Question All games suddenly crashing - Power issue or is my RTX 2070 dying?

joshbrown151

Prominent
Nov 16, 2017
9
0
510
Hey all,

So I've been using a RTX 2070 Founders Edition card for a few months now just fine, but things have quickly gone south. I was playing the FFXIV Shadowbringers early access all Friday without issue, but I started to notice potential artifacts and a frequent blinking/flickering on the whole screen every few seconds last night. The game crashed not long after with a "Fatal DirectX error", but booted back in just fine. Now, firing up the game (or any game) this morning results in a crash about 20-30 seconds in. It happened with FFXIV, the game's benchmark, and Overwatch the moment I reached the character select screen.

it's tough to get temp readings when games don't last long, but they seem fine for my confined Node 202 case. My GPU would usually hold at 80c when gaming just fine, but I can't play long enough to get it to heat up now (it won't go over 55). CPU is around 60-70. Not sure if it's worth mentioning my GPU goes far above its rated boost all the way to 1905MHz, but I assume this is just because it has the temp headroom before crashing.

I've updated to the latest Nvidia drivers, but nothing has changed. I'm wondering whether it could be a power delivery issue or whether my RTX 2070 is just about to join the rest of the RMA pile.

Specs:
  • Gigabyte GA-AB350 Gaming WIFI
  • Ryzen 5 1500X
  • RTX 2070 Founders Edition
  • 32GB Crucial Ballistics 2666Mhz DDR4 memory
  • Fractal Design Node 202 Integra 450w PSU
  • Windows 10 64-bit


I've uploaded a camera video of the artifacts in-game and uploaded the single-frame screencaps to Imgur. Don't watch it if you don't want FFXIV: Shadowbringers spoiled for you. I lowered the core clock through MSI Afterburner to avoid the 1905MHz boost it's reaching. I feel it got a little further before crashing, but it still happened after plenty of artifacts. I've also DDU'd the drivers in safe mode and used May's WHQL drivers in their place - no change. I can say it didn't happen when running a 2D sprite-based game like Recetear, though I didn't test for long. MSI Kombuster also crashed after 30 seconds or so.

I'd love for this to just be a PSU issue, but I have no way of testing right now. Can't even get an SFX replaced on a Sunday around here. The card itself was pre-owned (boxed) from an eBay seller. Wonder whether to take it up with him or just try to get the thing RMA'd by Nvidia if it comes to it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! The Shadowbringers story is so damn good and I don't want to have to play the rest on my crappy laptop. Thanks!
 

joshbrown151

Prominent
Nov 16, 2017
9
0
510
Nvidia recommends a 550w PSU for the RTX 2070. This looks like a power issue.


It's something I have definitely considered. Is there an easy way to prove it without having another machine or power supply on hand? And would it make sense for it to run fine for months before suddenly hitting this wall in every attempt?
 

joshbrown151

Prominent
Nov 16, 2017
9
0
510
Sure, if the current PSU was overloaded from the beginning. PSUs can and do degrade over time, especially when operating under stress.

Yeah I thought as much. Actually found a 850w ATX power supply around the house I could have tried if I could find a pcie-sata power cable to juice the boot drive with. Guess I'll wait on an Amazon delivery of one. I'd rather make sure the issue persists (or not) with a beefier PSU before I have to drop £100 on a new SFX one. Hate how expensive those things are. Downsides of a tiny PC, I suppose
 

joshbrown151

Prominent
Nov 16, 2017
9
0
510
Sure, if the current PSU was overloaded from the beginning. PSUs can and do degrade over time, especially when operating under stress.

Ok, well things seems to have gotten worse. I woke up to an email from the guy I bought the 2070 off. He has provided the original proof of purchase, so that should be easy enough to RMA.

But I managed it get a Be Quiet SFX power supply deliveres by Amazon to check if the old PSU really was just reaching it's limit.

I hooked the new PSU up to the motherboard, CPU, GPU and my boot SSD. Nothing happened. It doesn't turn on at all.

At this point I decided to swap back to my old PSU. Now rather than it power and and boot just fine (and then just crash a game under load) it also won't power up at all. I'm completely at a loss now and don't know what's going on. I'm afraid something just totaled the entire system. I just tried the paper clip trick on the new Be Quiet PSU with an old laptop SATA drive hooked up and and all I got was a little pop. Wouldn't say the fan even kicked in

Any more help or insight would be awesome here. I've tried with the system more or less empty of components and it's just not powering up at all

Edit: Paperclip trick checks out on the old PSU (450w Integra). The fan powers up full bore. Then nothing if plugged into the system.
 
Last edited:
Jul 28, 2019
1
0
10
I have the exact same issues and my PSU is a EVGA 750W. Previously this happened to two other RTX 2080 FE which ran great in the beginning and started reproducing the same problems. My temps never hit anywhere above 75 degrees C. Currently started happening on a RTX 2070. Going to test other games utilizing 3D.