Should I take it back?

Hey gang... I bought a Gainward Goldensample 6800gt, you know the one gainward gauruntees to run at 400/1.1 stable. Now I wanted to test this out to make sure it would indeed run at those clocks so I d/l coolbits and set the card to 400/1.1 and I head into cs:s. After about 5 mins of play my screen gets filled with white horizontal squiggly lines and my pc hardlocks. Somewhat dissapointed I decide to try other games out at those clocks and every other game I own including d3 run flawlessly for hours, even a 12hr loop of 3dmark doesn't lock up. So why would all other games run fine but hl2 and cs:s lock up? and if it is going to be locking up is this a sign that my card cannot properly hit ultra speeds like it was gaurunteed to and I should seek a replacement?.

For me, I can play different games at different clock speeds. If you change out the stock crappy thermal goo with something better it will run fine at those speeds. I did it on my stepdad's 9800se and I was able to overclock almost an extra 100Mhz.

Yeah, I switched the stock glue for Artic Silver and it makes a huge difference in the ability to OC it.

that is not my point tho... gainward warranties and gauruntees the clockspeeds of 400/1.1 and to me hl2 freezing shows me that the card cannot do the speeds properly, or is this some sort of bug with hl2 and nv hardware?. I will not remove the stock h/s to apply my own as5 as that will void gainwards warranty therefore rendering the ability for me to return the card null and void. I am just curious how a more shader intensive game like d3 will run fine but any source engine game locks up within 5 mins. I do have a 431w p/s, could this be my problem? or do you think I just got a bad card and should get a replacement?.

Yeah the only other component I would be looking at would be the psu as the 6800gt's and ultra's need quite a bit of power to run properly.

You are correct about changing the thermal goop on the thing as it would make it many times harder to return the thing. So now it all comes down to either trying another psu or returning the card. You may want to check your voltages as well.

Good luck.

All voltages across the rails are within spec and the 3.3v rail is the only one that dips slightly below it's rated value. On the issue of p/s how to the xconnect powersupplies stack up as I love the idea of not having to have extra leads I don't need dangling around in my case.

Use gainward's tool, if that fails and produces artifracts take it back

Would i get a better oc if i put artic silver on my 9500np?

UndyingClocker said:

Would i get a better oc if i put artic silver on my 9500np?

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Most likely.

Sentential said:

Use gainward's tool, if that fails and produces artifracts take it back

Click to expand...

But don't you have to have gainwards custom drivers running if you want to use thier overclocking util?