What's wrong with my 8800GT?

[BlueGuy]

Hi all,

A few months ago I purchased a new 512mb 8800GT. When I first got it, I made sure everything was working - ran it through 3dmark06 and thought the ~13k score was acceptable.

However, just recently, I've been trying to play some newer dx10 games (namely, bioshock, assassin's creed, UT3) with it and have encountered some problems. Even at underclocked speeds, the game will "hang/stutter" for a while and ultimately crash.. usually with artifacts first and then to a black screen (although audio playback continues as normal). This is at stock and even underclocked speeds running on Vista Ultimate 64-bit.

I'm hoping someone more experienced that I with video cards can pinpoint the problem with me. Is it a driver issue? Heat? Thanks.

[antipacker]

sounds like a driver problem

so uninstall current drivers then try different drivers from here
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Videocards---NVIDIA-ForceWare-(64-bit)_c28.html

[BlueGuy]

sounds like a driver problem

so uninstall current drivers then try different drivers from here
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Videocards---NVIDIA-ForceWare-(64-bit)_c28.html

I'll give it a shot, thank you.

[JamesXP]

Full system specs would be helpful :)


:welcome:

[ratbuddy]

Er, I wouldn't just jump to a driver conclusion so fast.. Fire up Rivatuner's hardware monitor and see what your temps do during gaming. Quit or alt-tab before it crashes so you can see the temps, or try recording a log of them.. Check the fan for obstructions and make sure it's on.

[henzo]

Check the fan for obstructions and make sure it's on.

Since you have rivatuner open and on, make sure you change the default fan speed from 25-29% to around 70% and see if the game still hangs up. If the fan is still at stock speed, I am almost 100% sure that this is the reason for the high temps and stuttering. At 70% the noise from the fan is still tolerable and quite.

[silencer51]

The symptoms you describe definitely point to an overheating problem.

[Seyton]

I have a Evga 8800gts KO edition card. I found that it does get very hot playing crysis, COD4 and other games. I just use the Ntune utility and run the fan at about 75% and the games play smooth as ice.

Also what are the specs of your rig?

[Gibbo3771]

thats the exact problem i had with an X1950 (i know different card but hey!:))

It turned out my fan wasent mounted on the Heatsink Properly. I was Giving it a clean because of the Temp Problems:)

[stereo555]

I'd say its a heat issue also . I went through the same thing with my first GT.

Grab RivaTuner or Evga's new (more simple app) Precision , and set the card's fan speed to 55%-60% ; and you should be good to go .

You may want to check on a possible bios update for your card too , as there were known issues with some GT's and early bios releases not running the auto fan speed correctly .

[twEEkerAreUs]

What stereo said, GTS cooling I believe is a bit better then the original 8800GT's but still fire up Rivatuner and check it. Videocards don't usually artifact like that for no reason, sure on occasion a driver might do it....But with those videocards it's heat related.