Computer flickering black/freezing during games

[Gothch1ck]

Most Noticed during Sims 3 my girl friends PC is having issues.

She has a Radeon HD 4870 video card, same CPU as me, 1 stick of her RAM has a part of a copper pin missing so we took it out (anyone know if it can be fixed for use? it's literally 1/2 a 'pin' gone, and that's it) so she's running on just 4GB RAM instead of the 6.

Not real sure what her motherboard or anythign is, or brands of a lot, it was a "IBUYPOWERPC" make I think.. so blah on them.

Her screens pretty old - but that wouldn't cause the game to freeze, would it?


Anyone know what it could be? We did fix the colouration problem - the GPU only had DVI, so she had to use a VGA to DVI adapter, which caused weight and pulled down on the connection slightly, giving distortion, it's now being propped up and supported gently.

 

[Gothch1ck]

*El-Bump-o*

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Driver update? How hot does the card get under load?

 

[Gothch1ck]

She's done driver updates and not really sure, it's never had GPUz say it's overheating or anything though. Never really get to "load" status, normally Sims 3 starts to flicker right away when it's loaded up.

Tried under-clocking the GPU because select models had a issue with running over 900mhz (so set to 900mhz which is the lowest) but it didn't help. It was only set to 925mhz from the Power PC seller.

I'll have to have her run tests to see how hot it's getting. What's really strange is when I am there messin with it - the sims was running fine, no flickers at all. I leave and suddenly it's problematic again.



*UPDATE*
GPU Temp hit 85C, but didn't flicker before she got off. (according to GPUZ) when she plays again she's gonna play til it flickers/freezes and record the temps.


I have a HD 4890, she has a HD4870, and there's a deal for a HD4870x2 but I hear they overheat a lot? I was thinking of buying the x2 model, and letting her use it, and then crossfiring her old 4870 with my 4890 for a slight improvement on my system (not much really, mostly just using 2 GPU at lower speeds/loads to accomplish the same results, so less heat involved)

Would that be a decent Idea? or do you think the x2 would overheat in her system (assuming heat is the problem in the first place) and maybe toss her my 4890 and use the 4870 myself (with 4870x2 in crossfire, be like 3xHD4870s working together, should out perform 4890 in a blink)

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Well usually for GPU heat problems you'll get artifacting, if she's just getting flickering then there may be other problems. Course an easy way to rule out the GPU is to switch your 4890 around with her 4870 and see if she still gets issues. Also stress test the **** out of the 4870 while you've got it to make sure it does/doesn't have faults.

I'd suggest doing that before buying the 4870x2, just because it won't take long and if the problem turns out to be non-gpu related then it'll be a pointless upgrade at this stage

 

[Gothch1ck]

I was debating the whole HD 4000 series at this time anyway, since the 6970 is the current "top dog" model - and that means within a few months the 7000 series will be rolling around.

Not so hot on Dual GPU cards anyway - cuz they run hotter, seems to me they run hotter then 2 individual cards but that may just be me.

Now... I know the war between Nvid and Ati still rages on, but boiling it down to cold hard facts - how is this "phys-x" stuff Nvidia keeps blabbin about? Does it really matter?

I have a feeling at least 1 of us is going to end up with a newer card, and so I might as well start the research for the next thing I can afford that would be an upgrade (either same graphics performance as my 4890 now and lower power usage or lower temperatures/noise, or straight up more power)

Honestly though I don't see the purpose of either of us upgrading our GPUs - we don't play on Gi-friggin-normous Screens (hers is smaller then mine, trying to get her to mine) and I only play 1920x1080 max anyway.

Heck most the time that's if the game supports 1920x1080. I don't think I've ever played on anything higher.




What all should I try? Plan to swap out GPUs with her, if it still flickers while Iam there, what else should we try? RAM? Can't really think what all would cause screen flickering/freeze ups

WAIT
might have found the issue.

Her native resolution is 1280 x 1024, but she set it higher so it looks nicer/easier to see.


apparently it flickers even not in a game... maybe the Monitor is going bad?

Her describing the 2 flickering:
"like in game my whole screen freezes, goes black, and then pops back. this.. everything just fades like a shadow passes over the screen "

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Eew, old monitor. Yeah that could possibly be the cause, could even be the actual caps in the monitor getting old and starting to leak.

As for PhysX, it's a nice thing to have but don't base your purchase off it. That's coming from a nvidia fanboy