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What is causing my system to fail when I overclock?

Joined
Jun 13, 2011
Messages
7
Hello everyone. I have recently started overclocking my system (mildly, I believe. About 10% or so) when I got my new video cards. What I have noticed is that whenever I overclock and then try to play an intense game or run 3DMark 11 or what have you, my computer will completely fail. The screen goes black and the monitor idles as if it's receiving no signal. The computer will stay on, but I am unable to interact with it in any way and must do a hard reset to make it come back on.

After a bit of research and analysis, I do not believe that the problem could be my GPU's. They are too top-of-the-line, and can handle much more than what is being thrown at them before complete failure of this caliber. That, and they handle the tests fine when at stock setting. They never even get a chance to break 40 degrees, being watercooled very efficiently. I believe the issue may be my PSU, as I've read elsewhere that an insufficient PSU can cause your system to shut down when stressing your cards.

My system is as follows:

i7 920
2x EVGA GTX 580 Hydo Copper 2 3072MB
Corsair AX850 PSU
6 GB RAM
A single 300 GB 10000 RPM HDD
Asus Rampage II Extreme Mobo

I would like to believe that the problem isn't my brand new PSU, but I can't see where else the problem would lie. This is supposed to be one of the highest quality, most efficient PSU's available, but can it just not handle pushing these cards? I just can't imagine 2 of the most powerful cards on the planet crashing my computer under 3DMark 11's stock Extreme setting at 1920x1080, with only a simple 10% OC.

I've been OC'ing my 2 cards to about the level of the "factory OC'ed" EVGA cards, 772 core clock to 850. They perform very questionably at that level, and then fail outright if taken even up a bit to 855.

Any confirmations or further suspicions? I appreciate the help and insight!
 
Non overclocked, a stressed 580 will use 385Watts of power. You have two of those + 130w CPU which will burn well over 200W overclocked.
 
Non overclocked, a stressed 580 will use 385Watts of power. You have two of those + 130w CPU which will burn well over 200W overclocked.
um what? a stock gtx580 uses about 250 watts under full load. at 850mhz it would probably pull around 275-300 watts depending on if voltage was increased. but yeah that psu is not going to safely run a watercooled overclocked gtx580 sli with highly oced 920 setup with much wiggle room at all. even though it was pushing the psu pretty hard, it does seem like it would have handled the settings the OP tried without shutting off though.
 
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So I'm looking at the Corsair HX1050 to replace it. Do you guys think that that will be good enough?
 
So I'm looking at the Corsair HX1050 to replace it. Do you guys think that that will be good enough?
yes that is fine unless you do some insane high voltage near record breaking overclocking on your gpus and cpu. your system with with a mild oc the gpus and cpu should only be pulling about 750-800 watts at the wall during games so I still think something else is wrong at the moment. but I would still get that 1050 watt psu to give you plenty of wiggle room.
 
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Do you know what else might be the issue? It's not temps, it's not driver. I don't know what else would make my comp crash ONLY when I overclock. It's like I hit a wall of "shit goes to hell" after a core clock of 820 or so.
 
Do you really think that would help? Wouldn't it only further stress the PSU?
yes but some of the gtx570 and gtx580 cards from EVGA did not have enough voltage from the factory. just increase a notch or two. personally I would wait until you get your new psu and then you can worry more about stable overclocking at that time.
 
um what? a stock gtx580 uses about 250 watts under full load. at 850mhz it would probably pull around 275-300 watts depending on if voltage was increased. but yeah that psu is not going to safely run a watercooled overclocked gtx580 sli with highly oced 920 setup with much wiggle room at all. even though it was pushing the psu pretty hard, it does seem like it would have handled the settings the OP tried without shutting off though.

Your right, I am backwards. Stock is 240w. At 870 the card should be pulling around 370w and at 900 the card should be pulling around 385w.
 
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