Associate
- Joined
- 27 Aug 2008
- Posts
- 58
First off I have to say that this forum is amazing – such a wealth of knowledge!
Hopefully, someone will be able to help me with a frustrating problem. I should point out that I am not a newbie – I have been building my own PCs for a few years now but this is my first Intel system (I think my sig is up to date).
I have had a few problems with stuttering and slow HD access but I think (touch wood) I have sorted this out with a reinstall and newer raid drivers.
Everything seems to be running fine in Windows – Internet Explorer, Win Media Player, etc all running smooth. The problem comes when I play Crysis (the only game I have at the moment). I have been playing through the game all week and really enjoyed it, it seems to run pretty good at 1680 x 1050 4x AA with all other settings on high. I get the odd slow downduring intense battles but I attributed that to the screen being very busy at that time.
On Thursday night I reached the last level (I think! The one on the flight deck of the boat). During this level I get a complete failure at some random time but usually when there is a big explosion or something like that. The screen goes solid grey and the last second of sound is looped, at which point I can do nothing but hit the power button and reboot.
I have tried a few different things over the last 2 days. I have done a full chkdsk - takes a looong time on a 1TB drive! I have reinstalled the game and Nvidia driver (180.48) and I have done a full memtest but none of these things have made any difference.
The only other thing I can think to blame is my PSU. When I bought my components I checked the PSU amperage and it seemed to be OK so I thought I could save some money by keeping my previous unit. Nvidia recommend 36A for a GTX 260 and 40A for a GTX 280, and my PSU has 52A.
The PSU is a Seasonic S12 650w and I have just noticed that it has 4 12v rails at 18A each.
I assume the PCI-E connectors on the PSU would have a rail each which would give the GPU 36A, but I assume that as with most things Seasonic exaggerate their figures slightly so it would never quite achieve its maximum output. Also, as the 260 is heavily overclocked I am guessing it might have the same sort of power requirements as a 280.
So here is the real question: Do you guys think that the PSU cannot cope with the demand of Crysis + OC’d GTX 260 when the screen gets very busy with explosions and flying aliens? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
I would be really grateful for some advice as I don’t want to spend £100 on a PSU only to find it does the same thing.
Hopefully, someone will be able to help me with a frustrating problem. I should point out that I am not a newbie – I have been building my own PCs for a few years now but this is my first Intel system (I think my sig is up to date).
I have had a few problems with stuttering and slow HD access but I think (touch wood) I have sorted this out with a reinstall and newer raid drivers.
Everything seems to be running fine in Windows – Internet Explorer, Win Media Player, etc all running smooth. The problem comes when I play Crysis (the only game I have at the moment). I have been playing through the game all week and really enjoyed it, it seems to run pretty good at 1680 x 1050 4x AA with all other settings on high. I get the odd slow downduring intense battles but I attributed that to the screen being very busy at that time.
On Thursday night I reached the last level (I think! The one on the flight deck of the boat). During this level I get a complete failure at some random time but usually when there is a big explosion or something like that. The screen goes solid grey and the last second of sound is looped, at which point I can do nothing but hit the power button and reboot.
I have tried a few different things over the last 2 days. I have done a full chkdsk - takes a looong time on a 1TB drive! I have reinstalled the game and Nvidia driver (180.48) and I have done a full memtest but none of these things have made any difference.
The only other thing I can think to blame is my PSU. When I bought my components I checked the PSU amperage and it seemed to be OK so I thought I could save some money by keeping my previous unit. Nvidia recommend 36A for a GTX 260 and 40A for a GTX 280, and my PSU has 52A.
The PSU is a Seasonic S12 650w and I have just noticed that it has 4 12v rails at 18A each.
I assume the PCI-E connectors on the PSU would have a rail each which would give the GPU 36A, but I assume that as with most things Seasonic exaggerate their figures slightly so it would never quite achieve its maximum output. Also, as the 260 is heavily overclocked I am guessing it might have the same sort of power requirements as a 280.
So here is the real question: Do you guys think that the PSU cannot cope with the demand of Crysis + OC’d GTX 260 when the screen gets very busy with explosions and flying aliens? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
I would be really grateful for some advice as I don’t want to spend £100 on a PSU only to find it does the same thing.