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Is My PSU too Weak?

M

MoBsTa

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
Messages
241
Hey,
My computer's performance has not been up to par lately. I am not sure if its the games, something bottlenecking my hardware, or software. I think my PSU is too weak.

Specs:
DFi NF570 M2/G Mobo.
AMD Athlon 64X2 6400+
XFX 8800GTS 512
2 GB Kingston HyperX (DDR2800)
550W Rosewill Performance PSU 2 12vRails at 18 Amps on each

I replaced my video card, and my ram. I am thinking my PSU is weak... and Rosewill in not the best brand either... I have money to purchase a NZXT. 800W PSU with 4 Rails.
I just dont wanna waste money. Please give me suggestions.

3dmark06 Scores:
9016
8950


-Thanks.
 
As long as your PSU is putting out good power, 550w is more than enough for your system. Hell, I'm running a Q6600, 4 1 GB sticks of RAM, and a 9600GT on a 450watt supply with room to spare. I'm got another box with a Q6600, 2GB, and an 8500GT with a 300watt supply without issue.
 
I just dont understand what the problem is then.... My friend has a similar setup with a 8600GT and getting way better performance.
 
MoBsTa said:
I just dont understand what the problem is then.... My friend has a similar setup with a 8600GT and getting way better performance.
Click to expand...

What games are you talking about, what settings are the two of you using to play those games, and what operating systems? Have you downloaded the latest drivers from Nvidia?

Usually, power supply problems cause stability issues rather than low performance.
 
Okay, I just looked up your motherboard. You have two PCIe x16 slots, but one of them runs at x1 speeds. Make sure you video card in the slot that's running at full speed.
 
ryan_975 said:
What games are you talking about, what settings are the two of you using to play those games, and what operating systems? Have you downloaded the latest drivers from Nvidia?

Usually, power supply problems cause stability issues rather than low performance.
Click to expand...

Ryan Thanks for the help by the way.


The games i play are CS 1.6, Counter-Strike:Source. and Call of Duty 4. We play on the same exact settings, even same monitor. On XP Home Edition x32. I did DL the latest drivers.

yes there is a x1 slot but it is really small, my Video Card cannot physically fit in there.

But i have tried the other x16 slot and it runs about the same.
 
MoBsTa said:
Ryan Thanks for the help by the way.


The games i play are CS 1.6, Counter-Strike:Source. and Call of Duty 4. We play on the same exact settings, even same monitor. On XP Home Edition x32. I did DL the latest drivers.

.
Click to expand...

Do you have the system in SLI mode? If you tried both slots, one of them should have given you horrible performance compared to the other. SLI mode would put both slots in x8/x8 mode. The 8800GTS 512 needs a bit more bandwidth that an x8 slot can provide, so it'd be held back. Check your BIOS for an SLI setting.


yes there is a x1 slot but it is really small, my Video Card cannot physically fit in there.

But i have tried the other x16 slot and it runs about the same
Click to expand...

No, what I meant was one of the x16 slot is electrically configured to act like an x1 slot when not in SLI mode. When in SLI mode the motherboard in a sense "moves" lanes from one x16 slot over to the other so both cards get the same bandwidth.
 
Alright then my SLI mode must be on since both slots are working about the same performance.... i need to check if it is on or not. It says its working at x16 though...
 
I cannot figure out how to disable SLI properly, if it is even on. All i did was change my control panel settings to Single Display Performance Mode.
 
wow same exact settings and monitor? why are your settings set the same as a 8600gt heheh any quality settings int he control panel? try reinstalling windows lately?
 
Well CS:S is always the same settings..... Im gonna reinstall Windows today most likely.
 
The PSU is very unlikely to affect your FPS.
Try a fresh install of Windows on another drive to test with.
If it does improve things, you know it can be fixed via software updates or cleaning your PC out.
 
