GA-MA790X-UD4P (PCI-E 16x crashes but PCI-E8x does not)

[bassman100]

Hi All, I'm new to this forum. I also have a Gigabyte GTX460 GV-N460OC-768I card. When first installed - all ok on desktop but problems started when using TMPGEnc Xpress - converting avi's to mpg - desktop would freeze.Of course no surprise, playing Fallout 3 5 - 10mins in and system locks up. Updated drivers, driverclean etc no difference.

Up until now I've been using a GTX260, AMD720x3 (all 4 cores going @ 3.0g) for the last year or so - really - no problems at all.

Took the X3 back to stock settings and system runs better - played Fallout 3 for about an hour with no problems. I was thinking maybe it's the PSU - Corsair 's PSU calculator lists the GTX260 as needing more power than the GTX460? Anyway, the VX550 would be ok anyway in either case.

Where to go from here??

System:
AMD 720BE
2x 2gb Corsair DDR2
GA- 790x-UD4P
Corsair VX550 PSU (41Amps 12v single rail)
Windows 7 Home

I have sent the card back after reading of locking up problems with this card, but am thinking of upgrading the cpu to either a native 4core 955BE or a AMD 6core. If the 720 4 core is too much for a 41amp PSU, will a 955 or 1055T work?

Cheers

[absic]

Hi there,

Although your PSU is a little on the low side for the high end graphics cards I don't think this is the cause of your crashes. It is much more likely to be the unlocked core on the X3 that is causing the issue and you have demonstrated this yourself by pulling it back to stock settings and not having a problem.

If you are looking to upgrade your system then either an X4 or X6 CPU would be beneficial as you do not have the worry of unlocking a dodgy core(s). It would also be a good idea to upgrade your PSU, if money allows, to something a little more powerful, especially if you wish to run a higher spec'd GPU.

EDIT: If you check here: http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3038 you can find supported AM3 CPU's and it also shows you the BIOS version you will need to have for it to be recognised.

If you need to update your BIOS you can download it from here: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3038&dl=1#bios The latest version for the GA-MA790X-UD4P is F10A

[bassman100]

Re: Absic, Thanks for reply. I was thinking of the open 4th core, however it has worked flawlessly for over a year and oc'd to 3.0gig. It works very well at 3.2g, but, I'm not that greedy!! Besides, I like to keep the temps down. At full 4 core op/3.0g, the temperature does not go above 48deg (Everest). I put the GTX260 back in and is still working fine.

I'll look at a Corsair TX650 (52amps 12V)

Cheers

[absic]

I know what you mean. These kind of issues can be really frustrating, everything works OK, you replace a component and then everything goes t**s up.

The Corsair TX650 is a good PSU and should provide enough power for you. But I still feel, if money will allow, you would also benefit from getting a true X4 or X6. I run a 1090T and for encoding, both audio and video it knocks spots off of the Phenom ii X4 965.

[bassman100]

Thanks Absic - I'll get the GTX460 back and new PSU and either a 955 or a 1055 6core (Budget limitations!!) I'll post again when finished.

Cheers

[absic]

Good luck and the 1055 will be better than an X3 without the hassle of having to tweak things too much! 

[Prof]

I have a similar problem on a similar motherboard.

MA790X-UD3P + newly purchased Gigabyte GTX460 1Gb OC.

After much swapping of components and testing, it appears that my MB is the culprit. If I put the GFX card under any sort of load (games/benchmark or even video playback) the system freezes (although audio will often continue. I never really had much trouble with my HD4850.

I have tested the GFX card in 2 other PCs, and it is perfectly stable. I have tried 3 differenct CPUs, different RAM, a fresh isntall of Win 7, Windows XP and it still points to the MB.

Power supply is a Coolermaster SilentPro 700w, which has been tested in a friend`s PC with the GFX card.

The GTX460 looks good when it`s working, but I only get a few minutes of gameplay if I`m lucky.

