Problems with 8800 GTX with AA and/or AF

jimmyman99

Greets. I have this annoying little problem with my 8800GTX (BFG) vidcard. Ever since I replaced my 7950GX2, Ive had problems with 8800GTX - some games just crash real bad after playing for a while. AntiAliasing and AntisoptricFiltering seem to make it crash faster if i crank those up.

Now, I tried to play around with nvidia control panel, to turn ON/OFF AA and AF... make them application controlled... went through at least 4 different vidcard drivers. Nothing seems to fix the issue. Some games crash too often, some never. NWN2 seems to crash the most (crashes after 5 mins of playing if i turn AA to 8 and AF on). The witcher crashes once per several hours. Counterstrike source never crashes (i havent crashed in HL2 EP1 either i think).

I tried googling but havent gotten any fixes yet. I even installed a frash and stripped (stripped of unnecessary services and such) winXp but the issue remains. Is it a common issue with 8800GTX or is it just my card? Is there a way to test it for hardware faults?

Thnx for any ideas.

my PC:

Intel core 2 6600 @ 2.4GHz

2Gig RAM

BFG 8800GTX (768mb)

X-FI F4t4lity soundcard

 

CleffyII

Its the game not the card.  Sometimes you just cannot help bad programming.  Could be an issue with the game being programmed for DX9, but the card being DX10.  There could be some fundamental differences on how some things are executed.  Half Life 2 is probably an exception due to how up to date they keep it, and how cleanly its written.

Varlok91

How hot is it running and whats your power supply?

jimmyman99

GPU temp is around 80, doesnt seem to be overheating. some time ago, when i had a dif card and my vidcard fan died, it was overheating and when it did, my system would slow down to a crawl. I would have to ALT - TAB to windows to cool it off then go back into the game. This time, however, the effect is completely different. It doesnt slow down, it just stops responding completely. Cant ALT - TAB out, cant do anything. The sound continues to work, but with extreme stuttering, as in, plays for 1 second, stops for 3.

My PSU is 700W, should be enough.

I was thinking it could be the game itself (bugs, incompatability with vidcard drivers, etc), but the pattern is just too similar. When it crashes, it crashes hard, with stuttering sound, requiring hard reboot. Also, sometimes, I see momentary "tears" in a game. Planeside is the worst, i cant really play it for long - it works fine, then suddenly i see extreme tears, parts of the screen are messed up, like a jigsaw. Thats the ONLY game that has that effect. Other games usually just blink a small tear in graphic once in a while. Wish I had a screenshot of it, ill try to record it, see if i can catch that "tear" in graphics later tonite

xxthecorexx

80 seems a bit high but i don't think high enough to overheat the card, unless that's an idle (non loaded) temp. i have a 8800GTS which USE to run at 70 loaded. i overclocked the card and cranked my fans up. now generally my card runs at 55 degrees (semiloaded, eq2 w/cranked up graphics) around 40 idle. for the tearing enabling vsync should get rid of this.

 

also.. what are your case and cpu temps ? are you sure your cpu isn't running hot creating the problem. do you have good case flow ? take the side panel off your case and see if your temps improve.

jimmyman99

Originally posted by xxthecorexx


80 seems a bit high but i don't think high enough to overheat the card, unless that's an idle (non loaded) temp. i have a 8800GTS which USE to run at 70 loaded. i overclocked the card and cranked my fans up. now generally my card runs at 55 degrees (semiloaded, eq2 w/cranked up graphics) around 40 idle. for the tearing enabling vsync should get rid of this.
 
also.. what are your case and cpu temps ? are you sure your cpu isn't running hot creating the problem. do you have good case flow ? take the side panel off your case and see if your temps improve.

CPU temp is low, around 40-50. ambient temp is also within normal parameters.

I use nvidia monitor and my temps (CPU/Ambient/GPU) never spike. Voltage is also in green. I had HT (SPP /MCP) voltage and PCI-E voltage slightly overclocked, but i lowered it and it helped a bit, but still crash with AA/AF cranked all the way up

Varlok91

Originally posted by jimmyman99


GPU temp is around 80, doesnt seem to be overheating. some time ago, when i had a dif card and my vidcard fan died, it was overheating and when it did, my system would slow down to a crawl. I would have to ALT - TAB to windows to cool it off then go back into the game. This time, however, the effect is completely different. It doesnt slow down, it just stops responding completely. Cant ALT - TAB out, cant do anything. The sound continues to work, but with extreme stuttering, as in, plays for 1 second, stops for 3.
My PSU is 700W, should be enough.
I was thinking it could be the game itself (bugs, incompatability with vidcard drivers, etc), but the pattern is just too similar. When it crashes, it crashes hard, with stuttering sound, requiring hard reboot. Also, sometimes, I see momentary "tears" in a game. Planeside is the worst, i cant really play it for long - it works fine, then suddenly i see extreme tears, parts of the screen are messed up, like a jigsaw. Thats the ONLY game that has that effect. Other games usually just blink a small tear in graphic once in a while. Wish I had a screenshot of it, ill try to record it, see if i can catch that "tear" in graphics later tonite

Need to know more about your PSU then wattage, sorry I didn't mention it before. If you could give me the  exact model that would be good. I am curious to know what the brand, amps on the 12v rail, and effficency are.

