Guys,

I really need some expert help on this one.
My rig:
Asus Maximus Formula
Asus 768MB 8800GTX which is connected using the 2 green pulgins on the 2 rails of the PSU. Around 65C° even after gaming.
4096MB DDR2RAM Corsair
Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 boxed 4x 2.40GHz S775 G0 Stepping
Antec 900 Case which has 4x120mm and 1x200mm coolers on high (hot environment). CPU at 30C°, MB 35C°, NB&SB around 40C°
2 disks, one at 10000Rpm's and one at 7200Rpm's.
1 DVD writer Samsung.
PSU Real Pover M520 Cooler Master
Windows Vista Ultinmate x64 SP1
Everyhting is at default speeds, no OC yet.

The problem, I get hardly any performance out of my 8800GTX. I'm running the latest drivers from Nvidia. Installed, removed with Drivercleaner, intalled again about 20 times.

3DMark Vantage gives a measely score of around 5000 and is mostly due to the CPU. Frames in the tests are ranging from 4 to 27 fps but average around 10. Obviously, this is way below what the 8800GTX should be able to do.

I've been mainly focussed on getting decent fps's in IL-2 Sturmovik 1946. What I have noticed is that if I completely remove the nvidia drivers, reboot safe mode, use drivercleaner, reboot and reinstall nvidia drivers, I get around 60fps in a special track designed for testing but without AntiAliassing or such and a whole bunch of other nice things that others can run without problems with simular or less rigs. However, after a few hours, the game crashes, and I get this message in Vista: (see below)
After this message apears I get around 4fps when playing the same track in IL2. However, repeating the same procedure above (uninstall-driverclean-reinstall drivers) I get the 60 fps again. However, 3DMark Vantage sucks all the time no matter what I do.

The IL2 "effects" have kept me thinking this must be a driver problem but searching the forums it appears that my M520 PSU might be the culprit in that it may not have enough juice to keep everything running as it should be. As I understand it, nvidia has a feature which automatically throthles down the card if not enough Ampere is received consistently. With the very stressing test of 3DMark Vantage this happens always. However, even at high mode IL2 should be a piece of cake for the GPU and hence, it runs smoothly for a while until I presume the card gets to low Ampere. Removing the drivers, I assume, removes the throthling back until the same problem happens again.

So to the question; is the above plausible? Should the M520 be able to power my rig without hickups? Could it be the PSU is defective? Is there any way to measure the amount of Ampere being delivered? Anything else I can do?

Any help would be very greatly appreciated!!!

Best,
Glenn


Log Name: System
Source: Display
Date: 6/07/2008 22:20:39
Event ID: 4101
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Glenn3
Description:
Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Display" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">4101</EventID>
<Level>3</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2008-07-06T20:20:39.000Z" />
<EventRecordID>21729</EventRecordID>
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Glenn3</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>nvlddmkm</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

how many amps on your 12v in the psu?

that is the most likely cause of the problem. sounds like the video card isnt getting enough power.

^ second those

The PSU is advertized as 3 rails of 19A but I only have 2 rails on the unit.
The card is attached with 2 connections, one to each of the rails.

Thanks for all the quick responses, I'm thinking of ordering a corsair 750TX. Is that a good choice or a definite no-go?
http://www.corsairmemory.com/products/tx.aspx

Best,
Glenn

I have the 750TX. GREAT psu, powering everything very well. I even oc'ed my 9800gtx. But i screwed up on my case, soo many cables sticking out and really messy case. All the annoying cables block my view of the motherboard. I got this wavy cheap cm coolermaster case. You won't need 50% of the cables, I haven't used ALOT.