Geforce 580 Issues - Please help

[Zalgradis]

Evening all,

I recently built a new machine with the following specs:

CPU: Core i7 950 @3.07ghz http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37150
GPU: Inno3d Geforce 580 GTX 1.5GB http://www.inno3d.com/products/graphic_card/gf500/gtx_580.html
RAM: Corsair Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D http://www.corsair.com/products/corei7/default.aspx
MOBO: Asus P6X58D-E http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=gFBKfNyhppW9tDbB&templete=2
PSU: Corsair HX 1000W http://www.corsair.com/products/hx1000/default.aspx

* Fully updated windows 7 x64
* Nvidia 263.09 drivers
* 3dmark06: 22,348

After building the system, windows 7 x64 installed properly and the system seemed to be completely stable, until i began to have issues while gaming:

General: Choppy mouse movement with Razer Lachesis (updated to 1.94 firmware for win 7 x64) which was fine with my previous desktop.

Games in which the FPS was below the refresh rate of the screen (60) with vsync active would "lag", as if the game itself slowed down to compensate for the drop in framerate. This was most noticeable on Crysis, Warhead and Metro 2033.

Crysis: I know it isnt exactly clever to draw conclusions from the systems performance in crysis, but it happened to be one of the only games easily accessible to me while i was setting up the system.

As above, the game seemed to jerk around while turning (objects would jerk from side to side, it would feel like sections of the screen were "dragging" accross while turning with the mouse or strafing.

The game would randomly slow down in areas which would normally not constitute a framerate drop, yet it would dip drastically.

After a few minutes of play, green artifacts would fill the screen and the game would crash to desktop. This has however been commentedon by other 580 owners and seems to be an inherant driver or hardware issue :/

PRIME95: I ran Prime95 with the entire system at default settings. After 9 hours no errors were reported, the system was stable at 64 degrees max.

MEMTEST: I checked and confirmed that the memory is elected is definitely compatible with my motherboard.

I ran memtest with detault settings and 2 passes completed with 0 errors. At this point i noticed that my ram had been set to DDR3 1067 automatically as opposed to DDR3 1600, but displayed the correct timings as 8-8-8-24, and displayed QPI as 4.8GT/s.

After changing the ram manually to DDR3 1600 i attempted to change the DRAM Bus Voltage, but when i reached 1.65 (the stated amount for the memory) i was presented with a message stating "According to Intel CPU SPEC, DIMMs with voltage setting over 1.65v may damage the CPU permanently!!"... I decided to leave it on Auto, which would "Increase voltage if required". I ran Memtest with these settings which stated the correct speed of 1600, but increased my timings to 9-9-9-24, and QPI as 6.4GT/s. One pass completed with 0 errors.

I jumped back into the bios and manually set the CAS latency, RAS to CAS Delay and RAS Precharge to 8, but i could not find the final setting so left the rest on Auto. Memtest displayed the ram as DDR3 1600, timings as 8-8-8-24, and QPI as 6.4GT/s. One pass completed with 0 errors.

* As far as i am aware XMP was enabled for all of these settings etc.

GPU Testing: So far all i have done to stress test the GPU is to run 3dmark06 in 1920x1200, 8x aa 16x af. It coped just fine and scored over 17k.

My questions as a complete newbie are:

1) Can i operate my DDR3 1600 dominator ram at full spec (1600, 8-8-8-24, 1.65v) with my current CPU and mobo?

2) What sort of settings should i use my RAM with to ensure the best performance with my motherboard and CPU?

3) If not, should i downclock it (and to what settings)? or should i RMA and get another type of memory?

4) Should i leave the DRAM Bus Voltage on auto, or set it to 1.65v manually after having set the ram to DDR3 1600? And if i change it manually, will it actually damage my i7 950?

5) Given my poor experience gaming but solid prime95 and memtest results is it fair to asume that the GPU / GPU drivers are causing my issues?

6) Could anyone please recommend a method to stress test my GPU to see if it is stable?

Sorry for the wall of text; i have a limited amount of time to get this system up and runnig properly

Thank youf or your help, it's greatly appreciated!

