rig down

[GregK]

my q9450 is down for hopefully just 1 day since i broke the sata2 cable to the hd. this evga gtx275 is a beast unlike ive never seen before! i plugged in the 275 and black screen idk if its because of the cable or maybe i needed to install gtx275 driver then fire it up? whats the procedure guys? i have a 800w ps with quad 12v rails 20 amps each.

[DrPop]

OK, couple things. You have a nice PSU, so you should have plenty of power. Make sure you plugged in the "external power" to the GTX 275 - the two 6 pin PCI-e connectors off your PSU. It won't work without those!

Now, once you get a boot into Windows, you will have to uninstall your old drivers, and download the latest ones from NVIDIA.

How exactly is the SATA cable broken? Did the tip come off? Even if the SATA cable is broken or disconnected, if everything else is hooked up correctly, you should still get a BIOS screen to come up on your monitor and boot up until the computer searches for the OS on the HDD. Then you'll get a "OS not found" type error and a blinking cursor - that would be "normal" for not having the boot drive hooked up.

Hope that helps a little, and let us in on how it goes -we can help you diagnose it along the way.

[GregK]

power hooked up. and yes the whole end broke off the sata conector. i can boot into bios then it says reboot using the proper blah blah blah. one question you said to go into windows and delete gt240 driver and d/l gtx275 driver. what can i expect to happeh there? id think the screen would go blank after i uninstalled the 240 drivers. or will it go into some low graphics mode? thanks for the help!

[Mumps]

Yeah. Even the bestest of modern-day video cards still support plain old vanilla "VGA" so with no drivers, Windows will default to the basic VGA mode driver it always has available and allow you to take the necessary steps to get real drivers installed. Maybe at 640x480, but it'll do. :).

[GregK]

thanks mumps i am stoked! this beast is a beauty but answer this why do they make cards that install upside down? ive never had one face up and its to bad this is a great looking beast!

on another good note now i can use evga precision it worked so so on my asus card but now its overclocking time!! well tomorrow maybe :))

this was only possable because of the ridiculously good deal i got on it!

once running and oc'd id like to make it a boinc slave to max out its rac my engt240 for games and internet. before hooking up duals was a pain but hopefully ill get there.

[DrPop]

Mumps beat me to it. ;) You'll be fine, just do it in this order:
Boot into windows, go to NVIDIA.com and download the latest driver version for your OS - and make sure you select 32 or 64 bit as needed. Then, go to your control panel and uninstall the previous NVIDIA drivers.
Restart or shutdown the rig.
Boot back into windows, and you will have "lame graphics" for a bit. Install the new NVIDIA drivers. Then reboot again.

Now...your second card being an NVIDIA also, here's a couple pointers. Slots won't matter much - what kind of case do you have? I've been told the lower slot has better cooling, so you might actually want to put the 275 in the lower slot. (Someone jump in here and correct me if I'm wrong, please.) Then, after you follow the steps above, and Windows is working great with the 275, then shut it down, and install the old card in the top slot.
Move your monitor cable to the old card in the top slot, and let Windows do its thing and find the driver. Should be automatic this time, because the NVIDIA drivers are already installed.
You may have to reboot.
Now, when you do reboot, to keep BOINC from crunching on the old card as well, there is a setting that you have to change - and that's where I'll leave it...and let someone like F$, Zombie or Maxwell give you the rest of the info...because I've never had to change that setting. ;)
Best of luck, and keep us posted!

[GregK]

ok drpop i sort of lol followed your way. ok 240 has allwaysbeen in top slot. i instaled it again and put in the 275 on bottom. d/l'd new drivers. went into control p and deleted anything nvidia was 3 or 4. then i clicked install 275 drivers and towards the end the 240 drivers started on their own. there ere a few restarts in there. well anyway i looked in boinc and the 240 is not crunching and 275 is! so i left it im not even sure if ill see video if i plug the monitor into the 275 who cares its doing just what i want! i oc'd using evga precision. stock numbers were 648 core 1458 shader 1188 memory

oc'd to: 738 core 1660 shader(linked) 1267 memory. howmuch morecan i go? its at 80 degrees now 100% fan. and should i keeep the core and shaders locked? and is a mem oc nesscessary? iwant this thing allmost maxed out guys. :) oh ya im loving today!!

oh and here's a funny story i went to sleep looking out the window on my bed for the mail guy(gpu) he knocked so loud i bolted straight up and shattered the glass cover thing over the lightbulbs cutting my head a bit! lmao!!!!

