Help needed! Hd 6970 crashing.

[HateDread]

Hey all,

Just got my HD 6970. Uninstalled all the Nvidia drivers from the past card. Installed new ones (as selected by the ATI autodetect tool). Open up Skyrim, set to 'Ultra' to test it out. Computer shuts down and reboots within 5 minutes

I've got a Vantec ION2+ 550W PSU, which passes the power requirements (I'm fairly sure). As the PCI-E power is all via one cable that splits off into its various pins, am I overloading the rail? I could try a Molex -> 6-pin to cover one of them, and let the PCIE rail take the 8-pin?

Regards,
- HateDread.

 

[simon12]

I think its the power supply ass its not a good make and can most likely not supply the power it needs to on the 12V rails. I would not risk using it and buy a good make like corsair or Antec.

 

[HateDread]

I think its the power supply ass its not a good make and can most likely not supply the power it needs to on the 12V rails. I would not risk using it and buy a good make like corsair or Antec.

The PCIE connections are all on the same cable. Does this mean they are only one of the 12V rails shown above, or does it refer to the two PCIE power connections from the one cable as '12V1' and '12V2'? 408W... that's obviously enough for this card, surely?

Regards,
- HateDread.

 

[simon12]

According to that you can pull 264W from each 12V rail but max 408 combined. The most you can pull from a 6 pin + an 8 pin is 225W but since your GPU can get 75W from the motherboard it will not pull close to this. The problem is it states Max power not continuous power. I would think one 12V rail is for the GPU and the other for everything else. I think you just should get a decent power supply as low quality ones like that can fail and take other components down with them.

 

[HateDread]

Aye, I understand what you're saying about the quality, but;

I still don't get what the actual problem is. If the GPU can pull 75W from the motherboard, and one 12V rail can individually power the card on its own, why can't it operate at max load? I just want to make sure it IS a power problem before dropping some $$$.

If I do get one, I would like to be able to run another 6970 in CF. Recommended PSU models for this?

 

[simon12]

The problem is manufacturers can put a maximum power rating that is tested at a lower temperature than a normal operating temperature and higher than it can supply continuously or just make it up. For crossfire any Antec or corsair 800W is good, a 700W will most likely be fine but I like some margin. You could try trouble shooting more 1st ie check temps and change driver version but like I say if the power supply fails it could kill your motherboard and more.

 

[HateDread]

Aye, that makes sense. But I just tested with Furmark, getting the GPU up to 99% load for a few minutes. No crashes, and temperature reasonable (60c). So now I'm thinking it might be something else :/ Could be related to Skyrim itself, as BF3 also didn't seem to crash.

 

[HateDread]

An update;

To see if it truly was a power problem (Computer shuts down every time I open the Skyrim map) due to CPU + GPU draw, I ran Furmark and the Intel Burn Test at the same time - 100% and 100% usage. Tested for 10 minutes and it all ran perfectly, so it can't be a power problem.

If it's crashing just there every time, what can I try? I uninstalled the past drivers and what-not, but could it be a non-clean driver situation? Directx 11? Any advice would be great.

- HateDread.