HP Z620 - Geforce 970 black screen od death - power issues?

[Calaudude]

I have a GF 970 which demands a 8pin and a 6pin pcie as the Z820 only supports 2x6pin I used an adpater 6->8

I read somewhere that the 6pin HP Z620 will deliver more then 150W which is the rated power for a  8pin

now I have the issue that in some games my  screen is going black at start and I can still hear some sounds but basically I need to hard reset the PC then

In these games it happens all the time e.g. GTA V

other games are fine 

[old_geekster]

@Calaudude, welcome to the forum.

Here is the Maintenance and Service Guide for the computer.  On Page 40 it states as following:

Power supply ● 800 W Gold, 90% efficient, wide-ranging, active Power Factor Correction, two auxiliary dongles on two separate 12V rails, ERP 0.5W, Built-in-Self Test (BIST)

The two auxiliary dongles (power connectors) are apparently on separate 12V rails.  Therefore, it leads me to believe that you should have enough power to run the GTX 970 using the 8-pin adapter.  However, since it works with some games and not GTA V, it may be that it is far more video intensive.

Here is what it states about Graphics cards:

Graphics cards
● PCIe Gen3 (PCIe3) bus speeds; can support two PCIe Gen3 graphics cards in PCIe3 x16 slots

● Up to 225 W graphics or computer card in the primary graphics slot

● A second graphics card in the second PCIe3 x16 slot

● Third and fourth 2D graphics cards in additional PCIe2 slots

● Combined power consumption of all cards cannot exceed 300 W (subject to overall system power limitations and configuration restrictions)

If you haven't done so, you should check for patches for GTA V.  The developers leave it up to us to correct problems that they should have fixed before releasing the games.  I have had games that would restart the computer before installing the patches.

[Calaudude · Accepted solution]

I already found out the problem and solution

its not a GF970 issue its an issue from my HP envy32 media desplay

I guess when there is no signal anymore for a short time he is switching to other not connected input

I disabled automatic switching

solution for my black screen was simply reselct hdmi on media desplay or turn media display off/on

[old_geekster]

Thank you for the followup and solution to your problem, @Calaudude.  We who help on the Forums like to know when a member solves their own problems.

[MtothaJ]

One thing to add here - Nvidia has by default limited PCIe speed of its cards to 2.0 on the X79 chipset, however they have also released a patch that enables the full PCIe 3.0 bandwidth.

SO best to check in GPU-Z - if you are running at PCIe 2.0 then download and install the patch and after rebooting you should now be at 3.0.

Link to GPU-Z: https://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/GPU-Z/

Link to the Nvidia patch: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3135/~/geforce-gen3-support-on-x79-platform

[Calaudude]

hi in gpuz i get displayed 2.0x16 before and after applying the patch

[MtothaJ]

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@Calaudude wrote:

hi in gpuz i get displayed 2.0x16 before and after applying the patch

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Try applying the patch again and reboot. Make sure that in the bios the PCIe lane you have the card in is set to AUTO or the highest speed. Also, In GPU-Z click on the 'render test' button next to the PCIe speed indicator for an accurate reading.

I can confirm this works with a Z420 and GTX 1070.

[Calaudude]

I

I applied the Patc again this time as admin and it worked now

[MtothaJ]

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@Calaudude wrote:

I

I applied the Patc again this time as admin and it worked now

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Glad it worked.

In truth there is probably not that much difference in these cards operating at PCIe 2.0 or 3.0 but it is nice to know that everything is set up to work as it is supposed to and that extra bandwidth is accessible should it be required.