Strange 4870X2 performance problem - Please help

Last night I was playing wow , and I did a shut down and then reboot as a restart. I realise that I am getting really low fps eg 16 fps in wow where I am suppose to get 60+ ( this is running on 2560x1600 all maxed ) every game I tried it was poor performance compared to what I had normally and eventually my computer restarted its self with a blue screen in the back. But this morning I tried playing my games , the performance were back to normal 60fps +.

I remember having this kind of problem on my 8800GTX and Enermax Liberty 620w , like some sort of lack of power , or power degrading. But now I bought Sapphire HD4870X2 with a new Enermax Galaxy 1000w PSU month ago, and it was running fine till last night , I tried rebooting , restart or shut down by all mean I am still getting weird crappy performance , until I shut my computer and went to sleep , the next morning everything is back to normal.

any ideas ?

my spec are

Core 2 Duo E6300 @ 2.66ghz
ASUS P5B Delux Wi/Fi
Balastix Tracer 1066 2GB Dual channel
Enermax Galaxy 1000w
Sapphire HD4870X2

I dont think its PSU , 1000w is sufficient to power my PC , maybe its my motherboard or CPU or ram

I just did a test of restarting the computer , and I got crappy performance.....the fps were really bad and low......so I shut my computer down , turned off the PSU , waited for 1 min , rebooted , everything is fine .... any idea what is happening ?

I just did prime 95 test , its all fine .......PSU ~ hum.... I just got a new one not long ago , like about a month

but I have a external desk fan blowing in the case all the time

Exactly. Just because you're moving some air around, doesn't mean that your components are being effectively cooled. (It's possible the heatsink(s) on your GPU(s) are not properly mated, you would need to reseat them yourself or exchange the card.)

We need some real temperature data to further diagnose this problem.

You mentioned a prime95 test, which is well and good, but it stresses just your CPU, not your GPU.

EDIT: I want to know what the GPU temperature is when you experience the slowdown. Who knows, it might be just fine, temperature wise.

It could, in fact, ultimately be the PSU going out after all. Even the best of the best PSUs have the occasional bad egg that is DOA or goes out within a week of being installed. Getting us some real temperature readings will help us to narrow down the possible causes here

Temps for both CPU and GPU when the incident occurs, if you can.

I just did a quick test , everytime I restart my com I get poor performance , but not when I shut it down , wait for like 1 min and reboot , the performance will be normal

I would look into power problem try keeping supply cool maybe it spicking when you draw power! You can figure the power you need for free at extreme power supply calculator it has every type of setup and you need at lest 30A on the 12 rail for that video card I know your power supply has that but if it has spare rails open try changing to another power wire I think your power supply has several video power inputs. If still problem maybe test another supply ask the store for a loaner to trouble shoot.

ok ~ my test were , it didnt work , I use a separate rail for the 6pin connector to the gfx card and swapping another different 8 pin from the native cables.

What I found out were , if I dont run any games , and restart , its fine , how do I tell ? because by just by holding your mouse on the vista desktop and draw a square , I can tell the effects were smooth , and if I ran a game like WOW , and exit , and restart , the poor performance appeared , I can tell from the square selected , if you move them around , it appears laggy.

I remember this kind of problem happened to me when I had my 8800GTX and enermax liberty 620w , that time I had two OS installed on two different partition of HD , I remember if I am switching to Vista or to XP , I can not use restart , I had to shut down and reboot , or else I will experience the laggy frame rates if I scrol down and up when surfing websites , that is how I first figure it out.

it later on get to a point even if I shut down and boot the next day , I will still get crappy fps for some weird reason when I had my 8800GTX , but now I got my new PSU and gfx card , same kind of probelm still appears , I dont mind using shut down , as long as everything will function properly, maybe its something to do with booting ......sigh*** spend so much $$ on computer hardware getting the best stuff but so many problems

I mainten my computer very well , I have spy bot and kaspersky installed , and I defrag every 1 month , I ran Orthos and prime95 test , all seemed fine

my PCI-E is x16 not PCI-E 2.0 , yeah I think its locked at 100hz or maybe can change it , will it affect it ?

I just tried uninstalling ATI 8.11 driver and reinstalling , still wont work .....its really wierd , if I use restart my computer will result in poor 3d performance , but if I use shut down and reboot , its all fine........What the hell is going on !! , even tho its not a big deal , I can just use shut down......but in a way......I hate to think that some thing is weird is going on with my com

^....didn't you already say that your cpu was prime95 stable...

Try clearing the CMOS, however something could very well be going bad, possible be the PSU.

Have you recently (like in the past couple days) run memtest86+ for a couple hours and prime95 small ffts test?

your computer will not boot if your CPU is not recognized, its like a boot sequence. one thing will not go without the other if the CPU is going bad and sometimes not recognized then it will not boot. also your computer will not give a beep code if it does not get power, the first thing that gets power is your fans, then your CPU, then the rest of your MoBo.

I got my old Enermax Liberty 620w, but I have issue with that one too, I have booted from my computer several times today ..... I didnt experience any booting problem.. plus I set the overlocked back to 2.66ghz from 1.8 native E6300 ... and ran Prime 95 for 3 hrs , no problem found. and games are fine too...... maybe it was yesterday afternoon it was very hot. or could be my CPU is crapping out in a way , I am thinking of getting E8500......

and also ....... it kind of sound like a PSU problem , but I just got Enermax Galaxie 1000w 1 month ago , brand new

Also if you load up GPUZ you will see that on restart Crossfire is disabled.

im not trying to be rude, but next time maybe you should do some more research and trouble shooting instead of just buying a new part. I still think it may be a psu problem

I believe I've sorted this problem!

It occurs when the NORTHBRIDGE is volted over 1.45v. If you set the NB anything over 1.45 it will cause this restart bug. Mine was at 1.55v as soon as I lowered it this bug has gone away. Reset your CMOS and try this.