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Computer doesn't perform as expected.

Raxiel is right, you might try disabling all power saving features or at least turn PCI Express Link State setting to off in control panel/power options/advanced to see if that fixes it. If that doesn't work then definitely update the BIOS because that's basically your last option before replacing the card and you don't want to have to go through the trouble of an RMA if you really don't need to.

For testing your CPU I would just use prime95 x64, use the Small FFT test and let it run for around 12 hours to see if you have a stable overclock. You probably do because your settings aren't all that high based on your OP. While you're at it you might want to fine tune your voltages, I really wouldn't like leaving it all on auto even at a lower overclock because you might be using more volts than you really need. You could use this guide to give you a starting point.

Also you might want to look at this posted on H from Asus, this is what I used to dial my settings in a little better.
 
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I will test the power settings and such when I get home from work tonight. As well as update the bios. I will then run another stability check with prime 95 but like you said, 4.2 shouldn't be that difficult, and I ran prime 95 back when I first did it for 24 hours without an issue. I'm sure I could turn the voltage down a little and i'll focus on that after I figure out this problem. (unless you think it could be a cause).

I already have ordered the RMA, it's free for me and I am cross shipping with EVGA. I'm so busy this week I couldn't use my computer anyways so the timing is fine. Once again I'll update the thread after I conduct these tests.

Thank you all for suggestions, this is so frustrating to me, I've spent more money than most on components and people with 500 dollar computers have better experiences :(.
 
I did both the power saving and the bios flash, no go for either. The one thing I still haven't tried is RMAing the card. I should get the OK on cross ship tomorrow.

Although after I did the bios update, i'm getting a high pitched whine from somewhere in my case.

I hate computers.
 
I did both the power saving and the bios flash, no go for either. The one thing I still haven't tried is RMAing the card. I should get the OK on cross ship tomorrow.

Although after I did the bios update, i'm getting a high pitched whine from somewhere in my case.

I hate computers.

That whine is possibly the voltage circuitry on the motherboard, re-enabling power saving might get rid of it, if not, and if you're not seeing any improvments at all with the new bios you can always flash it back to the version you had before.

I know that feeling.

Hopefully the new card will solve the original problem, the only other thing I can think of is an issue that came up for me when I was troubleshooting my audio lag: DPC latency

If you google DPC you'll find a couple of tools that will measure your systems DPC latency, and one (the name escapes me, i'll try and find it later) would show which processes might be causing it. I'll warn you though, this might be a red herring. I spent hours trying to eliminate my high latency before I realised my beta bios was the problem. My computer feels fine now, and i don't hear popping whenever it plays a sound, so i don't care but according to these tools i'm still getting spikes.
 
I ran Prime95 Small FFT for 12 hours, not a hiccup, only one core hit 60 so that is all stable. Can I assume that my CPU is in perfect working order?

The whining may have gone away during this test, I'll try again tonight and see if it's there.

If the RMA'd card doesn't fix it, what other options do I have?

Should I buy a new motherboard?
 
I ran Prime95 Small FFT for 12 hours, not a hiccup, only one core hit 60 so that is all stable. Can I assume that my CPU is in perfect working order?
Not really. I've had CPUs pass Prime95 just fine yet still cause problems later on. But it does lessen the chance of the CPU being the issue. The CPU has been at stock during testing, correct?
If the RMA'd card doesn't fix it, what other options do I have?
Are you running any sort of GPU monitoring program (i.e GPU-Z, MSI Afterburner, etc) while you're gaming? If so, disable it.
Should I buy a new motherboard?
I doubt it's the motherboard. My gut says it's a software issue.
 
I have tried the CPU at stock and at 4.2. Problem persists.

I have tried with Precision X and without.

These problems started when i got rid of my 580 and got the 680. I've tried 3 sets of drivers, with full reformats for each.

Updated drivers are all there.

Flashed the Bios.

Ran Memtest/Prime 95 over night.

I've been using Tribes Ascend to test each time, as It's very noticible when it happens. Looking out over large open areas, GPU Usage drops to 80% and FPS drops to 90. Mouse movement is no longer smooth when scanning the large area, when I turn around and face the mountain it's smooth.

------------------------------------- - - -- -- - -- - - -- - -- - - - ----------------------------------

That is the best description I can type of how the mouse feels when looking over the open area.And it correlates to the FPS drop to 90, and the GPU drop in usage (not clock).

Should I use precision X to take a graph of it?
 
RMA Sent out Cross-Shipping. Should have replacement card early next week. Hopefully this fixes it, will keep you posted.
 
