Ok I've been reading threads regarding STO shuting down the computer to prevent heat damage... I've read many "opinions" but have yet to find a solution.
The only thing that lets me get past the login screen is turning off Dynamic Lighting and Post Processing. The proceding to manualy set my vid card fan to 100% and crank up all my chasis fans. This is simply TRIBBLE.
As a programmer, I know there is fail in the sto graphics engine. STO graphics are not at all epic in quality, so why are they overheating my system? I've played several games that have way more hardware intensive graphics routines, and i can run them without my tower sounding like a suped up hair dryer....
My specs:
Mobo: AMD 790x
Proc: AMD Phenom x4 9850+
Ram: 8gb
Vid Card: ATI Radeon HD4870x2
Drivers: 10.2
HDs: 2x1TB Sata Raid 1
OS: Vista Home Premium x64 SP2 (fully updated)
There are 4 massive fans on the front and back of my case, smaller ones on the ram and chipset, a massive heat sync on the processor unit, and a massive heatsync+fan on the vid card. King Kong aint got **** on my box.
Has anyone found a solution, as in a combination of ccc settings and sto settings such that I can play STO with maxed out settings with Dynamic Lighting on and Post Processing on and normal fan settings and not have my pc shut down.
Please do not post unless you have a solution. I don't care for flames or opinions irrelevant to my request.
If i had access to the source code, i'd write my own personal patch. Since I don't, I'm grateful for any helpful information.
I have a friend with an NVIDIA 8800GT that is having overheating issues on this game too, but he's yet to find a solution. He has an AMD Phenom X4 975 processor.
I have an ATI 5870, and the card never gets above 45 degrees. On my ATI card, I have only turned off dynamic lighting, but that seems to have stopped the crashing issues I was having. A point of note, I have an Intel processor rather than AMD.
I wonder whether the problem has anything to do with AMD CPUs specifically?
I too would be interested if others could jump in with any findings or solutions...
I don't have these heating issues. As you can see from my specs I am a AMD user. My case is better at cooling that most and I have a Zalman CNPS9900A LED. I did not mod the GPU. I used to SLI so my cooling is design with that in mind.
@White Knight: you're cooling is irrelvant. STO graphics are not impressive and should not overheat my hardware. Considering several other games with more impressive graphics do not overheat my hardware. If sto were photorealistic I would be more willing to accept the problem.
It's a several years old engine trying to keep up with modern graphics. That's why it's so hungry for resources. As far as overheating goes, I don't have a clue. Even with VSync and all the other limiters disabled, it rarely heats my GPU (also an Ati) above 75°C. And it runs fine at that temp for hours.
But from what people keep reporting about the overheating issue, this is unexpected behavior of my card. It should, like any good card, not be able to handle full load and go up in flames. Sounds weird? Just check the other topics that discuss the overheating issue.
I've read them... which is why i started a new thread of which i requested solutions only, not how win your box is or flaming me for whatever reason. I just want solutions posted. Obviously cryptic is workin on some sort of patch, but that coudl be days if not years away... there must be something i can do my side to solve the issue until cryptic figures out what they've ****ed up.
Solutions:
- reduce details or resolution
- disable antialiasing
- reduce memory- and clock speed of your card, then reduce voltage (at your own risk)
- make sure the cooler of your card is properly seated. Some manufacturers TRIBBLE up with this
- replace the cooler with a more powerful one
- if it still runs too hot, get your card replaced, because it's obviously not working as intended
- enable VSync (for the sake of completion)
My card, air cooled, in a case with two fans only, is running according to specs. If that's special, then it must be standard to get malfunctioning hardware.
That's not a solution. I don't want top play with **** graphics. I want to play with full graphics and my hardware can so support it. This is an STO fail I'm waiting for a patch on and would much rather find my own solution as apposed to waiting for cryptic.
@White Knight: you're cooling is irrelvant. STO graphics are not impressive and should not overheat my hardware. Considering several other games with more impressive graphics do not overheat my hardware. If sto were photorealistic I would be more willing to accept the problem.
So you are a software programmer, and you want to compare a single player game that had been in development for YEARS and is fully optimized, to an MMO which has been in developmen for less than two?, and by its very nature, is in continued optimization
So you are a software programmer, and you want to compare a single player game that had been in development for YEARS and is fully optimized, to an MMO which has been in developmen for less than two?, and by its very nature, is in continued optimization
Something is wrong here.
I don't recall specifying which games I'm comparing to. I play all sorts of games. Not just single player games. That's just some wierd assumption on your behalf. As is the assumption I do not recognize mmos are continually patched.
I already stated I'd write my own patch if i had access to the source code...however I do not unless cryptic suddenly wants to employ some random complainer on their forum.
