Overheating Video Card?

[CorruptAssassin]

Hey all,

Last night, I ran 3dMark 05 after a long session playing a few graphic intensive demo's, etc. I should note I have an Albatron 6600GT.

Now, after finishing the benchmark with around 3000 3dMarks, I started up Vampire:The Masquerade bloodlines, and there was this weird black tearing effect at the top of the menu. The menu ran well, except for this weird black horizontal patch that would sort of warp on the spot.

Ok, so i exited that, and started up NFSU:2 demo, thinking it was something to do with the game... It went through the movies, got to the 3D menu part, and the monitor turned off (went into stanby- the green monitor light was blinking). The computer is still running.

Turn the PC off, run NFSU:2 again, same thing happens. Weird, considering Windows and any 2D stuff runs fine, with no graphic problems or anything. I even ran the diagnostic tests of dxdiag fine, including the 3d ones.

Had a shower for around 5 mins, came back after around 8-10 mins, started her up again, and everything was fine... played NFSU:2 demo for around 30 mins, had a small break, and proceeded to play HL:2 and Vampire, and a hack at the Doom 3 demo for the rest of the night (around 2-3 hours). The games ran flawlessly, esp Doom 3, on high settings and AA x4.

So, after my long story, is it possible the graphics card was overheating??? Are my problems symptoms of an overheating card? I just find it weird that windows, 2d apps, and dxdiag tests run fine, with no signs of any problems. There are also no artifacts in any games played.

 

[Nubius]

Well those cards have a temp monitor so you should check out your Idle temp and what your Load temp is after heavy gaming.

I too have had that happen where the screen shuts off, this is do to a hardware error I believe and whenever I rebooted windows would say it came out of a fatal error.

A changing of drivers corrected the problem for me so you might want to try that out.

What drivers are you using?

If you aren't using Forceware 66.93 I suggest you go pick those up from Nvidias website. They work nice for me and fixed that similar problem.

I don't know about the black tearing though...could just be the game because you would figure if it were overheating then you'd see a lot more artifacts

 

[CorruptAssassin]

thanks alot numbius, you've helped make me feel better, as I only got this card a few days ago!

I believe I do have the 66.93 drivers, and they have fixed similar errors that have occured before, such as in another game.

As I said, i have no graphical artifacts, and I play graphic intensive games such as doom 3, and HL2, with detail cranked to the max. Ive noticed nothing but smooth, sweet gameplay with these games, with great visual quality.

Hopefully, like you said, its a glitch that may happen every now and again, something i can live with. I'll wait till the new drivers come out, and see if I still have the problem.

BTW, how do I see my GPU's temperature???? There is nothing in the Nvidia drivers, and I cant seem to find anything from the net regarding a software GPU temp mon....

 

[Nubius]

You should be able to right click on your desktop then choose Properties.

From there click the Settings tab and then in the bottom right corner there is a button that says "Advanced"

Go in there and you should see a tab with your graphics card name on it. There are a lot of options in there once you click on that.

I have an FX 5700 and they didn't put in the Temp monitor until FX 5700 Ultra, so I can't check my GPU temps therefore I've never known where EXACTLY the temp monitor is, but it should be somewhere within that Advanced button

 

[CorruptAssassin]

hmm, had a look, and it doesn't seem to be in there... ill have a look around a bit more though

 

[Nubius]

google for a program called Riva Tuner

It's used to overclock the card, but it should also be able to give you your temps.

 

[CorruptAssassin]

Ooo ooo, my mobo PC alarm just beeped twice, like low-high. What does this mean??? I just checked my Gigabyte monitoring program, and the CPU and mobo temp's are within their limits.

Seems weird, as there is nothing in the BIOS or that program that is causing that alarm to sound. Ive just shut down the Gigabyte monitor (it runs in the tray all the time), and it hasn't happened since... maybe its a glitch in the program??? Or could it be the graphics card causing the alarm (if it is, its strange, as ive set no alarm boundries, or even seen a temp monitor yet)...

 

[Nubius]

couldn't tell ya what it means. Could be the CPU fan dropping below a certain pre-determined speed by the program.


But since all programs for motherboards vary to some degree I couldn't pinpoint what that beep is

 

[CorruptAssassin]

after thinkin it through, i came to the conclusion its a warning beep or something, as the temps were rising to the threshold (but didn't exceed them). Everything is running fine anyway

Cheers for your help Nubius, at least I dont think my video card is going to explode anymore