Upgrade question - what went wrong?

Shtanto

Hi all,

I got a gtx 480 from college because I was in the right place at the right time. Now if I remember my system specs right, I have a Gigabyte P35C mainboard, a Q6600 (G0, the popular one if you remember it), a 750w PC Power and Cooling PSU and the thing just about fits.

So I started off, ran the uninstalled for the nvidia driver. I hear this does a spotty stain removal job. Doesn't flux out the bare metal so to speak. So I took out my old 8800GTS (tis a system from 2007) and had a go fitting the gtx. The power connectors plugged in fair enough, and the system booted up ok. But then I started noticing the problems. First off, everything was ballygobackwards slow as hell. My spidey sense had me thinking the PSU was just about coping with the job of powering the new monster. It takes an 8 pin and a 6 pin. Lucky for me my old PSU had the right connectors. Unluckily for me, the system was unbearably unstable. So I took old the gtx, swapped back the 8800gts, ran system restore, found a few backups from the 15th (not too long ago thankully, and I rock google docs these days) bingo presto chango and I'm back to where I am now.

Now given that there were no graphics drivers installed (crumbs off the old ones lacking a proper uninstall maybe?) installing the new card (gtx) ought to have been ok. It fit in ok mechanically after I bent a drive bay holder out of the way. And yes, that was safe to bend :pac: Pictures if you need them.

Case in point, this gtx 480is an exceptionally large card. It's wrapped up in an esd bag now covering the best part of an A4 sheet. well over 250mm long.

So the question is, what went pear shaped? Is my aged PSU not quite up to the job? I dusted out the case as you do. What I can't discern is why Windows 7 went a bit palsey victim on me after I got the card installed. Couldn't even install the new drivers. Also, it seemed to 'find' new hardware I had merely plugged out and in again.

Any thoughts? Kind ones please

BloodBath

Can you take a picture of the label on the psu or provide a link to the specs of it online. I'm guessing it has crappy 12v rails and simply can't provide enough power for that cpu and gpu on the 12v rail despite being a 700w. Pretty common with cheap psu's.

Those 480's are total pigs for power.

Freddy Smelly

2 possible reasons why it was slow

1. power supply rated 750w but may not be putting out that... cheap psu's rarely pump out the power they are rated for.

2. faulty gtx480 - gcard may have a flaw somewhere on the card


as a rule i always buy a psu that can pump at least out 200w more than i need so when it gets old it still pumps out enough wattage to meet my pc's demands

BloodBath

It's a bit more complex than that. The max rated power is usually only at certain ideal temps, and often the max power rated can only be maintained for short periods.

This power is also divided over 3 voltage ranges. 12v, 5v and 3.3v. The main power hungry parts, (the cpu and gpu) run off the 12v rail. Older and cheaper power supplies tend to have less than half of the total power available on this 12v rail.

A modern gaming pc will use 75%+ of it's power through the 12v rail.

The label will show how many amps are dedicated to each rail showing how much power is available to each.

Shtanto

It's a 60A single rail. I had thought that might be tough enough. New egg seems to sell them still

It wasn't cheap. I spent a lot on it to avoid the conclusions drawn above. The pitfalls of lower cost PSUs are known to me and I avoid them. Freddy might be right on the grounds of possible ESD damage. If the card I got was the card I think it is, then that's the problem right there. It did briefly output 2560x1600 on my U3011, so I think it's serviceable. It left my system very very slow for some reason. The drivers must have been crooked or something.

New PSU on the way for testing. It's a lot of work for want of gaming

BloodBath

That's lot's then. I doubt it's the psu.

Shtanto

Nah, worse than that, it might have been the college demo unit. You know the one that gets passed around all the ESD hands in the class for the folks to look at? And I think the lecturer even took it out of the bag at one point.:(

Still, to rule it out, I'll either have to swap the card or the PSU. Or both. The broader compatibility question remains of course. A p35C Ds3r board ought to be able to take a gtx 480, right? Presuming the power is plentiful.

BloodBath

Try removing the old drivers completely using driver sweeper or driver cleaner and install the right drivers for the card and see how it goes.

Shtanto

To eliminate hardware as the culprit, I've asked for a swap of the opened box card for a fresh in the box one. Many thanks to my lecturer for this. Also, a fresh 1200W PSU is on the way. Better to eliminate both variables. More news in 48 hours.

TerrorFirmer

I have a 750w PPC PSU and it's rock solid, well able for any single card and most dual cards as well. Definitely not cheap PSUs!

Buying a 1200w PSU is ridiculous overkill though. It's like dumping a bucket of water over a lit match. It's the sort of PSU you might want if you were running 3 GTX480's in your system.

If you've actually bought that, you do realize that for the same cost of that PSU you could have bought a new quality PSU and a faster, cooler running brand new card? A Quality 550w unit would be fine for a GTX480.

I can't make much sense of this whole situation!

BloodBath

I think he just borrowed it to test. I hope so at least. €280 for a psu that most likely wasn't needed would be a waste of money alright.

Shtanto

I'll swap the card first, probably will send the PSU back. I actually have tried to cancel it already but hardwareversand were especially eager for some reason.

Lord Nikon

What 1200w PSU did you order exactly, I'm curious?

Shtanto

Dark Power Pro 10 from hardwareversand which I'm trying to send back too. Card swaps on Wednesday. Ah yes, the old wait and see. In the meantime, I can prep the driver cleaners.

https://www.hardwareversand.de/above+1000+Watts/60201/be+quiet%21+DARK+POWER+PRO+10+1200W.article

Shtanto

The correct answer was drivers.
1. Run Nvidia uninstaller
2. Driver cleaner and driver sweeper in safe mode
3. Shut down
4. Unplug everything and open case
5. Remove old card
6. Install new card
7. Close case
8. Plug everything back in again. Remember, the 7.1 system is red, gap, green, black, yellow, black (twisty)
9. Boot up, install new drivers for the newly installed card
10. Notice tinnitus is getting worse due to the noise of the new cards' fan
11. Begin researching alternate cooling solutions.
12. Ask the nice people on boards to help