[Crazybob]

I think that one needs to go in the thread, you know you've BOINC'd too much when.....

[DrPop]

...how much more can i go? its at 80 degrees now 100% fan. and should i keeep the core and shaders locked? and is a mem oc nesscessary? iwant this thing allmost maxed out guys. :) oh ya im loving today!!

oh and here's a funny story i went to sleep looking out the window on my bed for the mail guy(gpu) he knocked so loud i bolted straight up and shattered the glass cover thing over the lightbulbs cutting my head a bit! lmao!!!!

That is hilarious! :)) I'm glad you're OK - not much more than just a few little scrapes, I hope?

OK, back to the cards - glad they're doing what you want them to. Now, keep an eye on the temps. Those GPUs are rated to 105 C, but I don't like mine going much over 80 for long term (read 24/7 crunching). In fact, I try to keep mine in the 70's somewhere or even lower.
However, there is no harm in trying to push it a little and see what you get. First thing I would do is back the memory off a little and see if the temps go down. This will allow you to clock the core and shaders up more.
I've never owned a 275 so can't say how high it will go. For comparison, my GTX 465 was having trouble being stable at 800 core/shaders, and I had to drop it to 775 for 24/7 operation (no volt increase yet) whereas the ASUS GTX 460 I have at 900 core/shaders and the thing is STILL at 53 C with ~60% fan. :D

Now, if you really want to get into it, you would have to install MSI Afterburner instead of the Evga Precision and check the voltage adjustment...and up it a little! :D
But be careful if you do that, seeing how you've never done this before, I mean - it's easy to burn up a perfectly good card that way. So EASY does it on the volts, my friend. Keep that fan cranking and watch the temps.
It's all about the temp...oh, and do you have a GOOD side fan in the case over the area where the GPUs are? If you don't you should get one. If you do, then make sure it is blowing INward, onto the GPUs. If you have a side fan that blows out, it will starve the GPU fans for air...and raise your temps. So if you have one that blows out, just unscrew it and flip it over.
Hope that helps to get you started... ;)

[Shadowlurker]

If I remember correctly I left the memory alone, kept core and shaders locked and ran it in low 700s. With my case in a cool basement that gave me temps in the low 70s with 80% fan. I tend to be fairly conservative with how hard I will push my stuff since I don't like babysitting my rigs.

Glad you got it working.

[Shadowlurker]

I've never owned a 275 so can't say how high it will go.

I can remedy that for ya DrPop, got another one of those laying around still.

[GregK]

If I remember correctly I left the memory alone, kept core and shaders locked and ran it in low 700s. With my case in a cool basement that gave me temps in the low 70s with 80% fan. I tend to be fairly conservative with how hard I will push my stuff since I don't like babysitting my rigs.

Glad you got it working.

thank you! cannot say it enough. the beast is chugging along nicely!

[Shadowlurker]

After reading all the insane OCs you guys run, I went and juiced my 570s a bit more, took my PG wu time from 618sec to 585sec, with any kind of luck I won't regret it

[Bryan]

After reading all the insane OCs you guys run, I went and juiced my 570s a bit more, took my PG wu time from 618sec to 585sec, with any kind of luck I won't regret it

Run mine at 850 and they are happy and at 59C.

[GregK]

do you unlock core and shader? what would you say would be the highest numbers and be plenty stable? i know alot of that is environment. it should have good enough airflow with my side panel off.

[-GER-]

I run 570 @800 if using comp and 900 if not. Slight voltage inc. Runs 61C on PG.

I think my shader is linked to core clock and locked to that link.

