7970 dcii help...

[jmartin357]

so I finally managed to over pay for the asus 7970 dcii. that new video card smell now wafts through my computer room... sadly, I could not make it go. I'm hoping you can help me.

what I have:

p6t se motherboard
i7 960 cpu
12 gigs of ram
850 watt psu
(upgrading from) evga 295 gtx

what happens when I plug my happy new card in:

1 long beep, 3 short beeps. after a bit of research, I see that indicates "no vga detected".

potential problem:

my psu has 1 8 pin pcix cord and 1 6pin pcix cord. I used the converter cord included with the card to change 6 to 8.

what I tried:

placing the card in the original pcix slot (I have 3 to pick from, only 2 will actually fit it)
placing the card in the next lower slot
swapping the 8 and 6 pin cords in each of the above slots

always the same result. when I put the 295 back in, everything works fine again, which makes me sad and happy at the same time.

any thoughts greatly appreciated....

 

[Tempered81]

what 850 watt psu doenst have 2x8 pin?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Yeah that seems odd, mine has at least 6 8/6 pin connectors.

 

[jmartin357]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883229145

seems I wasn't quite right: it's an 800psu of undetermined make.

(this is the first pc I've bought and not built... tired of issues like this which leads to an ironic upgrade cycle)

 

[Tempered81]

with a billion dollar graphics card you might want to upgrade the $19 psu

 

[jmartin357]

with a billion dollar graphics card you might want to upgrade the $19 psu

certainly a possibility, not quite the dollar figures you're describing.

 

[Tempered81]

Can you try the card in another comp?

 

[lehtv]

Definitely change the PSU. It may or may not be the cause of the problem, but change it anyway. Here's a good one: XFX 650W $60 AR, capable of continous 650w as it should be. Has 2x (6+2)pin and 2x 6pin

 

[lavaheadache]

certainly a possibility, not quite the dollar figures you're describing.

I think it's fairly accurate.

 

[Madcatatlas]

the "problem" is that your current psu does not have the 2x8 pin power input that the Asus 7970 DC2 requires, correct?

Your 295 is actually a bigger power hog than your 7970

 

[tviceman]

Your 295 is actually a bigger power hog than your 7970

I was going to say the same thing. If the PSU worked for the gtx295, it should be able to power an hd7970, but it might not be delivering enough power through the lines that use the adapter to plug into the 8-pin hook up on the hd7970.

 

[Smoblikat]

The PSU is definitley NOT the cause. unless it died, if it ran a GTX295 it will run an HD7970. But i do agree that its a liability having that PSU doing anything other than a paperweight.

 

[kidsafe]

certainly a possibility, not quite the dollar figures you're describing.

It's probably an Apevia 800W, meaning it's probably something like a Deer, Bestec, U-Lucky or worse. These PSUs are not worth buying at any price.

 

[jmartin357]

The PSU is definitley NOT the cause. unless it died, if it ran a GTX295 it will run an HD7970. But i do agree that its a liability having that PSU doing anything other than a paperweight.

that was my thought as well. seems that we're in the minority with that possition, and reality is voting against us.

ok, so I can buy a new psu. why not go all in on this project. how high do I need to go? as we've proven, I'm a sucker for over paying...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139014

good? getting that high suddenly makes me wonder if my ups is up to the task, and that makes me wonder if a 15amp outlet is up to the task. I'm really hoping that the video card upgrade doesn't come with bids from an electriction. I'm not planning on sli'ing anything, in fact, other than an ssd, I can't think of anything else I'd put in there.

 

[Smoblikat]

that was my thought as well. seems that we're in the minority with that possition, and reality is voting against us.

ok, so I can buy a new psu. why not go all in on this project. how high do I need to go? as we've proven, I'm a sucker for over paying...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139014

good? getting that high suddenly makes me wonder if my ups is up to the task, and that makes me wonder if a 15amp outlet is up to the task. I'm really hoping that the video card upgrade doesn't come with bids from an electriction. I'm not planning on sli'ing anything, in fact, other than an ssd, I can't think of anything else I'd put in there.

550w to 650w will do perfectly. You might even get worse effeciency using that 1200w PSU, since it will be runnning on such a low usage it wont work very well. Dont get too high or too low (when dealing with power supplies of course ) otherwise you run the risk of using too much power to do too litttle work.

 

[jmartin357]

ok... the 8pin sockets I need to fill, are those listed as "6+2-Pin PCI-Express Connectors"?

 

[DooKey]

That AX1200 is an awesome PSU no doubt. I use one myself, but you don't need that much. If you want a nice corsair drop down to the AX850 and you'll be good for now and into the future.

