Graphics Card Crashing When Gaming

Jonas Vandy

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Jul 10, 2015
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This is my build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZG2CQ7

My computer goes to a monocolor screen with lines occasionally (typical sign that your graphics card crashed) whenever I try to play Borderlands 2 and even Asphalt 8: Airborne.

I just installed a new PSU from a Thermaltake 500w the Seasonic S12G 550w hoping that would fix the issue but unfortunately there's still an issue (though my gpu no longer gets hot now that's it's not trying to pull more power).

I also know it's not overheating because I watched my computer temp on CPUID HWMonitor and my graphics card stabilized around 40-42 degrees Celsius.

Please help, this is my first build and I have no idea what's going on.
 
Solution
Very erratic usage indeed, when you ran Furmark was your GPU usage at max (99-100%)? how were your GPU voltages and frequencies under Furmark? If necessary run it again with HWMonitor logging the results.

At this point, if Furmark also shows unstable usage, voltage and frequencies it seems like your GPU isn't getting enough power to properly work, since you've already changed to a quality PSU its likely that your GPU's VRMs are faulty.
Start by trying a different video drivers version, it could be some incompatibility/instability issue in your current driver causing the problem.

If the problem persists test your GPU with Furmark, lets make sure 100% it's the GPU and not another component causing those symptoms.
 

SteveRDU

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Jul 31, 2015
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Ok i have a simular issue... so i recently upgraded my PC a little. Had a Nvidia gtx 660 TI installed along with a new power supply. Ever since i have had this installed my game keeps crashing and then either i get a blank screen or my cursor does not respond or i get both. Either way i have to reboot my PC. Drivers are all up to date and temps seen normal to me. Its getting old very fast so any advice help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
 
Jonas if it didn't crash while running Furmark then it's likely to be another component the issue (still there's a chance it is the GPU but lets discard the other components first). Start by testing your CPU with Prime95, monitor it's temps and voltages with HWMonitor, give it at least a 2hour test.

Next step would be to test your RAM, unlikely but still lets not leave anything unchecked, for this use memtest86.

These steps would apply to you as well Steve.
 

Jonas Vandy

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Jul 10, 2015
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Which option should I use? Small FFT's, Large FFT's, or Blended?

I'm running Small FFT's. While I let this run, I should go ahead an give a little bit of what I've done to troubleshoot.

I removed all of the AMD drivers for my GPU and ran a game that would usually crash my computer in under a minute. Although it was 7 fps, my computer didn't crash. I reinstalled the AMD drivers, rebooted and crashing occurs once again.


I updated my BIOS, my chipset drivers, checked msinfo32.exe (everything seemed to be in order)

UPDATE: 1 hour in and it's evening out around 52C (125F) and between 48w-55w no effects on the screen as far as crashing. I will be trying to unpark all CPU cores after this (adjusting the power settings) and I'll let you know in an hour how it went.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The last hour didn't have much change, everything went smoothly. [strike]I'll test out the RAM after work tomorrow and will update you guys once again.[/strike] went ahead and did the RAM test for the sake of time and everything checked out. Tried loading Asphalt again but windowed this time so I could keep an eye on the HWmonitor and I don't know if this is normal or not but in the following screenshot, the bottom two readings (Graphics and Memory) would stutter from the MAX to 500MHz (graphics) and 300MHz (memory). These readings are from roughly 30 seconds in-game. It crashed roughly 45-60 seconds the first time (I started it up a second time to recreate the readings I got. Hope this helps. http://imgur.com/Xrr2QBL
 
Well I see that your GPU usage didn't go beyond 24%, certainly there's an issue there, it should be at 99%-100% most of the times, 40-60% if the game is not very GPU demanding.

Test again on full screen and simply enable the log feature in HWMonitor, window mode might have affected the GPU usage and its frequencies, then report back with the logs.
 

Jonas Vandy

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Jul 10, 2015
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http://imgur.com/a/7LMnH here are all the log files concerning the GFX card. I was unable to actually start playing because it would crash before I could do anything and HWMonitor wouldn't be able to save the info.
 

Jonas Vandy

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Jul 10, 2015
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These are the logs from running Borderlands 2. I was able to get in-game and I stayed in for about a minute before I closed it: http://imgur.com/a/B7KF5
 
Very erratic usage indeed, when you ran Furmark was your GPU usage at max (99-100%)? how were your GPU voltages and frequencies under Furmark? If necessary run it again with HWMonitor logging the results.

At this point, if Furmark also shows unstable usage, voltage and frequencies it seems like your GPU isn't getting enough power to properly work, since you've already changed to a quality PSU its likely that your GPU's VRMs are faulty.
 
Solution

Jonas Vandy

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Jul 10, 2015
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http://imgur.com/a/brvoS Take a look. Also, I didn't record this because I thought it was going to crash but I played Borderlands 2 for an hour and it didn't crash.

http://imgur.com/cm678ac
 
I see, stable values indeed.

So Borderlands 2 has now been working fine since updating BIOS and driver changes, yet still the issue remains with Asphalt 8?

Could you try other games to see if the problem persists? keep monitoring with HWMonitor while running other games.
 

Jonas Vandy

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Jul 10, 2015
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So far....
Games that Work:
Borderlands 2 (crashed computer before updates)
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Terraria (crashed computer before updates)
Clicker Heroes
Brick-Force (non-steam) (crashed computer before updates)
Blades of Time
Minecraft (non-steam)
Super Meat Boy
Garry's Mod (crashed computer previously)

Games that crash computer:
Asphalt 8: Airborne (even uninstalled and reinstalled)

I kind of feel dumb not trying this earlier. I was so sure that it was a driver conflict or something to that effect. I will continue testing more (GPU heavy) games tomorrow morning.
 

Jonas Vandy

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Jul 10, 2015
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UPDATE: I should've done this before I sent my graphics card out but my buddy had a spare graphics card (NVidia GTX GeForce 650Ti 1GB GDDR5) and he let me borrow it to see if it really was my graphics card and not something like my mobo. Anyway, after a uninstalling the AMD drivers and installing the GTX drivers, I booted up Asphalt 8. I played through an entire race (though there was one hiccup) but my computer didn't crash. Thank you so much for the help guys, I really appreciate it.