GTX 260 random skipping

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Rajveer

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 9, 2005
Messages
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I just got an EVGA 65nm GTX 260 SSC (670MHz) for £178 ($257.39), looks like it's been slightly used and returned but performs well. In COD4 and COD WAW on a server with around 40 players, it never goes under ~68 so I'm happy. However in WAW it randomly goes down to 50fps for a split second and then back up to the normal framerate every, say, 5-10 seconds. This is at 1920*1200 with 4xAA.

I thought video memory might be the issue, and it was loading textures during the skip, but disabling AA all together didn't solve the issue, with it skipping less but still skipping. I ran memtest86+ and found my main RAM has many errors, so maybe that's the issue, however I'm not sure if it's not doing the same in other games. Any help guys?
 
Rajveer said:
I ran memtest86+ and found my main RAM has many errors,
Click to expand...
I don't know if that's the cause, but if you are seeing memtest errors you should test each RAM stick one at a time to find the bad ones and replace them as soon as possible. Bad RAM can possibly cause a lot more errors, crashing and other problems with your system that will be worse than just framerate drops.
 
Rajveer said:
I ran memtest86+ and found my main RAM has many errors
Click to expand...

Update your motherboard BIOS, and update your motherboard chipset drivers. Doing these things may solve incompatibility issues between your motherboard and RAM. If the Memtest errors still continue, you have either bad RAM or bad RAM slots on the motherboard, so test accordingly. Since you are not crashing, it may be that only one stick is slightly bad. It is also possible that your motherboard just can't run 4 sticks at the speed they are set to.

In any case, you need to resolve your RAM issue before you can troubleshoot the game issue.
 
Totally agree, I'm looking at new RAM as we speak, and will get that changed asap. But asap means ordering and delivery on Tuesday, and I've got the weekend to try other things out, so got any ideas on what I could try?
 
evilsofa said:
Update your motherboard BIOS, and update your motherboard chipset drivers. Doing these things may solve incompatibility issues between your motherboard and RAM.
Click to expand...

I would not recommend flashing the mobo BIOS if you suspect you may have bad ram.
Not unless you want a bad mobo too anyway.
 
first, disable the intel cpu throttling thing in bios
if that doesnt work, put everything at stock and see if its fixed. (cpu, ram, graphics card)
also set transparency AA to multisampling in the nvidia control panel if you havent already.
memtest errors would explain why the game would crash, not really why it would skip.
 
sorry guys, turns out punkbuster was to blame -_- updating it solved the stuttering! i'll be testing out each ram stick now, hopefully it's only 1 stick at fault and i can continue using it with 3gb.
 
If your ram has MANY errors, you might have the timings/speed too aggressive.
 
Straight away with memtest86+ I get 3 errors, then in around 10 minutes this has risen to the 20s. After around 20 minutes it goes up to around 200, this is when testing all memory sticks on their own in all slots.

I also tested one of my friends sticks in 2 slots and got the same results, so looks like the motherboard is knackered. I'll try a BIOS update but don't think that will have any effect as it never used to be like this. I got this board in Nov 07 so I think I still have the warranty (2 years) but Gigabyte probably won't have a replacement, so if I get back a different chipset then it looks like a format -_-

Could I be pushing it too hard? I get quite a substantial vdrop with my q6600 at 3.3GHz, although it's only set to around 1.36v in the BIOS, but is the vdrop an indication of pushing the motherboard too hard?
 
step 1) set everything to stock clocks, stock (or even slower than stock) latencies, a notch bump on voltages safely, and then run memtest. Then try vanilla stock settings and voltages, and confirm it all still works. Then go from there...
 
Ok, I underclocked and made sure voltages were stable:

CPU set to 2.16GHz
RAM set to 600MHz (standard is 800)
Timings set to 5-5-5-18 (standard timings)
Voltages for RAM, PCI-E, FSB and MCH set to +0.1, CPU set to 1.28750 (standard 1.27500)

Still failed (just took a lil longer to get the errors, but it's the same errors, guessing because the system was clocked slower). Didn't check stock settings as if it's not passing underclocked or overclocked then it won't at stock. Guess this means that the motherboard is dying and I should look into getting a replacement from Gigabyte?
 
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