X1950XT running at half clocks, is it my PSU?

[unknown555525]

Ok, well I just bought a sapphire radeon X1950XT and a 600watt coolermaster PSU.

I noticed that while it performs much better than my previous 7600GT, it still doesn't seem to be that much more powerful, and in Counter-Strike:Source, my laptop with a X1600 actually performs much better than the X1950XT. It also remains at 500/594, when the stock is supposed to be 621/900 and refuses to OC.

I'm thinking that the problem is because the PSU I bought for it has 600watts but only 18amps on a 12volt rail. Where as the X1950XT says that it should use 30amps and a 12volt rail.

Is this the problem? Is that what is making my new card run at half the clocks according to ATI catalyst? I've never had such a power hungry GPU before, so I don't really know.

No matter what, I plan on getting atleast a 500watt 30a/12v psu today. If you can, can someone please tell me what brand to look out for ( >$150)

 

[Deleted member 24505]

try a seasonic s12 500.it has duel pci-e power connectors and is at least sli certified so it should be ok.80%+ efficiency too.

 

[W1zzard]

a weak psu will not make your graphics card run slower

 

[unknown555525]

try a seasonic s12 500.it has duel pci-e power connectors and is at least sli certified so it should be ok.80%+ efficiency too.

Hmm.. i looked up that one, and it seems that it only has 17a/12v, and 16a/12v in SLI.

needs 30a/12v


It seems to be really hard to find a PSU with atleast 30a/12+v

 

[unknown555525]

a weak psu will not make your graphics card run slower

Your really not being very helpful, I know for a fact that your wrong, and if you dont have anything helpful to say then why say anything at all?


Sapphiretech's website states in the help section, that alot of people have the same problem as what I am having, Also that any card X1900pro and higher is downclocked if you are using anything less than a 22a/12+v 400watt PSU, they reccomend atleast a 34a/12+v 450watt PSU for an X1950XT... So it looks like I will be looking for something along those lines.

 

[MIP_1983]

Your looking at the 2D clocks arn't you? It doesn't switch to the higher clocks untill 3d app runs. If you want to see what clocks apply in 3D you can use the hardware monitoring in systool:

http://www.techpowerup.com/systool/

It'll draw a graph for you, so get it running, run a game for a bit, then go look at the graph and see what clocks it hits.

I imagine your PSU is fine, and even hypothetically, if it did run using the 2D clocks in a 3D app, it should still out-perform the x1600. If it isn't performing well, there's probably a driver/software setup issue.

It's also probably worth not getting narky with the admin

 

[INSTG8R]

Hmm.. i looked up that one, and it seems that it only has 17a/12v, and 16a/12v in SLI.

needs 30a/12v


It seems to be really hard to find a PSU with atleast 30a/12+v

Well Im running a Seasonic M12 600W with TWO X1900s and all the bells and whistles(WC 30% OC etc) and I have not a single issue with stability, I have never seen the voltage drop below 11.91.
I have a Tagan Easycon 580W as well that I thought was causing me issues in Crossfire mode(It was dropping to as low as 11.5 under load)which had a combined 35A Rail, turns out it was my CFE card and an RMA fixed that issue. But I am much happier with this Seasonic as it is much more stable(and it only has 18A rails)

 

[Maju]

mip_1983 wrote

Your looking at the 2D clocks arn't you? It doesn't switch to the higher clocks untill 3d app runs. If you want to see what clocks apply in 3D you can use the hardware monitoring in systool:

http://www.techpowerup.com/systool/

It'll draw a graph for you, so get it running, run a game for a bit, then go look at the graph and see what clocks it hits.

Can you tell me how to enable logging as i can't seem to figure ir out.
I've also just bought a Saphire x1950 xtx and i'm not convinced its running at 650/1000 as i'm only getting 10391 in 3dmoark05 + in its details shows only 504/594mHz.

Also in ATI Tray Tools only scoring around 4500 - well below what i'd expect.

