Question Freezes and graphical issues with RTX 3080 ?

[Lohrteos]

Hello,

I've had my 3080 (MSI 10G) for 3 years and a half now. It has been working well up until a few months ago, when the graphic pilot would sometimes reset (my 2 screens turning black, then back on again, but without the "Night light" filter, or with), especially when alt-tabbing from one screen to the other, or when exiting a game for example. Sometimes, I would even get squared artifacts on the screen.

Now, the problem has worsened, because on multiple games, my computer can freeze when exiting said game. I sometimes get the control back after 10 or so seconds, but sometimes it forces me to reboot the system. On other games, like The Finals, it often happens when loading a map. If I'm lucky and the PC doesn't reboot by itself after the freeze, I can sometimes get a message like "out of video memory" (once, I got DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED) and the game crashed. Most of the time though, I'm forced to reboot.

Please note that during gameplay, there is absolutely no issue whatsoever, no frame drops, no crashes, no freezes. It only happens during "changes of state", like loading, exiting, or alt-tabbing to a different screen for example.

I've already checked my RAM with MemTest and got no issue. I've also tried to reset Windows today, with no improvement (with all the drivers).
Of course, my main suspicion is the 3080, but since a new graphics card costs around 1000€, I'd like to make sure the problem actually comes from this, not to find myself with a new graphics card and the same problem.

Thanks a lot in advance !

GeForce RTX™ 3080 GAMING X TRIO 10G
12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-12600K 3.69 GHz
32.0 GB RAM
Asus TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS D4
seasonic PX 750
Windows 11

 

[Lohrteos]

https://imgur.com/a/IWEDp66

View: https://imgur.com/a/IWEDp66
SSD placement (I tried touching it when it's supposed to be "too hot" but it doesn't make any difference, is the plastic case supposed to be thermal protection ?)

https://streamable.com/38iq3m The fans turning at 100% (in the front, there's a door I can open to access a filter in front of the fan)

 

[RodroX]

Ok first things first, is normal that gpu fans remain at 0% speed when the heatsink is enough to cool the GPU, VRAM, VRM, etc. But after certain temp threshold is reached the fan should kick in.

Well I would try a few times, and see how it goes with fans at 100% (or in AUTO so the GPU do what the gpu BIOS dictate about default fan curves)

The last 2 pics are with fans at 100% right?, It could be happening that with fans at 80% top, maybe the VRAM temps go above ideal. But the only way to test this is to try it while monitoring with hwinfo.

Remember that after 3 years of use, the thermal paste and the thermal paste will have degradation and may not transfer heat to the heatsink the same way as if they were just a few months old.

One more question, this gpu was new, right?, I mean not second hand one?

 

[beyondlogic]

https://imgur.com/a/IWEDp66

View: https://imgur.com/a/IWEDp66
SSD placement (I tried touching it when it's supposed to be "too hot" but it doesn't make any difference, is the plastic case supposed to be thermal protection ?)

https://streamable.com/38iq3m The fans turning at 100% (in the front, there's a door I can open to access a filter in front of the fan)

1. do a complete reformat of windows back up your games etc on a diffrent ssd.
2. type in search reset this pc if windows 11
settings reset this pc in windows 10.
choose delete all files do not save any this will keep drivers etc.

 

[RodroX]

https://imgur.com/a/IWEDp66

View: https://imgur.com/a/IWEDp66
SSD placement (I tried touching it when it's supposed to be "too hot" but it doesn't make any difference, is the plastic case supposed to be thermal protection ?)

https://streamable.com/38iq3m The fans turning at 100% (in the front, there's a door I can open to access a filter in front of the fan)

Well plastic wont protect the internal drive from heat, in fact it wont help with dissipation.

