Question Games crashing ---- faulty CPU ?

[peelsthe3]

Hi.
Ive been having some really annoying crashing issues with almost all games i play and it seems to be related to my cpu hitting a 100% usage and when that happens the game will simply shut down (though not always, sometimes all it takes is a slight usage spike up to 60-80% and games could just shut down) Ive tuned my ram down from the 6400mhz ive ran it at for nearly 9 months down to 5600mhz, crashes still happened so i went down to 5400, crashes still happened and now im at 4800mhz which is as low as i can go.

By going down to 4800 i discovered that i can now launch battlefront 2 and fifa23 without the games crashing instantly on startup however i still cant play a full game as the games will just crash on random, cpu usage sitting around 60-80% in those games.

Other games have had crashing issues too like PUBG, World of warcraft (error #132), Rocket league, Mordhau. Essentially all games i play regularily.

Here are my PC specs:

CPU: 13700kf

GPU: PNY XLR8 4090

Mobo: MSI z790 Tomahawk ddr5 wifi

RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6400 BK C32 DC

PSU: Corsair RM1200 SHIFT

AIO: Arctic II 360

SSD: 500gb samsung 970 (Windows installed) - Kingston kc2500 - WD 500gb 2.5inch ssd - Firecuda 2tb


I used to have a gigabyte z790 elite AX mobo but i had pretty frequent pc crashes where it would just blue screen and restart stating that "Bad OC profile, loading optimized defaults" and the only OC i had was the XMP at 6400mhz.(now i have the MSI motherboard and had 1 of those crashes)
I ran a memtest86 with XMP enabled and the ram passed without any problems.
Then i discovered that the official intel numbers for cpu/ram is up to 5600mhz, thats when i started turning it down but the crashes still remained.

Few days ago i had the weirdest crash ever, i had WoW on the main screen, Firefox with some tabs on the 2nd and discord on the third with a buddy screensharing and all of a sudden my pc almost fully freezes, mouse barely responded to movement and my friends couldnt hear me anymore, audio became laggy and WoW definitely stopped working but i got Task manager open atleast which showed my CPU usage randomly stuck at 100%, this was also when i had XMP enabled making ram speeds sit at 6400mhz.

Now, since my games still seem to suffer from crashing issues seemingly tied to cpu hitting 100% (temps are perfectly fine too, never hitting past 90) would it be safe to assume i have a bad cpu?
I have all drivers up to date before anyone thinks to suggest it.

I ran a cinebench single core test and it passed with 2034 points which seems to be along what other 13700k cpu's get (I have hyperthreading turned off)
I clicked the multi core one and it ran for about 4 seconds before stopping due to an error and cpu usage spiked to a 100 in the task manager.
Tried it a 2nd time and it ran for about 10-12 seconds this time, cpu temps hitting 90 at most and then it crashed.

Here's a pastebin to the bugreport text i got from cinebench: https://pastebin.com/e0tzbnF3

Dont mind the "volvo" folder, i just extracted it to a random folder i had on my desktop.

Hopefully someone could give me any pointers what the issue could be, i run my pc at stock speeds and factory OC.

 

[Misgar]

I upgraded an old system recently and installed a faster CPU and RAM. The computer booted fine at the JEDEC default speed for the nre faster RAM with no XMP applied, so I enabled XMP and booted up MemTest86+ on USB.

After two complete passes, MemTest reported no errors. Great I thought and booted into Windows. Fifteen minutes later in Firefox, the screen went black and the PC rebooted. The same thing happened again. Sudden reboot, no BSOD.

I dived into the BIOS with XMP still enabled and loosened the CL (CAS) timings by a couple of clock cycles. The system has been running fine ever since.

The moral of the story is you cannot be 100% sure your memory overclock is stable, even when MemTest says it's OK.

If you're already running the latest BIOS, try tweaking the CL timing.

If that fails, use manual settings instead of XMP and work your way up slowly to 6,400MT/s. I suggest starting at 4,800MT/s where most systems are stable. You can probably pull the appropriate timings out of the SPD chip using a utility such as Aida64.

 

[peelsthe3]

My ram is currently running at 4800mhz cl32 since even 5400 cl36 didnt work.
It just feels demoralizing as hell as i understand tons of people are able to just "plug n play" with xmp clocking up to 7000mhz and run it stable like my friend who runs a 12700k with the exact same ram as me. gskill 6400mhz cl32

I might just take the extreme route and order a new processor and see if its stable then. I did indeed update the bios to the newest version but ive no clue how to fiddle around with those ram timings and i refuse to do so without a proper step by step guide.

 

[PC Tailor]

Now, since my games still seem to suffer from crashing issues seemingly tied to cpu hitting 100% (temps are perfectly fine too, never hitting past 90) would it be safe to assume i have a bad cpu?

