First homebuilt PC issues

[themuaythaiman]

So,

About two months ago I built my own machine. The specs:

-G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-
-ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
-XFX Double D FX-787A-CDFC Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16
-Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K
-COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS700-PCAAE3-US 700W ATX 12V v2.3 Active PFC Power Supply
-Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

With this sort of machine, I expected for it to work very well on current gen games and to perform very nicely seeing as it has that pretty good graphics card. However, it hasn't performed to my expectations. In most of my games, I've noticed "twitchy" shadows and sorta jagged edges (like almost aliasing or something)...it's frustrating. I've toyed with settings in the Catalyst Control Center to no avail. One thing that is also odd is that when I built the computer and ran the GPU in the primary PCIe slot on the mobo, it seemed to not work correctly. The computer recognized that the card was there but it (the computer) was performing as though it was only using the onboard Intel graphics. So, I have the GPU running in the secondary slot (usually used for CrossFire setups, so it's only running at v1.1 x 8.0, not the 3.0 x 16 that it supports. I don't know if maybe this has anything to do with anything or not. Also, I'm getting blue screens every once in a while (with things like memory_management and system_service_exception...this makes me think there may be a RAM issue). I hope that someone can point me in the right direction to getting this PC up and functioning like it really should be. Thanks so much!

 

[Truckinupga]

In the slot your using you are not getting the full benefit of your graphics card, It really needs to be in the X16 slot. I would install it back in the first slot then go into the bios to make sure you have the graphics set to pcie x16, It may be set to the on chip graphics.

 

[themuaythaiman]

Alright, I installed it back into the first slot. I did some quick benchmarking and still get very low numbers in that first slot as compared to the second. I don't know how/where to change that in the BIOS. I mean, all the settings for using the PCIe slot as the main graphics adapter are set. I don't know what else is up. It's odd because it's not like the card isn't showing up in that slot. It's recognized, but not performing at it's right functionality.

 

[smorizio]

first check your mb bios to see if you have all the updates.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/?cat=Download&os=BIOS
2.70 is the last bios file. there are a lot of bios patches some for video card.
make sure you uninstall the Lucid Virtu MVP ver:2.1.119 software. it try and bond the intel ipgpu and the gpu in games..it know to be buggy.

make sure under dram timing in the bios xmp profile is turned on.
under north bridge setup
set the primary video display to pci express) default.)
pci 2.0 link speed to 16x
pci 3.0 link to disabled you dont have an ib cpu.
ipgpu muilt monitor and the settings below that turn them off.want to turn off the onboard ipgpu not using both.

 

[Truckinupga]

first check your mb bios to see if you have all the updates.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/?cat=Download&os=BIOS
2.70 is the last bios file. there are a lot of bios patches some for video card.
make sure you uninstall the Lucid Virtu MVP ver:2.1.119 software. it try and bond the intel ipgpu and the gpu in games..it know to be buggy.

make sure under dram timing in the bios xmp profile is turned on.
under north bridge setup
set the primary video display to pci express) default.)
pci 2.0 link speed to 16x
pci 3.0 link to disabled you dont have an ib cpu.
ipgpu muilt monitor and the settings below that turn them off.want to turn off the onboard ipgpu not using both.

Very good advice.

 

[themuaythaiman]

Hey, I did all that and noticed an immediate difference with Skyrim. I just played it for the first time this afternoon and the text on all the menus and stuff was like fuzzy/unfocused...now, it's clear. So, thanks for that! Maybe I'll run a benchmark and see if I get good numbers there.

 

[themuaythaiman]

Well, benchmarking with Unigine's Heaven benchmark program shows better numbers with the Virtu MVP program running. Also, the numbers were significantly better with the GPU in the second slot. However, I don't know how that program really works to determine its scores or anything...so yeah...not sure how to really know if my GPU is working 100% at this point.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

uninstall lucid virtu, it causes performance problems.