Currently limping along with 4Gb OCZ Plantinum DDR2, Coolermaster 700W, AMD Phenom II 550, Win 7 64bit and a couple of Gigabyte boards that don`t seem to be happy with each other !

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

It would sound like a power or heat problem although there have been quite a few driver issues recently for the 460.

Have you got a good cooling flow through your case?

Have you connected up all the power cables for the new card?

What drivers are you presently using?

[Prof]

Latest NVIDIA drivers (and I had the problem with the default Win 7 drivers when I did the fresh install).

2 x dedicated PCIe PSU connectors used from the Coolermaster PSU. I also tried it with the adpaters from the HDD PSU connectors. The GFX card ran perfectly in my mates machine - cheap Foxconn MB + a cheap 550W PSU.

Cooling ? Side of case is rarely on, and they are two large case fans anyway. CPU is cooled by a Artic Cooling Freezer Pro.

Graphics can crash before the heatpipes on the card even get warm. Top temp of the card is about 65 C (if it runs for long enough). I`ve seen it crash at 40 c.

Thanks for the welcome, BTW. I have sent an email to technical to see if they have any suggestions, currently waiting for a reply.

[Prof]

This evening, after deciding that I need the machine to be stable until the issue is resolved, I did a final test with Heaven benchmark & kombustor, neither ran for very long before freezing. I decided to try the Nvidia drivers from Gigabyte (slightly earlier than the latest from Nvidia). Same problem.

So, the old HD4850 is back in my PC, and I`ve just run kombustor for 30mins+, before I stopped it. Temperature reading max 64C, and no crashing. It might suggest the GTX460 is faulty, but it ran fine in 2 x friend`s PCs, and on the one PC I ran it with my PSU.

I`ll soon have a Corsair CX430 PSU and a Gigabyte GA-M68M-S2P for an upgrade job I`m undertaking. I`ll try the Corsair PSU with my system, I assume it will be up to the job (just).

[Dark Mantis]

To be honest I doubt that the Corsair PSU will be powerful enough to run what you have  got there but you can try. The minimum for the motherboard is 500W recommended. Those 460s are quite power hungry too. I would normally recommend a 650W single 12V rail for your system.

[Prof]

Thanks for the advice on the PSU.

From reviews I`ve read, a GTX460 running under load with an i7 CPU consumes less than 300watts.

I`m going to test my MB with an LE-1640 (which I`ve pulled from a machine I`m going to upgrade). The CX430 is a single 12v rail PSU, capable of 28amps MAX current on that rail. That`s 336watts. I reckon the GTX460 draws about 160 watts under full load, leaving at least 150 watts for the MB + CPU. My Hard drive is an SSD, so that consumes about 0.00005 watts (LOL !). No other drives or other components need to be attached to the system.

If I was building this system for long term use, I`d use a quality PSU of at least 500 watts, but for a few minutes of testing I think it should prove a point.

[Dark Mantis]

If it manages to get past the initial startup current it might be alright. Normally if there is going to be a problem it's on booting up.

[Prof]

Mmmm, I`m not so sure about that.

There is a big increase in current load when a modern graphics card starts doing 3D stuff. My GTX460 goes from cold heatsink to hot heatsink in a matter of a minute or two when I fire up a game. Booting up, the graphics card will not be doing much work, even on Windows desktop, it won`t be drawing too much current. Fire up Crysis, kombustor etc, and the load on the PSU goes up a lot.

Having said that, I still think the CX430 should have no problem running my GTX460 + a fairly low power CPU & SSD. SLI mode, or a GTX480, and I`d expect problems.

[Dark Mantis]

I understand what you are saying and if we were only talking about the graphics card I would agree but we are talking about the total system firing up all at once, that's motherboard , CPU, memory, GPUs, drives, fans, and anything else you have attached. Anyway hopefully your PSU will be powerful enough and do the job.