[mysterfix]

OK I got this card about 2 weeks ago and I have some major issues. For starters I get random crashes even at stock speeds. I can't OC the card at all using the overdrive feature or I get lower bench scores. Using the 5.5 drivers the auto clock feature sets the card to 594/621 but when I do benches I get much lower scores, 3,000-4,000 on average in 3Dmark01, 1,000-2,000 in 03. I've just installed the new 5.6 drivers and my scores are 1,000 points lower at default and the overdrive feature sets my card to default speeds. I 'm at a loss here, I've reinstalled three times and used driver cleaner everytime.

I'm really perterbed right now, Ive checked my PSU and it is putting out 12.25v under load. I've reseated the card several times, checked all my connections over and over again. I haven't gotten a crash since the new drivers so I'll try riva tuner and see if I can get this thing going.

[mysterfix]

Update:

5.6 drivers do not play nice with this card. Using rivatuner and clocking the card to 594/621 I got a whopping 200 point increase in 01. I think I'm going to go back to 5.5 drivers and try my luck. I think I may have found my problem as far as crashing goes. I relaxed my memory timmings and will be priming tonight to see if that is the problem.

[mysterfix]

Update:

OK, primed all night and today with no problems, closed prime95 and got a crash not even a minute later. Does anyone have any ideas as to why I keep getting these crashes?

[bobmanfoo]

prime has nothing to do with gpu stability, your cpu is unstable, try bumping the voltage up a little, your card is probably putting more of a strain on your psu

[mysterfix]

If my cpu is unstable why is it able to prime for 16+hrs with no errors? But crashing while at idle or relitively low cpu usage. Crashes did not start until I got this card and like I said previously my PSU is stable at 12.25v under load. I have an adjustable pot on the psu so I doubt that is my problem. I would be happy to test the system with another psu but I don't have another that is powerful enough. Also the card is getting really low scores when compared to other cards with my same system specs and overclocks.

Edit: Do you think my Agp bus could have somehow been damaged by the defective card that I had before this one?

[superdaveviii]

Do you have access to another card you can use to test to make absolutely sure it's the x850 itself? If you can, I suggest doing that first. Doesn't matter what card it is, I keep a couple old video cards that don't see normal use anymore around just for this reason. It may seem like a big hassle to switch cards and drivers, though it will save you mucho time if you can start eliminating and identifying compents completely and not trying to guess where the problem is.

And I wouldn't gauge your performance based soley on components comparing to other people, unless you know you're running the exact same system configuration down to every setting. You can gain hundreds of points in artificial benchmarks through tweaking out some Windows settings alone.

And what kind of cooling are you using? I didn't see you mention it, and 594/621 seems a little aggressive if you're still on stock cooling. What are your load temps on the card like?

[mysterfix]

Originally Posted by superdaveviii

Do you have access to another card you can use to test to make absolutely sure it's the x850 itself? If you can, I suggest doing that first. Doesn't matter what card it is, I keep a couple old video cards that don't see normal use anymore around just for this reason. It may seem like a big hassle to switch cards and drivers, though it will save you mucho time if you can start eliminating and identifying compents completely and not trying to guess where the problem is.

And I wouldn't gauge your performance based soley on components comparing to other people, unless you know you're running the exact same system configuration down to every setting. You can gain hundreds of points in artificial benchmarks through tweaking out some Windows settings alone.

And what kind of cooling are you using? I didn't see you mention it, and 594/621 seems a little aggressive if you're still on stock cooling. What are your load temps on the card like?

Cooling is in my sig but yeah before I put on the waterblock max on the core was 580 memory was 608. I do have a 6800 I could through in here for testing. Just have to sweet talk my girl as it's her card. I was really more comparing my old X800XT PE with similar clocks to this one. That card would hit 30,000 in 01 and 14,000 in 03 with exactly the same system settings and slightly higher clocks on the gpu(600/608) Load while running continueous loop of 01 nature test peaked at 40ºc after 10 loops. Usualy doesn't get above 38ºc during games.

[bobmanfoo]

wouldn't hurt to try bumping up the cpu voltage, maybe even the agp voltage

[mysterfix]

Cpu voltage has already been increased but that is not the problem as I said the cpu is prime stable for 16+hrs. I will increase the agp voltage to see if that might help with stability.

[hawtrawkr]

the agp voltage wont help your gpu/vmem stabalize/oc. to my knowledge it will only help if you want to overclock the bus speed of the agp but thats best locked @ 66mhz

have you tried using rivatuner yet? ive never been that impressed with the overdrive feature as it always struck me as a overclock killer with my x800xtpe.

[mysterfix]

I think you are right because I just got done using rivatuner and benching the card @ 591/603 and I got within 1,000 points of my prior score with my old x800xt pe here is the link.

[El<(')>Maxi]

I'd say PSU. You need to monitor the 5v rail because it's the one feeding the card not the 12v

As far as your '01 comparisons go, X850 is slower clock for clock compared to X800. Not by much but still slower. Thats why guys do the memory tweaks on X850 to try and make up for it's looser timings and match X800 performance.

[mysterfix]

My 5v and 12v rails run on the same pot so they are both running above spec. Last I checked the 5v rail was at 5.54v in bios, I haven't checked with my multi yet. I found that memory tweak you mentioned gonna try that today.

[mysterfix]

Update: I found a faulty power connector and hard drives too close together causing a short. I repaired the molex connector and moved the drive up one slot and have not had a reboot since.

Now as to my 3dmark scores, that is another story, even though I have this thing overclocked to 672/630 my scores seem very low still.

My 03 score was 14528 but for some reason I wasn't able to get access to the orb to publish it.

3DMark01
3DMark05