Hi all,

Well, I am new to this, but I got my FSB overclocked to 400mhz (8x) with DDR-800 memory @ 400mhz 5-5-5-15. I have a e6750 and a Asus p5k-e. All looks good and stable and I literally only changed the FSB speed, set the DDR speed and gave my memory 1.9v per G.Skill.

Well, I thought it was a success with temps topping out @ 35c. Today I download Call of Duty 4 demo and try to play it with my 8800GT. Frame rates are like 8. It is unplayable. I go back to the bios, reset everything to auto and the frame rates are up to 70!

What did I miss? Why is my fps so bad?

Did you follow the guide here properly? Did you even stress test your RAM and cpu to check it's stable?

Yes, I run orthos and many sandra benchmarks. It is very stable. Many folks have overclocked a similar setup with same MB and CPU to twice as high as I have. I am playing it safe at this level. Seems very stable. But why is my PCIe card not behaving?

Did you lock the PCIe frequency to 100MHz?

I tried that and no luck.
Keep in mind the setup that works (auto) does not set pcie to 100

Just to make sure, you ran Orthos blend test for 8hours and found it stable?

If so, what is your PSU? The symptoms you are experiencing is very like a system not getting enough power.

I ran orthos for about 2 hours. (I know I should go more, but I figured if there is a Toms article OC'ing this setup to 440, I should be in the clear).

The PSU is an Antec 500 watt, 18a on 2-12v rails. ( I plugged one 6-pin connector into the 8800GT as I assume pulling from both rails happens automatically?). The card wants like 26 amps or something.

The game lag is immediately, within 3 seconds of the game starting and it is at 8 fps.

appreciate the help.

Although people will tell you your PSU is fine, but I think otherwise.

Symptoms of not enough power is usually crashing during any intense load or stuttering during intense gaming.

I suggest you to get a quality 550W PSU, but I recommend the Corsair 620W PSU.

Before you get a new PSU, try running orthos blend test.

This is what I have

http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6817371007

Is there anything special I need to do to pull from both rails? It seems crazy to me that this PSU aint enough as I have heard other people running an 8800GT with a PSU less then the required amperage.

what does blend test do?

Yes, that PSU should be enough, however there is that possibility it isn't. Perhaps it's defective?

Anyways stress test your RAM. This is called blend test.

ok, I will.

Anyway to test my PSU? Or is there anyway to test if the graphics card is not getting enough juice?

That is difficult without the proper tools and devices. As I said before, if it starts crashing and stuttering during games for no reason, it's probably the PSU. Before that, make sure you have ran Orthos small FFT's for 6 hours and blend test for 8 hours.

will do.
if the PSU was bad or not enough, wouldn't I see it running my FSB @ 333 also?

Not necessarily. Perhaps you PSU can only really do 300W or something.

That's a good PSU, so really, it should be fine.