GPU Core Clock at 0? Games unplayable!

[Laobaowastaken]

Hello, I'm extremely desperate right now.
I've recently built a brand new PC with fairly high end specs.
My system specs:
CPU: Ryzen 7 1700 w/ stock cooler
GPU: ASUS ROG Strix 1080 Ti (non OC)
Mobo: Asus Prime x-370 Pro
memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 8 gb DDR4 2666 MHz (I have another stick but it seems to be defective, will RMA later)
storage: Samsung Evo 850 500gb
1 TB WD Hard Drive
psu: EVGA 650W GQ Gold
os: Windows 10
The problem is, whenever I play games (even low requirement games such as League of Legends), the game would freeze for a split second and flicker a black screen. This in itself is a problem, but eventually the game would freeze for a good 10-15 seconds, both my monitors would blank out and show artifacts after the freeze stops, then my game would come back. But this time, I'm running at 20 fps when I average over 90 fps. I'd check my MSI Afterburner and my memory clock would be around halved, while my Core Clock is reading 0 MHz! The problem would go away after a restart but I'd play the game for 5-30 minutes before before it'd occur again. A week ago, I would only get the random black flickers. Now, this also happens.
Running Heaven I get the black flickers near the beginning of the benchmark.
Running 3DMark whenever a flicker would occur, the benchmark would stop in error.
I've been troubleshooting problems on my PC for over a week now researching myself, but at this point I'm tired and frustrated and I'd really appreciate some insight from some more experienced individuals before going to memory express and paying $50 an hour for them to figure it out.
Things I've done:
- Reinstalled drivers (DDU) multiple times, trying older drivers, etc
- Checked on another monitor to make sure it wasn't the display port
- CPU/GPU temps are well within safe range (40-60 degrees)
- Tried underclocking and increasing the power limit on the GPU
- Allowed a greater power draw for the CPU
- Reinstalled Windows 10 once
- "Real time" priority
- Maximum Performace setting in NVIDIA Control Panel
-many other things that I cannot recall at the moment

Things i've considered and require insight:
- Faulty GPU (I've brought it in to Memory Express once, they tested it and said it was working fine [1 week ago]. This was done on one of their test benches, so the possibility that the problem lies elsewhere is very high).
- the 650W PSU isn't providing enough power/ PSU is faulty (Plausible considering possible progressive deterioration)
- Not enough RAM/Remaining stick is also faulty (memtestx86 and windows memory diagnostic show no errors on remaining stick)

Any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Supahos]

Did you ever update the BIOS on the board? Unlikely to help but with ryzen it's kind of important for other reasons. That PSU is top notch and plenty big for what you're doing. It could be faulty but I'd be shocked. Have you tried putting windows on the hard drive or SSD (whichever it isn't on now) to check if that's the issue? Do you have all the chipset drivers installed?

 

[Sohom]

ok, the artifacts and flickers actually happen when the gpu isnt receiving enough power or the gpu is faulty; but in your case, i can guarantee that the gpu is somehow underpowered which is causing this. Try using a different psu and also try using the graphics card on a different system(by doing this you can rule out if there's a problem with the motherboard).

 

[Laobaowastaken]

Did you ever update the BIOS on the board? Unlikely to help but with ryzen it's kind of important for other reasons. That PSU is top notch and plenty big for what you're doing. It could be faulty but I'd be shocked. Have you tried putting windows on the hard drive or SSD (whichever it isn't on now) to check if that's the issue? Do you have all the chipset drivers installed?

Yup, BIOS updated, chipset drivers installed. Checked windows on the other hard drive, same issues. I've noticed that the crashing issue occurs during prolonged gaming sessions, when I try to ignore the flickers. I haven't had the same "Core Clock at 0" issue with games other than league of legends strange enough. Games with higher GPU usage still run fine, but usually end up crashing whenever a flicker would occur. By the way, the game would flicker (used in windowed mode), not the screen itself if that makes troubleshooting a little bit easier.

 

[Laobaowastaken]

ok, the artifacts and flickers actually happen when the gpu isnt receiving enough power or the gpu is faulty; but in your case, i can guarantee that the gpu is somehow underpowered which is causing this. Try using a different psu and also try using the graphics card on a different system(by doing this you can rule out if there's a problem with the motherboard).

Ok, I'll try that when I get the chance. Do you think the problem could be that my receptacle isn't providing enough energy? I highly doubt it's the case but I'm not sure how to go around checking on that.

 

[Laobaowastaken]

UPDATE: I've done a fresh install of windows and didn't touch any drivers. I'm still using whatever windows automatically installed for me on my graphics card. Only thing I've touched is motherboard drivers. Windows update remains untouched and I believe it may have something to do with my problems. Things seem to be running fine now, but I'd consider this a temporary fix as I will need to update things eventually. Any further insight is appreciated.

 

[Supahos]

Install drivers one by one to figure out which is causing the issue.

 

[Sohom]

UPDATE: I've done a fresh install of windows and didn't touch any drivers. I'm still using whatever windows automatically installed for me on my graphics card. Only thing I've touched is motherboard drivers. Windows update remains untouched and I believe it may have something to do with my problems. Things seem to be running fine now, but I'd consider this a temporary fix as I will need to update things eventually. Any further insight is appreciated.

pls do try what i have said... the reason i am saying it is because if the psu is faulty then it may affect or damage other components, so just go ahead check the psu to rule out any faults with the psu. You can check the motherboard later as it is highly unlikely to damage any other components if it were faulty. Just my advice.