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Artifacts on 260gtx and 9600gt only when cpu overclocked

eddiedebo

eddiedebo

eddiedebo

Associate
Joined
14 Sep 2008
Posts
23
Hi guys this is my first post on the forum although i have used it for a number of years to research and troubleshoot any problems i might have and its usually a big help, however i couldn't find any posts with this particular problem.

My Setup:
[email protected] 1.39 vcore
MSI P35 Neo2-FR
OCZ ModXStream 600w
4x1gb OCZ Reaper 1066
2x320gb Samsung Spinpoint F1 in Raid 0
1x500gb Hitachi Deskstar

I would generally consider myseld fairly good at working this kind of thing out for myself but im stuck on this one.

Basicly i recently upgraded to a BFG Maxcore 260gtx ocx from a 9600gt. I had artifacts appearing pretty much every time i played any game and on occasions the screen would go blank for a sec or so and then continue playing. When i say artifacts it was more like lots of the pixels changing colour and eventualy filling the screen so you could barely make out what should be displayed.

I have tried a number of different drivers, upgraded psu, underclocked the gpu, swapped the memory etc.. and nothing seemed to help. So i decided to go for the 260gtx as i was out of ideas. Howerver the problem is still exactly the same! By that i mean occuring at the same times and in the same way.

So yesterday i decided to update to the latest bios as i was using a modded bios version 7345v18 to run Mac OSX Leopard. As this reset my overclock i also decided to try lowering it to 3.2ghz, lower the vcore to 1.29, underclock the memory to 800 and set all other voltages to auto or default.

I was suprised to find that all my problems had gone!

Now basicly my question is has anyone experienced this? Do you guys think it was the bios update that fixed it? or backing off my overclock?

Im at work so have not had a chance to test overclocking with the new bios, so i will try that tonight but i would just like your thoughts if not answers
 
If there were problems running overclocked but no problems when running at stockl then id say your overclock cant have been stable. Either that or you PSU wasnt up to the job and was straining under load
 
I can see why you would say that but it was completely prime stable. Are you saying that the extra volts to run the cpu, ram, fsb is using a lot more power than it would at stock? enough to make the gpu be underpowered
 
eddiedebo said:
I can see why you would say that but it was completely prime stable. Are you saying that the extra volts to run the cpu, ram, fsb is using a lot more power than it would at stock? enough to make the gpu be underpowered
Click to expand...

Yes the extra power needed to run overclocked could be tipping the PSU over its limits, but tbh a 600w should be fine for your spec. Might be worth checking your PCI-E speed in the BIOS is set to 100 or 101Mhz
 
I will check the pci-e although im pretty sure its set at 100Mhz. If the PSU was under powered would that not also affect the stability of the rest of the system not just the GPU? because as i mentioned before the rest of the system was stable.

I did do a bit of resreach and found a set of different types of artifacts that are caused by different problems and it seemed to suggest a pci-e bus problem

http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/artifacts.html

if you scroll down to the bus artifact section that is what my screen looks like. However it does say this is very rare in pci-e
 
does that PSU have its own PCI-e connectors? the adapters always prove to be funny in any PSU.

I would also download ATI-Tool and test the artifacts in there. If theres artifacts could be the card but the fact it happens to 2 seems fishy to me.

Last things I can think off is PSU and the mobo's PCI-E Slot. If it has another pci-e slot put it in, i think the P35 has a x8 slot, i know not great but for testing purposes its worthwhile.
 
Yes it does have 2 pci-e connectors. Personally i think its the pci-e slot but iv strugled to find anyone or anything to do with a similar problem on google. But the site in my last post seemed to suggest it.

I do have another pci-e slot but would it still artifact on a slower slot? i will test it when i get a chance and also Ati-Tool.
 
it won't necessarily show artifacts because its a slower slot. However if it artifacts on there the only way to rule out the slots is to try it on another board, maybe have a friend's comp you can try it on?
 
Just thought id give a quick update that might help anyone with the same board. It appears that it was infact the bios update that fixed the problem as i have overclocked again to 3.7ghz and all is ruinning perfect now. Im 99% sure that my settings are near enough identical to how they were before i reset.

Thanks for comments and hope this maybe helps someone else with a similar problem
 
Glad you sorted the problem and that it was software related, I have a very similar system to yours and luckily never experienced your issues.

Also nice to see your CPU needs 1.39V to run at 3.7Ghz as mine needs 1.4V to run at 3.6Ghz so also quite similar.
 
I have a bit of an update on this problem as i have been playing around with the settings a bit. It appears that it was a RAM problem. i have OCZ reaper 1066 but when set to 1066 thats when all the problems start. doesnt seem to matter what voltage either it just wont run at 1066.

is this a common problem? or do i have some of the settings wrong?

Im pretty sure i set it to the correct timings but i had a lot more settings on my mobo than the spd on cpu-z so maybe they were not all correct

if anyone has or could advise me on the full set of timings it would be massively appreciated as im having to run them at 800 which is a tad annoying considering they should be good for 1066!
 
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