My comparison to other games not overheating is valid. I own a number of games that have way more impressive graphics and utilize way more resources that do not overheat my system at max graphics settings. Seeing as STO has fairly mediocre graphics, it is the case that sloppy coding is the cause of this problem. i await a solution whether it be an official patch or a simple workaround.
Read what is written, and then reply. Assume nothing.
SC2 Beta has the same issues on Menus because the CPU is barely doing any of the work and its all the GPU (my 5870 @ 77c but still fine) and probobly similar for STO much like FurMark will overheat them, your only solution currently is forcing Vsync/lower framerate or getting a better cooling solution if you don't want to sacrifice quality.
48X0 series cards don't exactly have the best cooling when they get put under heavy load.
Well since I'm such a trekie I'll just have to keep increasing cooling.. with every crash i increase the chasis fans by 5%... if it still does it a 100, i'll take the side off and use a floor fan to cool it.... if this were any other game i would simply not play./... as many lesser trekies have probably already done...
I don't recall specifying which games I'm comparing to. I play all sorts of games. Not just single player games. That's just some wierd assumption on your behalf. As is the assumption I do not recognize mmos are continually patched.
I already stated I'd write my own patch if i had access to the source code...however I do not unless cryptic suddenly wants to employ some random complainer on their forum.
My comparison to other games not overheating is valid. I own a number of games that have way more impressive graphics and utilize way more resources that do not overheat my system at max graphics settings. Seeing as STO has fairly mediocre graphics, it is the case that sloppy coding is the cause of this problem. i await a solution whether it be an official patch or a simple workaround.
Read what is written, and then reply. Assume nothing.
My point is, if it's not one of the latest MMO's, that use high quality pixel shading and has to load and use multiple systems and resources, it;s not comparable. There have been players here trying to compare Dirt 2 and Bioshock 2 to this game. You just cant.
As for your last staement, try not to be so condescending in your replies. We're all here to try and help you. By trying to belittle those who help you, and refuse to even listen to advice, you just make people less likely to help you.
My point is, if it's not one of the latest MMO's, that use high quality pixel shading and has to load and use multiple systems and resources, it;s not comparable. There have been players here trying to compare Dirt 2 and Bioshock 2 to this game. You just cant.
As for your last staement, try not to be so condescending in your replies. We're all here to try and help you. By trying to belittle those who help you, and refuse to even listen to advice, you just make people less likely to help you.
Take your own advice from the 2nd paragraph of your recent reply. It was you're own condescending post that spawned mine.
Also have you heard of Aion? FF XXIV? GW2? or any new mmos? They all have very new and powerful graphics engines. None of them made my computer turn off. End of the day, no matter which way you look at it. It's sloppy coding that is causing the problem.
I have, however, possibly found a solution.
By setting the option to sleep the process every 10ms, it seems to have allowed me to at least finish my present mission.... I will turn on dynamic lighting and then post processing, if i can still play with both, I will then slowly decrement the fan speeds. Will post soon with an update...
Oh and also... in this engine, forceing vsync or not forcing vsync results in less load on the vid card?
This is true with any game and engine. Imagine a motor block that could do 120,000rpm, but is electronically limited to only 60,000rpm. Will it run cooler? Yes. As far as the graphics hardware is concerned: If the chip has the power to surpass 60fps, then limiting it to 60fps will allow for longer periods without load between frames, which in turn means less heat is generated.
That's not a solution. I don't want top play with **** graphics. I want to play with full graphics and my hardware can so support it. This is an STO fail I'm waiting for a patch on and would much rather find my own solution as apposed to waiting for cryptic.
What you deem worthy as a solution is of course entirely up to you, but I'd return the card and get it replaced. Would you keep a CPU that breaks down under the load of a program? No. Then what's the reason to keep the GPU?
You might want to download and run Furmark, but remember to rename the .exe to something else before starting the program. Your GPU will fail as well, because it can't handle the load. The renaming is done to prevent the driver from using its protection mechanisms specifically aimed at Furmark.
If you still believe it's STOs and Furmarks (or Starcraft 2 Beta, which happens to have the same problem; big coincidence, isn't it?) fault and not your GPU's, then this link might be of some interest: http://www.techpowerup.com/index.php?69799
didn't realize FF14 was out nor GW2. Though before you go jumping to your own conclusions, you might want to at least run a program that'll at least log the CPU + GPU + Mobo temperatures. At any rate reducing your clock speeds will definitely lower the temperature, there's also an option in-game under troubleshoot that'll run the game at lower speeds which will also lower your temperature. Frame-limiters will also lower your temperature, this can be found under troubleshoot as well. Also, leave dynamic lighting off if you ever intend on landing your ship, since this problem seems to affect most ATI cards.
