- Joined
- Sep 10, 2013
Hi overclockers,
I'm experiencing some (really) random game crashes, not system crashes. They happen sometimes, sometimes not. The game will freeze, screen goes black and after some seconds, I can then ALT+TAB to the desktop and kill the game. A side note: Sound continues to run even after the graphics freeze/black screen. Even after ALT+TAB in most cases. For some while, I believed it was any sort of monitoring tool running in the background, like OC guru, AI suite or even the task manager. This was the case in BF4 (BF3 and BF:BC2 also) which would just simply crash after 24 Minutes and 38 Seconds (every time I measured it was the same, down to the second) when some sort of monitor was running. With no monitoring tool running, no crashes. But yesterday, the same (different times though) happened to me with Tomb Raider and later with Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 without any monitorings running.
I have checked CPU (stock speeds) by running Prime95 and Aida64 for one night each. I also ran memtest86 twice and Valley Benchmark for one night aswell.
So I'm pretty sure that it's not the CPU, nor the RAM or the GPU.
I then started thinking about my power supply. Yes, it's not the best for my rig, but I thought it was enough and since it's very expensive and highly regarded from the community (I guess) I sticked with it as I kept it from my old build. It's only 7 months old though.
The thing that really scares me now is that it might be that my GPU isn't getting enough power.
The manual of the power supply says that it has 4 rails. 2x 18Amp 12V and 2x 20Amp 12V. It also says that I should NOT mix the cables labeled GPU1 (2x 6+2pin) and GPU2 (2x 6+2pin, too). The two GPU1 cables connect together to one connector on the power supply. As do the GPU2 cables. So I did as the manual said: I'm only using the GPU1 cables.
My GTX 780Ti Windforce OC obviously has 2x 8pin connectors. My question now is: Is there any way I can figure out which rails go from which connectors of the power supply? Let's say the two 18Amps are feeding the 24pin motherboard and the 8pin CPU connectors. How about the other two rails? Is it rail 3 goes to GPU1 and rail 4 goes to GPU2, or combined, or what ever? It seems noone cares, or at least the people who wrote the manual don't. I just can't seem to find ANY information about this except the output scheme on the manufacturers data sheet which doesn't relate to output connectors though.
If it is as I fear and I'm now just using 3 rails, with the 4th completely wasted as I'm not using GPU2, my GPU might indeed not get enough power and shut itself down when under full load. Which is 250W (or even more, it is highly overclocked), meaning roughly 21Amp (or more) and all that from a single, 20Amp or even 18Amp only rail. This would explain the "not system freezes" as it's really only the GPU shutting itself down and thus "crashing" the game. Leaving sound and even multiplayer connectivity (as my friends say) running.
I hope any of you can bring some light in the darkness of this matter and I shall thank you in advance!
Oh and more generally: How do I see that my power supply reaches it's max on one or more rails? Will it completely shut off? If yes, consider the above garbage as it renders my thoughts impossible.
Have a good evening, Julian
I'm experiencing some (really) random game crashes, not system crashes. They happen sometimes, sometimes not. The game will freeze, screen goes black and after some seconds, I can then ALT+TAB to the desktop and kill the game. A side note: Sound continues to run even after the graphics freeze/black screen. Even after ALT+TAB in most cases. For some while, I believed it was any sort of monitoring tool running in the background, like OC guru, AI suite or even the task manager. This was the case in BF4 (BF3 and BF:BC2 also) which would just simply crash after 24 Minutes and 38 Seconds (every time I measured it was the same, down to the second) when some sort of monitor was running. With no monitoring tool running, no crashes. But yesterday, the same (different times though) happened to me with Tomb Raider and later with Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 without any monitorings running.
I have checked CPU (stock speeds) by running Prime95 and Aida64 for one night each. I also ran memtest86 twice and Valley Benchmark for one night aswell.
So I'm pretty sure that it's not the CPU, nor the RAM or the GPU.
I then started thinking about my power supply. Yes, it's not the best for my rig, but I thought it was enough and since it's very expensive and highly regarded from the community (I guess) I sticked with it as I kept it from my old build. It's only 7 months old though.
The thing that really scares me now is that it might be that my GPU isn't getting enough power.
The manual of the power supply says that it has 4 rails. 2x 18Amp 12V and 2x 20Amp 12V. It also says that I should NOT mix the cables labeled GPU1 (2x 6+2pin) and GPU2 (2x 6+2pin, too). The two GPU1 cables connect together to one connector on the power supply. As do the GPU2 cables. So I did as the manual said: I'm only using the GPU1 cables.
My GTX 780Ti Windforce OC obviously has 2x 8pin connectors. My question now is: Is there any way I can figure out which rails go from which connectors of the power supply? Let's say the two 18Amps are feeding the 24pin motherboard and the 8pin CPU connectors. How about the other two rails? Is it rail 3 goes to GPU1 and rail 4 goes to GPU2, or combined, or what ever? It seems noone cares, or at least the people who wrote the manual don't. I just can't seem to find ANY information about this except the output scheme on the manufacturers data sheet which doesn't relate to output connectors though.
If it is as I fear and I'm now just using 3 rails, with the 4th completely wasted as I'm not using GPU2, my GPU might indeed not get enough power and shut itself down when under full load. Which is 250W (or even more, it is highly overclocked), meaning roughly 21Amp (or more) and all that from a single, 20Amp or even 18Amp only rail. This would explain the "not system freezes" as it's really only the GPU shutting itself down and thus "crashing" the game. Leaving sound and even multiplayer connectivity (as my friends say) running.
I hope any of you can bring some light in the darkness of this matter and I shall thank you in advance!
Oh and more generally: How do I see that my power supply reaches it's max on one or more rails? Will it completely shut off? If yes, consider the above garbage as it renders my thoughts impossible.
Have a good evening, Julian
