3DMark05 crashing at stock speed

[nYdGeo]

Buddy, I hope that you have better luck than I have had. I'm now 3 weeks into trying to get this machine to work. This is probably my 10th personal machine in the last 6 years, and I've never had to fight, not at all, just to get a stable machine a stock speeds. I am dissapointed beyond words.

[wevsspot]

Naddie,

 

Of all of the 3DMark tests, '05 is the most graphics intensive of the bunch. If you are failing '05, but passing all of the others, I'd immediately suspect your video card, your video card drivers or your video card settings.

 

Here are the steps I'd take.

 

1. Download Nvidia graphics drivers 81.95

2. Download DriverCleanerPro

3. Add/Remove Programs - uninstall current Nvdia graphics drivers

4. Device Manager - uninstall display adapter

5. Reboot computer and enter safe mode

6. Use DriverCleanerPro to uninstall all instances of Nvidia graphics files (be careful, as you can accidently remove other Nvidia drivers also, make sure that you only uninstall files related to the v/c

7. Reboot computer

8. When Windows reboots, manually install the 81.95 drivers and reboot.

9. Download and install the CoolBits registry tweak

10. Reboot computer

11. Right click mouse/properties/settings/advanced/click the GeForce tab

12. You will see options for Performance and Quality Settings as well as the new clock tool.

13. Turn off antisotropic filtering and antialising (by default those are set at application controlled)

14. Turn off vertical sync (by default that is set at application controlled)

15. Use clock frequency settings tab and back your GPU clocking down to 435 - leave memory clocking at 1100

16. Test new settings, save, apply at start up and reboot your puter.

17. See if you can get through '05 now.

18. If you successfully pass '05 at those clock settings you can gently begin increasing both your GPU and memory clockings (not more than 5 mhz per try) then rerun '05. If you pass proceed.

 

Your memory is probably going to hit a ceiling around 1200 (if even that high)

 

Your GPU - well that's a crap shoot depending on how good the core and other components are.

 

I've found an interesting thing on the 7800GT and 7800GTX in that the drivers overclock the card automatically when you are in 3D performance mode. i.e. if your base gpu clocking is set to 450, when you run 3D applications the drivers add approx. 40mhz to your base clock. So your GPU is actually running at approx. 490mhz in performance 3D mode.

 

Let me know how it goes.

[Cyberparasite]

15. Use clock frequency settings tab and back your GPU clocking down to 435 - leave memory clocking at 1100

16. Test new settings, save, apply at start up and reboot your puter.

17. See if you can get through '05 now.

18. If you successfully pass '05 at those clock settings you can gently begin increasing both your GPU and memory clockings (not more than 5 mhz per try) then rerun '05. If you pass proceed.

yeah proceed to rma the card.

that 470/1100 is an evga factory guaranteed clock on the 7800GT CO.

 

 

I've found an interesting thing on the 7800GT and 7800GTX in that the drivers overclock the card automatically when you are in 3D performance mode. i.e. if your base gpu clocking is set to 450, when you run 3D applications the drivers add approx. 40mhz to your base clock. So your GPU is actually running at approx. 490mhz in performance 3D mode.

very interesting. perhaps you could share a source or sources. i'd really like to look into that more as i'm sure others would.

[wevsspot]

QUOTE:

very interesting. perhaps you could share a source or sources. i'd really like to look into that more as i'm sure others would

 

You can verify it for yourself. Run any 3D performance application then check your GPU frequency using Everest. You will see that your GPU is actually clocked approx. 40mhz higher than your manually entered GPU clock speed.

 

It can also be verified by running 3DMark05. Finish the test and check out what frequency your GPU was detected at.

 

Additional resources here;

 

[Cyberparasite]

sorry for dragging you off topic here for a couple posts naddie but i know bs when i smell it.

 

my eVGA 7800GT CO sli setup stock 470/1100 http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1622361

[wevsspot]

To begin with, according to Naddie's sig. he isn't running SLi, so I have no idea if running in SLi disables Nvidias nifty little automatic overclocking feature or not. Or possibly, since eVGA has already overclocked the core so far they have disabled that feature somehow.

