Bad driver or video card?

[pocketdexter]

Hello

I have recently upgraded my system to a gtx 560ti and an xfx 650 watt power supply and installed Alice madness returns. Everything worked fine until this week. I used to be able to set all game settings to max and physx to high with decent frame rates. Now, whenever i change physx to medium or high, the game crashes as soon as I try to load into a map in the game. It works ok if physx is set to low.

The last change I made was to move from the beta drivers of 290.53 to 295.51. I have tried all of the beta drivers and latest regular release driver yet the same behavior occurs. Sonic generations works fine though. It is just this Alice game that crashes.

Idle temps are 31C and load temps go to 43C for the video card. I monitor this with EVGA precision and everything is running stock.

Do I need to RMA or am I missing some diagnostics?

 

[cliffro]

Have you tried changing PhysX versions? Or using Driver Sweeper before installing the other drivers.

 

[Rockdpm]

I have to say man, running this card with PhysX with everything on high is asking a bit much. I can understand running the Physx on low and getting better luck and frames. Your temps are good. I had about the same situation with my Reference card. What Game are you playing when this happens?. Also what is your other Specs

 

[pocketdexter]

I have to say man, running this card with PhysX with everything on high is asking a bit much. I can understand running the Physx on low and getting better luck and frames. Your temps are good. I had about the same situation with my Reference card. What Game are you playing when this happens?. Also what is your other Specs

These are my system specs:

Case: Thermaltake V9 Black Edition ATX Computer Gaming Chassis with Dual Oversized 230mm Ultra-Silent Cooling Fans VJ400G1N2Z Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133074

PSU: XFX Core Edition PRO650W (P1-650S-NLB9) 650W ATX12V 2.2 & ESP12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207014

Motherboard: ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131366

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

TIM: ARCTIC COOLING Arctic Cooling MX-4 AC-MX4 4 gram (g)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186038

CPU cooler:ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 92mm Fluid Dynamic
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134

RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1333C9
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145218

GPU: EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAKX 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136771

Optical: Sony Optiarc 24X DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118067

 

[pocketdexter]

Have you tried changing PhysX versions? Or using Driver Sweeper before installing the other drivers.

I have only used the clean install check box from the nvidia drivers. Is that insufficient to do a clean install of the drivers? Is it possible to only downgrade/upgrade physx drivers without downloading the whole nvidia driver package?

 

[cliffro]

It is possible to upgrade PhysX alone without the whole package, and I'm sure its possible to find older versions somewhere online(Nvidia's site only has the most recent one available that I can find http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx-9.11.1111-driver.html)

And checking the Clean Install box is not the same as using Driver Sweeper. Trust me, I had BSOD issues with my 560Ti and BF3 when I first got it, it was the only game I tried. I had uninstalled my drivers when I got my 560 before removing my GTX 260, used the check box, getting the BSOD as a result. Only cleaning the old drivers with Driver Sweeper or Driver Cleaner(costs $) is really a clean install.

 

[cliffro]

Driver Sweeper can be found here http://phyxion.net/Driver-Sweeper/Driver-Sweeper/

You may need to pay attention for adware, or a toolbar install during installation, but the usefulness of the program is totally worth that extra bit of effort.

 

[pocketdexter]

Best answer selected by pocketdexter.

 

[pocketdexter]

Have you tried changing PhysX versions? Or using Driver Sweeper before installing the other drivers.

Lesson learned: Never trust uninstallers to fully remove all files from installation. Drive Sweeper did the trick and the game no longer crashes when i max Alice Madness Returns graphic settings. Thanks for your help and letting me avoid a format. I am getting about 30-60fps with physx on high.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey