[amdcpu4life]

After about 20 minutes of game play it goes from 30-40 fps to 2-5 fps and makes a slight wine noise. Game settings are all Very High 2x aa @ 1400x900.

After i minimize to the desktop for about 10 seconds then go back to the game it runs fine again for about another 10 minutes. Temps stay around 69C-70C and Evga Percision says the gpu usage bounces around from 70-90%. I put my hand around the card and it does get hot.

This is what its doing:

You Tube

Just got done playing for 30 minutes and this is what i got. It was the third level. I think this only happens on certain levels? Because it ran just fine, a smooth 30-45 fps all Very High 2X AA @ 1400x900. Gpu load was 99%. I did defrag and disable the paging file. I think it's just certain levels though... Also changed my system ram from 8-8-8-24-2T to 8-8-8-24-1T (Stock is 9-9-9-24-2T)

 

[Ascii Aficionado]

All the symptoms point to it overheating. Try other software to monitor the temp and see what it says.

Edit - It would have to be significantly downclocking itself for performance to get that bad.

 

[AMDrocks]

Yup, Most likely overheating,
You should get a GPU heatsink.

 

[Ascii Aficionado]

It's entirely possible the heatsink is somehow getting pulled off slightly if it's not secured when the fan speeds up.

Just a possibility.

If you're absolutely certain you can hear the fan running at different speeds we can rule out a false fan speed reading.

 

[amdcpu4life]

Fan was 75% just put it on 100% still does it and temps stay at 65-68C.

Makes a SSSST SSSST sound with every studder, not the fan but the card itself. So i don't think its over heating. Maybe it's just getting old and Crysis is to much for it?

 

[amdcpu4life]

Any other thoughts?

 

[Xenthos]

I don't think it's overheating, considering that heat is created fairly quickly and reaches a maximum after 1-2 minutes, that would make the 10 minute gab too wide.

I think it's related to RAM usage. I think crysis maxes it out after a while, you should try disabling fancy windows themes / aero and see what gives.

Just my

 

[amdcpu4life]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xenthos I don't think it's overheating, considering that heat is created fairly quickly and reaches a maximum after 1-2 minutes, that would make the 10 minute gab too wide. I think it's related to RAM usage.

Hmm, maybe. A ram issue on the card or with my system? My system ram was at 9-9-9-24 thats what it says on the side of the memory but i set them to 8-8-8-24 after i first built the computer.

I hope it's not my psu, the whole system is a little less then 2 weeks old.

 

[Xenthos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by amdcpu4life I hope it's not my psu, the whole system is a little less then 2 weeks old.

I also experience the whining sound (on AMD HD 5850) and back then when I asked on these forums it seemed to be related to the PSU, but that doesn't mean the PSU is bad, it's just a phenomenon that some people will experience (and many have on here).

 

[brettjv]

I agree w/xenthos on this one. I've seen tons of games exhibit this exact same phenomenon in my day ... Oblivion for example was famous for it. The most common explanation for it that've I've seen is that it's caused by a 'memory leak', which an alt-tab seems to kinda reset. Have you tried monitoring your vram usage via the Afterburner Onscreen Display while you game?

Not sure that there's a 'cure', although I've seen instances where it'll happen with one driver and not happen with another on the same game so the only suggestion I got for you is to try other drivers if it really bugs you. Getting a card with more vram might help as well. Could also maybe try bumping the texture size down by one notch, just to see if it helps.

 

[amdcpu4life]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brettjv I agree w/xenthos on this one. I've seen tons of games exhibit this exact same phenomenon in my day ... Oblivion for example was famous for it. The most common explanation for it that've I've seen is that it's caused by a 'memory leak', which an alt-tab seems to kinda reset. Have you tried monitoring your vram usage via the Afterburner Onscreen Display while you game? Not sure that there's a 'cure', although I've seen instances where it'll happen with one driver and not happen with another on the same game so the only suggestion I got for you is to try other drivers if it really bugs you. Getting a card with more vram might help as well. Could also maybe try bumping the texture size down by one notch, just to see if it helps.

I will try it when i get off of work in about 10 hours, wish i didnt have to work... Played Prototype and Saints Row 2 + COD 4 for hours and nothing happens. Just in Crysis after about 20 minutes. Also my cpu is currently @ 3.6Ghz on stock voltage [1.375v]. Maybe the cpu gets unstable and needs a voltage bump after a bit of intense game play?

Also will put the system ram back to 9-9-9-24, hopefully this fixes it...

