*update* new rig, alarmingly bad 3dmark06 score

[Capitalizt]

It's your power supply buddy...If the card simply isn't getting enough amps. When this happens, it defaults to the low power state which is PCIE x 1...meaning only 2D stuff and limited 3D. Once you upgrade the PS to something with 30+ amps, it will max out and run perfectly. Just make sure you have the power connected to all mobo ports that require it, as well as to the card itself.

 

[Tempered81]

yeah run everything at stock speeds
and clear cmos
as a last resort, lol i posted that stuff above after reading 1 page of this thread. - i would do a bios update for the motherboard and the 8800gt if available, and check that pci-e 2.0 enable/disable option as well.

 

[jeffjones66]

Originally posted by: Capitalizt
It's your power supply buddy...If the card simply isn't getting enough amps. When this happens, it defaults to the low power state which is PCIE x 1...meaning only 2D stuff and limited 3D. Once you upgrade the PS to something with 30+ amps, it will max out and run perfectly. Just make sure you have the power connected to all mobo ports that require it, as well as to the card itself.

I hope you're right, but how do you explain the others in this thread with the same problem, yet have 600 and 700w high quality PSU's? I might be wrong, but I believe everyone in this thread with the problem has the 8800GT and the Gigabyte DS3L mobo.

Here's another oddity, for me at least. The 1x vs 16x decision is made at boot-time, and I believe only at power-on. If my PC powers on at 1x, it stays at 1x no matter what. If it powers on at 16x, it stays there. As a workaround (until my PSU arrives or this is solved) I have simply left my PC running 24/7 once I got a 16x boot up. It's been running for 3 days straight at 16x, and I've been gaming away with not a single issue. And keep in mind, this is with my older 420w psu.

If it were a PSU problem, wouldn't the power fluctuate on use? perhaps when I loaded Crysis and began taxing the PSU? That's why I'm starting to lean towards a compatibility problem.

edit: I think I'm just going to send the DS3L back, and purchase the Asus P5E X38 board, with full PCI-e 2.0 support.

 

[Munchiselleh]

I dont have the DS3L mobo, I have an intel G965, and still have the issue. I have tried this card on many machines, all with high quality psu's and various high quality mobo's. Sometimes the computers didn't even see the card, and others didn't even start, despite the 700+w psu's. It's definitely my card, hopefully both of ours get resolved with an RMA of the video card itself.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: chonga
I am having this same issue. Has anyone found the root cause?

I have a gigabyte ds3r with 8800GT, e6750, 600w gameXstream PSU. Link width is stuck at x1 in CPU-Z. I have tried re-seating the card, i have re-installed windows, tried several different nvidia drivers, and i've flashed my motherboard BIOS to the latest.

Also this is kind of weird. I tried my roommates 8600GT in my rig and it worked perfect, registered at x16. So i try my 8800GT in his rig and he only gets x8 instead of x16. Not as bad as my x1, but still not optimal.

I'm wondering if there is some sort of compatibility issue with my motherboard and this 8800GT or if it is the card and needs an RMA?

Brand is eVGA

Your problem is not a compatibility issue with your motherboard. I have the exact same motherboard and also a EVGA 8800GT. I have no issues at all. I've also ran into a person on Hardforum who switched to the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R to actually fix the compatibility problem he was having with his Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA Board which is one of the few motherboards that really has the PCI-E 2.0 issue. Our motherboards also have a PCI-E 1.1 slot by the way.

 

[jeffjones66]

Will switching to a fully compliant pci-e 2.0 motherboard fix this? or are the cards just faulty no matter what?

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: jeffjones66
Will switching to a fully compliant pci-e 2.0 motherboard fix this? or are the cards just faulty no matter what?

Not if the problem is because of your power supply and it most likely is if it has a single +12v rail and only 18a. Also, as I said in my previous post I have a GA-P35-DS3R, which is a close relative to your DS3L and mine works fine with the 8800GT. New PCI-E 2.0 X38 boards cost and arm and a leg by the way.

 

[chonga]

I am almost 99% sure it is NOT a power supply issue. I have run a 8800GTS for 3 months before i did a step up through eVGA with no problems. My PSU is more than capable to run 2 x 8800GT's and then some. I've also run the 8800GT on my roommates computer and he is using a Thermaltake 420watt PSU (it only ran at x8, odd, i know). I'm guessing it's the video card's BIOS at this point. Will know when I receive my RMA around Thursday.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: chonga
I am almost 99% sure it is NOT a power supply issue. I have run a 8800GTS for 3 months before i did a step up through eVGA with no problems. My PSU is more than capable to run 2 x 8800GT's and then some. I've also run the 8800GT on my roommates computer and he is using a Thermaltake 420watt PSU (it only ran at x8, odd, i know). I'm guessing it's the video card's BIOS at this point. Will know when I receive my RMA around Thursday.

