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Ati 4870 + Bioshock = crash!

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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Hello everyone. I need your advice on the subject.
I just got a brand new Saphire 4870. I hook up Bioshock (Was already installed in my system), max up everything at 1920@1200 and start gaming. I play for about an hour (very happy with the performance btw) and then save and go to bed. Next day when I run again, after 1 min of play, I get screen corruption and although the system doesn't hang ( i can hear bioshock and windows when I atl+tab) I get a blank screen and I'm forced to do a restart.
First time I think it's random error so I go back to windows and run the game again. I remind you that I have no overclock on my system and you can see my details on my profile. This time, the game hangs after 30seconds or so. I get pissed of but desside to give it another chance so after reboot I run the game again. This time I get about 5 sec of gameplay before screen corruption etc.
I start thinking that there's something wrong with the card so I run gothic3, assasins creed and oblivion and also 3dmark06 (i'll get back to that one) and everything runs fine so I guess it's a driver issue.
The only thing I changed in my system after running bioshock for the first time was installing an ATI hotfix for 3Dmark06 which wouldn't run at all. Could that have affected bioshock?

I found an old (2007) hotfix for ATI cards running bioshock. Would that work? I'm running XP pro 32 btw.

P.S. (Just for the laughs!!) If you check my system, you see that it is very old so you might wonder what kind of bottleneck I'm getting with my new monster card. HEHE!!! In 3dmark06 default settings, I get 6k marks. Pretty terrible huh? So, I up the rez to 1920x1200 just out of curiosity to check how much would I get. Can you guess how much?? you guessed it!! I get 6k marks!!! Hahahaha!!! How funny is that?? I'll be upgrading my sys soon so that's why i;m not pissed about this.
Just thought I'd share it with ya!!

More about : ati 4870 bioshock crash

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My guess is yer vid card is getting too hot. Even though it was sitting not doing anything all night, it was still running. My card kept crashing during every game I played if I didnt turn the fan speeds up. I crank them both up to 80% while I am gaming and havent had a problem since. I dont even notice them while im gaming because the sound from the game is loud enough the mask the fan.

Trying bumping up the speeds. Does 4870 exhaust out the back or into the case? If it is into the case, you may have to rework yer airflow to get that hot air away from the card.
Graphics card Expert

1. Crank up the fan speed on your card (Rivatuner).
2. More case fans (better airflow is a must, as those cards are Furnaces).
3. Get a better PSU (Tt has taken a dive in the last 5 years) a decent 550W+ PSU will save you headaches later on.

(Antec, OCZ, Zalman, Seasonic, PC P&C, and Corsair are some of the best ones at the moment)

I don't think i have temp problems guys. The fan ramps up ok and the card never gets too hot. Also, why does this happen only with bioshock and no other game? My PSU might not be the best but it's 500W Thermaltake tier2 (or 3 I don't remember) which ain't that bad, considering that my system is not very power hungry and that the card my new 4870 replaced was the 7800 GTX with TDP 110W so I'm not that far off with the 4870 which consumes a bit more than that. I already have 2 case fans and I'll add a third one right next to the ati card (there are mounts on the side of my case) to blow cold air on the card air intake and see how it goes.
Thnak you all for the replys.
How about that hotfix? Should I install it?
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