Testing PSU what program to use for load

riggie

riggie

riggie

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My graphics card seems to occasionally shut down and I think it could be due to power shortage ( only guessing ) and I get a directX error, this only happens once or twice a week and I can only think that it's the PSU.
Mostly happens during gaming on CoD or FSX not neccesary intensive load just general play.
The CPU Temps are only 40'c and the GPU gets up to 70'c so they are OK and the system is not overclocked. The GTX260 card has the 2 power supply sockets at one end but only one fan, that seems to be the only difference between my 8800GT which never shut down.

Just hoping it's the PSU as it's only 520w and a cheap make, but I am going to put a meter on the PSU and check the voltages and I was wondering what program or software I could run to give a constant load?
Could run FSX on auto pilot, put it's cpu intensive not gpu.
The Symtoms
The computer graphics freeze and Windows 7 asks if I want to check the problem online, sometimes a DirectX error ( will try and get code next time)
The computer does NOT crash and I just restart the game and continue playing.
How low does the voltage got to be before it causes a problem ?
 
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Did you change to the GTX 260 from a 8800GT recently? As the GTX 260 is a much more power-hungry card - it is rated at 171-182W (depending on the version) compared to just 105W with the 8800GT.

As stulid says, you can run furmark to put the graphics card under maximum stress, though a GPU benchmarking software like heaven may provide a more realistic gaming load - as furmark puts the card (and the PSU) under more stress than a game can.

It would also be a good idea to check if your CPU is fully stable (even at stock speeds), I would suggest using OCCT then Intel Burn Test (not at the same time).
 
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As stulid has said, Running Furmark will draw more power than your typical game.
Try and monitor the 12v voltage and if it dips below 11.5 ish then you may have an issue
 
i believe OCCT has a PSU test option.

failing that, you could just run prime 95 and furmark

*edit*
just remembered i have OCCT installed. it does have a PSU test, but it just runs OCCT's CPU and GPU tests at the same time. might be useful though, as OCCT logs graphics errors too
 
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Hi cmndr andi
Well it was bigger change than just the card, I bought a secondhand P5B Mobo,Q9550,and GTX 260 so it was quite a change, I know it would have been a good idea to swap one component at a time but I wanted to install just the drivers for the build I was hoping to stay with. Yes your right this 260 is a beast and a canny weight, as soon as I noticed the 2 power sockets I thought I would have trouble.

Anyway here are the results of the tests today.
The computer had been switch on for about and hour then I started the Furmark burn in test and just ran it for 10 mins.
GPU Temp started at 50'c to a fixed 79'c ( cpu never goes above 40'c )
NO LOAD FULL LOAD
3.42v 3.41v
5.19v 5.21v
12.12v 11.90v ( slight fluctuation between 11.89v to 11.92v but 11.90v most of the time )
I noticed the GPU fan read 51% rpm and the card was getting hot, the air flow out the back is not great so I wonder if it's full of fluff or dust.
I tried to remove the cover from this 260 before I installed it but it looked a bit to difficult, has anyone on here removed one of these ? would like some tips. Does the fan speed up automatically cos I aint got a program to control it ?
Here is a picture of the cover (only one I could find)
http://www.amazon.com/Palit-Sonic-216SP-448bit-NE3X262SFHD94/dp/B002VJJO6Y
 
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all those voltages are great. all components are designed to work within 5% of the intended voltage, and your well within them.

i would be surprised if the GPU fan wasnt a PWM fan (sped up as the card got hotter)

as for the graphics card getting hot, i suspect it is quite happy sitting at whatever temperature its at. my GTX460 will get to 77C under load, or ~83C if i have my overclock on it, and is rated to work up to 105C

*edit*
your card is rated for 105C too.
 
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Thanks for the reply Reaper 392 and everyone else.
I downloaded VTune and the fan is on Dynamic Speed, so I ran Furmark and it starts at 40% rpm and when the temp goes above 70'c it started to speed up gradually to 51% rpm so it's working correctly.
Pleased the power supply is OK. Going to see what the error code is if it freezes again.
cheers all thanks for the help.
If anyone has had a GTX 260 cover to bits I would still like to hear from them, with this cowl fully enclosing the card it's got to get some dust trapped inside.
P.S. Just tried the fan at 80% and the airflow seems OK but that could be because I am forcing the air through and it's quite noisy. All said and done the GPU temps dont seem to be a problem.......
 
Hi All
Have not had any problems for 2 days, been testing the GPU with Vtune, the PWM fan seems to have a poor ramp setup, seems to only to increase 10% at the most during heavy use. The card ticks over at 55'c and a max of around 79'c.
I used Vtune to set the fan speed to 61%, a little bit loud but inaudiable playing CoD. But the GPU temp was only 65'C max which I thought was quite an inprovement over 79'c.
I see rivatune can be set to ramp up to any desired speeds but looks a bit complicated to set, is there any other software available?


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Cheers Blue160 working a treat, as you say, very easy to move the ramp along for the fan speed.... brilliant
 
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