Crash and snow

[sam75]

Hi

I tried a scene (classroom) and octane keep crashing leaving snow/artefacts on my screen, I first thought octane had just killed my video card...
my GC (gt260) is not overclocked so I wonder what's the problem

[Danielwray]

Get a hardware temperature monitor and check the temperature of your GPU it could be over heating, even if it isn't over clocked.

If the white spots/ snow'ish looking spots are staying after you close down Octane than you can pretty much guarantee it's a hardware (heat) problem. If your temps. are very high it could be due to faulty hardware or you could have a large amount of dust clogging up your air supply in the case, and hence for the GPU. I usually have to clean out my machine every few months (about 2 or 3) to get rid of all the dust that builds up and before I do it I usually get quite a few graphic glitches like what you mention.

[James]

Have you restarted your computer to see if it is back to normal?

[pixelrush]

dont keep running it if you suspect its overheading

btw it could be a cuda or Octane bug. perhaps you can zip and attach the scene for @radiance to check out

[N30N]

octane keep crashing leaving snow/artefacts on my screen

Are you sure only octane is crashing and not your graphics driver? On windows 7 you'll get a recovery system try message like below.

There's a Windows feature™ that kills Octane, taking the graphics driver with it if your FPS counter goes below 0.25 (it thinks it's stalled and needs to recover).

Edit: This doesn't seem to be the problem your having. Anyone experiencing this issue see the following post. http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... ?f=9&t=145

[radiance]

i bought my GTX260 a few weeks ago,
and it's a factory overclocked version by XFX.

i've had serious stability issues with very low-level driver crashes when using it fully.
Then i installed this tool 'Evga Precision' : http://www.evga.com/PRecision/

it's a little application that allows you to finetune the clock/speed of your GPU,
and i lowered my clock a little bit (say 2%) and then it's very stable.

seems like the factory overclocking was'nt well done, and a little bit too much.

i'd recommend people to download it (free registration required)

Radiance

[pixelrush]

Here's another one too ..MSI Afterburner (no registration reqd)
http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/gui.htm

Perhaps because of the intense workout gpu rendering will give video cards there should be some friendly advice given to make sure they are clean and the case well ventilated before using Octane, particularly for long periods.
In the interests of stability and longevity people should under clock their cards rather than over clock for performance gain.

There are utility programs to monitor video card temps like GPU-Z
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
I am not sure if this will display properly if you have your card maxed out rendering though.
I guess the best strategy is to have a second el cheapo card for mundane UI duties and a dedicated gpu for the rendering.

[sam75]

I indeed have to reboot to get rid of the snow

I checked temp with rivatuner and it doesn't seem to be related to the gpu temperature.

I suspect actually my power supply unit, could GC crashes if it doesn't get enough power ?

my psu is 500W, my sys is an I7 920@4Ghz, Intel SSD X25-M, 4 HDD in Raid0 and my GTX260

[radiance]

yeah, 500W is a bit on the low side.
it also depends on your PSU's quality, some PSU's tout 500W but can't deliver that continously.
try installing a GPU tuner tool like evga precision and lower the speed a lot, then slowly work upwards until you find a stable/highest setting,
i've got the exact same issue here.

Radiance

[sam75]

yeah, 500W is a bit on the low side.
it also depends on your PSU's quality, some PSU's tout 500W but can't deliver that continously.
try installing a GPU tuner tool like evga precision and lower the speed a lot, then slowly work upwards until you find a stable/highest setting,
i've got the exact same issue here.

Radiance

since we have the same card could you tell me your clock/mem settings ?

thanks