My card idles at 60s and runs in the 90s and never had overheating problems with everything on max. Though course my card's also 3 years old and built in the age when things ran hot.
Well, no. I don't need a new card. I hate when people talk about things as if they know the absolute facts, and they don't.
It can handle any other game. Including games of higher quality graphics. As i mentioned, I've enabled the option to make the gpu sleep 10ms between frames. It seems to have resolved the issue for now. I've been running with dynamic lighting on now for some time without crashing. My fans are still cranked. I'm not turning them down till after I test with dynamic lighting and post processing both on without a crash.
Once it runs well with both on, I'll preiodically decrement the fans until I hit the sweet spot and or the original settings I used pre-STO.
So i have essentially slowed the cpu/gpu but with sleeps instead of actually slowing the speed.
To be honest, this type of functionality is hard coded into most games... and there are no ops in game to change them. Cryptic could throw out a whole **** load of trouble tickets if they force that option next patch and remove it from the options list. There's no visual change in performance, it's just that the vid card doesn't over heat.
Well now I have dynamic lighting and post processing on, and decremented the chasis fans by 5%... will lower it again tomorrow... will post again when i hit the lowest fan speed i can do without crashing or if i get it back to normal...
Brand / Model / Wattage / # amps on the 12v rail would be helpful info.
For sake of arguement, please try ticking the "reduce CPU/GPU usage" box in troubleshooting under STO video options.
This forces the card to render less frames and SHOULD drastically lower the heat the card is putting out.
If the hard shut down goes away, you know its heat related.
Honestly though, i get the feeling that your PSU isn't delivering sufficient power on the 12v rail. This game and champions online can stress a video card even more than Crysis Warhead.
Well, no. I don't need a new card. I hate when people talk about things as if they know the absolute facts, and they don't.
It can handle any other game. Including games of higher quality graphics.
The other games you're playing do of course work fine. Why? Because they're finished. This of course also includes the circumvention of failures like the one to which I posted the link. See Starcraft 2 Beta. Does it invoke the same symptoms as STO? Yes. Is it finished? No. STO isn't finished either. It's rushed out the door. It's the only MMO that hit the market just as originally scheduled. This is a first in the whole MMO market. The developers cannot possibly have adapted their code to all of the major quirks that pieces of hardware have.
This quirk is a fact. It is proven. Closing your eyes on it doesn't make it go away. The other games work around this flaw, STO doesn't yet. It's that simple.
@ElrabenCouger:
Read what has been written. I've already got a solution. Yes it i heat related, hense the shutdown.
@LasseBlutstroemen:
Thx for stating the obvious. Someone always feels the need. I already said what the solution is and the reason. It was as I had originally stated, sloppy coding. The chek box i cheked should never have been there and the option itself hardcoded to be always on, as most other games do.
What you've just posted only underlines that and is unneccessary.
Will post again later to update on the fan decrementation....
The issue should be fixed by the party responsible for it, and that's not Cryptic, or any other game developer. It's Ati's and the card manufacturer's. The software developers are only implementing methods around the quirk because otherwise people would banging at their door complaining. Like it's happening right here, right now.
Read the forums man, there's a number of threads for the same thing for both amd, intel, nvidia, and ati. It's not brand specific. I just posted the thread as amd/ati solution because that's the hardware i have and the solutino for me may be diff than a person with intel/nvidia... but as it turns out it was just a checkbox. So yes it is cryptiks fault for not hardcoding this option into the game and disallowing user intevention... as other developers do.
Comments
I have an ATI 5870, and the card never gets above 45 degrees. On my ATI card, I have only turned off dynamic lighting, but that seems to have stopped the crashing issues I was having. A point of note, I have an Intel processor rather than AMD.
I wonder whether the problem has anything to do with AMD CPUs specifically?
I too would be interested if others could jump in with any findings or solutions...
I do have the most current BIOS update.
Edit: Also try to underclock your videocard
@White Knight: you're cooling is irrelvant. STO graphics are not impressive and should not overheat my hardware. Considering several other games with more impressive graphics do not overheat my hardware. If sto were photorealistic I would be more willing to accept the problem.
But from what people keep reporting about the overheating issue, this is unexpected behavior of my card. It should, like any good card, not be able to handle full load and go up in flames. Sounds weird? Just check the other topics that discuss the overheating issue.
- reduce details or resolution
- disable antialiasing
- reduce memory- and clock speed of your card, then reduce voltage (at your own risk)
- make sure the cooler of your card is properly seated. Some manufacturers TRIBBLE up with this
- replace the cooler with a more powerful one
- if it still runs too hot, get your card replaced, because it's obviously not working as intended
- enable VSync (for the sake of completion)
My card, air cooled, in a case with two fans only, is running according to specs. If that's special, then it must be standard to get malfunctioning hardware.
