EVGA 470 crashing

[Blckhaze]

Hi, I just installed a EVGA 470 SLI'd with a EVGA 250
I am trying to overclock it, but I keep getting screen crashes. The screen goes a solid color (black blue and white so far) and then I have to force restart. I have been leaving the memory speed alone, and just been uping the processor clock. I have successfully gotten to about half way up on the EVGA precision program but any higher and it gives me a blank screen. A couple times I have gotten the blank screen even on default settings. I have never overclocked a GPU before, is this normal?

I was thinking I could see artifacts on the OC genie if I got too high, but instead.. it either goes blank, or I see 0 artifacts. I tried the newest drivers, and I also tried the CD drivers

Thanks


edit, the temps were 84-87c

 

[megagabobe1]

hey man, you cannot sli a gtx 470 with a gts 250, they have to be thw same model. for example, you can only sli a gtx 470 with another gtx 470, and same with the gts 250. hope it helps

 

[megagabobe1]

use only the gtx 470

 

[Blckhaze]

Thank you, I thought I could put physx on the 250. It wasn't in "sli" but they were linked up and set to physx on the 250. So that was the problem? Thanks a ton!

 

[Blckhaze]

Also
why does the nvidia control panel even give the option as if it's compatible? Or should I have both cards in the pc without connecting them to eachother

 

[Blckhaze]

Thanks for the replies
Sorry bout the last 2 questions... I was at work and had no way to test it without the 250, so I was questioning things in my head.
Got home and taking out the 250 took care of all the problems! Thanks =)

 

[sabot00]

You can't SLI them, but you can either use the GTS 250 to display to monitors or as a dedicated PhysX card.

Make sure you do not connect the SLI bridge, that's for SLI only.

 

[Blckhaze]

Now I only have the 470 in by itself... I no longer have the plain blue or white screen... but it still randomly crashes. Even when its not underload, at 45c, it just randomly goes blank, then 20 seconds later the PC will reset.

I had it overclocked a bit and it ran the OC genie with no artifacts for 10+ minutes, ffxiv benchmark at 3900 score on high, and 1760 on heaven 2.0 dx10. As soon as I closed heaven benchmark.. like 5 seconds after, it went black. Rebooted, took off the overclock and reset it to default, and it went black again with nothing running. It's just completely random... I went for 3-4 hours of testing at one point and then just went black. Sometimes it takes 1 minute, and sometimes hours...

 

[Blckhaze]

It seems to happen more often during windows internet explorer and netscape navigating/opening/closing

I'm not saying thats the problem... But I tested it with no precision and it still went blank randomly. It works fine during benchmarks, but crashes to blank screen when its doing nothing.

 

[Petey1013]

Post your system specs. Bad PSU maybe?

 

[Blckhaze]

Brand new 1250w PSU, worked fine on the 2 250s

I had the i7 920 overclocked to 4ghz, just downclocked it to 3.35 and I had the voltage for the CPU to run prime95 at a minimum. Now it's the same voltage at it was at 4ghz, but now at 3.35ghz so theres a little extra there.

P6T V2
i7 920 @ 3.35ghz, 1.231v
12gb DDR3 1604mhz
SB fatal1ty
1250w gold series sparkle PSU
1 EVGA 470
Velociraptor 250, and a backup drive
DVD rom

I called tech support on the card and they said to change the pcie16 slot it was in... so I did that and it still went blank screen right AFTER I closed a benchmark, literally when the card went idle... like it couldnt handle being idle. It runs more stable when it's underload (when the cpu was 4.0ghz)
Next they said I should downclock the CPU, something about bus frequency that could be causing it? I don't understand that part but so far it hasn't crashed since I set it to 3.35 instead of 4ghz. Would love if someone could explain how that works...

Does the CPU voltage effect a GPU or a PCI slot? Since I had it set at the very minimum voltage for stability... should I up the voltage a little more now that a more powerful video card is in the system? Even though 1 470 replaced 2 250s (seems like the same amount of power, except 1 pci slot vs 2 pci slots)


Thanks a ton everyone... I know my questions are probably crazy and complicated. I'll end up being a scientist by the time this is over with

 

[palitusa]

Wow? I didn't know Sparkle make PSU.

 

[sabot00]

Sparkle is pretty bad, them and Jaton usually only make the bad GPU's (9400GT, 8400GS, etc).

But since it ran the dual GTS 250's good then the PSU should be fine, I think the GTX 470 is just a dead card, can you RMA it?

 

[Blckhaze]

Here it is a few hours later and still no crash...
The only difference is downclocking the processor from 4ghz to 3.35ghz and keeping the voltage the same. Can anyone explain how that would fix the problem? Thanks!

BTW, Sparkle PSU's are new and not really rated yet so I chanced it off of 3 good reviews on newegg.com... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817800001 $350 dollar PSU with $120 dollar discount combo price which also included a $100 dollar website gift card. It looks really nice, was packed real nice, and I don't think it is what was/is causing the 470 issues which might be gone now. I chanced getting this PSU over a corsair 950w bronze one that was also a combo.. because people reviewing that specific corsair were saying how it died 3-6 months to a year after buying it, alot of complaints. It was that vs a new product... so I said what the hell. We'll see....

 

[sabot00]

I think your GTX 470 is just a bad card.
If you want to find out try running FurMark and seeing how long the card endures.

 

[Blckhaze]

I bet it would run that fine as it never crashes when it is underload but I will test it when I get home. Thank you

 

[sabot00]

Maybe the 2D clocks are too low?

 

[Blckhaze]

I don't know how to change those clocks or what they're for right this very moment but I was reading how overclocking or how bclk or bus frequencies can cause damage and crashes to a gpu and something about 2d...

Hopefully the crazy overclock 4ghz and low voltage of 1.231 was what was causing it

Really hate to rma stuff :/

 

[Blckhaze]

Went through phone support with EVGA and after explaining exactly how its going blank, and watching the HWmonitor 12v line fluxuate from 11.99 to 12.10 under load and idle during/after benchmarks, determined that the PSU is fine, and the gcard needed to be RMA'd. The guy said he's never heard of the problem before and that overclocking in this case wouldn't cause the problem either. The way it goes blank during idle for 15-20 seconds and then the PC reboots, etc. Will see how the next 470 works out in a couple weeks...

Thanks

 

[Blckhaze]

Best answer selected by blckhaze.