As for your PC case video I think is about time you do some cleaning. I would suggest you get some compress air can cleanner or an air blower, go outside or to a garage and blow away all the dust and dirt in it.
Pay special attention to clean all the filters and heatsinks. If you do this the PC should be turned off and unplugged from he wall. When using compress air/air blower, make sure to hold the fan blades when blowing them, else you could damage them. And keep the blower/compress air can at some distance, dont use it too close to the components.
Heres a short guide:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9CvTiDNuJk

 

[Lohrteos]

About your comment on thermal paste : there's no thermal paste on GPU, is there ? I've only ever put some on CPU.
The GPU was new when I bought it back in Nov 2020.

I just played 6 games or so with the fans at 100% and did not get any crash. It would be strange if it were simply a temp issue, because I've had freezes when launching games, or with alt-tabbing between screens without any games at all, so there was no reason for the temp to be high at moments like these.

I'll give a shot to the full Windows reset without any files saved, but I can't do it now because I have to work tomorrow, and it takes way too long to reinstall all apps :v

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll try to do more monitoring with hwinfo, but which data should I look at in particular while playing ?

 

[RodroX]

About your comment on thermal paste : there's no thermal paste on GPU, is there ? I've only ever put some on CPU.

Yes there is thermal paste under the GPU heatsink (just like with a CPU cooler). GPU makers use thermal paste since I can remember. If you want to complicate things even further, you could also use liquid metal or thermal pads. In fact there should be thermal pads above each and every single ram chip on the card.

I just played 6 games or so with the fans at 100% and did not get any crash. It would be strange if it were simply a temp issue, because I've had freezes when launching games, or with alt-tabbing between screens without any games at all, so there was no reason for the temp to be high at moments like these.

It would not be strange at all that temps cause issues with gpu high loads.
You may think that only GPU gets hot, but when a GPU gets hots components around it (on the motherboard and behind it, like your 240GB SSD) will also get affected by the heat specially on a (no offense) not so clean PC wihtout the side panel.
What do I mean with this?... well Im not an expert, but the fact that you have the PC case side panel open all the time, could also be detrimental for cooling some components. PC cases that are well designed for airflow don't do much when you remove the side panel, because moving air have no "designed path" to follow.
Thats why I suggest you clean your PC internals (filter, heatsinks, etc) with an air blower.

As you wrote, this could be just a coincidence.

BTW, is your PC on the floor?, Thats the best way to get dirt, dust, hair, etc., inside it.

I'll give a shot to the full Windows reset without any files saved, but I can't do it now because I have to work tomorrow, and it takes way too long to reinstall all apps :v

I have no idea when was the last time you did brand new clean install of Windows, but if it was back in 2020, is not a bad idea to do a backup of all your important files and start from scratch. And btw, just in case the software is an issue, go little by little, do not install 100 apps, one ater the other. If you do that is imposible to narrow which one could be the culprit.
At leats for a week use only:
- Windows (download from Microsoft).
- Chipset driver.
- GPU drivers.
- (if need it) Audio, LAN and WiFi drivers.
- 1 x Web brower, unless you like egde.
- Office (if you use it).
- 7zip or similar (if you use it).
- Adobe reader (if you use it)
- one and onlly one monitoring software, like hwinfo.
- Now that you have hwinfo for monitoring, use it to check: CPU, GPU/VRAM and SSD temps.
- Forget about MSI afterburner for 1 week.
- Forget about crappy RGB software for 1 week.
- Forget about any crappy Motherboard "important" software suite, that you don't need or want, just need the basic chipset drivers.

Good luck

 

[Lohrteos]

It's been 3 days since the last freeze/crash, so knocking on wood
I put the SSD some place else and it's not heating as much now, and the fans turning at 50-80-100% seem to prevent any issue. Thanks a lot for your help !

 

[RodroX]

It's been 3 days since the last freeze/crash, so knocking on wood
I put the SSD some place else and it's not heating as much now, and the fans turning at 50-80-100% seem to prevent any issue. Thanks a lot for your help !

No problem I hope thats the end of it 🤞