I recently switched from an ATI 9800 Pro to a 6800 GT (First a BFG OC which was flaky under load and finally a PNY Verto which I added a NV Silencer 5 to).. It'd been a long time since I'd worked with Nvidia drivers (for video, both of my computers are NForce based).. And I'd forgotten about the beta fun and the flakiness.. Anyway, after reading a lot of posts and fighting again and again with various programs, I thought I'd compile my results and discoveries and see if anyone could add their knowledge to them.. My system specs are: Athlong 64 3000+ 1gig ram Nforce-3 150 mobo 6800GT (not overclocked although I can take it up to 425/1.15 if I want to.. No real need though..) Audigy 2 ZS All games run fine.. Demos and benchmarks are another matter.. Nvidia 6800 demos (Nalu, Timbury, etc..) What I've discovered: if you're getting blank screens or superslow framerates, turn off Dualview.. (Works fine in single monitor or clone mode, croaks in dualview).. 3dMark 03: Dies after 1st test with generic error.. This is driving me nuts as I've had it working off and on with and without overclocking. I had it working and I'm not sure when it stopped, but I've tried bios adjustments and multiple driver sets and it just won't go back to working.. 3dmark 05: runs, but menus get flaky around the time of the CPU tests.. If you're getting crashing or long hiccups in games (as I was with the BFG card), take it back.. It's most likely crappy connection between the heat sink and the memory.. The 6800 automatically throttles down when it gets too hot, so I believe if it gets too high, it freezes up for a few seconds while it cools down.. The BFG and PNY reported similar temps with the stock cooling, but the PNY ran fine where the BFG tanked.. I'm 90 percent sure that this has more to do with how well connected the heatsink is over anything else.. If you've put a NV Silencer 5 on any card short of the Ultra you quickly realize that the stock cooling is CRAP.. They don't even use proper thermal paste on the memory, just these horrible little pads.. Anyone got anything to add.. Especially about the 3dmark03 issue (which is the only one that's actively holding me up..) I'm really thinking this has more to do with WinXP SP2 than it does the 6800... Milquetoast..
Run prime95 in torture test overnight. Most likely your overclock is making the system unstable. Whats your psu?
No overclock.. System is perfectly stable.. I am 100% sure that the 3dmark 03 issue is a configuration bug.. I just can't figure out exactly what it is that's making it crash.. I've actually had this same problem crop up before.. With ATI cards of all things.. Problem is 3dMark05 is out now, so no one pays attention.. If it helps.. Demo runs fine 100 percent overclocked and normal clocked.. Everything else runs fine normal and overclocked (and like I say, I keep the system clocked at stock rates - 350/1.0 - because there's no real reason to overclock).. When 3dMark03 was running even IT worked fine normal and overclocked.. No this is some dumb configuration setting somewhere that's making it crash right after the first test completes (with an error log showing up for SI3.Dll in the 3dmark03 directory).. I just can't figure out what it is.. ANd since everything else is working perfectly (all other benchmarks and about a good baker's dozen games including EQ, Doom3, FarCry, and CS:S) I don't want to mess too much.. In fact.. The last thing I remember doing was turning off some aspect of XP SP2 because it was making UT:2003 and 2004 crash upon exit.. I can't be sure that's it, though.. You know how it is.. You find one problem and work on it til it's fixed.. And only way later do you find out that something that was working before has stopped.. But I guarantee it's not heat or overclocking issues, or a defect in the card..
3dMark03 Found an answer to my own question.. This from the futuremark forums: http://discuss.futuremark.com/forum...317303&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=1 In case the link doesn't work what it boils down to is they say that the 3dmark03 crash issue is a known problem on some machines after installing SP2, and they plan to address it with an upcoming patch.. Anyway, the point of all this was I was seeing a lot of confused people having problems with this app or that app, and wanted to see if I could compile a list of known issues and whether they were driver problems, hardware problems, program bugs, or OS issues.. So far most issues seem to be heat related (when overclockers get texture issues or crashes).. But here's 2 cases where it's definitely not the card: 1) If you have problems with the NVidia demos (especially Nalu or Timbury) such as black screen or super slow framerates and you have multiple monitors.. Try setting your system to single monitor or clone mode. 2) If 3dMark03 runs the first test perfectly then crashes to the desktop with an unspecified error.. And you have SP2 on your system, wait for the patch.. I figure if these issues are known it might save some poor soul from rushing out and reinstalling their whole OS.. Which is what I was almost ready to do.. Milque
