XFX 8800 ULTRA XXX Problem

[Recoil]

Its quite simple really tbh - 8800 GTX's that have been overclocked (like the EVGA 8800 Series, have all been overclocked pretty much to the limit in which its "safe" to work in) The ultra is exactly the same board/chips/core to be honest, and they think that a new cooler will sort it all and make it work well. Problem is the DDR3 chips are already at the limit and no matter what "air" cooling they use - it will never work.

Watercooling seems the be the only solution which can cope with keeping the memory @ decent temps - imo I would always go for a GTX which has been clocked a little perhaps.. and stick with it - the ultra is one big hype and for companies to say "look how big our e-peens are, as we have overclocked it by 2 mhz more than X company"

I really hope you guys get things fixed, and that you can truely enjoy such a decent series of card without worrying about temps/clock speeds and so on

[roorooroo]

I really hope you guys get things fixed, and that you can truely enjoy such a decent series of card without worrying about temps/clock speeds and so on

Yeah, i hope so too. I spent half my time trying to cool down my x1900xt (over 100 degrees load) before i started enjoying the speed of the thing.

[slickric21]

I was reading last week that some 8800 ultras are "true" ultras eg, new memory/chips and others are just standard gtx overclocked.
It also stated that the max attainable overclock on a normal gtx that the core modules can physically handle is around the 675mhz mark (didn't mention memroy though), whereas the "true" ultras could go higher.

Thing is i can't find it again, but I know it was a blue webpage !!??!!?

I just wonder whether the cards that are freezing are the oc gtx's - not the "real deal" ultras.

At last here it is - several weeks late

http://www.beyond3d.com/content/reviews/15

[Chris_MaDmAx]

got me 8800 ultra sent back no problem full refund i ended up having to order the card i wanted from another, i didn't want to as i quite like Scan good service but all of their top GTX cards were on pre-order and i need this PC up and running for an upcoming UK lan party (i-31). so anywayz i ended up getting the EVGA 8800 GTX and so far its been running perfect none of this freezing crap. and max out games and runs perfect only problem i'm having is with Call of duty 2 MP, the single player works fine but the multiplayer crashes werid dunno why grrr still something i need to sort out...one day i'll get to play games on my PC hehe

anwayz the point of me posting back was to say thanx to the ppl who helped me out mainly slickric21.

if you are still messing around with the ultra cards in a week or more time i think its worth forgetting them and just get a GTX, i know you prob want the best card you can get thats what i wanted but tbh this card performs VERY well with the games. other than CoD2 MP atm

[ukengineer]

Make sure COD2 on latest 1.3 patch.

If still having probs, pm me, bit of a COD freak....... I got one server atm which crashes the game, but all my other servers i frequent play fine, try another server too.

[slickric21]

Glad you got sorted Chris_MaDmAx,

I don't play COD2 but try what ukengineer suggests and also check what drivers you are using !

Go for the lastest offical ones 158.22 , unless the 162.18 betas specificly fix your problem then try those.

[slickric21]

Well i've been reluctant to post this as I didn't want to tempt fate, but the freezing seems to have stopped with my new build (e6850,asus SE 680i)

On a side note I can't believe the improvement the E6850 has made to the overall performance of the 8800 ultra xxx, before with my amd x2 4800+ I was being restricted in games like DiRT and R6 Vegas - now i'm running em both at 1680x1050 - (high setting R6, med settings DiRT) with 4x AA and according to fraps I'm getting around 60Fps in either !!!!!!!!!!

Needless to say both games look simply stunning with 4xAA at this res.

I'll do some more testing..................

[slickric21]

Awwww B******s

Its just froze up, what a jerk.

[slickric21]

Well XFX who have finally given up on the support with this issue and have told me return the card to the supplier for testing........ again.

[markbrown83]

Goto the nvidia site. New drivers were just released - v 162 or something.

Give that a try before RMA.

[GoNz0]

and if new drivers fail then make sure scan know your sending it to them to be sent on to XFX so it can be put on test equipment, not a "test rig"

otherwise your going to wind up with a fault not found

[slickric21]

Goto the nvidia site. New drivers were just released - v 162 or something.

Give that a try before RMA.

Yeah i've been running the 162.16 betas for the last week or so and they went offical recently. I did switch to the 162.18 official yesterday and no joy.

[MetalRush]

slickric: just return that crap-card... I did and got me an ASUS 8800 Ultra, which runs smoooooooth
Can do ALL games (Battlefield2142, Colin McRae DIRT, GTR2, Supreme Commander, etc) on high(-est) details with 4x AA and all, with NO noticable difference in FPS (also according to fraps).
Even tweaked my pc (E6600) to 3 Ghz, runs like a charm

Bye, bye XFX... too bad you didn't learn from your errors in the past (and what a lousy support you have )

[slickric21]

Well its going back for a 2nd RMA tommorow.

Its not frozen for a day or so now and I had XFX support on the phone friday who have told me its a thermal issue with these cards.

If you crank the fan speed up to 80% or higher with rivatuner it runs fine.
The problem lies with its bios and the fan speeds. It doesn't increase its speed to above the default 60% level untill it gets to around 90'c - by which time on my card its too late as it freezes around the mid 80'c level (Making an educated guess)

As the weather has been cooler the last few days - the card hasn't got up to those temps even whilst playing DiRT (which usually nails it) so it hasn't frozen.

This would probably explain why it came back to me NFF after the first RMA, as Scan tested it in an open case (probably on an airconditioned office) so it may not have reached higher temps to make it freeze.

However the point is this card SHOULD run fine at the temps mine is running at, i've never seen it go above 85'c under extreme load - if it has gone higher i don't know how high because of course it locked the system up

I've read whilst searching around that some of these cards are hitting over 100'c under load.
Mine can only dream of getting that hot ,not that i'd want it too of course, after the extra cooling I installed for it (near start if thread for details)

Also it would be interesting to hear from anyone who has got one of these cards which has run fine with no problems at all............if there is such a person, Otherwise it could be time for a different brand if I get the chance for a Replacement/Refund

[MetalRush]

...time for a different brand, I'd say.
I've had 3 XFX XXX cards... all 3 with the same problems... stay away from XFX

[linnx88]

Just here to say I have the EXACT same problem with the MSI 8800 Ultra OC factory clocked @ 660/2300 and running stable @ 635/2200. I will however try the fan speed changes today and see if that does anything. Here's a link to forum post regarding MSI Ultra8800 OC problems.

forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=109733.0