80 degrees Celcius is kind of hot, but it shouldn't cause you to crash. Pretty sure when it gets into the 120 degrees range is when cards shut down.

Warknox

does it blue screen crash or just frozen lock?  In the past with issues such as these I found my drivers where the problem most cases. Also could be another component like ram going bad?

jimmyman99

@Warknox: the game just crashes, i cant do anything (not even go to desktop) but i hear sound continue with extreme studttering and it repeats in short loops (2-3 second loops) several times before continuing. EX: lets say someone in game said "this is a good day to die" then i would hear "this is a.. this is a ... this is a...a good ... a good... a good...day to die...day to die...day to die". All the while the screen would not change a bit.

 

@varlok91 my PSU is OCZ GameXstream (OCZGXS700 model)

DC OUTPUT-MAX OUTPUT CURRENT:

+3.3V36A

+5v/30A

+12V1/18A

+12V2/18A

+12V3/18A

+12V4/18A

-12V/0.5A

+5Vsb/3.0A

New updates on my issue. I took the side case off and the game NEVER crashed on me once! At first, I thought it was overheating issue after all, BUT, the temperature didnt drop by a lot. Then I remembered that the night before, I was doing vidcard tuning (nTune), even thought it didnt finish, the Nvidia control panel keeps crashing everytime i start windows. I dont know how this is related to my problem, but whether the fact that nTune did change something inside the vidcard, OR the control panel was somehow affecting it - the issue is gone. I even closed my side panel and my temp spiked around 90 Celsius with no crashes.

Im afraid to finish nTune now, whatever it did to solve the issue may come back if I finish it.

 

sifudoja

From everything i've read online about ntune, you should totally avoid it. People have said that ntune can seriously screw up your pc because it has the ability to and may well change alot of settings on your pc on it's own, overclocking vid card, mobo and cpu options at will. From what i hear, not only is it likely to try to OC things without your consent, but it isn't even very good at it and often goes too far causing your equipment to break or burn. Basically it does what it wants, and can break your pc. Maybe it is causing some of your problems as well.

People at Guru3d recommend Rivatuner instead, which works with ATI and Nvidia cards. It has tons of video card overclocking stuff, as well as temps for your video card and cpu, but doesn't make changes on your pc without you telling it too do so. It won't affect your cpu or mobo, but you can OC those yourself in the bios.

I tried ntune a while back and instantly started having problems with my pc, After reading up about it, i got rid of it and never had similar problems again. I've never had any problems with rivatuner, atitool or any other programs like it either, only ntune. I also think it should be avoided.

jimmyman99

 

 

Originally posted by sifudoja


From everything i've read online about ntune, you should totally avoid it. People have said that ntune can seriously screw up your pc because it has the ability to and may well change alot of settings on your pc on it's own, overclocking vid card, mobo and cpu options at will. From what i hear, not only is it likely to try to OC things without your consent, but it isn't even very good at it and often goes too far causing your equipment to break or burn. Basically it does what it wants, and can break your pc. Maybe it is causing some of your problems as well.
People at Guru3d recommend Rivatuner instead, which works with ATI and Nvidia cards. It has tons of video card overclocking stuff, as well as temps for your video card and cpu, but doesn't make changes on your pc without you telling it too do so. It won't affect your cpu or mobo, but you can OC those yourself in the bios.
I tried ntune a while back and instantly started having problems with my pc, After reading up about it, i got rid of it and never had similar problems again. I've never had any problems with rivatuner, atitool or any other programs like it either, only ntune. I also think it should be avoided.

Dunno if nTune is good or bad, I really tried it outt of desperation - i got sick and tired of games hanging on me.

 

First, I removed default overclocked voltages from PCI-E and etc (Nvidia monitor reports everything in green now, except MCP PCI-E which is red at 2500GHz, but thats a minimum, I cant lower it further). That didnt work. Then I installed nTune and ran it. That fixed the issue with hangs, but the annoying tears in graphics still remain, although not as annoying as before, but they are still there.

I dont know if its nTune itself, or by installing something I corrected a faulty Nvidia driver, or the fact that Nvidia Control Panel crashes when I start windows (potentially fixing incompatibility or something), but Im free of freeze-ups.

Examples of tearing in graphics:

 

 

 

Warknox

Only time i've eperienced tearing like that was due to drivers.  When I used to oc I would get white pixeling here and there but no tearing, then the black out frame with vocal studdering.   That games reminds me of tribes 2 ish lol.  Anywho, sorry I can't offer any other help. Gl to you on this.

Aphex

You get tearing because your monitor can't keep up with your video card. Just turn vsync on in the games settings and it will take care of it.

Pelagato

I bet that if you take away the SoundBlaster, the computer will get fine...