How do I make my games love me again?

[EricKei]

Attaching files can be done via the Paperclip thingy (see attached screenie; the system will shrink oversized images for you, as you can see x.x); not available with Quick Reply.


The box looks fine to me -- I don't see any dust on the fans, the cables are tied up and out of the way. If you're looking to see what types of video cards will work in it, please Reply with the motherboard make and model number (usually printed right on the motherboard itself, often in nice big letters, tho it's often squeezes in between the slots). Please also write down the Wattage rating on the power supply (often something like 300W or 450W or whatever -- ideally, your total power consumption should not exceed 75% of this or so at peak usage)

You can always add more fans, but, as was mentioned above, try to have the same amount of air coming in from the front of the case as going out the back (read: "pairs" of fans, e.g., a 100mm in front and a 100mm in back, or a 100mm & a 120mm up front and the same in back, etc).

If this had begun immediately upon upgrading to a mew video card, that would have pointed to the power supply not providing enough juice....but you said it's a new issue after several years, so that's likely not the problem.

[wolfie]

Something that occurred to me - there could be a break in thermal conductivity. What I mean by this is that something could have dislodged a heat sink from whatever it was cooling (even by the thickness of a sheet of paper), so that the chip is getting hot but the heat sink isn't taking the heat away. AFAIK, the only fix (and hope the heat hasn't damaged the chip) is to dismount each heat sink from its respective chip, clean off the old thermal grease, apply new thermal grease, and remount the heat sink.

For cooling fans, my "dream system" would have slightly more intake capacity than exhaust capacity, with the intake fans drawing through filters. This would result in the inside of the box being slightly pressurized (so any "leaks" would be clean air blowing out, rather than dirty air being sucked in). The filters would need to be cleaned occasionally, but it would avoid dust (enemy of heat dissipation) building up inside.

[sms001]

A couple of quickie notes, ph.

Wow, what a nice clean machine.

If you are not in and out of your case too often avoid rubber bands for tiebacks - they vulcanize in that hot dry air rather quickly and pieces can fall into other areas. If you 'air-spray' your fans again, do NOT spin the blades (put something non-conductive gently into the frame to stop it) as you can burn out your bearings that way.

Sounds like folks here are on the right track - good luck and have fun.

[Parrothead]

The Parrothead is lazy update:

I went to take the fan sitting on my processor off today, and the metal thingy the fan is sitting on would not come up. I hit the back of the fan/front of the metal thingy with some canned air and put it together (like hell am I going to do anything that might permakill my computer). It has been running a bit better, but I noticed a thing.

I have a surprise fan under my display card, but the spinny bit on the fan is not under the bit that gets hot when I play games. (If you go look at my tower pic a few posts ago, the surprise fan is the thing that says Sapphire. The spinny bit is just past the E, and the bit on the card that heats up is over the word Sapphire. If that makes any kind of sense.)

[sms001]

the metal thingy the fan is sitting on would not come up.

Heat sink. And how hard did you try to remove it? It SHOULD be clamped firmly to the processor, with a thin film of thermal paste in between. But you may have compromised the integrity of that paste if you managed to move the heat sink around at all.

The spinny bit is just past the E, and the bit on the card that heats up is over the word Sapphire. If that makes any kind of sense.)

If it were an after market add-on, I'd be concerned, but I'm guessing the offset is intentional on AMD's part - the fan probably moves air across the whole enclosure, and the offset is to keep the actual fan from too close a proximity from the GPU.

Are your games still freezing up? If so, it's probably new graphics card time. If you're reluctant to do that, we'll need some real specs for the next round of troubleshooting.

Cheers.

[Parrothead]

I unclipped and unscrewed everything, and tried to lift it off. it wasn't moving, so I put everything back together.

Someone on the steam forum recommended Razer Game Booster to help with a similar problem, and that seems to be helping, too.

But the games are still freezing, just not as often, and it's not crashing as much.

[Chromatix]

If it looks like this...



...then what you have is a "blower" heatsink on the card. It's the normal type for reference-design cards, and pushes air through the heatsink and exhausts to outside the case. You should be able to feel warm air there when the machine is running.

The other type is called an "open" heatsink, and generally does a better job of cooling the card itself, at the expense of leaving the hot air inside the case. The case fans then have to work harder to keep the air around the CPU and other components fresh.

[Aethian]

That's why if you have one of those it's good to have more then just one fan. I have two in Frankie's case.

[Parrothead]

It is looking like I need a new video card for my PC. Right now I have an AMD Radeon HD 6570 in my computer. What should I be looking at in/on my PC to see what i can upgrade to, and what do you recommend?

[RichS]

First thing when upgrading your graphics card, what wattage is your power supply? The graphics card you buy will state a minimum power wattage for your computer; it's best to have a bit above that.

Second, what's your budget, and what games do you run? I personally get mid-range cards and run them until it can't handle the new games coming out. Mid-range usually is between $200-$300, that lasts me usually 3 years or so. I'm still running a GeForce 560ti I bought ~2 years ago, and it still does what I need it to do.

Looking up your current card, it looks like that card is on the lower range of the scale - I found similar Radeon 6570 cards below $100. If that card, when functioning, does what you want it to do, you can get a replacement pretty cheap. Spending a little more would get you into the Radeon R7 or GeForce 650 range of cards, giving a little performance boost.

[Parrothead]

How do I find the power info?

I'm mostly playing Skyrim and the Assassin's Creed games.

[Chromatix]

The power supply's rating will generally be on a label on the side of it.

What you really need to know, however, is whether it has a PCIe 12V connector. If it does, it will drive a card that needs one (but not necessarily one of the best ones which would need two). If it doesn't, you'll need to get one of the smaller cards which doesn't need the extra connector.

Currently the best card available WITHOUT needing PCIe 12V power is the GTX 750 Ti. That's about $150 according to Anandtech. I advise uninstalling your old AMD drivers before setting up the Geforce ones, but you can do that after physically fitting the new card.

The best card I know about which requires ONE PCIe 12V power connector is the R9 270, which should be available for under $200. You can use the same drivers you have installed now, as long as they're up to date.

For a little extra money (Anandtech says $209 typical this week) you could try the R9 270X (note the subtle difference) which requires TWO PCIe power connectors - but at only 30W more than the plain 270, as long as one of your power connectors is "native", you could use an adapter from one of the Molex (hard disk) cables for the other.

I advise looking for a card with an "open" type heatsink, since that will generally be quieter than one with a "blower" type.

[Parrothead]

So, my power supply maxes out at 300W

[TheSHAD0W]

That's a fairly low-rating power supply.

If you want a card that's okay with graphics and sips power, I have to recommend the AMD 7750. It requires no extra power connection.

http://www.hwcompare.com/11736/radeo...adeon-hd-7750/

Looks like the 7750 takes 5 watts more than your old card, and is roughly twice as fast.

The GTX 750 Ti takes 10 watts more, and is even quicker, in some things roughly 50% faster than that 7750.

[Parrothead]

OK! Power supply is upgraded to 500W, and new graphics card is in place ( I got a Radeon R7 250, the others wouldn't fit in my computer ) and that seems to have fixed everything