Anyhelp or pointers appreciated

 

[ATIonion]

Your really not being very helpful, I know for a fact that your wrong, and if you dont have anything helpful to say then why say anything at all?

first off i hope you know who you are talken to when you talk like that.....more often then not a weaker psu will cause a system crash as opposed to lower clocks....im sure there are plenty of x1950 users that have psu without 30A rails...

if your clocks are the DEFAULT then rma the card...they shouldnt be that low default....

 

[Namslas90]

You don't need a 12v 30 amp rail for that card, according to ATI you only need 18 to 22amps for single and 24 to 26 amps for duel crossfire. There is no real value set for Over clocking, and these values depend on total devices on system and total PSU power available. I realize that sound weird but they lowered the Power requirements for the 1950 compared to the 1900 XTX. If your 12v rail is at least 24 amps and the total Psu output is 32 amps or more you should be ok.

 

[Namslas90]

Try changing your drivers, like omega, check 3D Guru.

 

[ATIonion]

someone could have owned that before you and tried to flash the bios....and failed...could be anything, but if your core clock is default at 500 thats not right and should be returned...

 

[Sasqui]

Where as the X1950XT says that it should use 30amps and a 12volt rail.

Where'd you get THAT info from? 20A on a 12v rail is the ATX 2.2 specification max. If you have a 600w power supply, you should be fine if you are connecting to a PCIx16 connector directly, or one of the 4-pin full amp molexes.

How do you know the clocks running 3D? The card will run at 2D clocks (500/594) untill it's under load, then the voltages bump up and clocks increase - assuming you are not running any second party overclocking applications. If so, the game changes completely.

 

[unknown555525]

Well, yes, iv'e checked numerous times, in many different ways to make shure it was the 3D clocks that I was looking at, and yes it is. It isn't going to cost me anything extra since I can just return the one I have and get a 30a/+12v 500watt PSU in exchange.

What I am tripping about is just this, such games like PREY runs a pretty solid 60FPS in 1440x900 with everything at max, but in all source powered games, such as HL2, CS:S I only get like 14FPS avr. at 3200x1200 with everything at max and 6xaa, which kindof makes me wonder why it's scoring 1 FPS less than my laptop with an X1600 on the exact same settings, on the exact same test. Oh, and I use Source's console, ATItray tools, and ATI catalyst to check the clocks while a game is running.

One thing I'm happy about though, is the fact that in de_dust with HDR+6xAA 1440x900, I get a solid 55FPS. yet in de_port with the same settings I only get 20fps, and that map has no HDR.

 

[unknown555525]

Oh, and it's going to be an X-Finity 2G 600W that im going to get THAT HAS!!

30a/+12v 600watts

and I can simply return my old psu and get this 1 for free





I have a question btw, I thought the Omega drivers (6.9) didn't support the X1950 yet...

If someone can tell me otherwise then I'll surely try them

I've heard good things about the XG Warcat 6.11 drivers, so im going to get those instead.

 

[i_am_mustang_man]

Your really not being very helpful, I know for a fact that your wrong, and if you dont have anything helpful to say then why say anything at all?


Sapphiretech's website states in the help section, that alot of people have the same problem as what I am having, Also that any card X1900pro and higher is downclocked if you are using anything less than a 22a/12+v 400watt PSU, they reccomend atleast a 34a/12+v 450watt PSU for an X1950XT... So it looks like I will be looking for something along those lines.

he answered your question:

X1950XT running at half clocks, is it my PSU?

so therefore he's done. oh btw, he owns the site, so i'd sit down and listen if i were you

 

[unknown555525]

he answered your question:


so therefore he's done. oh btw, he owns the site, so i'd sit down and listen if i were you

Yes, but that is absolutly no excuss for calling some one else wrong when they did no research on this fact, oh, and it seems as though alot of you are assholes on these forums and have absolutely NO idea what you are talking about, nor do you even research anything before you start crapping out bs that doesnt help at all. This is probebly the worst forum website i've been to, and that's strange too because techpowerup.com is a great website.:shadedshu :shadedshu

btw, I've done all the research and found out that it is infact a PSU problem.