So you are a software programmer, and you want to compare a single player game that had been in development for YEARS and is fully optimized, to an MMO which has been in developmen for less than two?, and by its very nature, is in continued optimization
Something is wrong here.
I don't recall specifying which games I'm comparing to. I play all sorts of games. Not just single player games. That's just some wierd assumption on your behalf. As is the assumption I do not recognize mmos are continually patched.
I already stated I'd write my own patch if i had access to the source code...however I do not unless cryptic suddenly wants to employ some random complainer on their forum.
My comparison to other games not overheating is valid. I own a number of games that have way more impressive graphics and utilize way more resources that do not overheat my system at max graphics settings. Seeing as STO has fairly mediocre graphics, it is the case that sloppy coding is the cause of this problem. i await a solution whether it be an official patch or a simple workaround.
Read what is written, and then reply. Assume nothing.
48X0 series cards don't exactly have the best cooling when they get put under heavy load.
My point is, if it's not one of the latest MMO's, that use high quality pixel shading and has to load and use multiple systems and resources, it;s not comparable. There have been players here trying to compare Dirt 2 and Bioshock 2 to this game. You just cant.
As for your last staement, try not to be so condescending in your replies. We're all here to try and help you. By trying to belittle those who help you, and refuse to even listen to advice, you just make people less likely to help you.
Take your own advice from the 2nd paragraph of your recent reply. It was you're own condescending post that spawned mine.
Also have you heard of Aion? FF XXIV? GW2? or any new mmos? They all have very new and powerful graphics engines. None of them made my computer turn off. End of the day, no matter which way you look at it. It's sloppy coding that is causing the problem.
I have, however, possibly found a solution.
By setting the option to sleep the process every 10ms, it seems to have allowed me to at least finish my present mission.... I will turn on dynamic lighting and then post processing, if i can still play with both, I will then slowly decrement the fan speeds. Will post soon with an update...
What you deem worthy as a solution is of course entirely up to you, but I'd return the card and get it replaced. Would you keep a CPU that breaks down under the load of a program? No. Then what's the reason to keep the GPU?
You might want to download and run Furmark, but remember to rename the .exe to something else before starting the program. Your GPU will fail as well, because it can't handle the load. The renaming is done to prevent the driver from using its protection mechanisms specifically aimed at Furmark.
If you still believe it's STOs and Furmarks (or Starcraft 2 Beta, which happens to have the same problem; big coincidence, isn't it?) fault and not your GPU's, then this link might be of some interest: http://www.techpowerup.com/index.php?69799
My card idles at 60s and runs in the 90s and never had overheating problems with everything on max. Though course my card's also 3 years old and built in the age when things ran hot.
It can handle any other game. Including games of higher quality graphics. As i mentioned, I've enabled the option to make the gpu sleep 10ms between frames. It seems to have resolved the issue for now. I've been running with dynamic lighting on now for some time without crashing. My fans are still cranked. I'm not turning them down till after I test with dynamic lighting and post processing both on without a crash.
Once it runs well with both on, I'll preiodically decrement the fans until I hit the sweet spot and or the original settings I used pre-STO.
So i have essentially slowed the cpu/gpu but with sleeps instead of actually slowing the speed.
To be honest, this type of functionality is hard coded into most games... and there are no ops in game to change them. Cryptic could throw out a whole **** load of trouble tickets if they force that option next patch and remove it from the options list. There's no visual change in performance, it's just that the vid card doesn't over heat.
Are you sure they're heat related shutdowns?
What is the PSU?
Brand / Model / Wattage / # amps on the 12v rail would be helpful info.
For sake of arguement, please try ticking the "reduce CPU/GPU usage" box in troubleshooting under STO video options.
This forces the card to render less frames and SHOULD drastically lower the heat the card is putting out.
If the hard shut down goes away, you know its heat related.
Honestly though, i get the feeling that your PSU isn't delivering sufficient power on the 12v rail. This game and champions online can stress a video card even more than Crysis Warhead.
This quirk is a fact. It is proven. Closing your eyes on it doesn't make it go away. The other games work around this flaw, STO doesn't yet. It's that simple.
Read what has been written. I've already got a solution. Yes it i heat related, hense the shutdown.
@LasseBlutstroemen:
Thx for stating the obvious. Someone always feels the need. I already said what the solution is and the reason. It was as I had originally stated, sloppy coding. The chek box i cheked should never have been there and the option itself hardcoded to be always on, as most other games do.
What you've just posted only underlines that and is unneccessary.
Will post again later to update on the fan decrementation....