No. In fact CPU faults are much rarer. It's much more unusual that the CPU is faulty over other components. You might find that your CPU hits 100% as it starts processing the crash itself.

• Have you checked CPU and GPU temperatures?
• Do you have latest drivers for all core components, not just BIOS?
• Do you have 2 memory modules? If so it may be worth taking 1 out and see if the issue persists, then swap and try the other.

 

[peelsthe3]

@PC Tailor

I have checked cpu and gpu temps and they have always been perfectly a-okay.
I use driver booster (premium version) to get the required drivers, pretty much same as i did on my old pc and it ran wonderfully.
I do indeed have 2 memory modules, i will test this out right away actually. The easiest games to get crashes on are Fifa and Battlefront 2 currently, the other games like World of warcraft can usually run even a few hours and then suddenly crash multiple times within minutes, this will have to be tested throughout a day with 1 ram module.
Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[peelsthe3]

Ramstick nr1
Using 1 stick of ram with XMP enabled made fifa23 instantly crash on launch and cpu hit 85% usage. Hyperthreading enabled
cinebench multicore benchmark instantly stopped with this config.

Restarted PC and disabled xmp.
Fifa crashed in ultimate team match within 2 match minutes with cpu usage spiking up to 90% when it crashed. Hottest cpu temp monitored through HWinfo was 82degrees
Gpu not going above 45 at any point.


--- ram stick nr2

cinebench insta stopping.
ram at 4800mhz (xmp disabled) Hyperthreading enabled
fifa insta crashing on launch, cpu spiking to 88%
launched fifa a 2nd time, cpu hit 45% on startup, got to the menu and it crashed. temps hitting 82 at most momentarily


Put both ram sticks back in and reset bios to stock, fifa cpu usage spiked to 90% on launch but i was able to get into a game and then it crashed within 1 minute of playing. cpu usage normal. - hyperthreading enabled.

 

[peelsthe3]

Any insight would be appreciated on this issue, id be relieved if it was just bad ram since getting that replaced would be less of a hassle.

 

[Misgar]

I'd be inclined to buy some completely different RAM and see if it improves things, especially if your system still crashes at 4800MT/s. It should be too difficult to relax the CL timing. You've already mastered the art of changing XMP speeds. Just check on line for guides.

My apps don't benefit much from high XMP overclocks on my 7950X so I'm running my 2 x 32GB Kingston Vengeance RAM at 4800MT/s. I'm not prepared to sacrifice overall stability for a marginal speed increase in the app.

Do you expect see any observable difference in your games from high XMP overclocks (and by observable I'm not talking about a FPS counter which simply changes from, say, 150 to 175).

 

[peelsthe3]

@Misgar Thanks for the reply. I dont necessarily expect to see a massive preformance boost in games from having xmp on, it just feels a bit bad having bought 6400mhz and not being able to utilize it.

Right now ive disabled both hyperthreading and all E-cores on my 13700k and im able to play fifa23 without any crashing, ram is at default 4800mhz setting at the moment.

Id imagine all my other games will run without any crashing problems but im just so confused again as it now seems to be an E-core / Hyperthreading problem?

Or can the ram somehow affect E-cores and hyperthreading to the point it makes games crash?

 

[peelsthe3]

Forgot to mention that Discord has been in a repeat restart problem for months now.
On random it will just restart itself without warning nor reason.

 

[Misgar]

I don't suppose you can swap out the CPU or motherboard? I really don't think it should be necessary to disable cores to make things work. Is there a computer repair shop nearby?

 

[peelsthe3]

I don't suppose you can swap out the CPU or motherboard? I really don't think it should be necessary to disable cores to make things work. Is there a computer repair shop nearby?

Ive actually bought a new mobo, that is the MSI z790 tomahawk im currently using, before that i had the gigabyte z790 elite ax which had the exact same problems, thats why i bought a new one because i figured it may be the mobo.

I unfortunately cant swap out the cpu, id have to buy a new cpu first. I think ill start with buying new ram and testing if it works.

 

[peelsthe3]

Update!

I booted up my pc but this time i have XMP enabled and fifa is not crashing and its lagging far less.
This is with hyperthreading and all E-cores disabled.

I really dont know what to take from this, it must be the cpu being incapable of handling xmp, all e-cores and hyperthreading

 

[peelsthe3]

Alright, i pulled the trigger and ordered a brand new cpu. same one ofcourse except this is the K version and not the KF.
And ive been using it for 2 days now and all the problems have disappeared, i have Hyperthreading on, all e-cores on and ram XMP enabled and no more crashing and my PC feels far more smooth than before as it had some odd micro-stuttering before.

Really seems like my 'old' 13700KF was faulty, i RMA'd it and sent it back, it'll be interesting to see what they say.