Per my previous post, I have the same motherboard as you and also and EVGA 8800GT, so how could it be the video card's BIOS? Are you using the most current motherboard BIOS for the GA-P35-DS3R as I am?

Here's another user with our motherboard using an Asus 8800GT and the Asus is using the same old 29% Fan-Speed impaired Video BIOS that most of the other cards are using ......

http://forums.guru3d.com/showp...p=2505898&postcount=68

 

[chonga]

Originally posted by: ManWithNoName

Originally posted by: chonga
I am almost 99% sure it is NOT a power supply issue. I have run a 8800GTS for 3 months before i did a step up through eVGA with no problems. My PSU is more than capable to run 2 x 8800GT's and then some. I've also run the 8800GT on my roommates computer and he is using a Thermaltake 420watt PSU (it only ran at x8, odd, i know). I'm guessing it's the video card's BIOS at this point. Will know when I receive my RMA around Thursday.

Per my previous post, I have the same motherboard as you and also and EVGA 8800GT, so how could it be the video card's BIOS? Are you using the most current motherboard BIOS for the GA-P35-DS3R as I am?

Here's another user with our motherboard using an Asus 8800GT and the Asus is using the same old 29% Fan-Speed impaired Video BIOS that most of the other cards are using ......

http://forums.guru3d.com/showp...p=2505898&postcount=68

What BIOS are you using for your motherboard?

I'm using F9.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: chonga

What BIOS are you using for your motherboard?

I'm using F9.

Just checked, looks like I've missed a couple. I'm running the F6 BIOS from September 2007 which is working fine for me.

Edit:

Just updated to the November F9 BIOS just to make sure this was not your issue. My DS3R is still working fine with the EVGA 8800GT after the update. I see one of the BIOS's gave us Penryn 45nm compatibilty now, Cool.

 

[jeffjones66]

It might be possible that there are separate problems at work here. This is a particularly troubling problem for me, because I just spent around $750 upgrading my PC, and it doesn't work.

ManWithNoName, my new 700w OCZ PSU arrives tomorrow (possibly Wed). According to the newegg spec sheet, it has four 12V rails with 18A each. Let's say I plug install it, pull and re-seat the video card, and it still boots up at 1x link width. What would you do next? change motherboards? RMA the video card?

I don't really see how RMA'ing the vid card will help if they are just going to send you another one just like it. I hate intermittent problems like this!

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: jeffjones66
It might be possible that there are separate problems at work here. This is a particularly troubling problem for me, because I just spent around $750 upgrading my PC, and it doesn't work.

ManWithNoName, my new 700w OCZ PSU arrives tomorrow (possibly Wed). According to the newegg spec sheet, it has four 12V rails with 18A each. Let's say I plug install it, pull and re-seat the video card, and it still boots up at 1x link width. What would you do next? change motherboards? RMA the video card?

I don't really see how RMA'ing the vid card will help if they are just going to send you another one just like it. I hate intermittent problems like this!

Jeff, what is the make and model of your current power supply by the way? Skimmed through the thread and all I see is the +12v rail amperage mentioned.

As far as what to do next, lets take it one step at a time. If new PSU doesn't do the trick, then things will start to get a bit more complicated. You'll then have to take things a step at a time. RMA the video card or motherboard, your choice and you'll need to eliminate each piece of the hardware one step at a time. How long did you use the 8800GT with thie old setup by the way? I'm only asking since you said your problem on the DS3L was intermittent and perhaps you didn't use the 8800GT long enough on the old rig for the problem to show-up.

AMD x2 4400 @2.2ghz
2gb PC3200 (ddr1, at 400mhz)
Nforce 570 chipset
Nvidia 8800GT

I'm also asuming you've done all the other normal things already, such as trying different PCI-E power supply cables or molex splitters if you use one. You also may want to download the most current Chipset Drivers and BIOS for your motherboard. Just make sure you use the correct ones as it appears there are two revisions of your motherboard 1.0 and 2.0. The most recent chipset drivers for either board are from 9/13/07 and the current BIOS is F7 from 11/29/07. The link below is for Revision 1.0 of the DS3L .....

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...el.aspx?ProductID=2599

 

[jeffjones66]

MWNN, thanks for the help. My current PSU is a Thermaltake TruePower 420w.

I used the 8800GT on the old setup about a week or two, IIRC. I don't recall any problems, but it may well have been there intermittently. I never knew to check Link Width settings in CPU-Z until this thread.

