8800GTX Overheating - how to cool?

I need a cheap and easy way to just take some of the heat of my GTX. It hardlocks when im in crysis or other high end games. I don't want to spend £30 on a new heatsink for the card, as this is fiddly and i cba cos i'll probs screw it up. I just want some ideas to take off some of the heat so i can play crysis without hardlocks. :D

I was thinking about one of these:
System Exhaust Blower
Or getting a 80MM fan and sticking on the back of the GTX on the ouside of the case to 'suck' air out from the heatsink's 2nd slot. Or get my spare 120mm fan and whack under neath the card blowing air onto it. My case cables need tidying up, but i doubt that will make much of an impact.


Will any of these ideas be particulary effective?

This would be effective... I would try the 120mm fan first though...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SiM

This would be effective... I would try the 120mm fan first though...

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Not really within the OP's conditions, that...

The effective thing is to make sure that the existing HSF is working properly. Many of these just don't run the fan at a high enough RPM. Use Rivatuner, etc. to make sure that it's spinning at an appropriate speed for the temps.

Which case you have? and is the airflow good? That is very important for gpu temps...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thorsson

Not really within the OP's conditions, that...

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But its less than £30... ok I admit I should have read the post properly :)

80mm fan on the back of the card works well.

so does a custom profile using rivatuner to get it to 100% by the time its hit 65 degrees

dont get the system blower, its a wast of time and does more hamr then good. I bought one and if you have it next to the graphics card it starves the card of cool air(as its sucking it out) and you cant put it ontop the card as the gap isnt enogh(well could depend on mobo and case but for mine it was squashed on the card and 50C against some cheap plastic isnt great imo. It made my temps go up by at least 10C and is noisy.

My card is overheating on mass effect, plays without lag but makes the card produce so much heat when compared to crysis being a cake walk for it, also looking for a way to minimalise heat, may try a fan on the top of it but how should i mount it and should it push or pull air onto the pcb?

Yeah, i know the heatsinks are worth it and everything, but if im honest i really cant be arsed :P I'd end up breaking something.
Yeah, i'll try the fan on the back, and i have fiddled with the fan speed and its on 85% atm, i'll set it to go to 100% when it hits 65 like you said.

The main question really is like the one above, where is best to stick a fan inside the case. As for the case's cooling, i have a 120 mm on the front intake, 2 120mm on the side (botton intake top exhaust) and a 2000rpm 120mm on the back as exhaust.

Except the fan on the front, they are all these

seems like a die contact issue to me if you're already having so much fans..

G80 are notorious for having their original HSF being badly positioned. I recall my 8800GTS had like piss amounts of thermal paste on the die.. covered probably only 1/3 of the die (ok.. I know G80 have this IHS and things, but 1/3 on full pressure seems far too low for any good thermla contact)

My advice if you don't want to waste cash is to take the cooler apart, check and see if the contacts are ok.. make it even better.. put some AS5 on just to be sure..

I would also suggest removing the stock cooler and reapplying the thermal paste, it should help you. Just bare in mind that removing the stock cooler would void a warranty unless it's an EVGA card who are as far as I'm aware the only company that don't void warranties for fiting aftermarket coolers. I also wouldn't bother with an exhaust blower that goes in a PCI slot. I got one when my 2900XT was very hot, and it didn't help at all and only destroyed the air flow in my case.

Hmmmm, i wanted to avoid taking it apart incase something goes wrong :(
It's not in warrantee anyway.

Well, the 120mm spare fan i had is now broke :p Tried to put it in place and one of the fins snapped off cos it knocked the case edge. Oops :P

I ran the nvidia monitor while in crysis to see what temps it was hitting, nothing too high imo, obviously the card doesnt like it though :p I can't upload so will c+p.

