Sapphire Radeon 4870 shutdown

[yongpark]

While playing Crysis, my Sapphire Radeon 4870 512MB shuts down after an indeterminate amount of time (sometimes 30 min, sometimes 2 hours). The interesting part is that the video card shuts down but not the computer. For example, my monitors can't pick up the video signal (they go blank) but the sound, keyboard, computer, etc... seem to be working. I don't think card is over heating because the the temp is 65-70C while playing (fan at 70% via CCC). On idle, it's 50C wit 35% fan. My crysis settings are 1680-1050, no AA, medium. Any ideas?

Here are my system specs:

Intel E6850 Core 2 Duo 3.0ghz
Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R Mobo - this one has PCIe X16 1.0
Sapphire Radeon 4870 512MB
4 GB PC 6400 OCZ Reaper RAM
500 GB 7200RPM hard drive
Antect 500 Watts Neo power
Antec Solo Case (mid size atx)
Radeon Driver: 8.573
Catalyst: 9.1
BIOS Date: 9-26-2008
*No overclocking on any component, including GPU

I am wondering if problem is with my motherboard (non PCIe 2.0) or power supply (only 500w). BTW, my computer runs with no problems while using desktop apps and non graphics intensive games. I got this card a few days ago, and love it so far other than it crashing on crysis. Any help much appreciated!

On side note, how much is card being bottlenecked from my system specs?

 

[overlord1028]

I recently bought a gigabyte 512MB HD 4870 and I'm havin similar issue with games like COD4 and Timeshift......I really think you need a higher power supply. One way to determine this is to check the leds on the back of your graphics card.....

D1601 - Red LED On, shows critical temperature fault

D1602 - Red LED On, shows External power connector A was removed

D1603 - Red LED On, shows External power connector B was removed

D601 - Red LED On, shows critical Core power fault

Check to see if any of these light up when the card dies. If it is a power issue I think u'd see the D601. Try it out.

 

[yongpark]

Thanks so much for help. I didn't even realize that there were LEDs on the back of card. Next time I run game and it freezes, I'll check to see which light is on. Also, I suspected that the problem might be my power supply as well. I ordered a 750watts pc power and cooler silencer through newegg - only going for $80 AR. I will post results if this solves problem.

I recently bought a gigabyte 512MB HD 4870 and I'm havin similar issue with games like COD4 and Timeshift......I really think you need a higher power supply. One way to determine this is to check the leds on the back of your graphics card.....

D1601 - Red LED On, shows critical temperature fault

D1602 - Red LED On, shows External power connector A was removed

D1603 - Red LED On, shows External power connector B was removed

D601 - Red LED On, shows critical Core power fault

Check to see if any of these light up when the card dies. If it is a power issue I think u'd see the D601. Try it out.

 

[Annisman]

Cat 9.1 is 'special' to see the least, try switching to 8.12 hotfix, that might fix your problems, also make sure your temps are in check and crank that fan speed up.

 

[stevos]

Sounds like the same problem i am having with world of warcaft. I am planning to install the older drivers tonight and see if it works.

 

[yongpark]

Ok, so I put my scientist hat on and ran some tests. I "induced" a crash in Crysis by running the game on 1920x1200 resolution, 2xAA, and all high settings. The game was surprisingly playable at these settings. Anyways, I got a sample of 10+ crashes using this method, and looked at different measurements such as CPU load, memory usage, temperature, catalyst overdrive window, and LED lights. Here are my observations:

1) All three LED lights remained solid green at each crash, suggesting that temperature or power may not be issue.

2) Temperature stayed around 65-70C with 80% fan.

3) In almost every occasion, freeze happened when memory usage was high. The crysis console showed around 1600mb memory use, and my RAM sidebar meter showed around 70% usage.

4) At moment of crash, cataylst overdrive shifts from 750mhz to 500mhz. I am not sure if this happens moments prior to crash, or afterwards.

5) Finally, the gameplay time got progressively shorter for each successive crash. I think I got 45 min first run through, but near the end I was only getting 15 or so minutes.

The problem seems to have something to do with memory or the catalyst powerplay. As annisman suggested, I will try out the 8.12 hotfix, but not sure how to downgrade (?). Also, I already ordered the 750watts PSU. I'll try the tests again with the more powerful PSU and see if results change. I hope it does improve because otherwise I just wasted 80 bucks.

 

[Annisman]

Simple I think, just uninstall the old ones, use driver cleaner, then download and install older drivers

 

[yongpark]

I got my new 750 watts pc and cooler PSU and ran some more tests to see to resolve Crysis crashes. I tested the Reckoning level on 1920x1200 with 2AA and med/high settings - this is the level that most people reportedly have problems with. I deemed it a success if I could go through whole level without crash. With the new PSU, the game still crashed! However, I noticed that the game crashes no longer shut down the card, but just lead to a crash, with which a quick ctrl-alt-del returned me to vista desktop. Again, all LEDS remained solid green and crash occurred when game memory went higher (around 1650-1700MB)

Seeing that hardware may not be problem, I tried some software solutions. Here are my results:

Disabled catalyst AI = same results, crashed =(
Downgraded catalyst from 9.1 to 8.12 hotfix = increased gameplay time, but still crashed =(
Used rivatuner solution to disable powerplay = increased gamepla time, but still crashed =(

...

Changed directX from 10 to 9 = no crash!!! =) I noticed that DX9 reduced memory use to around 1300mb.
Just to make sure, I ran it one more time, and again no crash! The moment was bittersweet. I spent so much time and money with this, only to find that solution was so simple! Crysis is easily the most money I've spent on a game. I started this whole friggin process with a geforce 8800 (no crashes), and upgraded to radeon 4870 because I was "greedy" for high settings; and also got a PSU just for this game.

Anyhow, it seems fixed for me. The final solution that worked is 1) using catalyst 8.12 hotfix, 2) disabling powerplay via riva tuner, and 3) using DX9!

 

[hotwyrzz]

My HIS radeon hd4890 turbo oc edition card is doing the same. The thing is that the card runs fine for abt 5 odd minutes, but one thing that I noticed from the start was that the fan wasnt working. It would start to move( for a few secs) then stop and then start again and so on....Then a red LED flashes (D1601 - critical temperature warning ) and my screen goes black...so im sending it back to the local retailer i bought it from...wait and see what happens...and I thought HIS was good coz it was reliable LOL