Complete noob question

[lehighace06]

How does one actually monitor their GPU and CPU's temp? i'm wondering if temp is the cause of some problems i'm having.

My brand new GTX 275 (see sig for build) has 'stopped responding' on not only crysis but also while playing WoW. so far i'm assuming i need new drivers or something, other than crysis' 1.2 patch, i haven't installed a thing but windows vista 64bit, wow, and crysis as they come out of the box.

ps - all hardware is still at stock setting, no overclocking. this is one reason i'm particularly concerned because i'd like to overclock a little (little enough that i don't need additional cooling). i use stock fan on my cpu, and have added a 120mm fan to the side of my antec 900 right next to the gpu and all stock case fans are on 'High' ... so, if i'm already having temperature issues i obviously won't be overclocking without some additional cooling.

 

[hunter315]

use HW Monitor, leave it running while you are playing a game, it will log the max temperature it hits so you can see it after the game crashes out. I assume you installed drivers after installing windows correct? If not that is likely the source of your issues.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Rivatuner, a little bit of playing and you can have an OSD whilst gaming and graphs to check after and a destop gadget when you are just browsing.

 

[lehighace06]

thanks for the suggestions, as mentioned i literally installed windows, wow, crysis, crysis 1.2 patch, nothing more ... it most likely is the drivers that are the problem, but since i was curious about monitoring my temps as well i thought i'd ask.

 

[dndhatcher]

EVGA has a software NVIDIA overclock program called Precision that will also monitor the GPU temp down on your startbar, which I find helpful. It is supposed to work with any Nvidia card, not just EVGAs (it seems to be based on riva). Also definitely get the latest drivers, but I would go to evga.com not Nvidia. Once I downloaded nvidias drivers and had problems until I downloaded the drivers from EVGAs site. Also update windows if you havent.

 

[renz496]

EVGA has a software NVIDIA overclock program called Precision that will also monitor the GPU temp down on your startbar, which I find helpful. It is supposed to work with any Nvidia card, not just EVGAs (it seems to be based on riva). Also definitely get the latest drivers, but I would go to evga.com not Nvidia. Once I downloaded nvidias drivers and had problems until I downloaded the drivers from EVGAs site. Also update windows if you havent.

yes it works with other NVidia card. right now i'm using Precision instead of Gamer HUD provided by gigabyte (my card is made by gigabyte) and i think its easy to use. right now i'm not OCing my card but i use Precision to monitor my temp and FPS. you can set it so you will able to monitor your temp and FPS while in game.

 

[Mousemonkey]

EVGA has a software NVIDIA overclock program called Precision that will also monitor the GPU temp down on your startbar, which I find helpful. It is supposed to work with any Nvidia card, not just EVGAs (it seems to be based on riva). Also definitely get the latest drivers, but I would go to evga.com not Nvidia. Once I downloaded nvidias drivers and had problems until I downloaded the drivers from EVGAs site. Also update windows if you havent.

It's written by the same person.

 

[lehighace06]

what is Riva's "unsigned device driver" thing about? How do i allow it?

and what does Riva actually DO for me? i thought it was a temperature and performance monitor?

 

[Mousemonkey]

what is Riva's "unsigned device driver" thing about? How do i allow it?

and what does Riva actually DO for me? i thought it was a temperature and performance monitor?

 

[lehighace06]

while playing crysis -
Display Driver has stopped responding and has recovered.

i just installed the new driver from evga's site, so i'm not sure why this occured. my gpu did get up to 74 degr. celcius, is it just overheating? if so, any idea why?

 

[lehighace06]

bump to suggest an answer to my own question ... my fan was set to "automatic" and when i adjusted it to a higher speed (auto was 40% i bumped it to 80% and 100% to see what i'd get) i had considerably more success keeping my GPU within operating range, somewhere around 50 degrees C even at load during Crysis at 16x AA and max settings.

So, is there anything ELSE i should be doing? how much overclocking of my CPU and GPU can i get away with using only the stock fans and Antec 900's case fans + additional side fan?

 

[dndhatcher]

I just read a review (might have been here) of the new Zalman 10x cooler compared to the stock cooler.

Basically the stock cooler couldnt handle overclocking to 3.7 but the Zalman did. Not that I would recommend the Zalman as they are expensive and there are others as good for less. It just indicates you cant overclock much on the stock cooler. With a $50 aftermarket cooler you should be able to reach 3.6-3.8 pretty easy.

First thing you should do is remove all overclocking and check the memory timings and voltage in bios match your rams specs. See if you still have the problems.