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GTX670 hardware incompatibility?!?

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  • Hardware
  • Components
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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April 4, 2014 3:55:36 AM

Hey,

I hope someone out there can help with an odd tech problem. My system consists of components upgraded as and when so currently is a Gigabyte EP45-DS3 motherboard, Q9550 @ 2.83GHz, 4Gb (4x1Gb) of OCZ2P800R21G DDR2 memory, Win 7 Ultimate and a WD 640Gb HDD.

I recently upgraded from a Radeon 6870 to the aforementioned Asus GTX670 OC but no matter what I do (I've swapped PSU, new monitor, reformatted, swapped PCI slots, tried 15+ driver versions... absolutely everything!) SOMETHING causes the monitor to flicker to black continuously (randomly, but as often as every couple of seconds) but ONLY when the card is in low-power mode for browsing/desktop/etc. It's fine when running games; rock-solid.

Now, I know the card is in full working order (Novatech had it back and tested it.) I ran memtest for 9 hours and all good so memory functioning correctly. I ran furmark for the same duration and it never missed a beat. Everything is @ stock speeds. No other issues with my system at all.

So, what I'm thinking is that there's some kind of odd hardware incompatibility since not all of my components are the same generation. Perhaps voltage supply to the PCI slot or something like that? Is there a setting like that in the BIOS? Can anyone who knows about the deep stuff see an obvious fix before I go about replacing things? I'm hoping there's a better way than a complete swap of the guts. My pocket won't like that.

Thanks in advance!

More about : gtx670 hardware incompatibility

April 4, 2014 3:55:35 PM

There shouldn't be any hardware incompatibility. PCIe is the standard and as long as you have the slot, it should work. I looked up that serial for the board and it has PCIe 2.0 which is a (slightly older) standard, but it should work, just at 2.0 speeds.
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April 5, 2014 12:13:10 AM

Captain_Amazing said:
Hey,

I hope someone out there can help with an odd tech problem. My system consists of components upgraded as and when so currently is a Gigabyte EP45-DS3 motherboard, Q9550 @ 2.83GHz, 4Gb (4x1Gb) of OCZ2P800R21G DDR2 memory, Win 7 Ultimate and a WD 640Gb HDD.

I recently upgraded from a Radeon 6870 to the aforementioned Asus GTX670 OC but no matter what I do (I've swapped PSU, new monitor, reformatted, swapped PCI slots, tried 15+ driver versions... absolutely everything!) SOMETHING causes the monitor to flicker to black continuously (randomly, but as often as every couple of seconds) but ONLY when the card is in low-power mode for browsing/desktop/etc. It's fine when running games; rock-solid.

Now, I know the card is in full working order (Novatech had it back and tested it.) I ran memtest for 9 hours and all good so memory functioning correctly. I ran furmark for the same duration and it never missed a beat. Everything is @ stock speeds. No other issues with my system at all.

So, what I'm thinking is that there's some kind of odd hardware incompatability since not all of my components are the same generation. Perhaps voltage supply to the PCI slot or something like that? Is there a setting like that in the BIOS? Can anyone who knows about the deep stuff see an obvious fix before I go about replacing things? I'm hoping there's a better way than a complete swap of the guts. My pocket won't like that.

Thanks in advance!


install msi afterburner and create custom 2d profile.


The easiest way is to copy the low power settings and slowly increase core/ram speeds in afterburner till the problem goes away.

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April 6, 2014 3:39:22 AM

maxalge said:

install msi afterburner and create custom 2d profile.


The easiest way is to copy the low power settings and slowly increase core/ram speeds in afterburner till the problem goes away.



That's a good work-around. I'm doing something similar by using Nvidia Inspector to stop the card from dropping back into p8 state (the lowest power) and stay in p5 state (medium-low power) where the problem is considerably lessened. The only problem is that I have to switch back to automatic p-state setting when playing games (or it stays in p5 and only uses about 40% of the card's capacity) and if the game has non-3D menu/inventory screens (Witcher 2) the card drops back to p8 on those screens and the flickering comes back, making the inventory screens unusable.

Does the Afterburner custom 2D setting still allow the card to ramp up to full speed when needed and only drop back to my prescribed settings when needed? In other words, will it fix the Witcher problem I just described?

I look forward to your answer.

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Best solution

April 6, 2014 7:56:03 AM

Captain_Amazing said:
maxalge said:

install msi afterburner and create custom 2d profile.


The easiest way is to copy the low power settings and slowly increase core/ram speeds in afterburner till the problem goes away.



That's a good work-around. I'm doing something similar by using Nvidia Inspector to stop the card from dropping back into p8 state (the lowest power) and stay in p5 state (medium-low power) where the problem is considerably lessened. The only problem is that I have to switch back to automatic p-state setting when playing games (or it stays in p5 and only uses about 40% of the card's capacity) and if the game has non-3D menu/inventory screens (Witcher 2) the card drops back to p8 on those screens and the flickering comes back, making the inventory screens unusable.

Does the Afterburner custom 2D setting still allow the card to ramp up to full speed when needed and only drop back to my prescribed settings when needed? In other words, will it fix the Witcher problem I just described?

I look forward to your answer.



Yes.

afterburner allows you to set custom 2d and 3d profiles.

So before playing witcher set a custom 2d profile that is high enough core/memory wise to prevent flickerin in the menu.


After you finish gaming you can set the 2d profile to another lower power customized profile saved for that.



You can save up to 5 custom profiles, and make any of them as the 2d or 3d setting.


You could have


a low core/mem voltage setting for 2d that is still high enough to prevent flicker in games.

a high overclocked 3d performance setting.

and another 2d setting for normal desktop use.


Afterburner automatically switches states itself as needed between 2d and 3d mode.

All you would need to do is set the gaming 2d profile before gaming and then after switch back to the normal power saving 2d settings if you wished to have the card run cooler while you do desktop stuff.
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April 9, 2014 3:34:41 AM

Fixed! Not via Afterburner (although I'm sure it would have done exactly what you said maxalge, and thank you!) but by simply updating my motherboard BIOS to the newest one (which is a BETA, so I traditionally ignore them). Simple.

I googled again and found someone else with Gigabyte P45 and GTX670 flickering issue and they said BIOS.

Wish I tried that three months ago.

Thanks all for your help!
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