Trouble with Geforce 7950GT

[ALMighty]

I just bought a new graphics card, Geforce 7950GT and I'm having trouble with it. When I start 3D games like Quake III Arena and Quake 4, the graphics turn to mush (big lego blocks and random pixel oddities everywhere) after a few seconds and then the sound loops and the computer stops responding.
I was thinking that maybe I need a new power supply. This is the one I have, it's 400W so it should be enough for this graphics card I think. I read somewhere that this card required 400W and 22A, but I haven't seen anything about ampere in the manual, just that it requires 400W.

PSU:
http://www.northq.dk/products/powersupply/nq4001at.html

Graphics card:
http://www.xfxforce.com/web/product/lis ... Id=1006137

So do you think I need a new PSU?

[Plan B]

I have a 400W PSU running a 8800 without problems.

Also, if your PSU would be inadequate, I don't think there would be vid/audio-artifacts, but rather a warning and a shutdown.

You're not overclocking, and BIOS is at defaults?

[ALMighty]

I have a 400W PSU running a 8800 without problems.

Also, if your PSU would be inadequate, I don't think there would be vid/audio-artifacts, but rather a warning and a shutdown.

You're not overclocking, and BIOS is at defaults?

Yes, I'm not overclocking. BIOS is default I think, I just used a diskette with SATA drivers when I installed Windows.
One thing though, when I start the computer now, before the windows logo comes up it says like "Boot from previous drive failed" or something like that. Then it goes on like normal, windows logo appears and so on. I'm not sure if that matters or not. Also there's a bar with some numbers next to it like "AA 0F B0" or something like it that at one point that goes up for some time. I think this is before the other thing though. It also says something with DHCP, so I guess it's something to do with my network card.

[^misantropia^]

Artifacts and lockups mean your video card is most likely overheating. Monitor its temperature when you start a game, more than 50-60 degrees C is often a bad sign.

[^misantropia^]

Yes, I'm not overclocking. BIOS is default I think, I just used a diskette with SATA drivers when I installed Windows.
One thing though, when I start the computer now, before the windows logo comes up it says like "Boot from previous drive failed" or something like that. Then it goes on like normal, windows logo appears and so on. I'm not sure if that matters or not. Also there's a bar with some numbers next to it like "AA 0F B0" or something like it that at one point that goes up for some time. I think this is before the other thing though. It also says something with DHCP, so I guess it's something to do with my network card.

And these should be entirely unrelated (but if they are, strange things are happening inside your PC).

[ALMighty]

Artifacts and lockups mean your video card is most likely overheating. Monitor its temperature when you start a game, more than 50-60 degrees C is often a bad sign.

I can't do that, it locks up immediately. Btw, how do I monitor my graphics card? I've got this program called Speedfan, but I can only see hard drives and processor.

[Plan B]

I use AtiTool (also works for Nvidia cards).
It's basically an overclocking tool, but you can use it to monitor videocard temperatures as well.

BTW, first check temperature in idle state (50C-60C would be fine).
Then check when fully loaded with heavy 3D stuff for a while, where temps may go up as high as 80C-90C.

AtiTool also has a built in 3D-viewer that renders a complex model.
You can use that, if 3D apps immediately crash, to see what happens to your temps and if there are errors.

[ALMighty]

back to simplicity, what was your previous card? nvidia? if so, did you completely remove the old driver before installing and THEN add the latest nvidia driver?

I bought a new hard drive and reinstalled Windows and everything on the new one. That's enough isn't it? I had a Radeon 9800 Pro before, and I stuck that in again now. It works fine even without installing any drivers for it, just using the nVidia drivers.

I installed the latest drivers first, but then I read that nVidia's own drivers didn't support this card completely. The card manufacturer (XFX) has their own drivers, so I installed them instead. Made no difference though. It's their own drivers because XFX built this card for AGP slots, and nVidia's drivers only support the PCI-E versions or something like that. It should work with these drivers.

Also, if it was a driver issue I don't think it would behave like this. Before even coming into Windows the graphics is messed up now. It was only when I played 3D games before, but now I can't even get into Windows with it, it just shuts down and reboots again. Sometimes I get into Windows, but the graphics are so messed up I can barely make anything out of it.

I'm starting to think this is a hardware issue. Maybe this card is just broken?

[ALMighty]

I emailed the seller, and they told me that my PSU was too weak and that this card required 450W and 30A 12V. Strange because on the box it says 400W and 20A.

Well I guess I'll buy a new PSU then. I thought about this one, do you think it will work?
https://www.datorbutiken.com/se/default ... =TRUE480-2

I don't understand the 30A thing, I can't see anywere it says that.

[SoM]

i dont see it there either

but to find out ampers u do this

480W / 12V = 40 amps

[ALMighty]

I ordered this PSU now, hopefully it will work better:

https://www.datorbutiken.com/se/default ... TNEOHE500W

[SOAPboy]

Artifacts and lockups mean your video card is most likely overheating. Monitor its temperature when you start a game, more than 50-60 degrees C is often a bad sign.

lack of power can do this as well.

400W PSU, just isnt enough. And how Plan B is running a 8800 on one amazes me. I wouldnt run my 7800GTX on less than 500.

[Plan B]

400W PSU, just isnt enough. And how Plan B is running a 8800 on one amazes me.

Amazing or no, apparently it *is* enough.
(I even overclocked the card a bit to 605 core / 935 mem.)

I also run a Core 2 quad Q6600 on it, and I read this processor is quite demanding, power wise.

But as long as everything keeps running smoothly, I'm not inclined to upgrade the PSU.


So again, I'm sceptical as to Almighty's problem being PSU-related, but I'm very interested to see how things pan out.

[obsidian]

Not all power supplies are equal. A 400W of one manufacturer can be quite different than a 400W of another.

[ALMighty]

Installed the new 500W PSU, and no difference. I'm going to send the card back.

Thanks for all the help!

[Scourge]

Artifacts and lockups mean your video card is most likely overheating. Monitor its temperature when you start a game, more than 50-60 degrees C is often a bad sign.

lack of power can do this as well.

400W PSU, just isnt enough. And how Plan B is running a 8800 on one amazes me. I wouldnt run my 7800GTX on less than 500.

I'm running a 8600 gts on a 400w. Everything seems just fine so far. How much other stuff were you running?

[ALMighty]

Got a new card today, just put it in and it seems to work better. Tested running Q3 with it, and it didn't crash. Downloading latest patch of Q4 now, I'll finally get to play it. Probably the last person in the world to do so. I couldn't with my previous card, it caused it to overheat so this is something I've really looked forward to.

[Kills On Site]

I hope your problem is fixed. Here is the nVIDIA equivalent to ATiTools, its called nTune. It will allow you to overclock, monitor, run stability tests. It adds some things to your nVIDIA control panel and adds a performance monitor.

Also, jsut out of curiousity, on the box of your new card, if it came in a retail box, what power requirement does it have printed?

[ALMighty]

Also, jsut out of curiousity, on the box of your new card, if it came in a retail box, what power requirement does it have printed?

400W 20A.

Thanks! I'll check that out. The card is running perfectly btw.