I have already downloaded and installed the latest chipset drivers, and I'm using the F7 BIOS for v.2.0. I checked the board and verified it's one of the 2.0 models.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: jeffjones66
MWNN, thanks for the help. My current PSU is a Thermaltake TruePower 420w.

I used the 8800GT on the old setup about a week or two, IIRC. I don't recall any problems, but it may well have been there intermittently. I never knew to check Link Width settings in CPU-Z until this thread.

I have already downloaded and installed the latest chipset drivers, and I'm using the F7 BIOS for v.2.0. I checked the board and verified it's one of the 2.0 models.

No prob Jeff. Is this it?

http://thermaltakeusa.com/prod...er/w006162/w006162.asp.

Or do you have an older model? Someone previously stated that you had a 18a +12v rail. This power supply is a dual rail with one 15a and one 10a - 12v rail. It likely has about 18-20a of sustained continuopus power on the combined rails. Perhaps this is what he was referring to.

 

[jeffjones66]

No, mine is older, possibly from 2003. It has only one 12v rail, and it's 18A.

 

[jeffjones66]

Update: My new OCZ 700w GameXStream arrived today, I installed it, and booted up.

Link Width = 16x (this was after 6 consecutive 1x boots with the 420w PSU)

I powered off completely, then powered back on

Link Width = 16x again

Should I be excited? I hope I can be soon, but I did have streaks of 16x boot-ups on the older psu. I'll say that if I have 15 or 20 consecutive 16x boots, I'll consider the problem solved by the new PSU.

btw, thumbs up on the OCZ -- it's a nice PSU and it's quiet too.

 

[chonga]

That is great news. I get my RMA on Monday (UPS is taking their time with this one, shipped out on Monday afternoon!) so hopefully that will fix my issue.

May have been that you're PSU wasn't giving your 8800GT enough juice to run at x16. I know my 8800GTS ran fine with my PSU so i'm guessing our issues aren't really the same.

Great to hear you're going good, post some benchmarks like 3dmark if you have a chance.

Regards

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: jeffjones66
Update: My new OCZ 700w GameXStream arrived today, I installed it, and booted up.

Link Width = 16x (this was after 6 consecutive 1x boots with the 420w PSU)

I powered off completely, then powered back on

Link Width = 16x again

Should I be excited? I hope I can be soon, but I did have streaks of 16x boot-ups on the older psu. I'll say that if I have 15 or 20 consecutive 16x boots, I'll consider the problem solved by the new PSU.

btw, thumbs up on the OCZ -- it's a nice PSU and it's quiet too.

Congrats, glad you got it worked out.... Enjoy the card and play some games, not benchmarks.

 

[chonga]

RMA works perfect!

seems my old card was a dud. eVGA had great support though! I highly suggest them for anyone looking into a new video card.

 

[jeffjones66]

I have another update on this very strange issue. Since I installed my 700w OCZ PSU, I've had 100% success booting up at 16x pci-e link width. But get this, yesterday I decided to take advantage of Office Depot's sale price on the Acer 24" ws monitor, and I came home with it and excitedly plugged it in ... and guess what ... 1x on the link width again! I didn't notice it at first, but as I went into my games to set their res to 1920x1200, I tested games and I was taking a huge fps hit. I thought going from 1680 to 1920 couldn't be that big of a hit. I checked cpu-z, and sure enough ... 1x.

After a while of googling, and futzing with bios settings, nothing worked. I asked myself, what changed? I mean, i had something like 20 straight bootups at 16x with the new PSU. I put my older 20" monitor back on, and poof ... 16x. I've booted 6 times since, and everytime its been 16x, remaining at 100% success with that combination. I put the 24" Acer back on ... 1x again. 20" again .... 16x.

Googling this problem has shown me that this problem seems to be wide and varied, and seems to happen for a bunch of different reasons. There is no easy fix. Some have solved it by RMA'ing their vid card, others by upping NB voltages, others by changing motherboards ... myself (so far) by upgrading the PSU, and apparently by not upgrading my monitor.

Really weird. I really wish they'd get this sorted out. It's hardly plug and play, and after $1000+ in upgrades, it's unsettling for this problem to always be lurking around the corner. When my card goes to 1x, 3d games won't load, and I can't even play video files.

Btw, when I was trying to sort it out after installing the new monitor yesterday, BFG gave me the brush-off, claiming it was a motherboard issue, and they refused to help or to issue an RMA. I'll definitely be returning to eVGA for my next vid card purchase.

 

[Saiyukimot]

Try putting the monitor into a different power outlet entirely. See if that effects it. Maybe just a weak power line your computer is using, and a bigger monitor uses more power, reducing power to computer.