Current Time GPU1:(ºC) CPU(%): Disk(%): Network(%): Memory(%):
2008/7/13 14:47:8 55 20 % 0 % 0 % 38 %
2008/7/13 14:47:12 55 4 % 78 % 0 % 38 %
2008/7/13 14:47:16 55 22 % 0 % 0 % 38 %
2008/7/13 14:47:20 55 20 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:47:24 55 4 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:47:28 55 11 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:47:32 55 9 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:47:36 56 20 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:47:40 56 18 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:47:44 56 8 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:47:48 56 7 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:47:52 56 7 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:47:56 56 39 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:48:0 56 16 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:48:4 56 14 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:48:8 56 11 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:48:12 56 23 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:48:16 56 9 % 0 % 0 % 37 %
2008/7/13 14:48:20 56 51 % 2 % 0 % 38 %
2008/7/13 14:48:24 56 54 % 1 % 0 % 38 %
2008/7/13 14:48:28 56 26 % 0 % 0 % 38 %
2008/7/13 14:48:32 57 89 % 2 % 0 % 38 %
2008/7/13 14:48:36 56 50 % 4 % 0 % 38 %
2008/7/13 14:48:40 57 61 % 62 % 0 % 39 %
2008/7/13 14:48:44 57 71 % 25 % 0 % 39 %
2008/7/13 14:48:48 57 44 % 100 % 0 % 40 %
2008/7/13 14:48:52 56 28 % 100 % 0 % 41 %
2008/7/13 14:48:56 56 61 % 100 % 0 % 42 %
2008/7/13 14:49:0 57 98 % 100 % 0 % 44 %
2008/7/13 14:49:4 58 73 % 4 % 0 % 44 %
2008/7/13 14:49:8 58 66 % 8 % 0 % 44 %
2008/7/13 14:49:12 58 81 % 26 % 0 % 44 %
2008/7/13 14:49:16 60 68 % 0 % 0 % 44 %
2008/7/13 14:49:20 60 77 % 0 % 0 % 44 %
2008/7/13 14:49:24 60 68 % 0 % 0 % 44 %
2008/7/13 14:49:28 60 79 % 13 % 0 % 44 %
2008/7/13 14:49:32 60 69 % 0 % 0 % 44 %
2008/7/13 14:49:36 60 69 % 0 % 0 % 44 %
2008/7/13 14:49:40 60 36 % 39 % 0 % 44 %
2008/7/13 14:49:44 60 69 % 0 % 0 % 44 %
2008/7/13 14:49:48 60 48 % 21 % 0 % 45 %
2008/7/13 14:49:52 59 47 % 100 % 0 % 46 %
2008/7/13 14:49:56 59 65 % 100 % 0 % 47 %
2008/7/13 14:50:0 59 55 % 100 % 0 % 48 %
2008/7/13 14:50:4 58 66 % 5 % 0 % 50 %
2008/7/13 14:50:8 59 76 % 99 % 0 % 51 %
2008/7/13 14:50:12 58 57 % 100 % 0 % 52 %
2008/7/13 14:50:17 58 58 % 100 % 0 % 53 %
2008/7/13 14:50:21 58 49 % 100 % 0 % 54 %
2008/7/13 14:50:25 58 59 % 100 % 0 % 55 %
2008/7/13 14:50:29 57 78 % 16 % 0 % 57 %
2008/7/13 14:50:33 58 53 % 46 % 0 % 57 %
2008/7/13 14:50:37 58 34 % 69 % 0 % 58 %
2008/7/13 14:50:41 57 39 % 100 % 0 % 58 %
2008/7/13 14:50:45 57 43 % 64 % 0 % 59 %
2008/7/13 14:50:49 58 66 % 6 % 0 % 59 %
2008/7/13 14:50:53 60 77 % 29 % 0 % 59 %
2008/7/13 14:50:57 62 80 % 15 % 0 % 59 %
2008/7/13 14:51:1 63 91 % 31 % 0 % 59 %
2008/7/13 14:51:5 63 78 % 4 % 0 % 59 %
2008/7/13 14:51:9 65 80 % 1 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:51:13 64 78 % 3 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:51:17 66 76 % 1 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:51:21 65 75 % 3 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:51:25 65 75 % 0 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:51:29 66 72 % 0 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:51:33 67 73 % 3 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:51:37 68 77 % 6 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:51:41 68 80 % 22 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:51:45 68 83 % 0 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:51:49 68 77 % 1 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:51:53 68 80 % 2 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:51:57 68 80 % 17 % 0 % 60 %
2008/7/13 14:52:1 68 82 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:5 70 82 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:9 70 69 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:13 71 81 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:17 71 73 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:21 71 80 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:25 71 75 % 5 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:29 71 76 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:33 71 89 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:37 71 83 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:41 71 87 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:45 71 82 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:49 71 88 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:53 71 82 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:52:57 70 81 % 86 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:1 71 81 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:5 71 81 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:9 70 85 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:13 71 80 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:17 70 79 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:21 71 82 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:25 71 79 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:29 70 83 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:33 71 84 % 4 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:37 70 80 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:41 70 84 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:45 71 85 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:49 69 90 % 2 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:53 70 83 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:53:57 70 80 % 5 % 0 % 62 %
2008/7/13 14:54:1 70 79 % 0 % 0 % 61 %
2008/7/13 14:54:5 71 88 % 0 % 0 % 61 %


EDIT: Tried it again later with fan on 100%, it lasted longer 5-10 mins but still crashed. So looks like i dont have much choice :(

what case have you got?

and can you explain clearly what cooling you got altogether ie:

have you changed stock fans for case, motherboard,VGA, ect??

have you got fan controller?

check VGA stock working....?

