[Solved] EVGA 512MB GDDR3 256BIT GTS 250

hiya guyz ,
it's been a month now since i bought a brand new EVGA GTS250 (512MB GDDR3 265BIT) for my secondary rig.
Rig has been working perfectly till yesterday..
i was playing Modern Warfare 2 MP as usual (3 hours play) i witnessed drops in FPS then i saw some strange artifacts (silver spots like a disrupted signal tv screen) on every moving object.. and then the pc got sluggish and after a 5 minute interval i got the blue screen of death saying the device (GPU) has failed so the windows had to be shutdown and ***

i was amazed at this as the pc was working flawlessly previously..
i opened the case, the card was cool (slightly warm).. every thing else as well (HDD, PSU, RAM, CPU heatsink etc)
so definitely it doesn't has a chance to be the slightest of any heat issue

i restarted the PC and it worked fine then.. but now either it's my superstition or reality.. i think the PC has got sluggish then it was before

my PC is:
Dell Optiplex 745 mini tower
-C2D E6300 stock
-D965 Chipset
-4x 512MB DDR2 @ 667FSB
-EVGA GTS250
-DELL 375 Watts PSU (30A)..(PSU is powerful enough)..

so guys what do ya think is the problem.. ? just bought this baby a month ago and i seriously don't want it to die on me


it does comes with 1 year warranty but if i give it under warranty it may work for the time being and it would be really difficult to prove about the artifact episode and the company may return it back or repair it.. it could get worst.. i dun wanna live with a haunted card for the rest of my life..

For starters, your power supply is not powerful enough. no way you should run that card on a 375w psu. also the psu may be faulty, have some old drying up capacitors in it and it proably cant put out its max power any more due to age. Get a new antec, corsair, seasonic or ocz 500w psu. You should be able to get a decent 500w antec earthwatts or eco neo for a good price.

The minimum recommended system power by nVidia for the GTS250 is 450....why would you run it at anything lower??

Anyways, the two most crucial components for any PC:
1. Good quality PSU. I do not have much faith in that PSU of yours, no matter what that link says! Would strongly recommend you get yourself at least a 500W Corsair or antec PSU. While 450 is the minimum power requirement for the GPU, you'll need power to supplement the rest of the rig too! Always keep a safe margin!

2.Good quality UPS: For those fluctuations/ power cuts

3. Decent Spike protector....don't need those unwarranted spikes reaching/ frying the rig!

People often underestimate the importance of these components. They'll spend top dollar while getting the hardware, but will settle for less than adequate quality safeguards.

Hope this helps...

most psus are rated at max peak wattage while dell rates at continuos wattage
a dell 375 is equal to most 450 aftemarkets easily
they are made by a respected psu company and relabeled by dell
also a the rest of the dell 745 draws low power
even with card doesnt draw more than about 300-325 at peak

with that said the op was playing for close to 3 hours!
almost has to be temp issue
use msi afterburner to show on screen display of temps while playing
in one minute of furmark you hit 69c
how hot do you think it was after hours of playing?

i have a 745
i added two fans (exhaust and intake) since Dell
sucks with their cooling
it is fine for office work or browsing at 68-70f room temps BUT
heavy gameplay for hours with a card like the 250
no dell didnt spec out their cooling for that

Nice replies my friend, No every thing is @ stock.
i would put a fan to the vent.. good idea

hah sure i am using a corporate targeted pc to heavy gaming

The GTS250 needs at least 24 amps on the 12v rail. the card alone will use 150w when under full stress.

already 30 A

ive got a mini tower bro.
installed the msi burner and monitoring temps.
il let u know soon about the max.

I might keep an eye on the psu then
when did you get the psu?
i have the mini tower too and they came
with 280w standard so did you
swap out the supplies?
it should be enough to handle the system
but it could be failing
it would be good if you could measure volts
with my 745 though everest doesnt show voltages
like it did with my old dell

BTW if you swapped that in what dell part number is it?
that is a cool upgrade
i want to do it to mine

Here's that psu running a GTX 460 and E6400

315 watts from the wall running Furmark & Prime

Here it is ( with a few modifications ) running a pair of 8800 512's and a PD 3.0

380 watts from the wall running Furmark ( SLI disabled ) & Prime

Both over 4 years old

If all you're doing is running power viruses you would wear the psu out, but since most people don't, it's enough for a GTS250.

if one of you get bored enough
could you measure out dimension of 375w psu?
the plug in plate would be the front
the label would be top of unit
i have the second biggest 745 (what dell calls desktop)
and it would be great if I could fit that PSU in

I had a Dell 360w in a Precision 450 from 2005
that ran 2 x ide hd,1 x scsi adapter with scsi hd,2 x dvd-rw,7600gs,soundcard,two extra fans and two Xeons and ran for years like that
actually still works no problem
I am just parting out.
I know Dell can suck sometimes but alot of their PSUs are awesome.

