Games crashing with ati 5870

[siddsm]

Got a Gigabyte 5870 recently, and have the Sep 21'st driver from the ati download page loaded. (the 9.10 beta drivers doesn't work on my card, keeps crashing display, and gives artifact like dots all over the screen). Most of my games are crashing... :|
Call of juarez, which i finished without a single crash on my asus 3450, crashes after playing for sometime...or even if i leave it in the main menu screen.
same goes with NFS Undercover, and sometimes the Wolfenstien.
These games worked fine on the previous card....so am kinda confused, is it software (driver) related or hardware (the card itself) related issues. :|

am running windows 7 64 bit build 7100 with 8gigs of ddr2 ram and amd 6400+ processor, powered by a coolermaster extreme power duo 600.

 

[hunter315]

If this is your PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171013
and this is your CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103191
Then you may be encountering issues due to insufficient power, however more info is needed first, what type of crash do you get? Sound loops and then it exiting? Hard exits with no message? Hard exits with an error message about graphics drivers? Or BSODs, the hardest exit of them all?

If you have an error message try googling it and also post it in its entirety if possible.

 

[siddsm]

this is the psu
http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?category_id=30&product_id=5906

and this is my cpu, i got the 6000+ put in, (kept confusing it with the 6400+ black i have for my wife's rig :|)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103772

the games just crash... as in it just freezes on the game screen for a minute and then returns back to the OS.
Sometimes shows the windows error msg where windows is trying to find a solution for the problem.
but most of the times, just gets stuck and back to windows screen.

i might also add the hardwares am running
its on a TT V9 case (not the black edition), so the psu powers up the three fans, one with the LED. I have 3 hdds, 1Xsata, 2Xide. Have one dvd rw, one fax/modem card (i have tried without this card on, but the games still crash). and have 2X12inch cold cathodes.

I use a logitech g15 and a razor mouse.

 

[one-shot]

I had a similar issue when I had a bad PSU. Check your RAM using memtest and see if that is also an issue. Check the memory and get back to us so we can further help you.

 

[siddsm]

i had 2X2gigs of ddr2 800 ram (kingston) before, and bought another 2X2gigs of ddr2 800 ram (kingston) along with the card. so its kinda brand new memory though.

anyways...testing the ram with memtest now...gonna post back in a while.

 

[one-shot]

Make sure you load up all 8GBs of RAM at the same time and let it loop for at least 300% percent on all space.

 

[siddsm]

That psu is a 500w sold as a 600w. It only has 2- 18a rails. For comparison, my OCZ Fatality 550w has 2- 25a rails.

I've used those psu's and they are very decent, but your probably waaaay underpowered.

if thats true, then thats *** marketing strategy by that company, and i think people can sue them for false/misleading advertisements.

so you reckon, it gives out enough power to use the pc normally (surf, watch movies, etc) but not game?
i ran some 3d mark 06 bench mark though...not the game and the demo...and they ran fine. the game and the demo benchmarking crashed for some error though midway.

crysis crashes as soon as i start loading it.

am running the memtest on the config...44%done with no errors found so far.
now if only i can manage someone to lend me their psu for a while so that i know its my psu which needs a replacement. Don't wanna end up spending au$260 and then still have game crashes...

 

[Kari]

hmm have you tried the drivers that came with the card? build 8.66 or something like that...

if it was psu related, I'd think it would reboot the whole rig, not just crash to desktop. And with faulty memory you usually get freezes with sound looping (and possible corrupted graphics) and only hard reset will get you moving again...

 

[siddsm]

went through the memtest. no probs with it at all.
nope, dont have sound loops, and no reboots, just crash to windows desktop.
i did read somewhere that if the PSU isn't supplying enough power the games do crash to windows...

i think its giving enough power to run it idle (at lower clocks), but when its gaming (running on higher clocks) it lacks the power for it, hence forcefully crashes the game.
dont know if am right though :|

 

[Guest]

cm 600w Extreme power is more then enough for 5870, it has about 70% efficiency... i saw people run it with cheaper 550w ps

 

[siddsm]

cm 600w Extreme power is more then enough for 5870, it has about 70% efficiency... i saw people run it with cheaper 550w ps

then what do you think could be the problem?
am installing vista 64bit now again, lets see if that changes anything.