 

At any rate, there's no harm in following the steps I've recommended to determine if his card truly won't run at 470/1100. At the very least he will find the limit of his card and can truly claim it doesn't run at the advertised speeds. Knowing for sure beats the hell out of an RMA waiting for a replacement (IMHO).

 

p.s. as for smelling bs, i provided information from a trusted source that this does indeed happen, so how is that bs?

[naddie]

I run my tests at 1024x768, 4x anti-ailising and anistropic filtering. Your have yours set to optimal and no texture filtering.

 

When I set it that way, it's fine. It's when I turn up the quality (more antialising and best texture filtering) is when it crashes. It also does it in trilinear filtering, too.

 

I just DLed coolbits and I'm going to check it out.

[Cyberparasite]

i'll crank up the AA aand AF and try some runs , good luck.

 

*** ok here's a quick edit... 5 loops 3dm05, 4x AA, 16x AF, 2x eVGA 7800GT CO stock 470/1100 no issues,not that any of this info does you a hella lotta good.

sample score

 

i don't know if you mentioned whether you updated to 8198 forceware but i thought the driver that came on the evga disk was rubbish. really like to see you get this sorted without an rma.

[naddie]

It is the latest non-beta build off nVidia's web page.

 

ForceWare Release 80

Version: 81.98

Release Date: December 21, 2005

WHQL Certified

 

I cranked the core down to 448 MHz and see if that helps. It is currently running the loop now while I stepped away to visit a friend. i'll check back and let you guys know what happened when I get back.

 

Am I suppose to go insane now? Should I loose it yet? lol

[naddie]

Just came back home - it crashed. Says something like "can't write to memory". Other errors says "can't read memory". This is even at stock speeds.

 

I don't get it. Memory bad? But it passes Memtest86 for 9+ hours. Even Prime95 ran for 9+ hours - and I made sure it was a blended test with around 925 MB for each instance so it would cover most of the memory installed.

[Aynjell]

I found out that while I can pass one session of tests in 3DMark05, if I try to start another one, it would crash. This is stock speeds.

 

I originally found this out while it was OCed to 262 Mhz (2.62GHz), but backed it down to stock (200 Mhz, 2.0GHz) just to ensure that it was not the OC that was doing it.

 

Memtests passed 9:30 hrs, Prime95 passed 9:30hrs (start it at night, check it in the morning before I go to work). I wonder if it is my video card now...

 

Anyone having similar issues? My setup is in my sig. My vid card is specifically the eVGA 7800 GT CO (model 517). Factory OC 470 Mhz core, 1100 MHz memory. Besides the factory OC, I did not overclock the video one bit.

 

I also tried to disable memory interleve, and same results. When OCed and enabled, it would crash on the first run. When OCed and disabled, I can run a test once, and the 2nd time, it would crash.

 

I have not started playing games on it yet, as my c omputer is still a Work in Progress (as you can tell).

 

I was gonna RMA my 7800GT CO, but after tearing it apart and as5'ing the ram chips and the core, it's running just fine and I'm scoring higher and higher as I go. I'd reccomend you do the same and if you still have issues, well... rma it.

 

Also, if the board STILL misbehaves, get the bios update on the main eVGA site. It very well may help. And whoa... 10,000 3Dmarks? How the hell? I'm fighting for 7400 right now and you're at stock? What the hell? Maybe it's cuz I only got 512MB of RAM in right now.

[naddie]

I was gonna RMA my 7800GT CO, but after tearing it apart and as5'ing the ram chips and the core, it's running just fine and I'm scoring higher and higher as I go. I'd reccomend you do the same and if you still have issues, well... rma it.

 

Also, if the board STILL misbehaves, get the bios update on the main eVGA site. It very well may help. And whoa... 10,000 3Dmarks? How the hell? I'm fighting for 7400 right now and you're at stock? What the hell? Maybe it's cuz I only got 512MB of RAM in right now.

 

That dude got SLI. I assume we both are non-SLI? I'm getting around 6500 stock. I think I posted my score above.

 

Are you getting the same error msg I am? After clicking "Don't Send" I get another dialog box that says:

 

The instruction at "0x7c9122ba" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The memory could not be "read". Click OK to terminate the program.

 

The value changes though - one would have instructions at "0x7c910f29" referenced memory at "0x00000300". Another time, it would say "write" instead of "read".