7950GT not running well

[TechBoyJK]

I had this evga 512MB 7950GT-KO card installed in my workstation for about 8 months. It ran flawlessly. I have an AMD Athlon64 5000x2 with 2gb of 667 ram and Vista64.

As an example, I could run Unreal Tournament 3 with everything maxed out with 2xAA.

Ran smooth as butter, always around 60fps.

I upgraded to an 8800gt a few months ago. My friend bought a dell 2.6ghz quad core intel core quad, with 3GB of 667 ram and Vista basic.

He can play WOW with everything cranked, no issues. But when he tries to fire up unreal tournament 3, he can only play it on medium settings. At everything cranked up like I would run it, it will run fine for 10 seconds, then it slows down and stutters for a about a second, plays fine for 10 seconds, then stutters.. It does the exact same thing in Crysis at settings I could play it on, and the same thing in NFS Carbon at settings I could play it on. I could even play it at higher resolutions because I have 22" lcd's and he only has a 17"CRT..

Basically, my rig could play UTK3 maxed with 2xAA at 1600x1200 no problems. His can play it on medium, no AA, at 1280x1200. Otherwise, it skips up.

His rig is better than mine. More ram (same speed), but a better cpu.

What could it be? I've tried updated drivers, nothing is overclocked, and we check task manager to make sure nothing is eating resources.

 

[amerikanight]

Originally posted by: TechBoyJK
and Vista basic.

Could that be the reason??? Perhaps Basic is locking him out of certain features??? I just dropped my 7950 gtko for 2 8800 gt oc's and built my buddy a budget pc with a P4 3Ghz and tried Vista Ultimate x86 for a little bit before going back to XP x86. I threw my old 7950 in there for him and I was able to run UT3 and COD4 with all high settings with little hesitation... he also has a 17" CRT that he kept from his old machine.

I never even tried vista basic though... never even crossed my mind, but I dont think Aero and other features are enabled on basic. Kind of like how Crysis only runs on High on XP but can run on Very High on Vista.

 

[SolMiester]

His PSU may not be up to the task!, though usually the system would freeze or reboot if under powered....

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: amerikanight

Originally posted by: TechBoyJK
and Vista basic.

Could that be the reason??? Perhaps Basic is locking him out of certain features??? I just dropped my 7950 gtko for 2 8800 gt oc's and built my buddy a budget pc with a P4 3Ghz and tried Vista Ultimate x86 for a little bit before going back to XP x86. I threw my old 7950 in there for him and I was able to run UT3 and COD4 with all high settings with little hesitation... he also has a 17" CRT that he kept from his old machine.

I never even tried vista basic though... never even crossed my mind, but I dont think Aero and other features are enabled on basic. Kind of like how Crysis only runs on High on XP but can run on Very High on Vista.

Vista basic has nothing to do with it. The Crysis High/Very High is related to DX10, not Vista per se.

I agree with SolMiester, seems like a PSU issue.

 

[amerikanight]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle
The Crysis High/Very High is related to DX10, not Vista per se.

I agree with SolMiester, seems like a PSU issue.

Not entirely a DX10 issue.

Check it out... You can get Very High to run even on XP x86

http://www.extremetech.com/art.../0,1697,2209704,00.asp

I do agree that the Dell PSU is probably undersized but wouldnt that still let you adjust the settings to a high level and then just crash during the game???

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: amerikanight

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle
The Crysis High/Very High is related to DX10, not Vista per se.

I agree with SolMiester, seems like a PSU issue.

Not entirely a DX10 issue.

Check it out... You can get Very High to run even on XP x86

http://www.extremetech.com/art.../0,1697,2209704,00.asp

I do agree that the Dell PSU is probably undersized but wouldnt that still let you adjust the settings to a high level and then just crash during the game???

Well, yeah, that's a well-known hack, but the point is that Crysis makes the High/Very High determination based upon DX10, not Vista. If you have a DX9 card installed in a Vista-based machine, the Very High setting is not available.

