xfx 285 black sli shutting down system while gaming

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amaa

Junior Member
Dec 8, 2008
17
0
0
hello to all,
i just bought 2 xfx285 black edition recently to upgrade from my old 2x 9800gtx gigabyte and i am sad to see my pc is shutting down while gaming or testing, quite early aprox 5min. this only happens when i test or game the gpus only. cpu, mem all that seems ok when tested individually. i tested the cards individually and they work fine. any one have any clue as what can shut down my pc?
to add, with 2x9800 gtx sli i had no issues watsoever.

at this time i am suspecting my psu

any sugestion are appreciated

regards to all of u

my rig:
q9550@3.8 under 9700led
nforce780sli
2x2gb corsair
epsilon 1000
80gb sys, 500gb prog, 1tb data,
 
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amaa

Junior Member
Dec 8, 2008
17
0
0
by issue you mean its not working properly or not enough power? my guess would be not enough power sisnce it never shut down before.
 
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Dark4ng3l

Diamond Member
Sep 17, 2000
5,061
1
0
Well to run that setup comfortably you would probably want a 650 watt psu or something like that.
 
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amaa

Junior Member
Dec 8, 2008
17
0
0
oh man, i already have a epsilon 1000 watt. that means its somth else
 
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amaa

Junior Member
Dec 8, 2008
17
0
0
both cards idle at 40 and load 75max. cpu highest core is 62 under load. no pre warrning just going off. not even restart.
 
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Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
21,938
6
81
amaa said:
oh man, i already have a epsilon 1000 watt. that means its somth else
Click to expand...

Not necessarily.
I can't find the specific article, but there was an article on Anandtech where multiple high wattage PSUs wouldn't work with I think triple SLI, but some would, even though all were around the same wattage.
It is possible that even with a high claimed wattage there might be issues in terms of the PSU, even though your situation isn't identical.
 
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ashishmishra

Senior member
Nov 23, 2005
906
0
76
If the PSU is multi-rail instead of singe rail then you might be reaching the current limit of one of the individual rail, happened to me on a 850W OCZ, didn't happen with a 750W single rail corsair or 860W single rail PCP&C 860W Turbocool.

My advise to you would be to get a Corsair TX-750W/850W from a B&M store where you can return it if that is not the issue.
 
Schmide

Schmide

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2002
5,745
1,036
126
It's most likely a combination issue, highly overclocked processor on the edge succumbing to voltage drop from two power hungry cards.

2x 285 at 160w+ each 320w+

q9550 @ 3.8ghz 180w+

500w just for the major components.

I don't think there is a PSU that wouldn't have some voltage drop under those conditions.

Does it happen when you don't overclock?
 
Last edited:
nitromullet

nitromullet

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2004
9,031
36
91
ashishmishra said:
If the PSU is multi-rail instead of singe rail then you might be reaching the current limit of one of the individual rail, happened to me on a 850W OCZ, didn't happen with a 750W single rail corsair or 860W single rail PCP&C 860W Turbocool.

My advise to you would be to get a Corsair TX-750W/850W from a B&M store where you can return it if that is not the issue.
Click to expand...

OCZ PSUs were just re-branded Episions, right? I'm guessing that ashishmishra hit the nail on the head here.

I'd recommend ponying up for a solid 1000W PSU though. The OP is obviously the type of person who wants to run a multi-card rig, so I suggest planning ahead.
 
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amaa

Junior Member
Dec 8, 2008
17
0
0
the overclock fact mentioned earlier got me thinking, so i loaded all default and restarted. same thing 10 min or so and shut down. and yes my psu is epsilon, now im looking at

Quote:
Quiksilver A 800W FSP Epsilon unit? Eh, usually on those units the ripple is shit after about 500-600W.
(as seen here: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coo...x-psu7_11.html)

leaving the psu aside, can anything else in anyones experience, be out of order? can i get a hint on what else i shoud check before tosing my psu?
 
Hyperlite

Hyperlite

Diamond Member
May 25, 2004
5,664
2
76
amaa said:
the overclock fact mentioned earlier got me thinking, so i loaded all default and restarted. same thing 10 min or so and shut down. and yes my psu is epsilon, now im looking at

Quote:
Quiksilver A 800W FSP Epsilon unit? Eh, usually on those units the ripple is shit after about 500-600W.
(as seen here: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coo...x-psu7_11.html)

leaving the psu aside, can anything else in anyones experience, be out of order? can i get a hint on what else i shoud check before tosing my psu?
Click to expand...

Well don't toss it, there isn't anything wrong with it, aside from it not being that efficient. In my experience, it's almost always either heat or power that causes an issue like that.
 
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ashishmishra

Senior member
Nov 23, 2005
906
0
76
nitromullet said:
OCZ PSUs were just re-branded Episions, right?
Click to expand...

Yes the GameXtreme series are re-branded Fortron Epsilons.

Here are my two posts from a similar thread. (Sorry for walls of text ahead :))

ashishmishra said:
This same exact issue happened to me in Crysis, it turned out that one of my power supply rails was crapping out. Bad PSU design, one of the rails was powering both CPU power connector as well as a PCIe Connector. RMAed the OCZ GameXstream 850W (4 Rails) got a PCP&C 860W Turbocool (Single Rail) = no more crashing in-game.

BTW OCZ has since rectified the design defect and none of the CPU rails power graphics as well.
Click to expand...

ashishmishra said:
Well it is not a "rail problem" per se. Look at the sticker on the side of your PSU, it will tell you the connectors that are powered by each rail. The older units split one of the rails between the EPS 12V connector and a PCIe connector. The newer units have a different rail allocation, more specifically the PCIe Connectors DO NOT share a rail with a CPU power connector.

If you happen to run a heavily overclocked CPU (like my Core i7 @ 4.0) and a high end GPU (Like my GTX 285), one of the rails that is sharing the EPS and PCIe connectors apparently runs into its max current limit and shuts the power supply down.

Hope that makes sense.....

EDIT: Similar to the OP's situation the crash (reboot) didn't really happen in game, but just as the menu loaded. I did not see the crash when CPU was stock, and interestingly I didn't have the problem with a GTX 260 (with i7 @ 4.0).......but had a similar issue when I was running a 9800GX2 with (Q9550 @ 3.8) (except it was rebooting in-game rather than menu)
Click to expand...
 
Quiksilver

Quiksilver

Diamond Member
Jul 3, 2005
4,725
0
71
amaa said:
the overclock fact mentioned earlier got me thinking, so i loaded all default and restarted. same thing 10 min or so and shut down. and yes my psu is epsilon, now im looking at

Quiksilver said:
A 800W FSP Epsilon unit? Eh, usually on those units the ripple is shit after about 500-600W.
(as seen here: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coo...x-psu7_11.html)
Click to expand...

leaving the psu aside, can anything else in anyones experience, be out of order? can i get a hint on what else i shoud check before tosing my psu?
Click to expand...

Honestly, I can't think of anything else that would be plausible...

I mean if it were a thermal issue you would notice other issues first like out of the ordinary slowness, fans sounding like a hairdryer, or even artifacting.

The next thing I could think would be shorts in the cards themselves or in molex/pci-e/etc. adapters but you would more than likely be getting these issues the second you turn the machine on or even at idle not just during load.

Memory/hard drive issue seems unlikely too as they would BSOD before it abruptly restarts (instead of turn off). Not too mention you said you tested them (I assume with memtest86) and it worked fine.

To me that fact you've already tested the one card and a time and checked out the CPU temps and memory for errors leads me t believe that the only answer you have is a crap PSU not being able to put out the juice needed.
 
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