Hi guys, I've just built a system for my housemate as follows. Phenom II 955 Asus M478TD- M EVO Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB Antec Builder 430W However, I can't get it stable in BF3. After about 15 minutes of playing the game just fine, I get a 'BF3 has stopped working' error and the game crashes. GPU is running at about 70C at full load. Nothing is overclocked (and the GPU ships at Nvidias reference clocks) Now, because it doesn't crash straight away, it makes me think it is either heat build up in the GPU (though 70C doesn't sound too hot to me) or a PSU issue where the GPU isn't being fed enough power (the second 6pin PCIe connector is fed off a 4pin molex cable, which also powers a HDD). What do you lot think it might be.
Sounds like it could be a CPU or RAM issue. Try running Prime95 (both small FFT and blend tests) and see if it crashes.
It could actually be that second PCIE from the power supply. But if it builds up it could also be from the CPU or RAM. Prime95 it. Check if the BF3 install works properly. And also, check if the VRAM is hot on your 460.
PSU Parge. As PSU gets hotter they become less effective and has to work harder to maintain the same power output. 430W is cutting it fine above. Whats the ampage like?
What chassis are you using? Does the system crash playing other games or possibly 3DMark? I suggest making sure you are running our latest BIOS version which can be found here: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A785TDM_EVO/#download You can try Prime95 to make sure the CPU is not overheating, then you can use Furmark to test the GPU (although the 70c which you saw was perfectly safe for a GPU).
I had this on my old 460 and then on my 480, really bloody annoying to get to the bottom of it as i used to run bf3 on high@1280*1024, that is until a particular patch and then i got this crash error. It's an issue that seems to affect a number of Gigabyte cards, others too but predominantly Gigabyte, especially the 560Ti. Reading through the many threads i found on this, it can be resolved by either updating the bios (if there's an update available) or upping the voltage slightly in afterburner. I underclocked my 480SOC to 800 and pushed the voltage up to 1.1v and haven't had any problems since.
Does it crash in other games, or just bf3? I've been having problems with the 300 series nvidia drivers with bf3; i've had to roll back to the 2xx drivers else it keeps crashing. Fine in every other game though.
First of all, thank you for all your replies. Pretty sure its not a CPU or RAM issue, as I have run P95 for 20minutes without a problem, and BF3 crashes before this time (and is a lower load) I agree, could be the second PCIe. Unfortunately I don't have a spare PSU to hand to check. If it comes to it, I'll have to pick up something second hand and then sell it on. Here are the specs of the PSU. It appears that there is 28A on the 12V rail - that's the number I'm looking for right? In the Bit Tech review the GTX 460 only pulled 260W so I would have thought we would still have a bit of headroom. I'm using the Enermax Ostrog (look out for my upcoming review on this by the way), the latest BIOS, and I'm going to test 3D Mark and Furmark tonight. I've also put a large 140mm side fan on it, but haven't had a chance to see if this helps. Ok, this sounds like it could be the problem, and was something I heard about at the time - my friend had a PNY 460ti that used to do the same. This is the particular card. I'll check what BIOS it is running tonight, but it appears that the newest one (the F3) was released way back in 2010! Might try upping the voltage on Afterburner.
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-460/specifications Says 450w minimum Your 12v is fine, BUT it wont be getting all its power from that rail unless its a single rail PSU, do you have a dual molex > 6 pin adapter? EDIT Your 12v is 28 and you need 24 for the 460 so there aint much headroom there... I still think its probably the PSU. See how long furmark runs for... LP
The 460 pulls a maximum of about 160W which if you divide by 12v = 13.3 Amps. Is your CPU overclocked at all? If it was a heat issue just running prime 95 isn't going to take into account the extra heat that rises from the video card when it is stressed. A friend of mine has recently blown his 430W corsair PSU when he installed a GTX260 into his Athlon64x2 6000 setup, not sure if it was heat or whether the PSU didn't quite reach it's spec, it was a hot day. For the record the CX 430 is a single rail design.
I have used this tool in the past I'm sure there are other tools to calculate how much draw is on your PSU but this one worked fine for me. I would calculate it for you but work blocks access to that site for some reason.
I tested it with my setup (in sig), and it came up with more than 400W. But I have measured it from the wall socket and it never even reached 300W -- and that's not accounting for 80% PSU efficiency. edit: I tried this one too: http://psucalc.tk/ It shows similar figures, but it also displays "Actual System Power Consumption While Gaming", which is almost exactly what I measured. So the 400W is actually the recommended power of the PSU, not the power consumption of the system.
I would have though 4A would be enough headroom. Also, I have a feeling Nvidia put a bit of headroom on those recommended specs. I haven't got a multimeter but I doubt I'm drawing much over 350W. CPU is not OC'd at all. I'll run P95 and furmark at the same time tonight to check for PSU stability outside BF3.
Prime and Furmark will pull more power and heat than BF3 so if that is stable then it's most likely to be a driver/firmware issue like Crapman said.
I have an outside field suggestion, your router could be the problem! After leaving my PC unused for a few weeks I booted it for some BF3 and experienced stuttering and then crashes. Tried everything and finally turned my router off, left it for a few minutes then powered it back on. Problems with BF3 disappeared! Think it's related to PunkBuster which is a pile of cack but does come included with BF3.
Thinking on the same lines as Blogins you can manually update punkbuster. Also have you have any firewall/antivirus/internet security changes recently?
I really don't think it's a router/punkbuster issue. I reinstalled bf3, origin and punkbuster several times trying to resolve the problem and it didn't fix sheet. I think Tim 'the toolman' taylor said I best, “MOOORRREE POOOWWWEEEERRRR!!“
I had a similar issue - BF3 crashed (black screened) after 10 - 15mins each time I played. I have a 1200W PSU, and 2 x 570's in SLI - but it still did it What eventually solved it was UNDERCLOCKING the graphics cards slightly with MSI Afterburner - which is really annoying
Yeah, BF3 seems to really thrash GPUs. Instead of underclocking the GPU (which is what my friend did with his 560ti to solve the problem too) is overvolt it and keep the clocks the same (what I have done)