My case

3 Fans (the side and rear) have been changed for the ones linked in previous post, sharkoon. Thats all i have changed, heatsink is this. Graphics card cooler is stock. I do have case fan controllers but dont use them. The cooler is working as when i set it from 60 to 85 or 100% you can hear it working.

the cpu cooler you got pretty bad tbh, id get a different one. maybe a sycth or a 120 heatsink+fan ulrathermite

Well, hopefully I'm getting a E8400 soon, and my cpu idles at around 30 deg so cant be taht bad.

if you get a e8400 make sure to get a decent cpu cooler.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shadowcreaper

if you get a e8400 make sure to get a decent cpu cooler.

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why is that? if you are refering to the "fault" with the e8400's having high temps then your incorrect, they perform well and are cool but it is infact the bios and chipsets that report the wrong temps along with the software, the intel boards seem to have no issue so this is purely software or motherboard issue. Mines running fine with the Arctic 7 pro, low speed and it still keeps it below 50C well thats what it is reported at so more like 35~

If I do get a new mobo, i will be buying a decent HSF for the E8400. However, I'm concentrating on wanting to play crysis on my 8800GTX atm, but for some reason i cant most likely due to overheating, so can we try and fix that please :P :D

use rivatuner to set the fan to 100%

Tried and done, merely prolongs the crashes by a few mins. I wouldn't have thought it would be crashing at like 70deg.

So, bottom line, resit the heatsink? If so, i'd rather just run it into the ground and then get a HD 4870x2 if/when they come out :P

The airflow in your case looks good, it probably is the cooler not making good contact with your card... it's not hard to take the cooler off and reapply the thermal paste, there are many guides on the internet showing you how to do it. if you really don't wanna take it apart then yeah, run it into the ground and get a new animal :)

It's tempting to get a cheap mobo and just overclock it until it dies. But that would be a waste of silicon right? :P

think about the trees... :D

unless of course you get an Asus board; then you'd be curing the sick and healing the blind; the boards even have a tree stamped on it to prove it.

Hahaha, yeah, but you end up having to send them back due to being faulty D:

Are asus boards actually any good? 2/3 boards i have had from them have been faulty, I dunno whether this is my bad luck or just asus.

Well, just come off a half hour session, its a new record! It is to do with heat i think, I'm sat here in 2 in the morning with the window wide open and the light off not to attract bugs, and fan set to 100%. It lasted a fair while, but then just crashed :(

The main reason i don't want to buy a new heatsink is that i'd rather put that money towards a new GPU anyway, and, if i did change the heatsink/reseat it and mess up then i can't afford a new one atm :(

Always a good reason... sound reasoning behind that argument. Stick to your guns and ignore everyone that's trying to spend your money :D

Shouldn't really be crashing at 70 degC tbh...is it overclocked at all?

No, i did overclock it at the start but not by much, i brought it back to normal speeds once it started crashing cos i thought that was the cause of the instability.

Well, if it's not clocked and you don't want to spend any money on extra cooling, there is not much more you can do other than, take side of case off, put fan to 100%, add extra fan pointing at it, make sure the fan and heatsink are not full of dust.

If you have done all of the above, maybe the card is faulty (RMA time?) or maybe driver issue.

Yeah, i've tried different drivers and some just make it worse lol. I might order more fans next time i get something off scan etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AdamAnubis

Yeah, i've tried different drivers and some just make it worse lol. I might order more fans next time i get something off scan etc.

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Are you sure you wouldn't like to try taking the cooler of and reapplying the thermal paste?

Might be the simplest and quickest solution to your problem as your case looks to have good airflow.

Also does it crash in other games or just crysis?

Mainly dx10 games, its fine with tf2 css, crashed a couple of times in comapny of heroes, but not that often. Tbh, i want a new card anyway, will be a good excuse to get one if it dies :p

Your temps don't seem that high for a 8800GTX. Mine was hitting 85ish C with the stock cooler until I changed it (which wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be)

A cheap way for you to finish Crysis take the side panel off and point a house fan at the card(assuming you have one or can can beg, borrow or steal one)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reapsy

A cheap way for you to finish Crysis take the side panel off and point a house fan at the card(assuming you have one or can can beg, borrow or steal one)

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Tried that, didn't fix it :P The temps at the start were 49 deg, dunno what they hit but it crashed after about 10 mins :/

As the other posters have said it doesn't sound like you have many choices left. Can you RMA it?

