New Graphics card + Power supply questionS

[Fallso]

BIGSTIC, do you have the scores for your Vista thing? You should be getting a 5.9 with that rig.

Hard disk fills up fast when you have a 16 month old

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b125/bigstic/score.jpg[/\img]

Oh, yeah, you need RAID 0 or a Raptor to get 5.9 on the HDD bench. Forgot about that.

I got 5.9 on the HDD bench without either of those.

In reply to OP: When I got this computer I had a 500w PSU but it had shitty voltage (I'm always confused as to whether is volts, amps or whatever) across my 12v rails that was causing crashes, as soon as I upgraded to a 550w with twice as powerful 12v rails it stopped crashing, I have an 8800 GT too.

[mootsfox]

In reply to OP: When I got this computer I had a 500w PSU but it had shitty voltage (I'm always confused as to whether is volts, amps or whatever) across my 12v rails that was causing crashes, as soon as I upgraded to a 550w with twice as powerful 12v rails it stopped crashing, I have an 8800 GT too.

That's amperage, the amount of current. Shitty PSUs also have larger variances in voltage. A good PSU will hover between 11.8 and 12.2v where as a shitty one can jump around under load and cause serious problems.

[Fallso]

In reply to OP: When I got this computer I had a 500w PSU but it had shitty voltage (I'm always confused as to whether is volts, amps or whatever) across my 12v rails that was causing crashes, as soon as I upgraded to a 550w with twice as powerful 12v rails it stopped crashing, I have an 8800 GT too.

That's amperage, the amount of current. Shitty PSUs also have larger variances in voltage. A good PSU will hover between 11.8 and 12.2v where as a shitty one can jump around under load and cause serious problems.

That's the one then, Amps. I can never remember which, but yeah, my first PSU was bollocks so I ended up getting one only marginally more "powerful" but several times better it would seem!

[Lordwafik]

After speaking to someone in my LS with my exact card and PC specs (even down to the OS and stuff) his machine runs @ full FPS even @ AH with full shadows and everything, my machine can't, we deduced it down to the only difference between our computers, is a)He has a core2 duo 2400ghz , mine is a Q6600 2.2ghz so I highly doubt it's that, and b) his Power supply is 600w , mine is 450 and a generic brand too , which means it's probably lower in the 300 regions. So it's as I suspected, I'll upgrade my PSU within the next few weeks (due for this really) and I'll update this topic when I do.

[mootsfox]

After speaking to someone in my LS with my exact card and PC specs (even down to the OS and stuff) his machine runs @ full FPS even @ AH with full shadows and everything, my machine can't, we deduced it down to the only difference between our computers, is a)He has a core2 duo 2400ghz , mine is a Q6600 2.2ghz so I highly doubt it's that, and b) his Power supply is 600w , mine is 450 and a generic brand too , which means it's probably lower in the 300 regions. So it's as I suspected, I'll upgrade my PSU within the next few weeks (due for this really) and I'll update this topic when I do.

Well, first off the Q6600 is 2.4GHz, not 2.2GHz.

Second, why (and how?) are you running an Intel quad and a 8800GTX on a 450W generic PSU? That GTX alone consumes about 150w if not more under heavy load and temps.

Your choices are:
Black: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817703009
Red: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341011
Blue: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817703019

They all have two PCI-e 6pin and two PCI-e 6/8 pin connectors. You'd be able to run SLI'd 8800GTX's with it. PC Power and Cooling is one of if not the best PSU maker. It's on sale now, and I've never seen them priced this low. Buy it quickly.

[Lordwafik]

After speaking to someone in my LS with my exact card and PC specs (even down to the OS and stuff) his machine runs @ full FPS even @ AH with full shadows and everything, my machine can't, we deduced it down to the only difference between our computers, is a)He has a core2 duo 2400ghz , mine is a Q6600 2.2ghz so I highly doubt it's that, and b) his Power supply is 600w , mine is 450 and a generic brand too , which means it's probably lower in the 300 regions. So it's as I suspected, I'll upgrade my PSU within the next few weeks (due for this really) and I'll update this topic when I do.

Well, first off the Q6600 is 2.4GHz, not 2.2GHz.

My bad

Second, why (and how?) are you running an Intel quad and a 8800GTX on a 450W generic PSU? That GTX alone consumes about 150w if not more under heavy load and temps.

Why? If you didn't see by my first post, I'm not very knowledgable with computers. How? God knows.

Your choices are:
Black: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817703009
Red: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341011
Blue: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817703019

They all have two PCI-e 6pin and two PCI-e 6/8 pin connectors. You'd be able to run SLI'd 8800GTX's with it. PC Power and Cooling is one of if not the best PSU maker. It's on sale now, and I've never seen them priced this low. Buy it quickly.

[/quote][/quote]

Thanks, but those are in USA , I'm in australia so I won't be able to get those I'll look if there's anything similar in here, I oh so love newegg.

[mootsfox]

Thanks, but those are in USA , I'm in australia so I won't be able to get those I'll look if there's anything similar in here, I oh so love newegg.

Oh, didn't know you were an aussie, one moment while I find you some links...

CORSAIR 750W TX-750 ATX POWER SUPPLY

http://www.gamedude.com.au/prod_show.ph ... psCOtx_750

PC Power and Cooling is an American company, and I don't believe they sell retail to Australia. You need something around or above 600w and from any of the following; Corsair, Seasonic, Silverstone or Tagan.

