Games Crashing, PSU or Card Problem?

[macestun]

Hi all, recently purchased a XFX 5870 XXX edition. Great card except for the part where games crash after a short time when I play more graphically demanding games (Crysis, BFBC2).

For less demanding games like CSS and Dawn of War 2, it stops for awhile and resumes normal function. The events that occur during these crashes are as such: Everything stops, I get a mono-color screen (sometimes green or gray), I hear a short whirl sound from the card then I have to close the program via task manager. Things go back to normal after. A message displays in the taskbar saying the driver stopped working and has recovered.

My PC is about a year old, running an Intel Core2Quad 9400 with a Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 650W (it has 2X 12V rails with 18A on each), 3 hard drives and the lastest (10.3) ATI drivers. OS is Windows Vista 64. Nothing overclocked.

The card runs at around 45-50 C idle and 55-60 C under load.

Not sure whether I should RMA the card or upgrade the power supply.

Thanks so much for your time.

 

[vvhocare5]

Dont blame the graphics card - its your system. If it runs some things fine but intensive games crash - it is something in your system...When a 3D card is running it is taxing everything in your computer to its limits.

Test the RAM extensively
Test the CPU

Any overheating or other issues might show up in those tests....be analytical. Be tough, look around....test, test, test....

Personally I think your PSU is the culprit - its right on the edge. It could be how you are feeding power to the card as well. Do you have 2 PCIe dedicated power lines to it?

If you look at this:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5870,2422-20.html

it indicates you are somewhat close - your 12 V is low. Your 12V supply is putting out 384W, not enough for that card and the other components...

 

[macestun]

Hi, thanks for the reply. Games were running fine on my previous card, a 9800 GT. Something goes wrong on every game I play, some just more severe than others (few second freeze up to full crash.

Regarding power connections, I have 2 6 Pin PCIe connectors attached to the card.

Any chance you could be a bit more specific regarding testing of my CPU and RAM? Not sure how to carry out those kind of tests.

 

[Hiniberus]

For testing the RAM, what I'd suggest you do is make a UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) for what OS you have. If you have windows XP.

http://www.ubcd4win.com/howto.htm

Here's a step-by-step instruction set on how to make it. Though it's a bit technical far as the menu it's self goes it should be somewhat straight forward. Though if you have any doubts, I'd suggest you wait for someone else to post up an idea.

Far as CPU testing goes, sorry but I don't know much about that D: