Issue with GTX 285

I'd be tempted to say PSU as well. As soon as you go into a 3d game the gfx card starts drawing more power which the PSU can't provide from a single 20amp rail, hence the instability.

One more vote for testing the gfx card in another system with decent 12v rails, only way to confirm the gfx card isn't at fault.

To be honest £100 for a 1K PSU isn't a good sign. I paid about £160 for my Seasonic M12 700Watt 18 months ago (probably cheaper now though). Good stable power is the basis for a stable system.

Also don't be disheartened by a new build not working. As others have mentioned its not that unusual. It can be a mix of components that just don't work well together for some reason, or it could be a single faulty component throwing it out. Its just a case of logically going through a process of elimination working out what is at fault.

Best of luck!

E-I
 
I really did overlook the PSU, but then again, I would have expected it to work seeing as it is 1000w but now understand that it doesnt mean it will draw 1000w from it.

Im just looking for a good PSU to buy anyway and the corsair keeps sticking out at the moment. I am planning to go definently 2 possably 3 sli with the GTX 285 if it works so do plan to get a good PSU.

Any reccomendations on one?

I think i will buy a used gfx card, small cheap one and try it out and see what happens with that as well unless i can borrow one.
 
Go with the Corsair then if that's the case, it's a solid choice, didn't realise you were planning on adding more video cards.
 
Thanks, would 1000w be too much for 2 GTX 285?

I can't remember how much I went down, but I put it with Rivatuner and linked the core with the clock and went to stock then went down by 12 and 12 again.

It did get better but I can see it jitter as the graphics became more intense (tried the 3D Mark 06). But it got further and further into the benchmarking the lower I went down.

Possably does sound like PSU issue. I wouldn't lose either way if i purchased a new one anyway because I need a new 1...
 
BigPapaP said:
Thanks, would 1000w be too much for 2 GTX 285?
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You would be fine with a good quality 750 watt for 2 of them. Tri SLi is really not worth it, the cost far outweighs any potential gains. If you're running at uber resolutions for example 2560x1600 then you might have a case to buy 3 but even then the gains are small. You're not going to see much if any higher framerates in a lot of games as it all depends on driver support.

In my opinion I'd see how you get on with the one card at the moment, as it should give you good performance with the eye candy turned up on pretty much any game that's out right now.

Besides which the Nvidia 2** series is getting to the end of it's life, and spending vast amounts on these old DX10 cards would be a tad silly.

If you really want to go down the dual card route sell your GTX and get a couple of ATi's 5870 DX11 cards, however getting your hands on these is like trying to find rocking horse s*** at the moment ;)

What resolution do you intend to game at anyway?
 
To be honest, this is the first "gaming" PC i have built, other than that I use the PS3 for gaming but i've had to cut bak on that as my old man controls the TV downstairs.

I just bought a DELL SP2309W and the maximum res this goes up to is 2048 x 1152 - so i would like to try and use it to its maximum potential. not sure if thats going about overboard or not.. But if its possable why not... :o)

I was debating about getting the ATI setup BUT at the time I had all the kit for the Nvidia setup and decided to stick with it. If I did got to ATI, it means I got to buy a new MB (which means I would look for the dual SLI or CROSSFIRE compatability MB) and re-building it again, which i don't mind but really do not want to spend more money on getting new parts (well gfx card and motherboard).

Theres not many games out which are DX 11 at the moment so i'd rather wait for that to come out, and my CPU is only a Q9450 (which for me is good enough) but eventually i do want to build an I7 setup depending on if I really need it.

My Comp at the mo is working a treat for what I need it for except the gaming side. which suks really. lol..
 
Ah yes just realised you're on an old Nforce chipset board. one 285 should cope admirably at that res for the time being.

You could also try and source a 5970 which would be fine in your current board, almost the power of 2 X 5870's, but again these are hard to come by at the moment.

If you have the money for another 2 285's though I think I'd be inclined to opt for just one, and put the rest of the money towards your new core i7 build.

At least then in the future you can choose whatever video configuration you want.
 
Sorry Coupe69, my board is an Nforce chipset Striker II Extreme, are you saying that it will cope with an ATI graphics card?

I probably will source a new MB (with ATI and NVIDIA compatability) and I7 early next year (February or March time) but would be happy to try and get this working compatability wise with each component in there at the mo.

