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Graphics 4870x2 XFX 2GB, locking on games, especially L4D2, Need help please !!

Discussion in 'Tech Support' started by MrBubbles, 1 Jan 2010.

  1. MrBubbles

    MrBubbles Gamer / Software "Guy"

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    Hi there,
    Well basically, around a week ago, i decided to spend the money on a decent PC upgrade;

    Intel Core i7 920 @ 4.2Ghz Stable and Primed'95
    GA-EX58-UD3R Rev 1.7
    6GB DDR3 Corsair Ram
    XFX 4870x2 - Carried from my old machine
    Corsair H50 Watercooling Kit
    All other parts just standard; optical drive, 1TB Samsung F3
    Corsair HX620W Modular PSU
    OS: Windows 7 Pro 64*

    Installation went fine but now when playing games like Left 4 Dead 2, for longer then say 15 mins, sometimes longer or shorter, it varies, the current picture locks, and a high pitched noise emits from my speakers. Ive tried reinstalls, taking my CPU back to stock and all sorts, but it still happens ( tried almost every catalyst driver out there as well !) but all to no avail.

    Does this sound like a graphics card based problem or something more serious, not being a hardcore hardware man myself, I'm relatively nooby to this sort of thing.

    Furthermore, the 4870x2 has default clocks set at 500Mhz and 507Mhz, I am in the process of sending it back to XFX, but in my original machine it worked fine with no locks; thus making me wonder whether or not it is the card causing the issues. I have tried playing in games with both the clocks it is set at, and with forced 750 and 900 clocks within rivatuner, but both cause locks. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

    * Just to clarify, the graphics card was only in my old machine for a few days, before I ordered new parts, and never realised the dodgy clock speeds until I built the new PC; but the 4870x2 in the old machine still worked perfectly fine for gaming sessions longer then 4 hours at times with no locks or crashes whatsoever.

    Damien

    :thumb:
     
    Last edited: 1 Jan 2010
  2. MrBubbles

    MrBubbles Gamer / Software "Guy"

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    Bump

    Bump
     
  3. andrew8200m

    andrew8200m Multimodder

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    Do you have enough juice on that psu?? The 4870x2 is very power hungry and then to I troduce it to a motherboard that sucks the life out of the psu and the an overclocked 920 could be putting a little too much stress on the psu. It doesn't happen very often, usually the psu will artifact but sometimes they can cause lock ups. Also what may be stable on prime95 may not be on other apps ie intelburntest or games. I would run everything at stock with win7 up to date.


    Andy
     
  4. MrBubbles

    MrBubbles Gamer / Software "Guy"

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    Hey there Andy,

    Thanks for the reply. The first thing i tried when having this issue was to reset everything to stock speeds, and, although I got slightly longer gaming performance out of it, it still decided to crash. Do you think the PSU could be the problem, a tech friend of mine said it should be plenty, especially since its modular.

    Damien

    :cooldude:
     
  5. Fazed

    Fazed Minimodder

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    Modular is just the way the cables are configured, unused cables can be removed for your convenience. 620 watt, is still 620 Watt.

    But seriously i'd be looking at the PSU first. Even running at stock speeds, 620 Watt on your system is sailing a bit too close to the wind. The 4870X2 is a power hungry bitch. That, coupled with your X58 platform.

    Can you get get your hands on a beefier PSU to test? Be worth trying before sending your card back.
     
  6. MaverickWill

    MaverickWill Dirty CPC Mackem

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    The 507/500 speeds are the "the card's not getting enough juice" speeds. A bigger PSU is required!
     
  7. Elton

    Elton Officially a Whisky Nerd

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    Along with some serious overclocking you have a power hungry monster in that computer.

    I'd definitively say that it's the PSU.

    Plus the memory clocks are a dead giveaway to the lack of power.
     
  8. MaverickWill

    MaverickWill Dirty CPC Mackem

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    The HX620 is also a triple-rail design, so there's a dedicated rail to hard drives, etc, one for CPU, and only one for graphics cards. You'll NEED, I dare say, an 18A rail for that card, and I doubt the PSU has the cojones. You can use an 850W PSU for quad-fire 4870X2s and an overclocked i7, but it's more about rails than overall grunt.

    EDIT: The HX620 has an 18A rail for graphics cards. Weird. Try running the i7 stock, and see if the clock speeds jump up while playing a game (you can use GPU-Z to check). If they do, it's a power issue.
     
  9. Thanh55

    Thanh55 What's a Dremel?

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    Last edited: 3 Jan 2010

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