GTX 285 Faulty?

hens45

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Aug 23, 2009
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18,510
My original observation was that a lack of power or faulty wiring was causing the low FPS. But after installing the new power adapter there was no difference. I then decided to double check my findings by unplugging one six-pin. My reasoning was that if one of the adapters was faulty it would not make a difference to running of the card if the aforementioned adapter was unplugged. After doing this it refused to boot, I then swapped connectors, same result. I then reconnected the power connectors and it booted. It therefore cannot be power related issue.

I then decided to do some quantifiable testing by running Aquamark 3. It returned a GPU result of 18 000. I then compared this to the results posted online by similar setups. I was shocked because similarly specd systems achieved over 65 000 GPU independent points. Give or take a few thousand, this is a significant difference. The graphics card in my system is clearly not bottle-necked by anything. That leaves the culprit as the graphics card.

I also noticed some very weird readings in GPU-Z when compared to other GTX 285's. GPU-Z reads the texture and pixel fill rates at about 10% less than that of a stock GTX 285. Also it reads the Sub-vendor ID as undefinable, every other GTX 285 that I have seen has had a sub vendor ID. This can be seen in the below image.

gpuzcompare1.gif


But perhaps weirdest of all I decided to underclock it as an experiment. I would like to remind you that underclocking can do no harm to the card unlike overclocking. I set the Core/Shader/Memory to 500Mhz using Riva Tuner and I reran Aquamark, it returned 20 000 GPU points, ridiculous. Also using that underclock COD 4 and Crysis performance stayed roughly the same as it was previously.
 
1. low FPS in what game/settings?

2. not enough power from the PSU doesn't cause low fps

3. the stock for the GTX285 is 648 MHz. 702 MHz is an overclocked version. So your version is the actual stock version at 648 MHz
 

hens45

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Aug 23, 2009
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Crysis on lowest 640x480 and all settings set to low.
COD 4 can max out for about 5 seconds before it goes to 3-4 fps. Constant on 1280x720 lowest settings. Their are also pauses where the GFX cards fan dies, and starts again.
 
Did you download all the latest Nvidia drivers?

Did you have an ATI card installed before you installed the Nvidia card?

When you say the fan dies, are you saying it slows down to the point where you can't hear it, or you opened the case to see it actually stop spinning?
 

hens45

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Aug 23, 2009
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18,510
No I had a Nvidia card before hand.
Yes I have tried multiple drivers.
No i have not opened up the case to check, but it does go from screeching loud to nothing and then speeds up again after the Pause.