OP is not stating that higher level settings are unavailable in UT3, just the machine runs like crap unless the settings are at medium level.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

Originally posted by: amerikanight

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle
The Crysis High/Very High is related to DX10, not Vista per se.

I agree with SolMiester, seems like a PSU issue.

Not entirely a DX10 issue.

Check it out... You can get Very High to run even on XP x86

http://www.extremetech.com/art.../0,1697,2209704,00.asp

I do agree that the Dell PSU is probably undersized but wouldnt that still let you adjust the settings to a high level and then just crash during the game???

Well, yeah, that's a well-known hack, but the point is that Crysis makes the High/Very High determination based upon DX10, not Vista. If you have a DX9 card installed in a Vista-based machine, the Very High setting is not available.

OP is not stating that higher level settings are unavailable in UT3, just the machine runs like crap unless the settings are at medium level.

exactly. The problem is that the card would tear through UT3 with all settings maxxed out on my pc, which is an Athlon 5000x2 with 2gb of 667 ram.

My friends machine is a Intel Core Quad with 3gb of 667. His core quad is superior to my system. Yet he can only get medium without it bogging down.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Any chance you can get us the specs on his Dell PSU?

 

[TechBoyJK]

Dell Inspiron 530

here is a link discussing the ps and an 8800gt upgrade.

http://www.tomshardware.com/fo...graphics-card-upgrades

I don;t think the power requirements of the 7950GT-KO would be that much less. It's pretty much the most powerful 7000 series card in the line.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Hmm, I think the PSU may be borderline here.

I have a 7900GTO in my g/f's rig, and according to the box, it requires a minimum 450w PSU w/22A on the +12V rail. There is probably a similar requirement for the 7950GT.

The PSU specified in the link is 350W. Dell tends to be conservative with their PSU ratings, but I don't know if it is up to the challenge.

 

[THUGSROOK]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle
I have a 7900GTO in my g/f's rig, and according to the box, it requires a minimum 450w PSU w/22A on the +12V rail.

careful to confuse the subject here.

22A on the 12v is assuming its a single rail PSU.
18A on the 12v is fine as long as there are 3x 12v rails and its switchable. doubtful dell uses such quality tho.


quick test: unplug ALL extra drives, fans, unneeded cards. run it barebones, and take the side panel off. if that at least helps a little youre on the right track.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle
Hmm, I think the PSU may be borderline here.

I have a 7900GTO in my g/f's rig, and according to the box, it requires a minimum 450w PSU w/22A on the +12V rail. There is probably a similar requirement for the 7950GT.

The PSU specified in the link is 350W. Dell tends to be conservative with their PSU ratings, but I don't know if it is up to the challenge.

It was the PS.

The included PS was rated at 350 watt.

Replacing the PS with a 500Watt Antec immediately resolved the problem.

 

[GprophetB]

Hah good to know glad you got it resolved

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: TechBoyJK
It was the PS.

The included PS was rated at 350 watt.

Replacing the PS with a 500Watt Antec immediately resolved the problem.

:thumbsup:

Just another example of the need for enough power. Of course quality and the power actually matching what is on the label is important as well. Dell PSUs seem to be good quality, but 350W is only 350W.

I'm wondering if the GPU was just throttling from not enough power. I recall that my 5900XT card would run without additional power plugged in, but when Windows first loads I would get a message from the Nvidia drivers stating that the card was running in reduced performance mode because of insufficient power.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: TechBoyJK
It was the PS.

The included PS was rated at 350 watt.

Replacing the PS with a 500Watt Antec immediately resolved the problem.

:thumbsup:

Just another example of the need for enough power. Of course quality and the power actually matching what is on the label is important as well. Dell PSUs seem to be good quality, but 350W is only 350W.

I'm wondering if the GPU was just throttling from not enough power. I recall that my 5900XT card would run without additional power plugged in, but when Windows first loads I would get a message from the Nvidia drivers stating that the card was running in reduced performance mode because of insufficient power.

"throttling" makes sense due to the symptoms I saw. The card ran fine, didn't lock up or anything, but if things started to get crazy, it had a consistent "drag" to it..