Nope. It was a ebay jobby cos i wanted to get rid of my 8600GT with something a little more powerful. In hienzsight i know i shouldn't have, but heinzsight is a great thing :P

Are you definitely sure it is the GFX causing the lockups? (Sorry, I have been reading and re-reading many threads so if you mentioned before why, I apologise.)

No problem, and I'm not 100% sure no. It just seems like the most logical. It's either the PSU not giving it enough power, even though i know a few people with the exact same psu and had no problems, or my CPU is maxing out and crashing. It runs at around 30 deg so i wouldn't have thought that would be the problem. I ran memtest and that showed no problems with my RAM.

A while ago, at the same time i got 2gb more RAM and swapped the 8600GT for a 8800GTX. Prior to these upgrades, i could play Assassins creeds with lagg, but my comp didnt crash. After the upgrade it crashes. This is why i recon its GPU. Also, I don't think it's RAM due to the fact that when i googled the same problem, people said it was either their PSU or GPU overheating etc.

I'd try running a few tests again.

Try memtest86+ again say, overnight and see what happens. If nothing, try stress testing your cpu with Prime95 overnight again (while you sleep). That should eliminate with a high degree of confidence, the CPU and RAM. If you have a spare good quality PSU, swap them around. and try again. I believe Moogle (a user on here) told me about a GPU testing program that he uses. I think this is the program he told me about.

Nothing here is 100% but it'll give you a good ball park of where the problem may lie.

Yeah, thats the plan of action tbh. Unfortunately i dont have a spare PSU, so i might get one of the 650W corsairs when i can afford.

Did you say it only crashes in DX10 only games? Could it be driver conflict rather than hardware fault?

I've tried different drivers and no luck tbh. I once tried EvE online with it, and it crashed in that.

Ok, i dont think its heat. I took the side of and got a freestanding fan pointed at it, it dropped to 49 deg, i loaded crysis, it didn't even get to the loading screen where it says 'singleplayer' etc, and then crashed. I'll run memtest and Prime 95 etc.
I'm stumped as to what it is now.

bios updates
chipset updates
youve tried video driver updates
directX update
network card drivers
soundcard driver updates (this can fark up most games)
you could even disable the soundcard and test that way ?
spyware scan with spybot and adaware
disable anti virus and play games to test

theres so many variables to consider

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AdamAnubis

Nope. It was a ebay jobby cos i wanted to get rid of my 8600GT with something a little more powerful. In hienzsight i know i shouldn't have, but heinzsight is a great thing :P

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Demz da beanz.

Have you tried it without the 2 new sticks of ram? Only suggestings this coz you said it was fine b4 you changed the gpu and added ram.

I've tried a BIOS update but it wouldn't work, not tried chipset or soundcard updates, however i am gonna try disabling my soundcard and trying it. I haven't tried it with only 2 sticks of RAM, mainly cos i thought if it was gonna be dodgy RAM it would of affected otherstuff.

Would uploading my dxdiag help you at all? Just so you could have a flick through and see what everything is etc? I've updated graphics drivers, am just waiting for it to ruin everything like it usually does :p

nah dxdiags not that much help, just update drivers and directX and see how u get on

I have to say that "I got the card from E-Bay" rings alarms for me....is the card second-hand? If it is, then do you know for sure if the card was overclocked or not? Its quite possible that it was, and that has affected the card. Certainly the temps you are reporting are not really bad...

Yeah, the guy i got it from said that he hadn't done anything to it, and everythign was on the default clocks and the reason he was selling was to 'upgrade' to a Mac. IMO It isnt the card, it works fine for tf2, css, comapny of heroes and all the dx9 games without artifacting or anything. It doesnt artifact in crysis, the system just hangs as with all dx10 games. I've updated my drivers to 175.19 and just tried crysis, still crashes.

Where can i update directX from? It's worth a try ^^. Its not temps, it crahsed on the loading screen once at 52 degress.

And i know it was stupid to buy it from ebay, but I've learnt from my mistakes don't worry :p

So you have 4 sticks of RAM installed?

Some interesting reading by Corsair...its a PDF document btw :)

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-memory/14...ere-first.html

link to the application note is there.

