Nvidia GTX 480 Crash\Freeze Dynamically

mrcrapweasel

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My Computer crashes all of the time, even in notepad with my Nvidia ASUS GTX 480 gfx card. I've yet to figure out what is wrong with the card, I've sent it back to the manufactures... aka ASUS Support. They ran tests, saying it is fine... and sent it back to me. Right now, I am using my old Nvidia 9800gtx+ 512mb Video Memory and it doesn't crash but it also isn't best optimized for gaming. My entire computer is very new, and has not had many hardware issues up till the point of buying this expensive $500.00 graphics card. If anyone has any idea of what could be possible, I read online that maybe the ASUS Motherboard isn't compatible with the ASUS Nvidia 400-500gtx series. I'm horribly disappointed, because this may cause me to actually buy an entirely new computer. If anyone has any idea what may be the issue... please share with me, but before... you must read my Computer Specifications for more detailed hardware information.

{Computer Specifications}

Motherboard: ASUS M4N82 Deluxe, AM3/AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI AMD Motherboard, AM3/AM2+/AM2.

Powersupply\Unit: Corsair - Enthusiast Series 850-Watt ATX/EPS CPU Power Supply

Graphics Card: Nvidia ASUS GTX 480ENG 1.5gb vidmem...

CPU Processor: AMD Phenom ii x4 965 Black Edition clk @3.4ghz, Water Cooled, AM3 Socket, and Deneb Edition.

Memory\Ram: Corsair DDR2 8gb clocked at 800mhz, standard clocking.

Harddrives: Four 500gb Hardrives rigged, some are a little old...

Cooling\Ventilation: One 24 inch Fan, Two 12inch fans, CPU Watercooling with Radiator... synchronized to two more 12 inch fans

Monitor: HP supporting 1440x900 Resolution MAX.

Keyboard&Mouse: Microsoft keyboard, Razor DeathAdder Mouse @3500dpi

Accessories: Trackir5 Head Tracking unit, Logitech Webcam, Two speakers and Bass modifier
 

mrcrapweasel

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Oct 7, 2011
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By the way, I've already made sure each driver for each hardware component is 100% compatible and correct. Even after switching between both my two gfx cards, I have got the newest and latest working drivers from Nvidia.com. My Chipsets, nForce and everything else is up to date. The Bus Control drivers are all up to date, but it seems like the only thing I can imagine possibly wrong would be the Nvidia GTX 480ENG 1.5gb Graphics Card that does not work for ***. My Nvidia 9800GTX+ .5 GB Video Card works 100% like a charm and no crashes, how ever cannot support some of our latest technological advances in video games. I am dissapointed, which I should be... especially since 'ASUS Tech Support' Thinks it is my fault. (No overclocking has been made, underclocking has however... on testing occasions).
 

mrcrapweasel

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This seems to be not enough power going to the card.
are your pcie connectors (8-pin 6pin) connected correctly.
Also can you test with another psu?

Most definately, the 8 and 6 pins are being used and it is pcie. I will see if I can test the card in a better psu... question is... would I have to go to best buy or geek squad to do so?
 

mrcrapweasel

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Set your Gpu clocks to default 700/1400/1850 with 1000mv.
Use MSI afterburner.

I'll restart my Computer with the GFX card in, and try and use those settings... btw... the memory is clocked at 800mhz, would it be necessary maybe to clock the GFX card to maybe 800mhz too?
 


Don't take any thing to those crack heads at best buy and geek squad. They will rip you off in a heart beat with a smile on their face.
 
Fermi era cards tend to suffer issues after a few months to a year of use but downclocking your card will likely improve things but isn't a fix. One common trick that gtx 560 ti owners sometimes resort to is to downclock the card and bump the voltage on the core. If things don't improve you can check the voltage on the 12v source on your psu either in bios or software utility. The other method is using a volt meter, yellow wire is 12v while red is 5v and black is ground to any molex or floppy power connector.

If the voltage is below 11.5v at times during load then the psu is to blame. If 12v even then it might be ok but some units can be tricky.
 

mrcrapweasel

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my gfx card is still unstable, even at the lowest frequencies... btw... on the memory core, my gfx card becomes unstable at the point of 4000mhz. So it seems like either way, making the gfx card overclocked or underclocked my computer will still crash; and I am actually clocking slowly at a time. Have you guys got any ideas?? Btw, Core Clock and Shader Clock are linked... so I can't control one without the other changing too... so core clock has to be less than shader clock...

Current settings are...

