Is there something wrong?

[jon_the_faun]

This is my rig:

HAF 932
Phenom II x6 1100t
Asus Crosshair IV
Ultra 1050W PSU
8 GB RAM
Samsung 1 TB HDD
x2 Sapphire 6970s

Latest profiles and drivers (11.10/CAP 4). Properly uninstalled old drivers.

After about 30 minutes of playing BF3, my computer has seizure, makes a loud noise, and reboots. Although I see no blue screen, the system reports BSOD upon startup. No other games have crashed my system, so I'm assuming this was a game/driver issue. Since the latest drivers, I'm able to run it maxed out (ULTRA/Vysnc On) and maintain a solid 60-58 fps, which is fantastic. But the crashing is causing me concern.

I opened up GPU-Z immediatly after a crash, and noticed that my gpu temps were round 60C. The cards felt very hot. I proceeded to open the side panel of my case, and plugged in an external fan that I used during the summer to keep my apartment cold. The fan is currently blasting the cards, and 1 card reads 60 C while the other reads 80C while the game is running. I played for another 40 minutes like this. No crashing.

Could it be possible that my cards are overheating? This is a very demanding game. Or is it a hardware problem?

Many thanks,
Jon

 

[inzone]

I have noticed many people having problems with this game and it all has to do with graphics and in most cases specificly amd cards. I do think something was added to the game just before release and AMD did mot have a chance to optimize thier drivers for this game. Nvidia did not escape unscathed as there are issues there as well but the drivers are better so it is not as noticeable. The game can run on a dual core cpu so this particular game is very graphics card intensive and will not get much help from the cpu so hence the heat issue , it's all on the card to produce. Have you tried lowering the settings and see what that does to the heat issue. Playing on high or playing on ultra is not noticeable and is just bragging rights anyway.

 

[ilysaml]

Well, even the 2 cards were 80C you shouldn't get a PC reboot and BSODs.

 

[Gothams Finest]

I think its more likely to be an problem with the game or a driver issue than a problem with your hardware.

Your cards shouldnt be hot enough at 80c to make your computer crash.

Though you did say you are now using an external fan on the graphics cards and since then you have not had a crash, which could suggest otherwise. Have you had another crash while playng BF3 with the external fan since your last post?

 

[dalmvern]

It is possible that the CPU is getting too hot instead of the GPU. BF3 is a graphically intensive game, but there is no reason your dual GPUs should get stressed enough to cause a crash. What people dont realize though is that the game is also pretty CPU intensive as well. Next time you are playing, watch Core Temp or whatever processor monitoring program you have and watch your core temps.

 

[swifty_morgan]

they just released brand new 11.10 drivers/........

http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

 

[jon_the_faun]

they just released brand new 11.10 drivers/........

http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

Yep. I've got em.

 

[jon_the_faun]

It is possible that the CPU is getting too hot instead of the GPU. BF3 is a graphically intensive game, but there is no reason your dual GPUs should get stressed enough to cause a crash. What people dont realize though is that the game is also pretty CPU intensive as well. Next time you are playing, watch Core Temp or whatever processor monitoring program you have and watch your core temps.

Hmm. Didn't consider that. Will use Core Temp to check now. However, I should note, that I do have an aftermarket cooler (ZULMAN) on my CPU. So it seems unlikely. But I'll check.

 

[jon_the_faun]

Been playing for about 25 minutes, so far so good. I still got the external fan blasting into the computer's side. But I think it might have been a heat issue. The CPU currently reads round 44 C, and one card reads 74 C while the other is still in the 50s.

Is it normal for one cards to run hotter than the other?

 

[jon_the_faun]

CRASHED!

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 124
BCP1: 0000000000000000
BCP2: FFFFFA8007E5B028
BCP3: 00000000B6562000
BCP4: 0000000040000175
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\103111-40279-01.dmp
C:\Users\Jon Diaz\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-54116-0.sysdata.xml

Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

 

[inzone]

To tell you the truth I think this game is going to expose any defects in any card because it is so intensive graphicly. I just dropped a GTX 580 from my 3-way sli setup and it's being rma'd as I post. Game kept crashing untill I removed the card from the sli and now I am running two in sli and everything is fine. This game does not stress the cpu , this review was posted the other day in TomsHardware;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063.html
In this review the reviewer states that a dual core cpu can run this game , so it doesn't sound too cpu intensive.

 

[swifty_morgan]

as crazy as it sounds someone had sorta the same issue a day or so ago and something to the effect of syncing the sound to origin...... whatever that means. At the time my suggestion was to get rid of the AMD sound drivers if he was using on board. If I find the link I'll post it.

 

[gmcizzle]

To tell you the truth I think this game is going to expose any defects in any card because it is so intensive graphicly. I just dropped a GTX 580 from my 3-way sli setup and it's being rma'd as I post. Game kept crashing untill I removed the card from the sli and now I am running two in sli and everything is fine. This game does not stress the cpu , this review was posted the other day in TomsHardware;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063.html
In this review the reviewer states that a dual core cpu can run this game , so it doesn't sound too cpu intensive.

That test he used was a scripted scene in single player, of course the CPU has nothing to do. In a multiplayer setting with everything exploding and what not, there is a huge amount of work the CPU has to do.

 

[Gothams Finest]

I don't think the CPU would be stressed much more in multiplayer then single player, mayble a little but not by too much. Though having said that the bencmark sequence he used was a little gentle. Be intersting to see the benchmark results in a more action packed sequence.

 

[dalmvern]

This game does not stress the cpu , this review was posted the other day in TomsHardware;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063.html
In this review the reviewer states that a dual core cpu can run this game , so it doesn't sound too cpu intensive.

Yes, a dual core can run it, but you wont be maxing anything out no matter what GPU you have, your processor is going to bottleneck it.

Personally, I am getting 40% load across all cores and 60-80% load on the main core on my first gen i5-760. Granted, I am running ultra settings with MFAA off, so basically I am putting the max amount of stress on the processor.

I will agree that the game is much more GPU-centric, but the CPU is still a big consideration.