Potential PSU problem please help

[R0B0T]

i have this problem and i belive its power related, but first let me give you the core specs.
Items marked with * are OCed
Items marked with ** is where i think the problem begins.


MB5N32 SLI SE DELUXE latest BIOS 601
CPUentium D805 @3.9GHz-4.0GHz*
RAM:cosair 6400C4 4 4 4 12 5 2 @2.10volts
Video card: Had a evga 7950GT, stepped up to a 8800GTX**
PSU:Thermaltake 650 watt toughpower PSU 52A combined output**

ok so ill begin to describe the issue, with the original card i used to have the sit the proc at about 1.5250 volts not it seemed if i went to the bios HW monitor it only read about 1.50 volts. ok that seems somewhat normal, but the 7950GT if i put full load on the proc and i was in windows using the asus softwear monitor it would go from around 1.49-1.50 To about 1.46 but i seemed to maintain stable operation and my games didnt crash.

so i step up and now when the 8800GTX in i can sit around 1.49 idel, but then if i put the proc at full load it drops to around 1.41 a larger decrease in voltage and my games will crash however windows continues to run., and my throttle doesnt engage however Rightmark CPU sees the clock speed drop. and its not heat. in anycase im thinking about selling my board to a friend for 190$ and upgrading, i was thinking about going with a EVGA 680I. or maybe one of the ASUS 680i chipsets can anyone tell me if im going to have the same problem and that its my psupply or that its a problem with asus mobos. i belive someone said vdroop is bad wtih this board.


please ask me questions if you need to. educate me, i need to know where my issue lies. also im aware that the 8800GTX is overkill for my cpu but i plan on upgrading later, anyway the 805 d was only 99$ so i do not feel like im losing alot by upgrading and i can sell the board and be ready to upgrade my CPU early next year. but untill then i need to get this power situation solved. do i need more stable power? or is it the board?

 

[weskurtz81]

Well,

Put the OC down a bit, and see what happens. Otherwise, try turning it back to stock settings and then go up bit by bit from there.

Have you installed new drivers? Have you tried the card in a different system? What games are you playing that C2D? The PSU should be more than enough for that setup.

The software monitors are generally not accurate. Two different ones will give different readings.

I had C2D's on my computer on certain games all the time, and it was just software.

Another thing, that CPU shouldn't have speed step, so the voltage should remain close to the same all the time as far as I know(someone that knows this CPU better chime in please).

Wes

 

[tool_462]

These days it is a bad thing to say C2D (crash to desktop) because everyone is like "OOOO CORE 2 DUO!!"

Just for future reference...

 

[weskurtz81]

Yeah, I thought of that, but I thought it was kind of funny to use the term C2D as a bad, instead of good term.

 

[R0B0T]

Well,

Put the OC down a bit, and see what happens. Otherwise, try turning it back to stock settings and then go up bit by bit from there.

Have you installed new drivers? Have you tried the card in a different system? What games are you playing that C2D? The PSU should be more than enough for that setup.

The software monitors are generally not accurate. Two different ones will give different readings.

I had C2D's on my computer on certain games all the time, and it was just software.

Another thing, that CPU shouldn't have speed step, so the voltage should remain close to the same all the time as far as I know(someone that knows this CPU better chime in please).

Wes

Ok games = Dark age of camelot, (i know its an mmo why do i have a 8800GTX) but its just the game that crashes which leads me to belive that my video card is not getting enough power like you said, largely due to the OC on my proc. im also running 3 sata drives 2 in raid 0 and one ide optical drive. and 7 fans including the cpu fan.
and BF2142 wont even load when i join a server or it takes forever. but it was too long that i didnt want to wait. so something is definitly wrong there, took forever to optimize shaders also in 2142.

Drivers im using the 9.6.X.X drivers that came on the CD i tried upgrading but after the upgrade i was running at like 15 FPS in return to Proxy conn on 3dmark 06 so thats a whole different battle.

 

[weskurtz81]

turn the OC down, not all the way to stock, but turn it down a chunk and then bit by bit until it works.

wes

 

[R0B0T]

The PSU is not the problem here. As everyone else has said it may be your OC or drivers.

Now just an FYI. Your PSU has more then enough power for your system. But the total amperage is not the sum of the rails. You need to know how much wattage is being supplied to the combined +12v rails in order to know ther true total amperage. But since the PSU label dosn't mention this then you can't really tell. But it's safe to say that the total output is clossed to about 40A not 52A. But your system dosn't need more then 32A anyway. Well maybe 36A to 38A with your OC.

so i lowered the OC like the previous poster suggested, and a 3.3GHZ stock voltage. i still see a large dropp that is if the softwear is anywhere near correct. but everything is stable no CPU thermal throttling. and i can get through 3d mark no problem, but this severly limits my cards capability. and if it were drivers i belive i would have the same problem at 3.3 GHZ so i think its the OC

This image indicates the throttle kicking in in purple. however when i clock to 4.0 GHZ at 1.5250 volts. and im running this card, i do not get the purple cause heat is not a issue, i see the core clock drop instead in the red and the yellow which is the multiplier drops at the same time. and i feel its doing this as a reaction to not having enough power or reading a power drop as a throttle.

 

[weskurtz81]

You might want to try using CPU-Z. It doesn't have a graph like this program, but if the cpu throttles you can easily tell since it will show the core clock. I don't think the cpu has any type of power protection which lowers the core speed due to lack of power, but it has thermal throttling.

When overclocked, what are your temperatures under a full load?

Well, it appears that 4.014 ghz gets to hot, so keep it lower.

