PNY 8500 GT SLI-mode freezes my BF2!

Hey Everyone, New member here with a pretty much unaddressed problem web-wide.

I've searched for other's with the same problem and haven't seen too many others griping about it, but I have two Nvidia 8500 GT, PNY verto's (512 MB). The short and quick way to describe it is that when running them in SLI mode (dual), My grphics freeze up within the first 1/2 minute of running BattleField two! My system more than meets the minimum needs of Battlefield, in fact when running the cards in Single GPU, everythng runs fine. Yes, I have visited Nvidia for updates, Even updated my bios but I still can't get this older game to run on these newer cards. My two 6800 Nvidia cards run better than the new PNYs, even with downclocking all my OC components (PC link, GPU MEM, GPU CORE speeds, I still run into the problem. . . . .


I hope the lingering assumption is not correct in that PNY 8500 GT's are simply poorly designed. I mean I got em both for 90 bucks at Best buy of all places

Mucho thanks folks!

$180 for 2 8500 GTs sounds like a ripoff to me... especially considering that a single 8600 GTS will beat your SLI pair without the SLI hassles. Like TurboFlame said... even your 6800s would probably do better.

If returning your cards is an option, strongly consider it. If not, it really does sound like you've covered your bases so hopefully a future driver update from Nvidia might help. Since you're testing a single 8500 GT setup, you might want to make sure that EACH card is functioning properly when doing that test... perhaps you just have a single bad card?

Two major points:

Don't buy an 8500GT at all if you want to game, it's the almost sacrilige (forgive the spelling, i'm a wee bit drunk, it's 3:30am and I can't be arsed).

Don't shop at bestbuy. I don't even live state-side and i know for a fact bestbuy is horrible. Shop at newegg instead.

Those are the two main points, but if you want to game with your system invest a bit more moolah in either an ATI HD3870 or an nVidia 8800GT. The 8800 will give you 10%ish more performance, but cost about 15% more. It's your call.

Hope that can be of some help.

Haha, I still blame PNY for marketting such a P.O.S., however, a man on a shopping spree with a paycheck cashed in hand can be a dangerous thing, (maybe I sign up for Bad-buys-anonymous...)

lol might as well crossfire 2600PRO's lmao

Well, with the X-mas haul I think I will do just that, However with PNY I insist that they were a bit deceptive because of the marketing on the box, They clearly market it for gamers, like me who don't think to review prior to impulse buying. (guess that's why the word 'impulse' is used). Now to review Best Buy's Return policy- why should they care about my return, I hear they are killing the consumers with the Gift Card scheme!