I have a OCd E4300,hd4650,dvdrw,asus soundcard,hd on a 280w
and not even working hard.

well ill be damned, i would have expected that psu to blow up with sparks and smoke running 2 8800's. have you tried running that setup for a long period of time?

Dell user1, waiting for ur reply dude

Nah, was just playing.

its faster than gts450 at stock clocks on some games only by a couple fps. the 5770 is more closer to a gtx260 in perfromance. http://www.tomshardware.com/charts [...] 4533%5D=on sorry no chart for the gts 450

?

The PSU is not an issue here, I have complete confidence on the 375w dell 30A.. needs not to be advocated further.

i have also calculated the wattage required via Xtreme Outervision PSU calculator:
for GTS250--about 375w
for HD5770--about 370w

just an sketchy idea that HD5770 may consume even less power and may run stable as per current HW.. and so i am thinking of upgrading to XFX 1GB HD5770, i believe itl be better as per 40nm

any thoughts on this would be appreciated

Dell User1 and KingSmp.. do u agree with this.
I can't say i do

yeah well choose to ignore me, and continue to have problem, have fun running your pos dell

ok so this one's specially for u mate.
I am planning to replace with this card
XFX HD5770 1GB GDDR5 128Bits
http://xfxforce.com/en-us/ProductD [...] elID=18768

Would the Same 375w PSU (30A) all the way from XPS400 be able to run this card for Extensive gaming without any issues?
Btw I personally think it would since it is a new card (40nm) but since u have a better experience with dell so u may know better.

Mates i am confuse please advice me, Shall i sell the Card and Buy an XFX 5770 1GB GDDR5 later on.

it would cost me $50 or so to exchage
This GPU is not bad and i haven't faced artifacts since then but Furmark test for 1.67minutes (100000ms) Recorded Max temp of 72-73!

Besides 5770 is newer (40nm) and i hope would be cooler and stable @ PSU too.

Secondly since my chassis is dell Optiplex 745, It supports i converted a Dual video card to Single by replacing the Metal Plate on the DVI port, i was able to do that because the card had both DVI ports horizontally, whereas XFX HD5770 seem to have the posts Vertically, i may not be able to change the metal plates and unable to put it into Optiplex 745..

Please Expert advice ASAP i need to tackle this matter urgently.
thanks

thank you for your time
I appreciate it

ur welcome mate .
The card is exactly like this but without HDMI or VGA but with dual DVI's


btw i just got a second blue screen of death while playing MW2 MP after a laggy Black ops.
this time the card was heated up too and so as the motherboard's heatsink and the PSU was warm too.
i think i am just gona return it for now

do you have minitower or desktop model (minitower is biggest 745 desktop is second biggest)?

I think I would return the card too

I think you are better off with a 5770 or 5670 but that is only my humble opinion

I like ur opinion fellow, infact i am on the way to the store
the only thing that I am curious about right now is the compatibility of either XFX HD4870 OR XFXHD5770 512MB (which i plan to buy against it)

1)PSU support for each.. will the same dell xps400 375w 30A PSU be enough or would fail?
2)Heat issue
3)Case compatibility (HD5770 is vertical dual DVI which makes it impossible to be converted into single slot whereas HD4870 is a horizontal dual DVI card which can easily be converted into a single slot.. however Minitower 745 only supports a single slot card.. It may be possible to cut or modify the slots of the chasis to be able place a dual slot card in that.. but i don't know how )

kingsmp and delluser1 since u guyz have a good idea of dell Optiplex 745 Minitower's compatibility (chassis) and about the real stenths and capability of the XPS400 375w 30A PSU..
i think u might clarify me about these points please.

i am confident that ur very right about the PSU my friend.
ive got a simple @ stock setup.. i never OC
ive got 1 hd,1 optical, and every thing @ stock, nothing extra except the GPU
i know there might be a way to cut out the chasis and make slot adjustments but i am searching the simplest way to do that or may be i can just get an HD4870.. is a PSU sucker though ..

it might be also possible to get the older part made of EVGA GTS250 again, this one..
http://img69.imageshack.us/i/evgageforcegts25002.jpg/

i think and many of my friends say that packed card like this have a good ventilation, if the vendor replace my card with this one i might give it a test too..