Videocard not getting enough power.

[Vimp]

Every so often I'll start up a game or some 3D program that will cause a window to appear warning me that my videocard is not getting enough power. Oddly enough though it seems to occur more now then it use to. It even comes up now on programs that it previously never appeared with before. Anyways I'm crious what the results are of this happening. Will this cause my videocard damage? Will it hold back the videocard from what its capable of doing? I was under the imppression that my power supply should be adequate for my videocard since it states that it requires a 300watt PS and mine is a 350watt L&G brand PS. Also the PS exhaust isn't hot but only mildly warm which I thought was an indication that it isn't being over used. Anyone have any suggestions or advice?

<font color=blue>_____________________________________</font color=blue>
Canada
Asus A7N8X-X, Athelon XP 2500+ Barton,
Samsung 1024mb DDR400, MSI GeforceFX5900 XT.
Aquamark=<b>34702</b>

 

[scottchen]

The 12V is probably insanely unstable, recommend a new 350watt or more major brand PSU. Enermax, Antec, are highly recommended.

-AMD Athlon64 3200+@2300mhz -GAK8N -3x512 Hynix PC3200 ram@192mhz 2.5-3-3-7 -Albatron 5900PV @ 560/1000 -SB Audigy -Adaptec 1210SA Raid -2x120G Seagate SATA150 7200.7 Raid0 -Enermax 460watt psu

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Try also moving everything off that lead/set of connectors.

Make sure your Optical and HD are on their own if you can.

That may help. But that's just a guess.

I've done that distributing the loads as evenly as possible. But then again, that's for my opticals, HDs, and such.

I wasn't a big fan (pardon any pun) of the cards that needed external power connectors, so it's not the same situation, but still may help.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[Vimp]

Yeah I'll try that before considering a new PS. I thought I had everything pretty even But I'll take another look at it and see if maybe I could do it better. I'm just speculating but I think every time I get the not enough power warning its when my videocard trys to go from 300mhz 2D to 390mhz for 3D but can't get there without more power. However I also enabled to D.O.T. for the card which allows it to dynamicly overclock the core and memory by 10% if the heat allows it. So maybe if I disable that it will not require more power then it can get.

On a slightly seperate issue I'm curious why I'm not able to view the tempeture of my videocard in the few programs I have that allow for that even though the MSI website and the box both say it has heat tempeture sensor. The D.O.T. is suppose to use the heat sensing to determine whether it can and by how much it can overclock but if there is no sensor then the D.O.T. probably is going higher then it should.

<font color=blue>_____________________________________</font color=blue>
Canada
Asus A7N8X-X, Athelon XP 2500+ Barton,
Samsung 1024mb DDR400, MSI GeforceFX5900 XT.
Aquamark=<b>34702</b>

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Riavtuner exposes temperature information (if it is available) for both nV and ATI cards. Try installing that and seeing what it tells you. Rivatuner will likely report the sensor temp, and not some adjusted function of it (why it differed so much with ATI's R9800XT readings).

Hope that helps.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[Vimp]

Thanks. I'll check that out.
I got some good news though. Earlier today I ran Aquamark and got the power warning and so I just closed the warning and ran the aquamark again since the message had caused it to abort the test the first time. In the end I got a score of 27,000+. This is a significant drop from my previous score the one and only time I tested before this with this card when I got a score of 34,702.

So anyways I was curious if maybe this enabling of the D.O.T. might be the cause of the power problems and so I went to the display properties and disabled it. While there I noticed my 2D clock rate had been some how reduced from 300mhz to 250mhz so I reset it to the original default setting of 300mhz. I just ran the Aquamark again and didn't get any powe warning this time and I got my self a new high score of 36,077.

So theres two theories I have about what might have been causing the power issue. One is that the D.O.T. was overclocking more then the power supply could allow for. The other is that for whatever reason that my 2D clock rate had gone down to 250mhz, its perhaps possible that when I tried to run a 3D program and the clock speed jumped from 250mhz to 390mhz(the default 3D clock speed), it may have been causeing a power surge from the sudden jump in speed since at default speeds it normally only jumps from 300mhz to 390mhz. I'm still curious how my 2D clock speed got set down to 250mhz though. Its possible some safty feature may have caused it to be reduced for some reason. I dunno. Maybe the D.O.T. overclocked to much and for safety reasons it automaticly reduced the default clock speed to compensate for too much heat or something.

<font color=blue>_____________________________________</font color=blue>
Canada
Asus A7N8X-X, Athelon XP 2500+ Barton,
Samsung 1024mb DDR400, MSI GeforceFX5900 XT.
Aquamark=<b>36077</b>