The new card has fixed nothing, and now I have a card with an obnoxious coil whine that I can't just ignore. It's quite loud. Maybe if I wasn't sensitive to high pitch noises I could ignore it, but this is killing me. I've never wanted to just throw a computer out the window before, first time for everything I guess.
 
Goddamn this is a bitch of a PC.

At this point man, I'm thinking just nuke the setup and start over with a different CPU and motherboard or just RMA those two parts. If that doesn't fix it, then you're basically SOL and JWF.
 
Yeah, this is ridiculous. I shouldn't have gotten rid of my 580. Everything was fine before, and now everything is terrible. I got rid of the high pitch noise, but performance is worse in most games now. Just Cause 2 gets stuttering now, and it didn't before. I'm seriously going to break this stupid card.
 
Again, didn't you have issues with your 580 as well?
I've had this for a year, only it was a 580 in the 680's place. I've always felt that something wasn't 100% right, but it was okay because things still 'worked'. The only real issues I had were vsync on causing a weird delay and skipping. It was like playing in a vat of Jello. so I would play without vsync, but screen tearing for me has always been really bad. *Maybe it's because of my Samsung LED monitor? but it's a 2MS response so I don't kno*. The other issue is that if something ran under 60 FPS it would look very choppy too me. Even at 55-58. Which is odd, because I can play 30FPS games on console without issue.

So to today.
I bought the 680 hoping to try this adaptive vsync, and hopefully fix my issues. I seem to have more now. I reformatted both drives for this, and clean installed windows and the new nvidia drivers on the SSD. Then I did the Intel chipset driver/sound driver/network driver all from gigabytes website. I installed some games. This is what I've found.
 
There was some vsync issues and a few games had odd frame rates, but now at this point every game has a stutter and doesn't play smoothly. It was not this bad before. I'm going to plop the 680 in my backup computer and see how that works, if it works, I'll switch the Motherboards/CPU/RAM from the back up into the main. It's still an i7 at 3.3 with 6 gigs of ram,

but the weird thing with my back up is the high pitched noises it makes, and there are a lot of them. I was told it's probably the Power Supply, but it's so much work to check that.

So I figure this weekend, I'll mix and match parts to hopefully get something to work.

It just takes so long to switch out even 1 part at a time, and re-do drivers and etc. I spent a lot of money to avoid these situations :/
 
If I were to just buy the new CPU/Mobo/Ram

What should I get?

It's a huge waste of money for me, but PC gaming is the only thing that brings me joy anymore, and I can't have fun with it in my current state. Even though this will delay all my other expenses I just don't care anymore.

I figure i'll go with another 2500K.
 
So I figure this weekend, I'll mix and match parts to hopefully get something to work.
Good luck.
It just takes so long to switch out even 1 part at a time, and re-do drivers and etc. I spent a lot of money to avoid these situations :/
Sometimes one's luck runs out.
If I were to just buy the new CPU/Mobo/Ram

What should I get?
If you can wait, probably a Core i5 3570K + a Z77 motherboard + 8GB of DDR3 1333/1600 RAM. If you can't, probably a 2500K + Z77 motherboard + 8GB of DDR3 1333 RAM
 
Which parts would you recommend?

I'm fine with going with the 2500K, because you can OC that on Air easily and it runs cooler. I just want to OC it to 4.2 by changing the multiplier like I did on this one.

I want to avoid a gigabyte Motherboard, but just want a solid motherboard with possible SLI in the future, where I could OC to low 4's no problem. I don't need any other features.

Then I think just 2 x 4 ram.
 
I've calmed down slightly, I'm going to hold off on buying anything right now, I'll do the hardware swapping this weekend to test it out.

I'll put the 680 in my other computer and see how it performs. If it still has the same problems then i have no idea what I'll do, because it's a completely separate build. At that point, what would the next step even be? Return the card? My 30 days is over, because it took 3 weeks to get an RMA for the card in the first place.

sigh.

I don't mind spending money if it fixes it, I just don't want to spend it and have it not fix it. Then i'm out 400 dollars and I just have worthless parts.

This is my other build.

Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R
CPU - INTEL|CORE I7 950 3.06G 45N R
Ram - 2Gx3|GSKILL F3-12800CL7T-6GBPI
PSU - CORSAIR|CMPSU-750TX 750W RT
GPU - Sapphire HD 5850
HD - 1T|SAMSUNG HD103SJ 32M 7K %
Windows 7 Home 64
COOL XIGM|Dark Knight-S1283V R for CPU, which is OC'd to 3.6Ghz
 
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