The problem is most likely because your slot is a x16 pci-e it cannot get full power on a 8800GTS 512mb because the 8800GTS is a Pci-e 2.0, if you had a 2.0 it would run at full speed but since u have x16 your most likely running it on 1/2 or 1/4 the power of your card. I get the same problem on mine with a 8800GTS 512mb but i found out the problem was because my slot was an x16 and not 2.0.
 
jxaznxk said:
The problem is most likely because your slot is a x16 pci-e it cannot get full power on a 8800GTS 512mb because the 8800GTS is a Pci-e 2.0, if you had a 2.0 it would run at full speed but since u have x16 your most likely running it on 1/2 or 1/4 the power of your card. I get the same problem on mine with a 8800GTS 512mb but i found out the problem was because my slot was an x16 and not 2.0.
Click to expand...

Yes i know it is PCI-E 2.0 , but isnt it backwards compatible. I thought it doesnt affect performance..


EDIT: I reinstalled windows and i will update on my system performance once i get games installed...

-Thanks
 
Everyone overestimates...by a lot. Take the calculator with a grain of salt, none of these are every perfect.

..and PCI-E 2.0 doesn't have any bearing on your video card's performance.
 
Okay here are my results....


- I reinstalled Windows and all my software correctly. The performance of my computer remained the same.
However, I think that something in my system is bottlenecking my video card, for my 7600GT works as good as the 8800. The 8800 is just a tid but better. In conclusion, I think that since my card requires a faster system to run at full potential, something is bottlenecking it. Like i said, i replaced RAM and the video card.So those cannot be the problem. PSU, mobo, or something else is probably the cause. My processor is new... I purchased it in late April and idk if that can do anything to my performance.

-Thanks to all who help.
 
jxaznxk said:
The problem is most likely because your slot is a x16 pci-e it cannot get full power on a 8800GTS 512mb because the 8800GTS is a Pci-e 2.0, if you had a 2.0 it would run at full speed but since u have x16 your most likely running it on 1/2 or 1/4 the power of your card. I get the same problem on mine with a 8800GTS 512mb but i found out the problem was because my slot was an x16 and not 2.0.
Click to expand...

PCI-E 1.0 should have sufficient bandwidth to accommodate the 8800GT. Reviews have all demonstrated that PCI-E 2.0 makes little difference AFAIK.



MoBsTa said:
The calculator recommends 376 Watts... but how can that be true if my card recommends 600 Watts???
Click to expand...

The card manufacturer wants to cover their butt. They assume you might be running a whole whack of stuff at the same time, multiple hard drives, optical drives, etc. Then they add a wide margin of safety. 550 watt supply should more than cover you. As previously mentioned, power supply problems will probably manifest as stability issues.
 
Hmm...
as others said, most likely not a PSU issue.... What is your current FSB and processor speed? Did you do any underclocking?

If you're running XP (which i'm guessing you are, as 2GB of ram is pretty skimpy for a gaming rig running Vista) , system monitor might be able to help point you in the right direction

EDIT: Link to system monitor article... http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2409p140id126461.htm
 
SexTreX said:
Hmm...
as others said, most likely not a PSU issue.... What is your current FSB and processor speed? Did you do any underclocking?
Click to expand...

My FSB is 1000Mhz(2000MT/s)... Pretty much what all AM2 sockets are. My processor speed is 3.2 Ghz which is stock. And i did not do any under or over clocking.

I do think the Motherboard may be the problem because i updated the BIOS when I had the 7600GT and the performance got a little worse. Is there a way to get my old BIOS drivers back? -Thanks
 
To roll back your motherboard driver with XP, start device manager, find and select your motherboard from the list. Click the driver tab, and then click the 'Roll Back Driver' button.

If that doesn't do it, you could also try checking DFI's website for newer drivers, or looking in their forums for people with the same problem you're experiencing.
 
Still cant figure out how to reset BIOS back to original drivers.... DFi site didnt help...


Anyone know how?

-Thanks
 
is it me or are you not stating specifically what the problem is. I understand not running up to par, but can we get an example... less fps? stuttering? etc.
 
mnewxcv said:
on the new install, did you reinstall drivers?

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_winxp_15.17.html

thats the chipset driver you need

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Scan.aspx?lang=en-us

and go there for the graphics driver


ALSO!!! 8800gt requires a pcie power connector ( 6 pin)

if that isnt plugged in youll get shitty performance cuz the card will throttle.
Click to expand...


