Constant driver recovery in-game - PSU or GPU?

[Pjotr84]

After having upgraded to the HD 6770 about 10 days ago, I began experiencing driver recoveries while playing Fable III today. Sometimes the driver actually recovers and I can play on, sometimes the game just locks up.

To rule out some software issues, I've checked if Fallout: NV, Empire: Total War and Dirt 3 had the same issue now and they did. Reinstalling the card and switching drivers from 11.9 to 11.10 RC2 and 11.8 also had no effect.

Personally I think the culprit is either the card itself or my PSU, which should have enough power (450W) to run my system (E6750, 8GB RAM, 1 HDD, 1 DVD-Rom), but I've had it for about 3 years now, so it might be dying.

Before deciding to shell out for a new power supply, I'd like to know if anyone has had similar experiences with this card or has any advice.

Edit: CPU and GPU temperatures all both well below their limits.

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

450W is a borderline amount of power for that card, but it shouldn't be causing driver failures. Have you updated the drivers to the latest versions?

 

[Pjotr84]

450W is a borderline amount of power for that card, but it shouldn't be causing driver failures. Have you updated the drivers to the latest versions?

Yeah, 450W is minimum spec. Maybe the PSU had had to work too hard since I got the card and is only now becoming unable to.

And yes, I've tried 11.8, 11.9 and 11.10 preview.

Edit: Driver recovery also occurs when using CCC and Firefox (with 3D acceleration on).

 

[razor0512]

Most likely PSU related since your card is new. What brand is your PSU? I had this problem a few months ago when I was using a generic brandless PSU. I had constant driver crashes,freezes,blue screens, etc so I bought an XFX 650W PSU and it solved all my problems.

 

[Pjotr84]

What brand is your PSU?

I'm using a 450W Coolermaster Realpower.

Edit: I've now reseated the card - checked for physical defects, couldn't find any -, reinstalled Windows, updated everything and even manually updated my Intel devices, which has apparently helped some people who had similar problems. Not me, though. Underclocking the card to 500Mhz Clock and my CPU from 2.66Ghz to 1.6 didn't help squiddly, either. Why could this card run for one and a half weeks without a hitch and then suddenly choke on everything?


Although it could still be that the card just died very quickly, I'm putting my money on the PSU, so it looks like I'm buying a new PSU. Can anyone recommend the BeQuiet! Purepower 530W? I can get a good deal on it if I act within the next hour (before 4PM GMT+1).

Edit 2: I've just bitten the bullet. In comparing my current PSU (see above) with the BeQuiet! one, I noticed the difference in amperage on the 12+ rails is quite shocking: 22 combined on my current, 35 combined on the new one. Seems to me that's a clue...

Edit 3: Just installed the PSU, problem persists. I'm now going to test a different graphics card and if that solves it, I'm RMA'ing the card.