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Can a PSU slow down my gpu performance?

L

lapino

Joined
Feb 4, 2009
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I'm having a very weird issue with my system and I have no idea what the cause could be. Problem is that my fps drop regularly (and this seems to go hand in hand with hdd access) to 1fps-ish, although it works fine when it's not dropping that low.

My system:
Ati 4870 (9.2 drivers/ Vista Ultimae)
E6600 @ 3ghz (also same at default speeds)
2x2gb OCZ ram
Asus P5B-E motherboard
3 harddrive
CORSAIR HX Series 520W

It SEEMS (not sure) that I mostly get these drastic drops in performance when accessing the drive. All drives have been defragged and I also tried with different OS on different boot drives.

I'm really at a loss here. Anyone got any idea what might be causing this?
 
Have you overclocked your gpu ? If you have it might not be stable and the gpu driver is crashing and restarting which causes the drop to 1fps.

A psu can cause performance decreases in everything so that is very possible. Although your psu is a very good brand and very reliable although there are exceptions.
 
Like I posted, I have the exact same issue with the cpu on default speeds. When oc'd it runs stable as can be with Orthos. My problem is very apparent in Crysis (even when using way to low detail settings for my computer): it just goes to a crawl and when it does, I also see the hdd light lighting up. Almost seems like some interrupt problem between the pci-e and hardrive controller, which seems very odd of that's the case.
 
well you're most likely on the right (or at least better) track with the HDD issue. if their is one. the psu? i think i would eliminate that as the prob so far as the card is concerned right off, as if it wasn't supplying enough juice to the card you might be encountering problems, but of a different sort

however i might want to recommend a psu with a bit more headroom, anyway. given your overclocked q6600 (or even at stock) and the 4870. not to mention the 3 HDD's. under load the psu might be struggling to supply enough juice to the entire system, period. so who knows...might be a psu problem somewhere. although not gpu specific, necessarily
 
If I'm on the right track with the hdd/pci-e conflict, what can I do to fix it? I already tried to use only one drive, on different sata ports, but problems always are the same. And to be clear: indexing has been turned off!
 
Your power supply would be fine for said system in your OP. Before purchasing a new one I suggest uninstalling all video card drivers, doing a driver clean, and trying ATi 8.12's instead.

EDIT:
Now that you mention it do you have a DMM readily available? Can you take a reading of your 5V rail?
 
Check the motherboard manufacturers website for new drivers as well.
 
Also one other thing, what size do you currently have set for your pagefile?
 
I don't have a DMM so I can't check the psu (not that I would know how to anyway); motherboard bios is uptodate.
 
lapino said:
I don't have a DMM so I can't check the psu (not that I would know how to anyway); motherboard bios is uptodate.
Click to expand...

Oh ok, no problems there. Also what Dr.P meant was downloading and installing the latest Intel INF Utility, v8.03.13 I beleive.
 
JrRacinFan said:
Oh ok, no problems there. Also what Dr.P meant was downloading and installing the latest Intel INF Utility, v8.03.13 I beleive.
Click to expand...

Yep I did also I should have said check for the latest bios but I forgot.
 
It can but it would be some thing like freezing restarting BSOD. I don`t think that you could just lose 5 FPS.
 
HX series from Corsair is one of the best PSUs around... but it still MIGHT have a problem... hey thinking about it, could it be your temps?
 
psu cant slow down any component of your system. either it doesnt start, switch off after a second or makes your system unstable (last is highly unlikely, its probably every other component in your pc but not your psu, look at memory first)
 
couldn't PSU not give his card or CPU enough juice?
 
n-ster said:
couldn't PSU not give his card or CPU enough juice?
Click to expand...

Which is correct but would cause the system to BSOD. Not lose FPS. Overheating or drivers tend to cause loss of FPS 99.9999% of the time.
 
how about unstable PSU... not giving a nice continuous flow
 
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