 

[hunter315]

If you want to see if it is a power draw issue, run Prime 95 on the CPU to force it to draw max power, and furmark on the 5870 to get it to draw max power, if that causes an error then its a PSU issue, and since yours is an older model it wont be able to output what it once could anyway.

A 650TX from corsair is very good and will run any single card out there so you wont need to upgrade your PSU for a few years, and its only $10 more than the 550VX after MIR. A PSU is like a case, get a nice one that you can use for a few builds and it will cost you less in the long run.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005&Tpk=650tx

 

[Guest]

maybe your graphic card dont get all power from the PSU

 

[Annisman]

I just want to know why you would pair a 5870 with a AMD 6000 lol ???

And yes, it does sound like PS issues. Go buy a Zalman 600W or a Rosewill 650

 

[rescawen]

5870 with amd 6000 is like core i7 975 with quad 5870, which is uber bottleneck ffs. i mean up cpu to a P2940 or something.

 

[Guest]

whats wrong with a core i7 975 you cant find any better than this proc

 

[siddsm]

I just want to know why you would pair a 5870 with a AMD 6000 lol ???

And yes, it does sound like PS issues. Go buy a Zalman 600W or a Rosewill 650

some people work towards getting their stuffs...step by step....if they can't afford to pay up all for a new system straight away.

i intended to upgrade to an intel and add another 5870 when the price for 5870 drops. Besides, i had a 3450 all this while, so whatever 'bottleneck' am getting is perfectly fine with me.
as i had said earlier in my posts...if it runs games at 1920X1080 at decent playable fps (it gives me 40-70 fps with all settings on and high at the games i play), i will be pleased.

just installed vista 64 to check if its anything to do with driver compatibility issue.

 

[jennyh]

Don't bother with an intel just get a phenom II.

 

[siddsm]

ohkaye...heres the update.
just finished installing graphics driver from the gigabyte disc, and loaded call of juarez at 1920X1080, all settings max with 100mhz max refresh rate...and the game's running fine.
gonna instal and try warhead and the other games now.

 

[rescawen]

whats wrong with a core i7 975 you cant find any better than this proc

that was my whole point that he ahs severe bottleneck ^^

 

[Kari]

good to hear you got it working (in vista at least )
looks like it is software problem after all

 

[siddsm]

hmm yeah...was weird. so it had some driver issue with windows 7 then i assume.
just finished playing the first 2 stages of warhead without AA at 1920X1080, running perfect, with the card at 60C at peak.
gonna keep trying the rest of the games....

but since it is a dx11 card, it should have run fine with win7....like the rest of the people with 5870 does. :|
am thinking of getting it RMA d, just to clear doubts.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Welcome to the "bleeding edge" .

Since the 1980's, the IT mantra regarding MS OS's was "Anything before SP3 is a beta". Here you have basically a new OS in Windows 7 (tho many consider it as Vista SP3) as well as new hardware and drivers. Over the next few months, we will see hardware revisions to the 5870 as well as driver revisions each making the previous version appear a like it was "not quite ready for prime time".

As the guy who has to fix this stuff and get it working both at home and in the office, I'm always the guy preaching "wait for this generation of [insert whatever here] to mature a bit". Unfortunately, at the office my opinion counts for a lot more than at home w/ the kids

 

[one-shot]

whats wrong with a core i7 975 you cant find any better than this proc

He didn't say anything bad about an i7 975, he just made a statement.

On a side not: I have Win 7 Pro through MSDN and I dual boot between that and Vista and so far I'm using Vista until the drivers for the OS mature a little. Also, some issues with it bother me. Every time I try to create a shortcut to a folder, Windows Explorer takes a nose dive and needs to be restarted. Never have that simple issue happen on Vista.

 

[one-shot]

Did you find any issues with the RAM? If that's not the issue, I'd try running Prime 95 with small FFTs and Furmark to load the major components to see if the PSU can supply enough power without crashing.