Voltage=auto
Temperature=58degrees celcius
Core Clock =700mhz
Shader Clock=1401mhz
Memory Clock=1430 "any closer to 1400 it will glitch out and turn off"
 

mrcrapweasel

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Oct 7, 2011
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NEW UPDATE: I have found an issue, my gfx card cores are very low... CPU-Z has shown me that they are only at Core Clock=50mhz, Shader Clock=101, Memory=135. I've noticed ASUS Motherboards have bios utility crap that limits CPU performance, sometimes to lower than 1.0ghz per CORE. So if anyone can help me look for what is making these cores so low in the bios... we've got it nailed!
 

nebun

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did you overclock your cpu? your card could have nothing wrong with it, if the cpu fails so will your gpu....if your cpu is overclocked then put it back to stock setting and try again. the gtx 480 is a very robust card, i have two of them in sli and been folding 24/7 since last year without any problems.....the reason why i think that your cpu is the culprit here is because every time my settings were wrong the same thing would happen to me, especially in crysis
 

nebun

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that's not true, the card will drop the voltages if 3d content is not in use, once you start to play a game it will bump the speed back up, it's a system much like intel's speed step
 

mrcrapweasel

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Well what I am experiencing, is actually rather the fact that my Graphics Card gets unstable at certain core frequencies. My Memory to be specific cannot get any lower than 1000 without going absolutely insane. The computer will make huge graphical errors, and the next thing you know I'm frozen. Even someone like me that doesn't overclock does know that changing frequencies fast is going to damage hardware, especially for voltage. But I've made sure I've done everything requested up till now, and really I'm wondering if maybe increasing the voltage a little might help. But its funny, once my computer goes idle... all core speeds will drop horribly... which sometimes causes my computer to crash. I think and wonder if it is just the transition from 50,150,100mhz to like 700, 1400, 1800. Either way, I am beginning to wonder about this card.
 

mrcrapweasel

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Could also be memory.
Also with such a powerful card the pc will heat up alot more because of the cards heat output.
So it maybe cpu temps too.

Well, no not really. I've gone through with the heat checking, remember I do have Water Cooling which keeps my CPU sometimes down to 20 degrees celcius. My Graphics Card on the max fan sometimes keeps me at 50 degrees celcius. And what other hardware involved... is pretty cool because I've got a nice radiator in my computer synchronized to two fans.
 

nebun

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if you still think that the card is faulty just do an RMA...if you did not change anything on it they will give you a new one...nothing lost...look at the up side of things, you get a brand new card :)
 
I am thankful to have went back with older cards than have to suffer through this. Look around here and else where and see all the complaints about Nvidia Fermi era cards. Everything from thermal degradation of the power vrm to the vram while others have suffered shorts. The worst resulting in small fires (blue smoke). Either things improve with nvidia or I am staying with my now three gtx 280 as I just bought two more today.
 

nebun

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what are you talking about ? never had any issues with my 480 sli setup, they have been folding 24/7 since i got them last year with no problems...forgot to mention they are water cooled...my loop temps never go above 55 deg C under 100% stress on both gpus and cpu at the same time...this includes an i7 2.66 clocked at 3.8 with 3.5 vcore....so if you are saying that nvidia is making crappy cards you are very wrong...maybe it's the other components that make the cards fail, motherboards, power supplies etc....not to mention incorrect overclocking
 
The gtx 480 is the exception to most but Fermi is you haven't lived under a rock has a lot more issues than was typical of past generations. It is mainly due to the cheap construction and poor cooling that causes most of the issues even with the power consumption.
 

nebun

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from my own experience with this card....it's a very well built card
 
The gtx 480 is the exception to even the gtx 570/580 let alone the rest. The gtx 480 is a higher quality build than others and so much so that it was produced almost at a loss or little to no net profit. It has a good mid plate design and is a 6+2 power vrm design.
 
You only know the gtx 480 and forget about every other Fermi and how they are. The gtx 570 often fails or degrades due to only having a 4+2 power vrm design even though it easily can run over 250w+ that even some 6+2 vrm cards can barely handle so come are known to blue smoke. The gtx 580 is known to have degradation that leads to instability. The gt560ti often has issues with poor cooling of the power vrm when there is nothing there to cool it or the thermal pads do not make proper contact. Often issues for cards that are clocked above 950mhz stock. The gtx465 and the gtx470 sometimes have issues with the choke coil near the 6pin power connector shorting out and is the blame for at least two documented house fire. The gtx 460 has the same issues as the gtx 560ti but worse due to poor cooling. The gts 450 has few issues compared to most but some do have degradation of the power vrm. The gt430 is known to have very overall poor overclocking and some often fail with little or no symptom. The gtx 590 has a very weak overall power vrm design despite the card using low voltage and low amp gpu cores compared to the gtx 570/580. Shorting is well documented.


All have issues with openGL applications.