I installed both the chipset and graphics drivers correctly. I have the PCI-E power connector in correctly, i even tried my other pci-e connector and nothing happened.


The problem that i am having is that i spent 300.00 on a brand new graphics card that works as if i only spent 80.00. My 7600GT is almost performing as good. The card is giving me less FPS than it should but there is no problems with the visual appearance.
 
Can you go into device manager and check that all devices are working without problems?
ie look for yellow exclamation marks or red x's

Also check the system and application event logs (and any other event logs) for strange things or abnormal behaviour.
 
Nenu said:
Can you go into device manager and check that all devices are working without problems?
ie look for yellow exclamation marks or red x's

Also check the system and application event logs (and any other event logs) for strange things or abnormal behaviour.
Click to expand...

Yes one item has a yellow exclamation mark on it in Device Manager.

"Other PCI Bridge Device".

I dont know what that means
 
MoBsTa said:
Yes one item has a yellow exclamation mark on it in Device Manager.

"Other PCI Bridge Device".

I dont know what that means
Click to expand...

Sounds like a driver you need to for your PCIe subsystem. What's the Vendor and Device ID (found under details tab in the properties dialog).
 
ryan_975 said:
Sounds like a driver you need to for your PCIe subsystem. What's the Vendor and Device ID (found under details tab in the properties dialog).
Click to expand...

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0373&SUBSYS_CB8410DE&REV_A2\3&2411E6FE&0&40


-Thanks ryan
 
MoBsTa said:
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0373&SUBSYS_CB8410DE&REV_A2\3&2411E6FE&0&40


-Thanks ryan
Click to expand...

Well, that's coming back as the ethernet device in the chipset. I don't know why that would impact graphics performance, but maybe it is,.. try downloading the latest Nforce drivers for your motherboard.
 
Try this

Right click the device and delete it.
Scan for new hardware changes (from the Action menu) and hopefully it will be picked up again correctly.
 
Nenu said:
Try this

Right click the device and delete it.
Scan for new hardware changes (from the Action menu) and hopefully it will be picked up again correctly.
Click to expand...

The hardware came up again Incorrectly... can this be a problem?
 
MoBsTa said:
The hardware came up again Incorrectly... can this be a problem?
Click to expand...

That is saying the correct driver isnt installed yet as suggested by Ryan above.
It could well sort your issue out if this is fixed.

Install the latest mobo driver.
 
I had the Motherboard driver installed already from the Nvidia website for my northbridge which is nForce 570 AMD SLi

-I uninstalled it and installed it again and i am getting same results with that Other PCI Bridge Device showing up.


What should i do next?
 
Hmm, I vaugely remember an older AMD board I had required the Motherboard drivers and a separate Network driver.

I'm a bit puzzled how this could affect the video card unless the network card is using the same IRQ or something.
I also wouldnt expect a PCI bridge not installing to be anything to do with a network driver.
But seeing as the network adapter has popped its ugly head up twice now, its worth solving that first.
If its not that, we can continue on.

Tell us he exact motherboard mfr and model you have.
This matters because each motherboard can have a different network adapter if not using the NVidia options.
The mfr website should list which drivers are required.
 
isnt there some shit like dont install the nvidia ide drivers? i never do and never have issues but maybe he installed extra drivers that fuxed something up? i say why not rule out the psu and borrow a better one.. while your at it.. take back the 300$ card and buy a 140$ 8800gt and a 140$ psu and burn the 20$ bill thats extra..

also you mention your bios... it got worse when you updated them.. id go ahead and update them again as it might have just been a bad updated bios.



also is there possibility of fragged up hd.. dieing hd etc?
 
That psu is a pos and its a known pos, tested so by anyone who's reviewed a rosewill unit. Combine that with the fact that the 8800GTS will draw up to 14A off the 12V, and if your running anything else on that rail your going to get some pretty ugly results.

edit: GTS 512, i thought it was GTS 640. your card will pull significantly less off the 12V rail than its G80 based cousin. so nvm...
 
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