Cheers

-Zal

Note: Please don't reply with "RMA GPU /thread"
Note 2: this message has also been posted under Motherboards and Memory, sorry for double posting but md esperate to get it sorted out

 

[17seconds]

Zal, If I were you, I would make sure that XMP is enabled and leave it at that. The Corsair memory will be automatically set to run at 1600mhz @ C8 at the proper voltage, as designed. Your memory, if it is the same as mine, is perfect for an i7 system. In order to change any CPU speed/multiplier settings, you will need to Disable XMP, make the changes, then Enable XMP again before exiting. With XMP enabled, you do not need to worry about any memory settings other than "Auto".

In order to stress test your GPU, download and install Afterburner:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Afterburner-2.0.0-Final-download-2562.html

Afterburner will also install MSI Kombustor, which is based on Furmark. Run Kombustor and see if you experience any graphical irregularities or crashes. (The only issue is that the GTX580 has power limiters to prevent over-stressing your card in Furmark. I'm not sure if that also applies to Kombustor.)

Also try to enable the Nvidia Control Panel setting for "Triple Buffering". That is supposed to allow higher frame rates when Vsync is turned on for games that run below your monitor refresh rate- 60hz/60 fps. Or try turning off Vsync.

 

[Zalgradis]

Hi Matto, thanks for the reply.

You mentioned making the ram has XMP enabled, but im not sure where to find that setting in the bios, though i did notice that memtest states *XMP* after each of the three modules.

Any idea where the option for enabling XMP is found?

 

[Zalgradis]

As an update, information regarding the two settings for my memory is below:

ALL AUTO:

DDR3 1067

1st info (timings): 8-8-20-4-59-8-6-20-0
2nd info: 1N-51-52-52
3rd info: 5-5-14-10-10-10-7-6-4-7-7-4


EDITED:

DRAM SPEED: set from auto to 1600
DRAM Voltage: set to auto increase if dimm needs more voltage

CAS: set from Auto to 8
CAS Latency: set from Auto to 8
RAS to CAS: set from Auto to 8
CAS Pre: set from Auto to 8

1st Info (timings): 8-8-8-24-6-88-12-8-24-0
2nd Info: 1N-55-58-58
3rd Info: 7-7-18-9-9-9-7-6-4-7-7-4

Does anyone have any idea which of the above i should use, or which settings i should select?

Thanks for your help

 

[17seconds]

I would look very carefully through your motherboard BIOS for memory settings to find the XMP setting. For my MSI motherboard, it is under the overclocking menu, called the Cell Menu. XMP, is actually a setting for overclocking your memory, even though you are really just getting it to run at it's specified speed. I think the Memtest info is just that, Info on what settings are available. The thing about manually setting your memory is that you need to maintain the proper ratios with the CPU settings. XMP will adjust all that automatically.

I believe that once you get everything configured, you will be running at 1600 mhz, 8-8-8-24 timings, and 1.65 volts (which is the maximum "officially" allowed for a Core i7 system). Can you confirm that your memory is XMP capable?

Do you have a BIOS setting called "Ai Overclock Tuner" under the "Ai Tweaker" tab? If so, look there for XMP settings. Apparently, the BIOS ver. 0303 and above do a better job with XMP.

 

[Zalgradis]

hi Matto, thanks for your reply again.

I did manage to find the XMP option under AI Tweaker. Memtest completed with 0 errors and so far Prime95 has been running for 2 hours without any issues.

I'll try globally enabling triple buffering in the nvidia control panel and will stress test the card after doing so.

Ill post the results here - thanks again for your help.

 

[17seconds]

Only enable triple buffering if you continue to experience problems. Good luck! I expect to join the GTX580 owners club myself in a couple weeks.

 

[r3con_woo]

I hate to say it but, if you can't play these games with all your listed components set on their original default speeds than something is faulty..

You have good components they should not have a problem and you should not have to adjust or tweak anything to get stable if not awesome performance.

if everything runs fine except actual video games than I would guess its probably a bad GPU.. Sorry.

Oh btw, im a noob so don't take my suggestions to seriously... I tried using the BIOS to OC my system and didnt have much luck, and I don't really know why.. Once I reset the BIOS to default and used Intel Extreme Utility to OC with the same exact settings I have no issues what so ever, and there was also an option to set my XMS corsairs to their designed "high performance" settings or whatever its called.

good luck

 

[firebird]

If you can, set 3D Mark to run for 3 loops or so. When I was having GPU trouble I would always crash in games but sometimes make it through a run of Vantage, but never more then two runs without a crash.

