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#473293 19/08/13 01:49 PM
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LeBurns Offline OP
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I have issues with my PC in that it will randomly just restart at times while playing games. It would happen once every 5 to 10 hours playing Skyrim, fully maxed out. When playing FO:NV it never happened. So I’m figuring it’s a memory problem and playing high graphics games maxed out causes it to occur.

When playing DDC it happens about every 30 minutes or less. I’m playing on 1920x1080 with everything fully maxed out and turned on. The PC can handle this fine (newly upgraded, smooth frame rate), but the restart problem I haven’t figured out how to nail down yet so I can’t get it fixed. Help there would be nice. You would think Windows 8 would tell you why it just restarted, but I can’t figure out where or if it tells you.

So anyway, I’m thinking that if I cut some of the graphic options it will help, but I can’t find a list anywhere of exactly which graphic options are the most taxing to the PC. I learned from Skyrim that you really don’t have to turn off everything since some things really don’t bother the PC that much while turning off other things, that are minor graphically, can make a huge difference.

So, to my question, what options should I turn off that will help the PC the most and what options can I leave on as they make little difference?

Thanks.

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Sounds more like overheating to me.

Try enabling vsync, fixing the framerates should take some stress from the pc.
In the long run, it might be better to find out if it is overheating and which component might be affected (GPU or CPU).
You could run some stress tests while logging your temperatures (e.g. Prime95 for CPU or Furmark for the GPU) to see if that causes a crash, as well.

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LeBurns Offline OP
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What is vsync? That is like the only option that is off, but I have no idea what it means and I didn't see any help in the manual or on the options page.

If it is overheating (I had considered that option) would just adding more fans work, or would that just overtax the power supply and cause more overheating? Currently I just have the basic fans in place but there is room for two or three more.

EDIT: I googled vsync. Good to know, I'll turn it on. I do already have the option turned on about 60 mps though, so will that do any good?

Last edited by LeBurns; 19/08/13 03:09 PM.
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VSync tries to keep the framerate of the game locked at the same value as your screen refresh rate.
In other words, if your hardware can calculate 100 pictures per second, it will try to send those to your monitor.
A monitor has a fixed refresh rate, though (typically 60Hz for most LCDs), so only 60 pictures can be displayed per second. If your GPU produces more than that, this can result in screen-tearing, so you can enable vsync to lock your framerate to the refresh rate of the monitor, giving a smoother experience. If your actual framerate is lower than the monitor's refresh rate, either nothing happens or it will be reduced to e.g. half the monitors refresh rate (30 fps in that case).

An additional effect of vsync is that it can reduce strain on your system, since it might have to do less calculations (if you would have higher fps without).

What you can do against overheating depends on the cause of the overheating.
Just putting in some more fans will probably do nothing.
You can see if the fans/coolers are dirty (dust likes to settle down in the fins of the coolers) or not working properly anymore.
Sometimes it might be necessary to re-apply the thermal grease, but I would recommend this only if you have some experience with assembling computers.
There are tutorials to look up on youtube though.


Last edited by El Zoido; 19/08/13 03:52 PM.
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Well besides vsync, what else might be turned off that would help the PC. What about anti aliasing? Most games give you an option to vary this from 2 to 16, but all I see here is just a check box? How much is it doing exactly? I would like to have some AA, but it doesn't have to be 16+. What about the other options.

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Honestly it shouldn't be overheating like that at all, probably any graphics settings you turn off at all might help (so long as vsync is enabled and if it's your GPU not CPU overheating) but you should really be looking at the root cause, not tackling symptoms.

If the fans definitely aren't dirty/clogged and the outlets of your computer aren't dirty/clogged you need to work out which is overheating. There are tools you can use to monitor the temperature of the CPU and tools to monitor temperature of GPU.

At any rate while Dragon Commander is taxing your system more heavily than most it's a system issue not a game issue. Hardware forums will probably have people who know more than us (more than me certainly) but it's good etiquette to have the basics down in the first post. What your system is (graphics card, motherboard, CPU, PSU, RAM) and how hot it's getting.

Rack #473348 20/08/13 01:20 PM
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Are you running anything like msi afterburner it will let you keep a eye on temps but it does sound like overheating

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Perhaps your CPU fan is not mounted properly or you need a fresh layer of cooling paste.
If it is your GPU which is overheating you will need an additional fan.

There are programs out there which will tell you the temperature of your components.

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How large is your psu? If the psu is borderline than pushing the graphic card might require more power than the psu can handle. With regards to cpu/heat does your mb have the option to enable an alarm that will fire (audio) prior to shutdown ?

meme #473355 20/08/13 03:03 PM
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Thanks for the responses.

Sorry but I have a limited knowledge with some of this stuff, especially in regards to how Windows 8 works. As far as I know I have nothing that tells me the temp. I did finally find the Event Log and it does indicate that the PC restarted, but I can't figure out where it tells me why it did it. I would have thought it would be there somewhere.

I did make sure the PC had a good power supply, in fact I upgraded it when purchased. Not on it now or I'd look it up (I'm at work ... taking a break ... yeah, that's it). I can try to get some specs up, but this probably isn't the forum to really discuss all of that.

What I am really wanting to know now (for the time being) is exactly what the options mean (off or on) in the game. So little information on what having 'Shadows' on means, or AA (how many?), etc.

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Logging the temperature can be done e.g. by "Core Temp" for the CPU and "GPU-Z" for the GPU.
Both are available for free. Play a while and then report the temps.

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well theres your problems you said windows 8 works...... :P sorry couldn't resit yea msi cpuz gpuz and similar will keep you apprised of your system temps smile

if the pc said something like kernel 41 error thats usually a interrupted power supply iw you his reset otherwise not sure without knowing the error


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