Anyone interested in my ICUTE PSU.. ?? lol
 
BigPapaP said:
Sorry Coupe69, my board is an Nforce chipset Striker II Extreme, are you saying that it will cope with an ATI graphics card?
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Yeah you can happily run one ATi card in it, you just wouldn't be able to crossfire them.

If you brought the 5970 though, that is essentially 2 underclocked 5870's on a single pcb, and that would run fine in your current mobo.
 
I've never even heard of iCUTE before.... Thats usually a sign to stay away from them.

I once went to that same shop to buy a PSU for someone... They had some *really* cheap ones.. but even with the box and cables and stuff, it weighed about nothing.

Basically, if you're getting a 1KW PSU, you'd be looking at around the £200 mark. Half of that gives you probably about a quarter of the overall power. £100 is about the mark for a 650-700W power supply. Stick to those numbers, and get one of the well known makes.

Corsair
Enermax
OCZ
......

Come to think of it, buy any PSU thats mentioned in the OcUK shop. All of them are good makes. Stay away from unnamed or ones you've never heard of before. Some of them even lie, and state their max "burst" power output. 20A on a 12v rail for an unknown make is undoubtedly its burst power, and would only successfully push that for about a second. Makes like Enermax put their max stable power output. You can be sure that if for some reason, your PC draws more than that for a second or two, The PSU would run it fine.
 
To be fair there is no point in tri sli, my 5870, runs most games at max with 4xAA @ 5040x1050..
Bar crysis ofc.


But yes its most likely a PSU issue, have you actually tried to underclock your cards, i know someone with a pair of gtx285's that could only run stable when underclocked.
 
coupe69 said:
So what to do now? The best bet is to download ntune and downclock the video card to GTX 285 stock settings (core 648, memory 2484 and shaders 1476)
It may be that you will only have to tone the memory clocks down a bit to get it stable.
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Do this as I had the same problems with my BFG 285 ,they shipped it with wrong clocks, all I had to do was tone down the shader clock a bit and the errors went away,I recommend EVGA Precision http://majorgeeks.com/EVGA_Precision_d6209.html to do it instead of ntune myself though.
 
I am looking at getting a corsair PSU anyway and to be honest, i am tempted to get an ATI 5890 as I been told it will work on my MB.

I thought the MB was specifically designed for Nvidia gfx card, but I guess its only specifically designed for the SLI and not what gfx card you put in there.

I remembered though, even though i am not gaming, my computer would freeze when putting it in full screen or using multiple applications as well.

I would get that error message to say the Nvidia drivers have stopped responding and recovered successfully. So I assume because of the amount of power it requires from the PSU, the PSU is not drawing enough power for it causing it to freeze.
 
Hi All

Im looking to buy one of these PSU's today, not sure which one - I wanted to have enough power storage just in case I do go into SLI with this gfx card.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-023-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-019-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

Also I have tried to do the downclocking of the gfx card, didnt do a lot for me, it works a lot longer on 3D MARK 06 but again as it gets more intense, it flickers and freezes before going back to the main windows page.

I wanted to say asside from that, if i put my IE into full screen and im on webcam or im listening to music, whilst doing my website designing and looking for images on IE. It freezes and gives says NVIDIA has stopped responding and has now recovered.

Is it right to say, that the PSU is causing that issue or is that a driver issue? I have the latest drivers, updated and roll back drivers as well and i always get that issue BUT only if i have multiple applications running (but more so when I am using the webcam, or on youtube.
 
LATEST UPDATE ****HALF THE PROBLEM SOLVED****

Ok, i am wating on my new PSU Corsair 850 HX Model - figured I stick with 1 GTX 285 & if more games demand higher graphics to play then will consider buying a new gfx card or double up SLI.

Issue with computer freezing on games and when running multiple applications
This was caused by incorrect settings in the BIOS for my memory Modules. I own 1600MHZ DDR3 Dominator GT - I changed my Striker II 790I MB Bios Settings to reflect that and when i put it back to the AUTO setting everything seemed to work. This also included my current PSU (Not the Corsair)

Now the only issue i have is that it freezes at random times, not every so often - i can now only assume this is down to driver issues now as everything else has been adjusted back to its default settings.

Thanks for all your help and responses - if anyone has an idea of the freeze ups now, leave a message.

Thanks
 
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