Is my PSU capable?

[WillSh]

Hi this is my first time posting to the OC3D forums!

I know this may sound a little "noob"-ish but I want to make sure I am doing the right thing before investing time and money into a new PSU! So thanks for reading this rather long forum post!

In about 3 out of 4 cases when I am gaming the system will crash after I have been playing for between 1/2 to 5 hours on a game. What will happen is that at first I will loose video (the screen will go blank) although the sound will continue for around 3-4 seconds before the whole system just crashes. I don't ever receive a blue-screen or any error messages. This will happen in any game I'm in, Skyrim, Borderlands, Dirt 3, Civ V after a certain period. I play all these games at max graphic settings at 1080p.

This only started to occur when I got my new AMD 7870 graphics card (before that I had a crappy £50 ATI card that required no external power other than through the PCI-E), I think that it may be down to the PSU I am using a 80+ Bronze 650W Cooler Master (came with my CM 690 case) that may not be powerfull enough to power the card plus, 4 DIMMS RAM, an i7 2700K, hard drive, blu-ray and 7 fans (although I am probably going to take a few out the computer sound like a jet engine it's so loud) and ASUS mobo.

My friend disagrees and thinks the PSU is good enough so if it's not that then I think it is most likely the GFX card, which I'll send back under warranty. I have also been to a PSU calculator site and put in all my info (http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp) which says that a 460W should be good enough.

Any help/advice would be fantastic, thanks for reading!

 

[sheroo]

I think for that system, provided you aren't running a massive OC, a 500W PSU is sufficient. Are you monitoring the temps on your GPU?

 

[WillSh]

Yeah, well I was OCing the CPU 3.5 to around 4.2-4.3 ish but since this occurred I brought it back to default clock speed. The GPU temps get to around 57 C during the Dirt 3 and heaven benchmark using the CCC to monitor the temps. The CPU stays at around 27 C.

 

[sheroo]

You could try and install MSI afterburner and set up a custom fan profile - so that as your temps get higher the fans spin up accordingly. 57C is not very high though for a GPU. Have you made sure the card is seated properley and that the power connectors are solid?

 

[WillSh]

Yeah I have checked just now, but nothing seemed like it was incorrectly put in or anything, I know the temps are not bad so at this rate I think I may just return the card as faulty!

 

[sheroo]

Are you running the latest drivers? Its worth a shot.

 

[WillSh]

Yeah, the first thing I did! Oh well, thanks for trying you've been helpful at least I am not wasting my money now!

 

[VengeanceUK]

is the psu modular?

if so could try a different psu socket / extension lead?

 

[WillSh]

No, I am using the only 2 PCIE power cables my PSU came with

 

[Liarma]

very strange. as suggested above i'd re-install drivers and if the problem persists perhaps RMA the card. best of luck mate.

 

[VengeanceUK]

is it possible to get a photo of the label of the psu's outputs?

it may be a case of the "rails" aren't strong enough.

this probably isn't the case, but i'm struggling for an alternative reason as to why its not working unless its a duff card

 

[airdeano]

how many perfs are on the molex cable?

use the 4-pin to 6-pin adapters off the molex cable for testing..

airdeano

 

[WillSh]

Well there isn't that much info about the voltage rails on the PSU itself but after a quick Google, it seems to have one single 12V rail. Couldn't take the PSU out the casing without undoing and then redoing all the wiring through the back of the case. Details on PSU: http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6642

 

[VengeanceUK]

based on what you listed

i used asus's own psu calculator http://support.asus....owersupply.aspx

and based off your configuration (nearest card on there is the 6870) it recommends a 650W PSU AS A MINIMUM lol

bear in mind your psu's specs are 650w at 100% maximum, so expect about 630w to be its "average peak output"

btw i used 1x cdrom & 1 x dvd-rw to mimic the power requirements for a bluray drive

 

[demonking]

when you get these crashes does the sound continue to play normaly or does it hang?

what clocks are you using for your ram?

64bit OS?

this sounds like a PSU problem but you want to rule anything else out first.

 

[castleite]

this might sound weird but it could be your perhiferals, i had a mouse that refused to work on my pc so i gave it to my brother and it was causing his pc to crash at regular intervals, on another note it could be a virus or something, some male ware can do some weird stuff to your pc the fact that you changed your gpu could just be a coincidence

 

[WillSh]

demonking - When the system crashes it continues playing the sound for about 3 seconds and then that will stop too and all that comes of the speakers is like the sound of a scratched CD.

Anyway I sent my card back under warranty and it will take about six weeks for them to fix/replace or refund me. I have borrowed my mates old 5830 and all the issues seem to have stopped. If the card comes back and this situation continues then it may be the power?

 

[VengeanceUK]

could be, as the 5830 will draw less, but then again it could have just been a duff card