Also I don't see your HDD listed. Have you tested that yet?

Having GPUZ or another OCing software running in the background might help to diagnose the slow downs. Sometimes I've seen my clocks on the GPU drop, or temps spike if a fan has stopped.

As for your RAM voltage questions, the rule of thumb with i7 processors is to keep the "uncore" and "dram" voltage within .5v of each other. So with 1.65v on your DRAM your "uncore" should be 1.15 or higher.

 

[geofelt]

1) You should be able to run your ram at XMP specs. That said, it is probably not worth your time to spend much time looking for an answer in that direction. Gaming benchmarks have shown that there is very little impact on FPS with slow vs fast ram or timings on the i7-9xx series cpu's. Perhaps 1-3%. Synthetic benchmarks will look impressive, but they are meaningless) Keep it simple, leave ram settings on auto.

5) gpu drivers or settings may be the problem. Since you are using the latest whql driver, that is probably not the issue.
You could try to go back to the release driver 262.99 which has been working for me.

 

[Zalgradis]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies.

I found the option to enable XMP and the system has cleared 5 hours of prime95 and 4 passes ofmemtest with no errors.

It looks like the 580 or the driver is causing the issue

Regarding the PSU; i am using three power cables to power the system:

CABLE 1:
- Samsung F3 7.2k RPM HDD
- LG DVD-RW
- LG Blu-Ray ROM

CABLE 2:
- 2x Western Digital Caviar Green 5.4k RMP 2TB HDD

CABLE 3:

- 5x Case Fans

Technically i could spread these components accross as many as 6 cables, but i don't see that setup causing any sort of issues (please correct me if i am wrong).

I have also plugged in both of the 4 pin CPU power connectors to my motherboard as opposed to just one.

If i have set up the above incorrectly, please let me know. In the mean time i'm still looking at the GPU / GPU drivers as the cause of my issues.

Thanks again.

 

[Zalgradis]

Also note that voltages reported by PC Probe 2 (asus monitoring app) are well within tolerance levels.

 

[Griffolion]

If by both 4 pin CPU connectors you mean the 8pin EPS 12V CPU connector you find on higher end motherboards then that's fine.

I haven't read through the whole thread, but have you tried re-installing windows?

 

[Zalgradis]

Hi Griffolion,

I haven't tried reinstalling windows yet. If it comes to it i will connect one of my old 500GB HDDs and put a fresh install onto that.

Reinstalling windows and the sea of apps and games is hassle i would like to avoid at all costs.

 

[17seconds]

Just to confirm, you do have both the 6 pin and 8 pin power cords plugged into your GPU? Have you tried to switch the video card to another PCIe x16 slot?

 

[Zalgradis]

Hi Matto,

I do have botht he 6 and 8 pin PCI-E cables attached but i have not yet tried it in another slot.

The "lag" in games seems to have been caused by a vsync issue. The framerate in crysis and metro 2033 would randomly jump from exactly 60 all the way down to exactly 30, and back up again, creating the lag effect. IE the FPS remained at 60 if the FPS was above or equal to 60, but the INSTANT it dropped below 60 even if only fractionally, the FPS dropped to and locked at 30, and would frequently jump between the two.

I have no idea why it is / was doing this, but it seems to be fine in metro 2033 now, with framerates moderately hanging around 42 and 60 fps.

Does anyone have any idea what might cause FPS to act in this way while vsync is enabled?

 

[Zalgradis]

@Matto

I've run both Kombustor and Furmark; my system didn't seem to struggle with them at all, however windows itself (or possibly aero?) did slow down considerably if the DX10 / DX11 kombustors were running while minimised. If they were open and being displayed windows ran perfectly well at an average of 520 FPS with default settings.

I tested all three in 1920x1200 (max) with 4x MSAA full screen, which gave an average of 130 FPS and seemed fine, did not even shudder once.

During these tests my GPU peaked at 71 degrees.

I'm a complete novice with these apps; how long do you suggest i run them to get a fair indication of how stable my GPU is?