Tried upping memory clock but have seen little or no gain so set it back to default.

[GregK]

ok i will default my mem setting. im running at 750 1687 1362 temps were near 80 then suddenly went to 54. i checked with gpu-z and clocks are verified.

anyone chime in that has a gtx 275? so im guessing memory speed doesnt help on pg and prob just adds heat is this correct? does shader speed or core speed directly effect crunch times or both? i dont have to worry about system load and gaming cause this card is just running boinc my engt240 is for my graphics. thanks ger for the reply!

[joker]

From what little I know about OCing, memory does not help for crunching and turning down the memory freqs should help bring temps down a bit. As far as core freqs, the higher the better! As stated above, you will probably have to increase your voltage for best results.

[John P. Myers]

From what little I know about OCing, memory does not help for crunching and turning down the memory freqs should help bring temps down a bit. As far as core freqs, the higher the better! As stated above, you will probably have to increase your voltage for best results.

for the GTX275, you want to increase the Shader clock, not the Core clock. That's the rule for every Nvidia card, although on the 400 and 500 series, the shader is always locked at 2x the Core clock.

[Bryan]

I'm no expert on Cudas but I run 2 wu on the GTX 570 and at one of the settings I remember (825MHz I think) I was getting completion times of 1200 seconds. That is with coupled core/shader and memory at 1950 (my stock setting). When I dropped the memory to 1000 MHz the completion time went up to 1220 seconds BUT the temperature droped from 57C to 50C.

So dropping the temp 7C only costs 1.7% decrease in throughput.

I run the cards now at 850 / 1950 and the completion time is 1164s and the temperature is 59C. When warm temps get here I will probably leave the clock rate at 850 and drop the memory way down.

[GregK]

thanks for the info jp. something is funny though gpuz says its running at the clocks i set but my times went from 30 min a wu to over an hr now and its running way cooler at first it was nearly 80 degrees now in the fifties.

i looked agin gpu-z front page says my clocks are where i want them but on the sensors tab it shows this thing running way low clocks.

[GregK]

ok gpuz says my 240 has cuda and 275 doesnt the box is unchecked on bottom of gpu-z. wtf am i missing here? do i need to d/l cuda? i thought it was with the drivers

[-GER-]

thanks for the info jp. something is funny though gpuz says its running at the clocks i set but my times went from 30 min a wu to over an hr now and its running way cooler at first it was nearly 80 degrees now in the fifties.

i looked agin gpu-z front page says my clocks are where i want them but on the sensors tab it shows this thing running way low clocks.

I've found that when a gpu goes into save my @ss mode if temps get too high it resets to default values but software does not always reflect this. Reset OC software to defaults and then OC it back again(maybe a little less OC).

Dunno, but have read using 2 softwares to read cpu/gpu settings at same time can lead to errors.

[GregK]

thanks -GER-! ive been playing with it and notice on restart she runs great then when i oc (prob to much) i watched the temps drop immediately so what you say makes sense! ok do you think i should bump up the voltage? and what would the reccommended program be? i forget but maybe my bios even has a setting there i can oc my cpu fsb from bios maybe the gpu voltage too? ill go look.


edit: there is a ton of voltage settings in my bios but i have no clue which is for the gpu. i have the asus p5k-e mb.

[GregK]

for the GTX275, you want to increase the Shader clock, not the Core clock. That's the rule for every Nvidia card, although on the 400 and 500 series, the shader is always locked at 2x the Core clock.

thank you

so the shaders are doing the crunching? is it recommended to even slow down the core to save temps without loss of crunch times? do i need to raise the voltage somewhere to eek out more shader speed?

edit: having much better luck now its been running nicely. still bumping up shader slowed the mem a tad.

[John P. Myers]

thank you

so the shaders are doing the crunching? is it recommended to even slow down the core to save temps without loss of crunch times? do i need to raise the voltage somewhere to eek out more shader speed?
yes the shaders do the crunching, and yes you can reduce core speed to save on temps. no need to raise voltage until you clock it high enough that it crashes :)