Hi guys, i'm totally bewildered by a ridiculously weird issue with my GTX280. When i run any game it appears that the card is literally using 10% of its power (even when i force performance 3d mode). I load up a game and the card's temperature actually decreases, while staying in performance mode. For example, in the nurien tech demo i get 50fps smack on with no AA/AF. But this is the weirdest bit, when i switch on 16x AA, 16x AF, i get 52fps average. :3eyes: This is the only way i can get the card to heat up, and its only marginal. I'm half leveraged on RMA'ing it, but i'm sure its a driver issue. I managed to fix my ridiculously poor 30fps in orbiter by formatting back to XP (back up to 150-200fps in 16x AA/AF. FSX however still struggles like hell! Does anyone have any suggestions on how i can fix this weird issue? Thanks
Check your GTX280's clocks. Check your PSU's voltages. See if theres any difference with different driver version.
Install the latest whql drivers, the first few drivers had an issue with the card getting stuck in 2d/low power 3d mode. ps. if reformating to xp fixed it then it's definately a driver/software issue.
I've forced Performance 3D clocks. I've tried every latest driver revision, i will do a reboot and have a check at the voltages. EDIT: 12v rail is 11.968v, which from what i believe is normal and well within the atx spec.
I've literally formatted about 6 hours ago, its a totally fresh install. The problem still persists :-/ Orbiter is now sorted, but fsx on the other hand still struggles. I can get from about 10fps to about 20fps with 16x aa and af, which is totally ridiculous lol.
Ok, just to make sure, try to RMA your card, if it still persits, it's one less option for us to check.
Looks like the PSU is not powerful enough & I think whoever made your gtx will tell you this when you tell them your system specs for rma.
650w and can chuck 52 amp's down the 12v rail. For the components in this pc, its more than sufficient. Even though it makes weird noises a lot of the time.
use GPU Z to double check things.. Force settings Via Riva Tuner.. Make sure u install different drivers also.. Plus AA sometimes hardly makes a difference with the GTX280 at most points.. Also make sure ur installing ur audio drivers correctly and everything else properly.. Any other twist could be responsible..
GPU Z reports correct speeds, forced through rivatuner. I'm considering uninstalling back to the 178.xx drivers, if i remember correctly, these actually worked. The funny thing is, i get 11500-12000 GPU marks in vantage with this card, i just fail to understand why it won't work on slightly older games. All the latest games work fine, farcry2/crysiswarhead etc.
I read some where that people have had auto down clocking issues.. Maybe u need to monitor ur clock speeds while playing those games.. Turn the RivaTuner monitoring graph on.. That'll clear things out for u.. About the drivers , yeah they can some times be a bitch.. But remember , if it's something weird and if all ur tpyical efforts cant get it fixed.. Then it's probably something that seems least likely to u.. I'll give u an example , I had horrible performance and changing the sound card drivers fixed that for me.. It's just an example , it just as well could be something like the chipset drivers...etc.. Dont worry if it's doing things correctly in benchmarks and most new games.. I do not think u need to be worried , since it's something small and rare.. it's going to take patience and effort together.. Clear thinking..
That was one of the biggest issues i had, thats why i had to force the performance 3d. It constantly downclocked while in fsx and orbiter. The clocks are rock solid now, and don't move, just performance is on the level of 2d mode. It's almost as if, its a driver issue thinking that the game is in 2d mode, and doesn't recognise the fact that it needs all the power it can chuck at it. Orbiter is now fixed, it was fixed upon formatting to XP. Totally bewildering me this! Which points towards drivers yet again lol. Thoroughly annoying as i just paid 30 quid for the new fspassengers and would love to play it with good fps! :/ Landing in 10fps is a pain to say the least! Yep i can appreciate that! I was considering switching off my HD audio onboard to my creative x-fi card, one of the reasons i left it off was creatives appaling Vista support. Lost about 50% of what the card could do in vista. Will install the latest creative drivers see if that helps. Thats what my clocks looked like before forcing. However, no matter if it switched between full power 3d and low power 2d, the performance in FSX remained constant.
Try some older driver and see if that helps.. Probably a driver issue then , since this is the only game the seems to be having this issue..hMm..
Well CRAP! Now you've FORCED me to install FSX to see if I have any issues. I've got it and the Expansion Pack with SP1 and DX10 support....be back...:banana:
Managed to increase fps to 30-60 now in FSX, by setting everything to ultra high bar the scenary, ive reduced the scenary complexity from 50 to 0. FSX is now playable, but is still clearly not using the card to its max, as the temps only increase to 71, ive seen it at 84 full load with fan at 100%.
Down clocking (GPU throttling) by the drivers is normally caused by the card having insufficient power when it needs it when using high settings.