Definitely try just 2 sticks of RAM and see what happens. What OS are you using?

Vista 64bit. I'll have a read.

For some reason, i can't or dont know how to alter the voltages etc on my RAM, i looked when i checked them once i installed.

I blame Vista then for all your woes. lol. It isn't something as simple as maybe you are using, say 32bit video drivers for 64 bit OS?

Not that i know of, when the driver states 64 or 32, i do go for the 64bit. :p
I'll try the RAM thing later.

:lol:

Sorry wasn't meaning to undermine your intellect there, but for me, it's always the simple things that catch me out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AdamAnubis

I need a cheap and easy way to just take some of the heat of my GTX. It hardlocks when im in crysis or other high end games. I don't want to spend £30 on a new heatsink for the card, as this is fiddly and i cba cos i'll probs screw it up. I just want some ideas to take off some of the heat so i can play crysis without hardlocks. :D

I was thinking about one of these:
System Exhaust Blower
Or getting a 80MM fan and sticking on the back of the GTX on the ouside of the case to 'suck' air out from the heatsink's 2nd slot. Or get my spare 120mm fan and whack under neath the card blowing air onto it. My case cables need tidying up, but i doubt that will make much of an impact.


Will any of these ideas be particulary effective?

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probably abit late now, but i have a similar product on my old rig which i bought for it when it was overheating and it did help in exhausting heat, so i thought i'd put it on my new rig to see if it makes any difference, but it right underneath the gfx card, and it did nowt all, just made my rig louder and was drawing in dust, so i just put it back in my old rig, wont make much a difference.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sleepyhead

:lol:

Sorry wasn't meaning to undermine your intellect there, but for me, it's always the simple things that catch me out.

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Haha, no problem, however it was extremely hard to not post a overly sarcastic comment like 'No, I'm trying to install XP drivers on Vista' :p

And yeah, well it's not heat, i've seen GTX's running at 100Deg before they complain, so i don't think that is the problem anymore.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AdamAnubis

Yeah, the guy i got it from said that he hadn't done anything to it, and everythign was on the default clocks and the reason he was selling was to 'upgrade' to a Mac. IMO It isnt the card, it works fine for tf2, css, comapny of heroes and all the dx9 games without artifacting or anything. It doesnt artifact in crysis, the system just hangs as with all dx10 games. I've updated my drivers to 175.19 and just tried crysis, still crashes.

Where can i update directX from? It's worth a try ^^. Its not temps, it crahsed on the loading screen once at 52 degress.

And i know it was stupid to buy it from ebay, but I've learnt from my mistakes don't worry :p

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I wasn't thinking so much of the issue being heat. If the previous owner OC'd the crap out of it, the RAM or GPU could be damaged, giving you the results you see. I've seen something similar with a 6800GT. 2d was fine, 3d was fine for a bit, then would crash. The problem got steadily worse...

Hmm yeah. Could it be my RAM is overheating? I've not tried taking the RAM out yet, as i cba and don't want to break it cos its working atm :p And i can't remember which is the original RAM and the RAM that i added :(

Edit: Just tried it again but this time managed to get some everest (all-beit trial) logs just before it crashed. Just trying to upload it now.

Here


PS. Also, the sound was crackly and laggy ingame. It was insync with firing and everything, but just crackly. I've updated sound drivers n everything, and is the same if i use onboard or sound card.

I'm not sure how much Everest can be trusted on voltages, but your 5V line is 8% over from that log. IIRC that PSU is suspiciously cheap. And it's funny how often odd problems turn out to be the PSU...

Hmmm, Ok. I'll probs get a new one when i can afford it. Either a 650W or a 750W Corsair. What are the basic needs for a HD4870?

A single HD4870 will run perfectly OK on the 520W Corsair, you'd need the 650W for Xfire. But it would be best to try another PSU first, just to check that this is the issue.

Anyway you can test the RAM with Memtest86, which is always a good idea.

Ran memtest once, no probs but it took an hour and i wanted the computer so only let it do 1 pass. I would try the card in a mates machine, but none of their computers are powerful enough lol.

Having re-read the whole thread again, as this is a second hand card, you really ought to take off at least the cover and check that the GPU HSF isn't clogged by dust. This can result in a big temperature difference (easily 10C). I would strongly suggest that you do this.

IMO the sound problem is probably something else entirely, but the GPU isn't dust as above then probably the first guy OC'd it too much and damaged the GPU. I don't like the PSU being out of spec, but the regular nature of the crashing makes the video card the likely culprit.