EVGA nvidia 9800gtx+ framerate

[polskarre]

Hey everyone, hope someone can help me.

Just recently I had my old evga 8800 gts fry on me. Previously, when I played games such as WoW, my framerates were lower than what I presume they should have been at (mostly medium settings, no shadows, etc.), however I was able to maintain around 15 fps in 25 man raids (playable).

Now I have upgraded to the evga 9800 gtx+ and after some minor troubleshooting (drive sweeping and the installing most up to date drivers) was able to get the card stable enough to run the game. When not under any load, frame rates are slightly larger, however even in 10 mans I am taking huge hits in frames, to the point I'm hitting 4-5 fps in 25 mans.

I have tried changing the clock speeds to more or less stock numbers for the gpu, since the card is slightly overclocked to begin with. I've noticed the card runs hot under full load with fan at 100%(100-105 C), but I am currently reworking the cooling in the case to hopefully improve this.

The other concern I have that may lead to this hit in frames is my PSU. The card states it needs a minimum 450w(I have 480w) and 24 amps on the 12V rail (of which I only have 17amps) as well as two 6-pin pci-e power connectors. The power connectors part confuses me slightly, as the contents only included a single 6-pin connector with two plugs to connect to the PSU and there is only one 6-pin connection on the actual card.

Sorry for the long post, but I've been trying to solve this for a few days and I am stumped. In short, could the heat, amps, or something else be creating this problem?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I can give further specs, but just wanted to mention my processor is and AMD athlon 64 dual-core 4600+ (2.4 ghz) as I know WoW is also a processor heavy game.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

With your GPU fan set to 100%, you're saying your GPU temps are 105 C??!! No wonder your old GPU literally fried. I wouldn't worry about the cooling inside the case, I would just take off the side panel and blow a desk fan across the videocard.
Just wondering, what is your room ambient temperature?

 

[polskarre]

well, thats the other thing, the temp inside the entire case is 24-25 C most of the time... prolonged sessions might go up to 30. Its just somehow the card under full load starts to sky rocket. Room temperature is pretty cool... i like it cold so its about 55-60 F, so i guess like 15 C right?

 

[hundredislandsboy]

Those GPU temps are on the very high side. Is the card new, no dust and the fan is smoothly spinning?

 

[polskarre]

yea, brand new card, no dust, and the fan is smooth as far as i can tell... it gets sorta loud at 100, but thats to be expected.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

Maybe it got "unseated" and the fitting between the GPU and HSF isn't as tight as it should be. 105 C is too hot for prolonged gaming. If you have the skill, I would reseat and apply AS5.

 

[ewood]

those temps would explain the slow performance since the card will throttle back clock speed at 90 to 100 degrees C depending on the brand. How good of airflow do you have in your case? like how many fans of what sizes, where are they and are the pulling out or pushing into the case? also does the card push how air out of the case or into the case?

 

[megamanx00]

That's only 204W on the 12v rail for the whole system. Just so you know.

Anyway, I think it's your power supply, and yeah your card is running way too hot for the fan being 100%. Check to make sure your rails aren't fluctuating too much. An easy way to see that is when you boot up, go into the PC health, and if the values for 12v fluctuate greatly, you got a bad PSU. Of course, if they only fluctuate when stressed, then you simply have an inadequate PSU . You can use a monitoring utility to check the voltages while running something like a windowed game.

 

[polskarre]

hmm, ive never done anything like this, but I would like to think I'm capable. Know of any good resources to look at it before I try to dive in head first blindly?

 

[polskarre]

besides the psu fan, ive got one 120mm exhaust in the back, one 80mm on the side exhaust, and the one 80mm next to it is kaput since last week, which was intake. the gpu fan, is unfortunately near the bottom of the case, facing down.

 

[polskarre]

oh, and any recommendations for a monitoring utility?

 

[Mousemonkey]

For monitoring I use a mix of Rivatuner and Everest.

 

[megamanx00]

^+1

 

[polskarre]

i wanted to say thanks for all the help you guys gave. I just realized my issue, and it was sheer idiocy on my part... however the heat issue still bugs me, my buddy tells me he can help me put some arctic paste on it and that will drop it 30 degrees or so, but wondering if anyone else had some pointers.

 

[ubernoobie]

run your game (wow) and check temps, notice the temps then open your side panel, if it decreases by 10C+, then you do not have enough airflow

 

[polskarre]

Best answer selected by polskarre.