 

[amdcpu4life]

Im still at work i cant wait to get home and try some stuff. Could the ram @ 8-8-8-24 be causing a problem? Also my friend suggested taking one of the 6-pin power connectors out of the 260 and putting in one from another cable coming out of the psu and see if that works (Sli Ready Psu) because the card might not be getting enough power.

This is really starting to annoy me. Only happens in Crysis where it drops to 2-5 Fps! After 20 minutes or so of gaming. Or it could be just pure overheating...

 

[JPSwaynos]

I have the same exact card as you and I too had a similar issue while playing any games really, eventually every game would have extreme performance issues that would require a restart (at the time I think I was playing FO3, which is the same engine as oblivion so maybe that is related). From my experiments I determined that evga precision was causing an issue in which it would down clock the card to 2D settings and keep them at it (i.e. around 300Mhz) this was a couple of years ago and at the time I didn't think the 10% OC w/ precision was worth the annoying performance issues so I ditched any overclocking and uninstalled precision and I don't get that bug anymore. Your issue sounds related because you are alt-tabbing out of the game forcing the driver to go to 2D mode then switching back to 3D mode, your issue could be different but try monitoring what clock speeds in precision, and if it is doing what I described try uninstalling it.

 

[amdcpu4life]

I noticed Precision does throttle down my card when im just on the desktop. Yeah your right it sets the core to 302, shaders to 608 and memory to 600. But when i run crysis and it happens i go back and check Precision and it says the card remained at the right speeds, no decrease. But i will uninstall it tonight and see if that fixes it

EDIT: It would go to 2-5 fps stuttering badly even if i didnt alt-tab at all after about 15-20 minutes.

 

[amdcpu4life]

Riva Tuner will work wouldnt it?

 

[Ascii Aficionado]

Quote:

Originally Posted by amdcpu4life Riva Tuner will work wouldnt it?

Riva Tuner was abandoned over a year ago and won't work with modern drivers. The only aspect of it that get's updated is the core part that MSI Afterburner uses, and MSI updates that part.

Also, a memory leak would not decrease performance that much or that fast. Unless you have one in your Operating System.

There's likely something else going on as it doesn't sound like a heat issue now.

 

[amdcpu4life]

I just dont know what to friggin do! Im so poor i cant afford a new psu if thats it. And i cant afford another video card.
Child support and rent takes all my money so i guess im screwed in life like always...

Only happens in Crysis... Was no problems the first 4 levels being played over a weeks time. Then bam! Starts happening

I dont have the time or money to keep messing with this pos i just built it and already stressed out over it. I might as hell go ahead and sell the whole damned thing on CL or Ebay for around $400 with the monitor and get some of my money back. I did get the Gtx-260 and monitor for free from my friend. He never had a problem with it he said.

 

[Ascii Aficionado]

Quote:

Originally Posted by amdcpu4life;14250487
I just dont know what to friggin do! Im so poor i cant afford a new psu if thats it. And i cant afford another video card.
Child support and rent takes all my money so i guess im screwed in life like always...

Only happens in Crysis... Was no problems the first 4 levels being played over a weeks time. Then bam! Starts happening

I dont have the time or money to keep messing with this pos i just built it and already stressed out over it. I might as hell go ahead and sell the whole damned thing on CL or Ebay for around $400 with the monitor and get some of my money back. I did get the Gtx-260 and monitor for free from me friend. He never had a problem with it he said.

If the issue only happens in Crysis that does actually look like it could be a memory leak, and a pretty significant one.

You could try to reformat then reinstall if you're that fed up.

 

[amdcpu4life]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ascii Aficionado If the issue only happens in Crysis that does actually look like it could be a memory leak, and a pretty significant one. You could try to reformat then reinstall if you're that fed up.

What exactly is a memory leak? And are you talking about my system memory or the gpu memory?

What causes it?

I DONT KNOW WHAT CAUSES A MEMORY LEAK BUT COMPUTERS SUCK! I JUST INSTALLED WINDOWS LESS THEN 2 WEEKS AGO AND ALREADY I GOT THIS "MEMORY LEAK"! THIS IS BS.

 

[Ascii Aficionado]

Quote:

Originally Posted by amdcpu4life;14250576
What exactly is a memory leak? And are you talking about my system memory or the gpu memory?

It's when an app uses ram but can't release it to be used again due to that it can't be seen, the app can't access that data to clear it, and various other examples.

If you think about it all life on this planet has a memory leak, there's diminishing returns in cellular regeneration so we eventually die which also causes our memory to fail over time.
Quote:

Originally Posted by amdcpu4life;14250576
What causes it?

Bad programming.