Now, can you please remove my account on this site, I don't plan on ever coming back, atleast not to the forums. I do thank all of you who tried to help Cya nvr

 

[i_am_mustang_man]

Yes, but that is absolutly no excuss for calling some one else wrong when they did no research on this fact, oh, and it seems as though alot of you are assholes on these forums and have absolutely NO idea what you are talking about, nor do you even research anything before you start crapping out bs that doesnt help at all. This is probebly the worst forum website i've been to, and that's strange too because techpowerup.com is a great website.:shadedshu :shadedshu

btw, I've done all the research and found out that it is infact a PSU problem.


Now, can you please remove my account on this site, I don't plan on ever coming back, atleast not to the forums. I do thank all of you who tried to help Cya nvr

i'm sorry that our answers to your question will not be heeded. see you when you get the new psu

 

[Namslas90]

This may sound stupid, However; Try this. Remove card. Using add/remove programs, remove all ATI drivers. Use "search" to find, locate and delete all ATI files. Defrag your hard drive,fragmented files from ATI will not be fixed or rewritten they just load them from last found point. Reboot. Re-install card, ensuring it is firmly seated into slot. Cancel all "Found New Hardware" apps. Go to ATI.com, go to Drivers and downloads>windows>dvr type. Then here is the trick. click on additional drivers. and only download the three listed there, NOT THE CATALIST SUITE PACKAGE.
Reboot then re-test card. If problem does not go away then RMA the card!!!

 

[Namslas90]

BTW any request from a game to do something beyond the capabilites system will cauise the Card to drop clock speeds and all other settings to default. So try each game at lowest settings first then work your way up until the "Crash Point" is found. Reset, reboot and stay below those settings for Each Game.

 

[MIP_1983]

Seriously, its just the 2d clocks isn't it? My x1800xt is the same, you wouldn't want it at 3d clocks/voltage all the time.

And to the OP, that's really petit, I'm absolutly certain that your 600W PSU could drive that card without issue, you should have at least got a graph out of systool (hardware monitoring) to demonstrate the actual clock speed in 3d operation.

On the Inq, they've a core 2 quad core with two 8800GTX's in SLI on a 500W PSU without issue:

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36066

 

[W1zzard]

i ran a x1900 cf system on athlon64 with 300w psu - no problems

 

[Wile E]

My overclocked X1800XT, overclocked 3800+X2, 1 SATA HD, 2 IDE HDs, 2 Optical, 7 Fans, and a pump all run flawlessly on my Sunbeam 550w.

 

[kneecaps]

I have a X1950XT and I have the same issue as described.

However, because I am a fool, my PSU only gives 14A on the 12V rail. This is clearly a bad situation (which will be shortly addressed by a nice Enermax Liberty 620 or something!)

The card runs fine for about 5 mins (in BF 2142) and about 20 mins (in F.E.A.R) in then my system reboots and windows then reports a 'Serious error'

I would say that as the clocks rise and the card runs out of juice things go wrong! However its also been said that the GFX card downclocks itself if you don't have enough power. Does setting a clock speed with ATI tool override this 'ramping clock' behaviour, forcing a set speed?

 

[dolf]

I have a X1950XT and I have the same issue as described.

However, because I am a fool, my PSU only gives 14A on the 12V rail. This is clearly a bad situation (which will be shortly addressed by a nice Enermax Liberty 620 or something!)

The card runs fine for about 5 mins (in BF 2142) and about 20 mins (in F.E.A.R) in then my system reboots and windows then reports a 'Serious error'

I would say that as the clocks rise and the card runs out of juice things go wrong! However its also been said that the GFX card downclocks itself if you don't have enough power. Does setting a clock speed with ATI tool override this 'ramping clock' behaviour, forcing a set speed?

14A is not enough. When the PSU heats up the voltage becomes even lower and much unstable. Then the result is clear. Need more powerfull PSU .