My list of Australian computer resellers is short, but all these guys have PSUs:
http://www.gamedude.com.au/
http://www.mittoni.com.au/
http://www.pccasegear.com/ <- I like these guys
http://www.scorptec.com.au/browse/24/90

[Lordwafik]

thanks :D

[levish]

imo run a 3dmark or something to see if the video card is running fine, you might be wasting money upgrading the psu

[Lordwafik]

imo run a 3dmark or something to see if the video card is running fine, you might be wasting money upgrading the psu

Getting new psu regardless since I don't even have min req for my 8800 (it asks for 500w, I have generic 450w) , however it can't hurt to run 3dmark anyway, I'll give it a shot tomorrow. Thanks for the tip!

[Lordwafik]

Question for Mootsfox - I didn't realize that the power supply had a fan (I know I know, har har) ever since I put my nvidia card in, my machine has been ROARING - could this be a telltale sign of my PSU trying to run at max capacity? Just want a confirmation before I splurge :S Don't have any PC enthusiast friends locally so I can't exactly play around with their PSUs.

[mootsfox]

Question for Mootsfox - I didn't realize that the power supply had a fan (I know I know, har har) ever since I put my nvidia card in, my machine has been ROARING - could this be a telltale sign of my PSU trying to run at max capacity? Just want a confirmation before I splurge :S Don't have any PC enthusiast friends locally so I can't exactly play around with their PSUs.

PSU fans are almost always thermally throttled, as in they speed up as the temp goes up and vice versa. The more power you draw from the PSU, the more energy is wasted (as heat), so the temperature inside the PSU increases.

Since the fan has turned on and is probably running at full load with your rig, I'd say, yes, it's maxing out the PSU. I don't know the detailed specs (if it says the 12+ volt amperage on the PSU, I'd like to know), but I'd say it's being pushed a lot harder than it was meant to. I'm surprised it's actually still running. If it fails (which is likely to happen sooner than later) it could take out your motherboard, CPU (unlikely) and graphics card, or other things like your HDDs or ODDs.

I'd suggest buying a stronger PSU as soon as possible... like by Friday.

[Lordwafik]

Question for Mootsfox - I didn't realize that the power supply had a fan (I know I know, har har) ever since I put my nvidia card in, my machine has been ROARING - could this be a telltale sign of my PSU trying to run at max capacity? Just want a confirmation before I splurge :S Don't have any PC enthusiast friends locally so I can't exactly play around with their PSUs.

PSU fans are almost always thermally throttled, as in they speed up as the temp goes up and vice versa. The more power you draw from the PSU, the more energy is wasted (as heat), so the temperature inside the PSU increases.

Since the fan has turned on and is probably running at full load with your rig, I'd say, yes, it's maxing out the PSU. I don't know the detailed specs (if it says the 12+ volt amperage on the PSU, I'd like to know), but I'd say it's being pushed a lot harder than it was meant to. I'm surprised it's actually still running. If it fails (which is likely to happen sooner than later) it could take out your motherboard, CPU (unlikely) and graphics card, or other things like your HDDs or ODDs.

I'd suggest buying a stronger PSU as soon as possible... like by Friday.

lol I found a decent website that has 2 day shipping, hopefully it'll arrive before the weekend (it's thursday now) and I'll let you guys know how it goes. This definitely has been very informative for me, thanks a bunch.

[Lordwafik]

Bumpdate : PSU hasn't arrived, but I did a "Final shot" and installed the 174.74 driver, and wowwwww it fixed a lot of framerate issues. Now out in the feilds doing ZNMs with LS (so about 14-18 char models + monsters combined) and getting near full fps with full shadows full AA full AF etc. Occasionally when a lot of things happen all at once it'll dip to 22 fps with very rare 20 fps's. In town it's still 10-20 fps, nothing's fixed there, but 174.74 = winner on my computer with most things staying @ 25-30 fps for the most part. If I make shadows normal, all areas fps rise. For example another ally came and waited on our ??? as we killed the NM so there was our 12 + another 12 and then fps died forcing me to go lower and then with normal shadows it went back up to 29 fps.

I'm sure psu will still enhance it somewhat - hopefully letting me stay at full fps most of the time, if it doesn't, at least I'll still have a good safe psu rather than generic cheapo brand.

[Cephius]

Bumpdate : PSU hasn't arrived, but I did a "Final shot" and installed the 174.74 driver, and wowwwww it fixed a lot of framerate issues. Now out in the feilds doing ZNMs with LS (so about 14-18 char models + monsters combined) and getting near full fps with full shadows full AA full AF etc. Occasionally when a lot of things happen all at once it'll dip to 22 fps with very rare 20 fps's. In town it's still 10-20 fps, nothing's fixed there, but 174.74 = winner on my computer with most things staying @ 25-30 fps for the most part. If I make shadows normal, all areas fps rise. For example another ally came and waited on our ??? as we killed the NM so there was our 12 + another 12 and then fps died forcing me to go lower and then with normal shadows it went back up to 29 fps.

I'm sure psu will still enhance it somewhat - hopefully letting me stay at full fps most of the time, if it doesn't, at least I'll still have a good safe psu rather than generic cheapo brand.

Told you 174.74 ftw

[Lordwafik]

don't know how I skipped your post , I actually downloaded so many drivers from 169.17 all the way to 175.16

[Lordwafik]

Changed PSU, not a single change whatsoever with FPS. Boo I say, boo! Don't mind all that much though since now I have a more stable and warranty backed PSU.

[Avanarius]

you'll be glad when your computer DOESN'T explode into a fine mist of metal shards note: this probably can't really happen