Question Hard freeze in game

[ekifi]

Hi guys, it's the first time i write here so i hope this is the right section.
Anyway, i've been experiencing a pretty serious problem while playing some games on my PC: basically, at random times, the computer freezes completely on the last frame reproduced, and starts emitting a strange sound that seems to be the last frame one constantly repeated.
The system becomes completely unresponsive and the peripherals seem to disconnect from it (the keyboard caps lock LED doesn't light up anymore), and the only solution is forcing reboot.
Rarely the PC overcomes the problem after a couple of seconds, freezing and then restarting rendering the game.
This seems to be unrelated from the intensivness of the software i'm trying to play with, because games like GTA V and Resident Evil 7 haven't gave me any issues.
With other games instead, like Crysis (the one from 2007), the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy porting and some areas of Wolfenstein 2, it is pretty much sure to experience a freeze after some time, that could be two hours or a couple of minutes.
I've tried running the OCCT CPU and GPU stress tests for about an hour and they haven't gave me any problems, and i'm at the moment running the Prime 95 blend test with no issues.
I also changed my RAM sticks some months ago to see if that was the problem, and it doesn't seem to be it.
CPU and GPU temperatures and usage seem to be in pretty normal ranges (around 80/70 and 30/50% respectively on most games i have issues with).

Here's my system if it can help you:

CPU: AMD FX8320;
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990XA UD3;
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury, DDR3, 1866Mhz, 4x4 GB;
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970;
Disks: Samsung EVO 860, SATA III, 256 GB/ Western Digital Caviar Blue, 1 TB, 7200 RPM;
CPU Cooler: Arctic Freezer Xtreme;
PSU: Antec HCG 620.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ekifi]

Anyone?

 

[Calvin7]

FX8320 only supports 1600MHz memory speed when all four slots are populated.

 

[DSzymborski]

And are you measuring these temperatures with AMD Overdrive's thermal margin? FX CPUs are known for inaccurate readings in most software. An FX CPU around 80 is most assuredly not a normal temperature.

 

[ekifi]

FX8320 only supports 1600MHz memory speed when all four slots are populated.

Interesting,I didn't know that. Anyway I had problems even before the "upgrade". In fact I was forced to buy a new pair of obsolete DDR3 sticks to see if RAM was the problem, and it didn't seem to be it. Then I decided to keep those gigs. Good to know anyway.

And are you measuring these temperatures with AMD Overdrive's thermal margin? FX CPUs are known for inaccurate readings in most software. An FX CPU around 80 is most assuredly not a normal temperature.

Is there anyway of knowing the real temps? I wouldn't be surprised if they were high, I never overclocked my FX but the cooler isn't the best one for sure.

 

[ekifi]

Sorry, i didn't get the Overdrive part (actually i had never heard of the program).
Anyway i tried installing it, and it seems like my thermal margin stays pretty low even in completely calm situations.
In this moment, with my browser and a bunch of other light programs opened, and the CPU total usage resulting around 15%, Overdrive says i've got a maximum of 20° of margin.Is that possible?
Also, the amount of margin massively changes from one second to another (from 21° to 13° and viceversa), and even with the imprecise reading methods the CPU has that seems a little bit too much. Could there be a sensor problem in my unit?

 

[ekifi]

So, i've tried tweaking my cooling system a little and reapplying the thermal paste and it seems like the margin is now stabilized around 25/30°, but that's still not enough from what i've read around the web. I think i'm going to lower the apparently high stock CPU voltages a bit, and maybe change cooler. Seems like the Freezer Xtreme isn't so good.
Anyway the whole situation is pretty weird.
The PC has worked nearly flawlessly until i decided to upgrade it with some new fans, an SSD and Windows 10 a pair of years ago.
I seriously don't know what to think.

 

[ekifi]

So boys, i looked around in several forums and i found that an FX8320 could safely stay as low as 1.25v of vCore at stock clock speeds. After changing that and some other things in the BIOS, it seems like the processor is able to have between 10 and 20 degrees of thermal margin under heavy load (at the moment i'm running the "Small set of Data" version of the standard OCCT CPU test), that's a pretty impressive achievement to me.
I'll try replaying with Crysis tonight and report how things will go.

 

[ekifi]

Ok guys, some time has passed and i've been able to try playing the "critic" games a couple of times.
I don't want to jump to conclusions but i haven't experienced any problem in Crysis since the last time i touched the voltages.
I had a pair of two hours long sessions and had no freezes.
I'll continue trying and inform you.