Problems with radeonX1950pro AGP

[Fana]

So i got one of these cards today. After installing it i was very pleased with the quality of its performance (tried it in WoW), maxed settings on everything and very high fps etc. But then after having played about 1.5 hours when i was in a graphically intensive combat i suddenly lost videosignal. Rebooted and loged back on and after 15 min the same thing happened again. Rebooted and in again, set all settings to low and played another 30 min without problems.

Updated drivers to Catalyst 7.2 and tried Oblivion. Set all settings high and started it. Ran beutifully and looked gorgous, but as soon as i got in a combat situation and an opponent cast a spell the fps pretty much froze. Got a frame maybe every 3 sec. Tried on lower settings and same thing.

Now i dont know what it might be. Someone suggested before i got the card that i might not have enough power to use it as my PSU is a 460w, and not superquality. Apparantly the card draws 200w all by itself.

Since ive had trouble both with the driver the card came with and the latest one off ATI website i doubt its the driver?

Does it sound like it could be a power issue? I mean the card works fine for a period and then suddenly just dies, sounds a bit like its not getting the power it needs to perform that last bit for an intensive combat doesnt it? Or does it not work like that? Does it always draw the same ammount and either works or doesnt?

Doubts its s heat issue btw, since its supposed to be the best cooled x1950 on the market (PowerColour, they use Zalman parts for their stock cooling).

 

[SheepCow]

If it's a 460w PSU and you've got loads of hard drives etc. it could be power issues, but tbh it sound like overheating to me.

 

[tris-]

tryed unseating and reseating it?

 

[Fana]

I downloaded ATI Tray Tools to monitor temperatures etc and the card never went above 48c which seemed to support the theory that it wasnt getting enough juice. So, i went and bought a Zalman 600w psu with 4 12V rails, each 16A, that can deliver 504w. Connected it all tonight and fired up the computer again. Tried Oblivion again. Same shit. Also monitoring my fps and not really getting good fps even when not facing enemies that use spells etc, so looks like it is the card after all

Weird thing is that in WoW it seems fine, and give good fps with everything maxed, and no slowdown in intensive fights etc, it just lost videosignal suddenly. So weird

Not sure if i should just try and return the card (we have a distance-purchasing law here that says you can return stuff you buy online within 14 days if the goods isnt damaged or lessened in some way etc) or send it in as faulty and get a replacement, but with the risk that they find nothing wrong with it and just send it back and it turns out its some incompatibility issue with my motherboard or some such. Ive had a powercolor radeon card before though and it worked fine so i dont know what to think.

 

[Kryten]

It still rings a little of a heat problem - regardless of how well the cooling performs, it's not unknown for lower quality products to slip off the production line with a dry joint or similar electrical problems - the card hits a certain temperature and a solder joint warms up and works loose. The temperature won't even have to be that high in some cases and normal running temperature could certainly cause it.

You may have a friend that's willing to let you try the card in their PC to see if the problem replicates again. If it does, I'd look at sending the card back as intermittently faulty, describing the issue you're getting. I would also include that you've spoken to a couple of experts (sic) who can confirm the issue. Most manufacturers are quite good like this.
Even if you have to send it back to the people you bought it from, they might be idiots and return it to you saying its fine - just speak to Powercolour themselves and you'll probably fine they're a lot better at dealing with technical issuesl like this.

 

[Chilly]

hot potato! slap a bigger fan on that bitch.

 

[Fana]

Very weird but i tried to fool around with the settings in Oblivion again to see if there was something in particular that seemed to cause the massive slowdowns, and decided to try and run it in windowed mode.

Guess what?

Silky smooth. Tried upping the settings more and more and as long as i stay in windowed mode i can have pretty much maxed settings on most things at 1280x1024 2AA (full view distance, distant everything, full grass, full trees, water reflections, shadows etc) and get very playable fps. Had it running for over 2 hours with no slowdowns apart from small hitches when its loading a new area.

Seems to be some sort of driver issue after all then? My windows install is a bit of a mess so it was suggested on my mmoguilds forum that it might have something to do with that.

Also tried the only other game i have installed apart from WoW and Oblivion, which is Age of Empires 3 and it plays perfectly fine at maxed settings with individual unit/house shadows and resourcehungry stuff like that.

Gonna try WoW again and try to put some load on the card in there as well to see if it will crash with the new PSU or not. If its stable there as well i guess i will chalk it down to a combination of previously insufficent power and my crappy XP install.

 

[tris-]

you got it at a refresh rate suitable for your monitor?

if its too high it might fuck up?

 

[Fana]

Hmm dont think you can set refresh in the oblivion settings, but good thinking.
Anyway, it seems like im doing ok now. Been playing WoW for 2 hours without any problems and as stated previously Oblivion works fine in Windowed which leads me to believe there is nothing wrong with the actual hardware of the card.