Asus P5N32-E SLI & XFX 8800 GTX XXX

[Tiv]

Having just disposed of my P5K due to a failed BIOS update screwing up the BOOT ROM section (fortunately board was under warranty!) I have changed it for the P5N32 and upgraded to SLI graphics with a second GTX XXX.

Would have thought this would be a simple upgrade, but oh no, is it ever......

Luckily the raid drivers picked up my drive partitions (once I had set the correct block size) as I had not backed up my data (yes foolish I know but hey ho)

Anyway - the crux of the matter is having re-installed Vista64 on the boot partition and updated all the drivers the system runs fine under Windows, but try and run a 3D game and the darn thing shuts itself off without as much as a buy or leave (or warning) of any kind - Clunk! Off.....

Not sure what this could be - CPU and M/B temps are not abnormal (38/45)
I dont know what the Graphics temps are though - any help how I get this info off the cards?

Yes I have checked the SLI slots are both 16 bit wide. And yes I have updated the BIOS to 1205 (Couldn't find a copy of 1102, have heard thats more stable?)
Drivers - nforce 15.08; XFX forceware 163.69

Any help appreciated, got a damn fine system for gaming and just can't play!!!!

[dogie]

Err specs?

[StaffsKieran]

"My System" perhaps..just a guess

[Tiv]

Err....ok...... perhaps I should have stated - specs are under the 'MySystem' Link thingy under my user name on the left - new to this posting lark......I think its all there?
Thanks.

[derchris]

I don't know, but 6x HDDs and 2x 8800 GTX, and a 800W PSU.
Maybe the PSU can't handle it?

[Tiv]

I thought about that after I posted and after a little searching came up with a nifty calculator @ <<extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine>>

Basically for my system it comes up at 556W for 90&#37; loading and 605W at 100% loading.

Even if I set the capacitor ageing option to 20% (in other words PSU 1-2 years old) it still comes up at only 750W at 100% fully loaded......and the PSU is brand spanking.....

So ok it may be a factor, but on the face of this it shouldn't be?

<<edit.... found the loading for the drives and its only 8.5W during a read/write (430mA @ 12V, 430mA @ 5V) - so the drives only eat into 51W of the 800....but I cant find any data for the loading on the graphics cards???>>

[Behemoth]

Isit all possible that Vista 64 isn't happy with SLI ??

Have you got a spare hard drive you can put in so you can put XP on it and try it then, if it does the same in XP then you can look at hardware, if not then I'd lay odd on the fact it was Vista.

I just used that Power Supply Calculater, it told me that for all the stuff I had in my PC a 480 watt Power Supply wasn't upto the job, soooo going to order a 600 watter come pay day, thanks for that link I'd forgotten about it to be honest.

[Tiv]

Isit all possible that Vista 64 isn't happy with SLI ??

Have you got a spare hard drive you can put in so you can put XP on it and try it then, if it does the same in XP then you can look at hardware, if not then I'd lay odd on the fact it was Vista.

I just used that Power Supply Calculater, it told me that for all the stuff I had in my PC a 480 watt Power Supply wasn't upto the job, soooo going to order a 600 watter come pay day, thanks for that link I'd forgotten about it to be honest.

Just downloaded nTune 5.05.38 and with the cards set for SLI in the nVidia Control Panel, running a 10 min stress test from nTune passes no problem, granted this is not a very stressfull test and is only windowed (not Full Screen) but it would suggest that Vista is SLI compatible.

163.69 forceware drivers are supposedly Vista 64 compatible.....

Checking the card temps from nTune they are sitting at 69deg and 73deg, I know the one near the base of the box is a bit restricted for air (enhanced by a grill drilled in the bottom under the fan, but not as good air flow as the first card) so thats the reason for the slight difference

Are these temps normal unloaded?

[derchris]

I only have a 7950GT, passiv cooled.
But this one is at 60 idle I think.

[Tiv]

I only have a 7950GT, passiv cooled.
But this one is at 60 idle I think.

Hmmmm, Given the GTX XXX is shipped overclocked to 630Mhz perhaps these temps are not far off then?

I have always thought my rear 120mm exhaust fan is a little slow though, perhaps I should get a better one and swap it.

Have still not cured the shutdown though, is it worth stating that the only game I have tried is Stalker, Shadow of Chernobyl?? I will install Doom3 tonight and see how that fares.......

[derchris]

is it only with games?

then, it might be that the temps. are too high.

[Tiv]

Doom 3 is fine, busy downloading Lost Planet Update so I can try that when it has finally finished (only thing is my broadband seems to have slooooooooooooweeed right down tonight. Try it tomorrow methinks (Bl...dy Talk Talk crap!)

I will also give it a run with 3DMark aswell and see if that crashes.......looks like it may simply be the nVidia drivers story again.........?

[derchris]

you could try to update the driver, 163.71 are the latest from nvidia.

[Tiv]

you could try to update the driver, 163.71 are the latest from nvidia.

OK I now have a dilemma.....

I gave up waiting for my broadband to download Lost Planet and ran 3DMark06.....it passed through the first test and got to the flys in the forest and crashed - dead.

Bad news is it was (unbenownst to me) doing a Windows Update in the background, and the crash corrupted my BITS (the background download thingy) - whatever I tried didnt rectify this (System Restore, Deleting Software Download directory etc, Upgrade install from Hard Drive) So I ended up REINSTALLING Vista - Yep yet again!! (Tell me why I dont go back to XP?)

Anyway the dilemma is having got Vista up and running again and up to date, I found 2 hotfixes I hadn't known about....http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/windo...uk.html.....so I installed those.

NOW - which damn nVidia driver do I go for? The 163.69 that crashed before and assume the hotfixes help? the 163.71 beta and give it a go? or an old one that is known reliable (I havent got any so if its this option, where do I get it from?????)

HELP?????