One way of testing, would be to slowly raise the clock speed, and then test. And then once it starts to become unstable, lower it back down. Keep a close watch on the temps, because if the cpu throttles, your performance will be crap as you well know.

The GTX should run games rather well, and all games should be playable, even with that CPU at stock speeds. Sure, it won't run as fast as it does overclocked, but, unless it drops below 30fps, you won't notice.

wes

 

[R0B0T]

You might want to try using CPU-Z. It doesn't have a graph like this program, but if the cpu throttles you can easily tell since it will show the core clock. I don't think the cpu has any type of power protection which lowers the core speed due to lack of power, but it has thermal throttling.

When overclocked, what are your temperatures under a full load?

Well, it appears that 4.014 ghz gets to hot, so keep it lower.

One way of testing, would be to slowly raise the clock speed, and then test. And then once it starts to become unstable, lower it back down. Keep a close watch on the temps, because if the cpu throttles, your performance will be crap as you well know.

The GTX should run games rather well, and all games should be playable, even with that CPU at stock speeds. Sure, it won't run as fast as it does overclocked, but, unless it drops below 30fps, you won't notice.

wes

ok at full load the softwear monitor puts it at 63 Degrees celcius (this is in 3dmark06 cpu test.) now i read that CPUS are meant to operate between -20 celcius and 80 celcius, which im well below. and that picture is from toms hardware guide not from my own PC, but perhaps screens will be nessacary to fully convey whats going on. now i tried lowering it to 3.9GHZ which was plunty stable when i had the old 7950GT card maybe got as high as 58 degrees celcius full load on both cores. but i usually sat around 40 something with one core running full load. but when i clock it down to 3.9 i still have iregularties in Rightmark CPU. so the only thing i can assume is that the new card has brought me stability issues because of its enormous power consumption. i suppose i could find something stable around 3.6 or 3.8 GHZ and live with that in the mean time.

 

[weskurtz81]

Well,

that cpu does use an abnormal amount of power, so it could be an issue. One thing you might need to make sure of is that you have the GTX on it's own 12v rails. Since you have 4 12v rails, use two of the dedicated 6 pin power cables on the gpu, don't try to use just one on it, and don't use and adapter chained into the one that is plugged in for the cpu. I tried to find a post on this to make sure I was explaining it correctly but I couldn't. I would try that though, since it seems like a power/heat issue.

wes

Edit: I thought that was a picture of yours, I understand though, no need to show images of it.

 

[R0B0T]

Well,

that cpu does use an abnormal amount of power, so it could be an issue. One thing you might need to make sure of is that you have the GTX on it's own 12v rails. Since you have 4 12v rails, use two of the dedicated 6 pin power cables on the gpu, don't try to use just one on it, and don't use and adapter chained into the one that is plugged in for the cpu. I tried to find a post on this to make sure I was explaining it correctly but I couldn't. I would try that though, since it seems like a power/heat issue.

wes

Edit: I thought that was a picture of yours, I understand though, no need to show images of it.

well i started out using the dedicate pci-e rails for the GPU, then i tried other configs to see if it was an issue with load balancing the power, but no matter how i do it i see the same draws

 

[R0B0T]

ok so last night i got a 400 watt power supply out of an older ATX computer. and it says it provides 144 watts on the 12v rail at 14A so i useed the molex to 6pin connectors and connected them to the 4 different molex rails on the external PSU if that makes a difference im not sure you can see here

when you go to look at the pictures theres a zoom button at the bottom of the pic to see it in full res.





in any case this did seem to help the situation below you will find two screens of my CPU to be at what i belive to be full load and no load.





when you go to look at the pictures theres a zoom button at the bottom of the pic to see it in full res.

So basically you will notice no drops in core speed or throttling(purple) which was happening like crazy before i jumpered an external psu and using that to provide power to the GPU, however at 4.0GHZ i am unable to get through the CPU test in 3D mark where i used to be able to with the old card. so i clocked it down to 3.9 GHZ and this is what i was able to get thru the defaul benchmark in 3dmark

System and CPU Information
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP
DirectX Version 9.0c
Mobo Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Mobo Model P5N32-SLI-SE-Deluxe
ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe AI Lifestyle Gaming Edition - motherboard - ATX - nForce4 SLI X16

AGP Rates (Current/Available) 16x / N/A
CPU Name Intel Pentium D 3900 MHz
CPU String Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.66GHz
Intel Pentium D 805 / 2.66 GHz processor

Physical / Logical CPUs 1 / 2
MultiCore 2 Processor Cores
HyperThreading N/A
FSB 133 MHz
Memory 2048 MB

Display Information
Graphics Chipset NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX

Graphics Card Vendor
Driver Name NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Driver Version 9.6.8.9
Driver Status Non WHQL - Not FM Approved
Co-operative adapters No
Video Memory 1024 MB
Core Clock 108 MHz
Memory Clock 337 MHz

Benchmark Settings
Default Settings Yes
Program Version 3DMark06 Revision 1 Build 0
Resolution 1280x1024
Anti-Aliasing None
Texture Filtering Optimal
Vertex Shader Profile 3_0
Pixel Shader Profile 3_0
Force Full Precision No
Disable Post-processing No
Force Software Vertex Shaders No
Force Software FP Filtering No
Disable HW Shadow Mapping No
Color Mipmaps No
Repeat Count Off
Fixed Framerate Off

Main Test Results
3DMark Score 8350 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 3570 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 4144 Marks
CPU Score 1898 Marks

Detailed Test Results

Graphics Tests
1 - Return to Proxycon 30.094 FPS
2 - Firefly Forest 29.402 FPS

CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.61 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 0.946 FPS

HDR Tests
1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0) 44.755 FPS
2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0) 38.116 FPS