 

[Zalgradis]

As for your RAM voltage questions, the rule of thumb with i7 processors is to keep the "uncore" and "dram" voltage within .5v of each other. So with 1.65v on your DRAM your "uncore" should be 1.15 or higher.

Ifthe "uncore" value is the same as the "vcore" value stated in pcprobe, it has been varying between 0.94 and 1.25 volts so far. This is however well within operational specs which is currently stated as 0.8 - 1.6 ><

 

[firebird]

uncore is not the same thing as vcore, but could be the same value. You'll have to do some reading up on overclocking i7 CPUs to get some info on voltages and how they relate.

Uncore is the memory controller voltage I think (also controls one more thing, cache?) where vcore is the CPU core voltage.

 

[17seconds]

There is no reason to enable Vsync, unless you are experiencing tearing in your graphics. In fact, having it enabled will limit your FPS to 60. In this case, it sounds like enabling it is causing the problem. Triple Buffering is another setting that is closely related to Vsync, but only works when Vsync is enabled. Turn both off.

 

[Zalgradis]

I ran Unengine Heaven benchmark 2.1 with the following settings:

API: DirectX 11
Sterio 3d: disabled
Shaders: High
Tessellation: extreme
Anistrophy: 4
Anti-aliasing: 4x
Fullscreen: yes
Resolution: 1920x1200 (my max)

The system scored 872 with an average FPS of 34.6.

During the test there was some tearing and a little shudder, but i think that is to be expected at relatively low framerates such as ~35. Note that vsync and triple buffering were set to off / app controlled in the nvidia control panel, so the benchmark was running on stock.

Do these results seem decent for my system specs?

 

[Zalgradis]

@matto: Thanks for all of your help!

Regarding FurMark / MSI Kombustor; what sort of settings / duration should i set to get a decent perspective of whether or not my card is stable?

P.S. my GPU peaked at 71 degrees during the unengine test.

 

[17seconds]

I ran Unengine Heaven benchmark 2.1 with the following settings:

API: DirectX 11
Sterio 3d: disabled
Shaders: High
Tessellation: extreme
Anistrophy: 4
Anti-aliasing: 4x
Fullscreen: yes
Resolution: 1920x1200 (my max)

The system scored 872 with an average FPS of 34.6.

During the test there was some tearing and a little shudder, but i think that is to be expected at relatively low framerates such as ~35. Note that vsync and triple buffering were set to off / app controlled in the nvidia control panel, so the benchmark was running on stock.

Do these results seem decent for my system specs?

Tech Power Up got these Unigine 2.0 results on the rig listed below. I'm guessing you used even more intensive settings than they did, so I wouldn't worry, but you should compare the results to yours:

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 @ 3.8 GHz (Bloomfield, 8192 KB Cache)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X58 Extreme Intel X58 & ICH10R
Memory: 3x 2048 MB Mushkin Redline XP3-12800 DDR3 @ 1520 MHz 8-7-7-16

 

[17seconds]

@matto: Thanks for all of your help!

Regarding FurMark / MSI Kombustor; what sort of settings / duration should i set to get a decent perspective of whether or not my card is stable?

P.S. my GPU peaked at 71 degrees during the unengine test.

For Kombustor, there may be a problem with the card's power limiting circuitry, which will power it down on intensive stress tests. You may not be getting an accurate read on the max load limits of your card if this happens. All the same, a good 5 minutes should get you up to the max temperature. Usually, my 480 will go beyond the normal highest temp ~93c, then the fan will go even faster and eventually it will settle in at ~91c on Kombustor while running indefinitely.

You should be sure to use the DirectX 11 Single GPU version running at maximum AA in full screen mode, and use the stability test, not the benchmark. There is not much more to set after that, just hit start. The readout will tell your temps and fps. It is possible to have Afterburner running with the detached fan/temp/clock speed graphs running on top of Kombustor, or you an have it running in the background to check when the test is over.

 

[Zalgradis]

Thanks for the help Matto.

I ran Unengine 2.1 in the same settings as Tech Power Up, scoring 45.9 FPS with normal fps (my initial readings were with extreme tesselation)

I ran MSI Kombustor in stress test mode for 15 mins on 1920x1200, CSAA 32x. The GPU peaked at 69 degrees and averaged at 81 FPS.

Judging by these results is it fairly safe to say that the card is fine?