stress things more than normal use... try logging temps during both scenarios.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Benchmarks typically stress things more than normal use... try logging temps during both scenarios.

Ok that's true. But we are talking about FEAR here not just any game that I played from scratch to the end and in 1600x1200 all on... This is enough time 15min or so for a gpu to present throttling issues in such a demanding game...

Anyway what's the best way to log temps?

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: jim1976

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Benchmarks typically stress things more than normal use... try logging temps during both scenarios.

Ok that's true. But we are talking about FEAR here not just any game that I played from scratch to the end and in 1600x1200 all on... This is enough time 15min or so for a gpu to present throttling issues in such a demanding game...

Anyway what's the best way to log temps?

I think Riva Tuner does it.

*EDIT* Hey check it in Doom 3 too if you have it. That's always been the first game to show GPU instability for me.

 

[Sentry2]

Riva Tuner will record temps :thumbsup:

 

[jim1976]

Guys I noticed something really strange too.

While I have set Coolbits to no o/c each time I open 3dmark05 and I look at details I see at core clock speed various timings. From 450 to 468!! even it showed the 275 once which is the 2d default core timing.
What the heck is going on? It o/cs the core w/o my permission? Why is that ? I have not installed Rivatuner yet or any other 3rd party 3dapplications to mess around with the drivers. Using 78.01 right now.

What is going on? :Q

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: jim1976
Guys I noticed something really strange too.

While I have set Coolbits to no o/c when I open 3dmark05 and I look at details I see at core clock speed and see various timings all the time. From 450 to 468!! even it showed the 275 once which is the 2d default core timing.
What the heck is going on? It o/cs the core w/o my permission? Why is that ? I have not installed Rivatuner yet and no any other 3rd party 3dapplications to mess around with the drivers. Using 78.01 right now.

What is going on? :Q

Your motherboard may be overclocking the card itself. My MSI K8N Neo2 will do this automatically with 6800 cards (and possibly 7800's on NForce4 boards unless that's just a NForce3 thing) unless you turn it off in the BIOS, which I believe requires a certain key combination for the choices to appear, or a modded BIOS so they're visible by default.

 

[jim1976]

Thanks Jeff. I'll try to find it myself. If you have some info though on what's the specific command to look for in bios give me some feedback ok?

Thanks m8

 

[Jeff7181]

Not sure if it'll be the same on your board, but on mine with an official BIOS, you press Shift+F2 and then Alt+F3 while in the "Cell" menu and that shows the hidden options. Worth a shot with your's I guess. I did some reading and it's not exclusive to the K8N Neo2, but it does look like it's an NF3 250 chipset only thing.

 

[Topweasel]

I Have recorded temps and core speeds and as it get closer to 90F in my room my card will run at 50c-55c (mostly around 55c) when in game it hovers around 75c but tops out at 78c. At no point durring game play does it Lower its core speed. Wehn in a game menu it drop 50Mhz buts thats it.

 

[compgeek89]

Here's why rivatuner is showing different speeds;
2D speeds (What your card runs outside of games) is 270-80mhz to save power and heat output. Also someparts of the 7800 run at different speeds than others, when mine is at 500 riva says 540. Its no biggie.

Now as for your temp problem, I had the same, 54C idle and 85C load. There is an easy fix.
I see you have an XP-90, do you still have your stock cooler around? Or a very good 80mm fan? (92 even)

Take the front plastic off your GTX and gently screw the fan from your athlon 64 cooler onto the center of your GTX heatsink. Dropped my temps to 65C on load at 500/1300! It's the best cooling solution available for the GTX besides water right now. A vantec tornado would really be nice on it .

 

[jim1976]

Ok thanks for the tip, I suspected my XP90c but the question remains...

Should the core throttle 50% @defaults speeds???

And if the card was defective shouldn't I see a sign? A BSOD, a random lockup or something else at least for one time? Nothing!! Just throttling...

Could this be something from my vga or system bios or drivers that make the gpu throttle @mediocre temps?

Dunno what do u think?

 

[compgeek89]

Try the fan mod... see what happens....

 

[jim1976]

Finally I got Rivatuner to show me the right core tmps.And it wasn't good at all. The max core temp was 78-80 c. Yikes!! At default clocks.

Tommorow I'll try to check the pc out of the box so case temp or cpu cooler driving hot air to the gpu will not be issues to consider. If temps remain high and throttling appears this will definately mean that gpu is defective and needs RMA. Otherwise if everything is normal I'll consider a mod with a fan(like compgeek89 sugested) or something carefully or an aftermarket cooler. I'll need your opinions on this last thought. I'll give you some feedback 2morrow.

 

[jim1976]

Well I made some progress on what is happening but I'm unable to grasp what is happening here.

Every time I'm opening my pc for 1-2 hrs straight, I'm running benchmarks and performance is not falling no matter how much I stress the gpu. BUT if I reboot or close the pc and open it w/o leaving it the gpu for some time to cold then performance will fall from the first benchmark.

What is this thing? Why is it that no matter how I stress my gpu on a cold boot there's no way for performance to fall, but when I restart performance will fall? :confused

This is the most weird behavior I've seen from a gpu ever. I mean if it's overheating why the hell this is not depicted on the first boot? Why pc has to be restarted in order for performance to fall?