[francesthemutes]

Alright, the story thus far...

I've been playing games on my sig rig and I would have my 2 video cards over clocked to 800 core, 1200 memory. Though, after a while GRID and FEAR 2, Fry Cry 2, etc. would crash. Whereas GRID would outright just crash, FEAR 2 and Fary Cry 2 would have the drivers crash, then recover. Thinking it was just a stability problem, I put my video cards back to stock clocks (775/1126) and all is peachy and I can play my games just fine. However, I can have my video cards OC'd even higher than I mentioned and running FurMark full bore and not a single problem.

So... I'm totally confused.

?! It doesn't make sense to me. After mulling it over, I figured that my current PSU is just not giving my system enough "oomph" and I'm prepared to shell out some cash and upgrade to a TX 750. But why do both games crash in different ways? And why does running FurMark not crash it?

I am quite confused. Can anyone think of a reason as to why I've got this particular problem?

TIA!

 

[Enthusiast]

Wipe and reinstall your drivers and tell us where in GRID it would crash along with what Service pack of the OS your using.

 

[diligenthunter]

Id go with a a new power supply as at peak those cards are taking 105 watts each. But im more worried about amps , link to which Enermax liberty 500 you have?

 

[Josh81]

furmark probably draws a lot more power than games, try wiping your drivers completely and then reinstalling them

when in doubt, reinstall drivers!

 

[DeadSkull]

Furmark is gpu heavy but doesn't tax the cpu as much. Some of the games you play are really good for taxing both gpu and cpu, particularly Far Cry 2. Since during gaming both your cpu and gpus are loaded up this results in some serious cross loading on the PSU rails, which a decent more powerful psu would handle without a problem but a weaker one would give out and voltage supplied would dip underspec thus causing driver crashes or gpu shut downs.

 

[francesthemutes]

Okay, answering questions:

1 - GRID crashes anywhere. Totally random. Same with FEAR 2 and Far Cry 2. Oddly enough (I forgot to mention), Source games never crash.

2 - Running Vista X64 fully updated/patched.

3 - I've wiped my drivers using DC.net several times in safe mode, installed fresh drivers and so on. This was the first thing I checked. These problems have been happening for as long as I can remember.

4 - My Enermax Liberty isn't listed on sites anymore because it's an older power supply. I got mine back in mid-2006.

---

DeadSkull, I think you're right. I forgot that with games as opposed to FurMark, I'd be taxing everything: RAM, GPU, CPU, Mobo. It's probably some cross loading. Can anyone recommend a decent PSU? I know that the TX750 is a champ but I remember Jonny Guru saying in his TX750 review "Regulation is adequate and efficiency is exactly what the box promised as long as you don't crossload it." So that does have me somewhat concerned. However, I do see a huge amount of users on OCN with it so it must be a nice PSU.

 

[steelrain33]

yeah if you decide to go with the 750 you will be future proofed for a while but total overkill know for your sig rig

 

[I_dalder_I]

I think a new PSU will be just the ticket. That is if all the driver reinstalls and wipe's dont work. Furmark draws on GPU's only no other part of the system. Id say a heavily intense game will draw more power then furmak so maybe thats why your seeing that inconsistency

 

[shinji2k]

Try disabling Crossfire but keeping your OC. Try gaming then. It will reduce power consumption but still test for any instabilities in your OC or any software problems. 3870 power consumption is around 80-90W each. Paired with an OCed dual core the Liberty should be able to handle it, but I have seen odd things happen with PSUs on the edge.

 

[francesthemutes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shinji2k Try disabling Crossfire but keeping your OC. Try gaming then. It will reduce power consumption but still test for any instabilities in your OC or any software problems. 3870 power consumption is around 80-90W each. Paired with an OCed dual core the Liberty should be able to handle it, but I have seen odd things happen with PSUs on the edge.

Good point! Will try out.

