8800GTS 640 ssc, asus p5q pro, somethings not right.

[thedude400]

Just bought the card used from greedbay. The card works fine for general windows apps and even plays an 8gb 1080p movie file. But for some reason when I start my mmorpg game theres major problems, artifacts, and strange images on the screen. I can't even move the charcter. The whole computer basically becomes frozen. I'm generally suspicious of the power supply (though I've run a ATI 4850 on it just fine before) Here's my system.

Asus P5Q Pro
C2D E8400
4gb Gskill PC2-8000 RAM
Antec Earthwatts EA 500 - 500 Watt PSU
EVGA- eGeforce 8800GTS ssc edition

Fan is running fine on the card. I plugged in the power connector into the 8800 from the PSU. The card seems to be as secure in the slot as possible. Everything boots up beautifully but as soon as I go to game it's just an absolute disaster. I haven't switched PCI-E slots or fiddled with RAM configurations yet and I will right now, but I highly doubt That's the problem. Everything is running at stock with no overclocking.

Is my power supply suspect? The box says minimum requirements is to have 26 amps at least on the +12V rail. I'm reading the Antec specs and I don't really know how to find that information correctly. Any help is appreciated.

 

[carnageX]

Have you tried downclocking it? How many amps are on the 12v rails on your PSU (you can check the PSU by physically looking at the sticker on the side of it).

Could try running a stress test on it with ATiTool.

 

[thedude400]

I went and looked at the amp rating on the 12v rail and it looks like it's only 17 maximum (if I'm reading correctly). That must be the issue after all. Crap I was hoping I wouldn't need a new PSU.

Now I'm wondering if I should just go back to a 4850 since I know it will run will this power supply, or get a new power supply.

I guess I could have figured this out on my own but thanks for the reply carnageX.

Doing some reading I find that 26amps is needed combined from the 2 +12volt rails. I found this information here Do you really need 26 amps on a single +12v rail for 8800gts
and also right here XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB & 8800 GTX XXX Editions - HotHardware .

So that would mean I have a combined 34volts and I should be fine correct? I'm very confused. The box says and I quote "minimum of 26 amps on the +12volt rail." The word rail is not plural on the box. Now I'm back to square one.... confused. Can anyone shed some light?

 

[Peter.Cort]

the 4850 is faster anyway...

 

[philbar71]

why would you go down grading to a 8800gts. and the card is not overheating is it? it could be dying of old age. have you tried any different games?

 

[thedude400]

I bought the 4850 for myself then gave it to my little brother as a birthday gift, I didn't want to downgrade but I'm not a huge gamer. Any thing 8800 is plenty for my uses.

I have yet to try any other games which I will do soon.

Dying of old age? I thought the 640mb ssc's were relatively new, are they older cards?

Either way this is really annoying the crap out of me. I wonder if not deleting my old ATI drivers/catalyst could be causing this.

 

[carnageX]

Both the 320 and 640mb cards are old. the GTS 512mb is newer and performs better, as does the 8800GT (slightly less powerful than the GTS 512mb).