 

[Meghan54]

550w to 650w will do perfectly. You might even get worse effeciency using that 1200w PSU, since it will be runnning on such a low usage it wont work very well. Dont get too high or too low (when dealing with power supplies of course ) otherwise you run the risk of using too much power to do too litttle work.

While using a low power draw on a high output power supply can sometimes give lower efficiencies than putting the power draw into the power supply's sweet spot for efficiency (draw at somewhere around 50% of rated output), your post is nonsense.


Even pulling extremely low draws on that AX1200, even down around 240W or so, still gives almost 89% efficiency, which is part of the ps being Gold rated.


And there is NO RISK of using too much power to do too little work, as you put it, because the power supply will only draw as much electricity from the wall as its requested to output by the computer. It's not like the power supply is trying to supply 1200W and you're only tapping 300W out of that. Doesn't work that way.


Sounds like you really have no clue how a power supply really functions.

 

[lavaheadache]

That Corsair is a great PSU but a collossal waste for you. It's meant for 3-4 gpu systems. Shoot for a 800 watter for future proof reasons but even that is overkill really.

I have a PC power and cooling 750 that drove 4870 tri fire and GTX 480 sli no problem and still kicking fine today with a 7970 and GTX 285 physx card.

 

[jmartin357]

ok, if I want to get this done this weekend, I get to be a patron of best buy. "get to be". that leaves me with this choice:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153106

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139024

any preferences?

 

[birthdaymonkey]

ok, if I want to get this done this weekend, I get to be a patron of best buy. "get to be". that leaves me with this choice:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153106

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139024

any preferences?

Neither of those is a great unit. You don't need 700 watts of PSU for your system. As someone mentioned earlier, 550 watts would be sufficient--even a 450w quality PSU would do it. Does Best Buy have any other models in that range?

The corsair GS series is not among their best; you'd probably be overpaying.

 

[Stuka87]

I use a 520W (Antec NEO-ECO 520C which is built by Seasonic) with a 4.1Ghz Phenom II (Power hog) and my over clocked 7950. At the wall I have only drawn roughly 350W while heavy gaming (BF3), and typically it was down around 315-320W.

If you never intend on having 2-3 GPU's, get a good quality 550W or so supply. It will work great. Over spending on a PSU is a waste.

Oh, and I don't think the PSU is your ultimate problem. Not until you test that card in another system.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I use a 520W (Antec NEO-ECO 520C which is built by Seasonic) with a 4.1Ghz Phenom II (Power hog) and my over clocked 7950. At the wall I have only drawn roughly 350W while heavy gaming (BF3), and typically it was down around 315-320W.

If you never intend on having 2-3 GPU's, good a good quality 550W or so supply. It will work great. Over spending on a PSU is a waste.

Oh, and I don't think the PSU is your ultimate problem. Not until you test that card in another system.

:thumbsup:

 

[MrK6]

I use a 520W (Antec NEO-ECO 520C which is built by Seasonic) with a 4.1Ghz Phenom II (Power hog) and my over clocked 7950. At the wall I have only drawn roughly 350W while heavy gaming (BF3), and typically it was down around 315-320W.

If you never intend on having 2-3 GPU's, good a good quality 550W or so supply. It will work great. Over spending on a PSU is a waste.

Oh, and I don't think the PSU is your ultimate problem. Not until you test that card in another system.

Yep. 550-600W is enough for any single card system.

OP, does your local BestBuy carry this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair+...pply&cp=1&lp=6 ? It's a decent unit although the efficiency isn't anything to write home about. Also, it's not necessary to pay more for the 700W unit.

I'd get a different PSU just to test it out and eliminate it from the equation. If your card still isn't detected after plugging it in to the new PSU, that gives a lot more info for troubleshooting.

 

[jmartin357]

ok, we're making great progress here: I'm writing this using the new card. turns out, it was the psu and replacing it with the corsair gs700 solved the problem (it created other problems, but that's a story for another day).

now my new problem: I have a dell u3011 and an lg 27 incher. I can't not convince the system that the dell supports 2560x1600, the highest it will go is 1920x1080. I thought it might be confused by the two monitors of different sizes, so I unplugged the 27 inch. no luck. this card has a single link and a dual link, so I've tried both dvi ports... also no dice. right now, I have the dell pluged into the port closest to the motherboard (looking at it from the back, the one on the left).

so...? should I buy a displayport cable? do I need to buy two dp cables and a dp-dvi adaptor (the lg only has dvi)?

thanks for your help!