Oki doki! Looks like a new PSU is needed. I put on GRID, overclocked my GPU to 825/1226 and it crashed! Then I realised my RivaTuner fan profiles weren't on

. Durrr! So I turned them on and I was able to play GRID no problem at those clock settings with just a single GPU.

 

[DeadSkull]

Quote:

Originally Posted by francesthemutes Okay, answering questions: 1 - GRID crashes anywhere. Totally random. Same with FEAR 2 and Far Cry 2. Oddly enough (I forgot to mention), Source games never crash. 2 - Running Vista X64 fully updated/patched. 3 - I've wiped my drivers using DC.net several times in safe mode, installed fresh drivers and so on. This was the first thing I checked. These problems have been happening for as long as I can remember. 4 - My Enermax Liberty isn't listed on sites anymore because it's an older power supply. I got mine back in mid-2006. --- DeadSkull, I think you're right. I forgot that with games as opposed to FurMark, I'd be taxing everything: RAM, GPU, CPU, Mobo. It's probably some cross loading. Can anyone recommend a decent PSU? I know that the TX750 is a champ but I remember Jonny Guru saying in his TX750 review "Regulation is adequate and efficiency is exactly what the box promised as long as you don't crossload it." So that does have me somewhat concerned. However, I do see a huge amount of users on OCN with it so it must be a nice PSU.

Sounds like you need a new psu. While Corsair TX750 is still a decent psu Corsair recently released some stuff that puts their older psus to shame.

Actually since you have the Antec 1200 I think Antec CP-850 would be a perfect psu for you.

jonnyguru link

 

[shinji2k]

Hm, how are the temps when both of them run? But it doesn't sound good for the Liberty. What you may want to do is switch your video cards to make sure the other one isn't faulty or something. But it does look like a PSU upgrade may be needed.

 

[francesthemutes]

DeadSkull, the TX750 is a decent price right now at NCIX going for just under 100 bucks after MIR. The CP-850 is damn fine, but it does cost about 40 dollars more than the Corsair.

shinji, my temps are decent. They're around 65-75 during a game. I've swapped out the video cards before and they both run well so no worries there. It just seems like the Liberty has run its course. Still a damn decent PSU for something a little less stressful.

 

[Deagle50ae]

When I asked about my 550-watt PSU before and gaming performance, everybody said it was something else.

Then I bought GTA-IV to igve it a go.
Within 10-minutes I smelled it... the the whole system shut down. 1 dead PSU on the list. 1 RMA in the bag.

a cheapo 500-watt PSU doesn't cut it for high-end gaming, especially dual GPU's!

 

[shinji2k]

Yeah the original Liberty was a pretty decent unit apart from the choice of glue. After about a year of thermal cycling the glue can turn conductive and fry the PSU.

And Deagle, what was the PSU and what hardware was it running? Curiosity and all that.

 

[Deagle50ae]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shinji2k Yeah the original Liberty was a pretty decent unit apart from the choice of glue. After about a year of thermal cycling the glue can turn conductive and fry the PSU. And Deagle, what was the PSU and what hardware was it running? Curiosity and all that.

Ultra "lifetime" series 550-watt psu.
It's being exchanged for a 650-watt version at this time... free of charge, shipping included.

At the time of burn out.
GTX 260 192 @ 720/1500/1250 1.188V
Phenom X4 9850 BE @ 3.2GHZ 1.5V
1 7200 rpm hdd
water cooling loop (14-watt pump)
4 sticks of DDR2
5 120mm antec fans, 1 200mm fan.

in occt, my 12 volt would drop to 11.2 during the GPU test. that was my main concern/clue. and it came true.
So I bought an Antec TruPower 850 Quattro so I never really have to worry about a PSU in the future.

 

[shinji2k]

Lol. Whoever told you that would be fine is an idiot. Those Yuelin built LSP-550 units from Ultra are crap. They probably are only good for about 450W, if that, and are built pretty poorly.