Artifact While Gaming

G

godsfshrmn

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
200
I've been trying to figure this out for months. After 5-30 minutes of gaming (9800GT), my screen starts to throw artifacts all over, drops to 1-4fps, and either the display driver stops and windows recovers or blue screens w/ an error pointing to the display driver. Normal desktop computing never experiences a hitch. I swapped cards with my roomate (his is identical), and it still happens on mine while mine works fine on his.

I've changed out the motherboard (previously an Asus M4A78-T), upgraded to a 750W earthwatts PSU, ran memtest for 10 hours with no errors, checked temps and they're always what they have been for cpu/video/MB and consistent with other user's temps, ran driver sweeper dozens of times, ran NVIDIA drivers from 189, 190, 191 series, running latest bios, tried other bios updates, running latest ati chipset drivers, you name it.....

However prime95 does throw out errors when I run the blend test (supposedly lots of RAM), but again memtest86+ doesn't show any errors. The other prime tests seem to run longer and ok. I've manually entered my RAM settings and voltage in the bios as well.

I can run the IGP video and it works generally but does occasionally toss in the reboot out of nowhere and total system freeze.

I have no clue where to look next. It is frustrating.

System:
eVGA 9800GT
Earthwatts 750W (combined 75A on 12v rail)
Phenom II 720 triple core
WD raptor and 1TB drive
G.Skill 2x2gb memory on the approved memory list for the motherboard
Gigabyte MA790GPT-UD3H
 
is this the ddr2 1066 gskills or the ddr2 800? also what settings are you using?
 
Its the 1066 ddr3. 8-8-8-21. I had a different type of RAM in before and I had issues with it as well, but it would have random BSOD on the desktop. The gskill doesn't
 
godsfshrmn said:
Its the 1066 ddr3. 8-8-8-21. I had a different type of RAM in before and I had issues with it as well, but it would have random BSOD on the desktop. The gskill doesn't
Click to expand...

well damn that just ruined my idea right there.. i know nothing about the ddr3 1066 gskill ram.. only idea i can come up with is try to loosen the timing on the memory.. try 9-9-9-31 or something and see what happens..
 
the only other thing it could be besides the ram is the northbridge.. which is part of the cpu..

whats the voltage on the cpu by chance?
 
CPU is running at 1.3V (I increased it a bit to test). I thought the NB was the problem too so I picked up the Gigabyte board but it does the same issue. I increased the voltage by a tick on the NB/SB but that didn't help either.
 
maybe the rams just bad.. even though its passing memtest.. but if you already had one set that was bad.. and you changed motherboards.. only thing left is the cpu..

what are the temps on the cpu when its under full load on prime95 blend test?
 
Its at 35C according to coretemp after running prime95 for about 30mins. Its odd because the CPU intensive test will run all day, but the large FFT test usually has one core spit out an error and stop in < 5 mins.
I did unlock the 4th core with ACC just for the heck of it for about 30 mins. Is it possible when I turned that off that the bad 4th core was kept alive while one of the other cores turned off? But you would think the CPU test would spit out errors and the computer wouldn't recover after it hangs up in a game if this was the case
 
nah that wouldnt cause an issue.. did it run any better with the 4th core enabled?

my guess is ya probably got a dud cpu.. not uncommon.. id try exchanging it from where ever you bought it if you still can.. or try RMA'ing it..
 
It ran a bit better as you would expect it to.

Memory controller on the CPU.....thoughts?
 
Well at least you know it's not the video card.

It would appear to be that something is overheating since your system will run fine until it's under load. I'm sure you got good air flow in your case...

Can you swap ram with your buddy?

I know some ram doesn't run well on stock timings as advertised.

Try running on the default clocks, and set your ram settings..and everything else to auto...including all voltage settings.
 
PS3 said:
Well at least you know it's not the video card.

It would appear to be that something is overheating since your system will run fine until it's under load. I'm sure you got good air flow in your case...

Can you swap ram with your buddy?

I know some ram doesn't run well on stock timings as advertised.

Try running on the default clocks, and set your ram settings..and everything else to auto...including all voltage settings.
Click to expand...

I tried those settings this morning. Unfortunately Im the only person I know that has DDR three. I think Im going to try and RMA my cpu. If that doesnt work I guess I will resort to a nervous breakdown or pitch it off the roof. jk
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
I swapped out individual sticks of ram and I think one stick may be bad. One stick runs 3dmark/prime95 fine, the other comes out with the gremlins after a short time. The last set of RAM I had did this same thing. I would imagine the chances are low that I have two sets of bad RAM in a row. If it was the memory controller, wouldn't both sticks not work? I'm swapping them out in the same DIMM slot. Looks like I get to RMA my ram once again.
 
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