Question No display only under heavy GPU load but GPU fans still spinning

[Little99]

I have an ASUS TUF RTX 3080 V2 OC Edition using Geforce 536.23 drivers currently (I have tried the newest 536.40 and older ones as well to no avail). Whenever I play a game that has heavy GPU utilization, both of my monitors go black and stop showing any sort of display. I can hear the game in the background and any other audio such as Discord, but am unable to control anything on the PC. GPU fans kick into high gear when it happens as well. Only way to resolve the issue is to force shut off my PC, once it boots up everything is fine until it is under heavy load again. Other games that do not incur heavy GPU load are fine and I can play them indefinitely.

I do not think it is a temp issue as when it happens my GPU temps are only around 70-75C when it happens, hotspot around 85C. Fans spinning around 2400 RPM as well, and the power draw is about 335-340W. I also don't think it is a monitor or monitor cable issue as both monitors go out when it happens, not just one. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling new and old drivers using DDU and nothing has helped. I do have MSI Afterburner installed but it is turned off. 3080 is fully stock I have not made any adjustments to it.

Do you guys think this is a matter of faulty GPU or PSU? I have had this 3080 for less than a year and the PSU for a little less than 2 years so the setup is pretty new, and there is no dust in the card either as I just dusted my PC a month or so ago. Should the first thing I do replace the PCIe power cables? I'm currently using an older 8x6+2 cable as that was the only cable I had when I bought the card at the time that worked for me. Thank you in advance!

Specs:
GPU: ASUS TUF RTX 3080 V2 OC Edition
PSU: EVGA 850W SuperNOVA P2
CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 3700X
Mobo: Gigabyte X570 Gaming X
RAM: 16GB HyperX FURY RGB DDR4 3600MHz (2x8GB)
OS: Win10

 

[Lutfij]

PSU: EVGA 850W SuperNOVA P2
Have you tried powering the system with another unit that has slightly more power at the entire system's disposal, that's reliably built, off of a friend or neighbor?

Mobo: Gigabyte X570 Gaming
BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time?

 

[Little99]

Thanks for the reply. My BIOS version is currently F30 - AMD AGESA ComboAM4v2PI 1.0.8.1.

As for your other question - no I haven't had a chance to try another PSU yet as I don't live near any of my friends anymore. Do you think 850W is not enough? I've read that 850W should be plenty sufficient for powering this setup. I do live near a microcenter - I was first going to try replacing the PCIe cables going into the GPU as I am using an older 8x6+2 and not a true new 8x8. Do you think that matters?

 

[Little99]

So I switched the GPU BIOS mode using the physical switch on the 3080 and it's working like a charm now. Maybe this didnt "fix" the issue completely but it's making the card run bettter in general so its never getting to that point where the issue occurs, which is good enough for me for now. I have not had display crashes on any of the games I was previously able to replicate it with from some short initial testing. It seems that the card is just running way more stable now in general too, runs 10-15C cooler than what I'm used to seeing and with way less power draw, noise is about the same though.

I can't tell if I switched to performance or quiet bios but I want to say I switched to performance because previously some of the gpu fans would never start until about 70C temps but now all fans turn on around 50C, I'm assuming that's why the temps are lower too. I'll do some more heavy load testing this weekend.

 

[Little99]

Well, playing a game on Ultra settings it happened again today, so switching the physical BIOS switch on the GPU did not help. Anybody else have any other ideas?

 

[Little99]

I believe I have resolved the issue by changing power management mode in nvidia control panel from normal to maximize performance. Have not had it happen yet even running games on Ultra. I guess this means it's an issue with power of some sort, right?

If it happens again I'll start replacing cables and parts but for now I think this is a solid solution.

 

[Little99]

Scratch that, issue is still occurring even with maximize performance toggled on. Also tried rolling back to 532.03 drivers and still experiencing the issue. Any help?

 

[Little99]

I fixed it by replacing my GPU PCIe power cable. I replaced my single 8pin to dual 6+2pin pcie cable with two separate 8pin to 6+2pin cables and I have yet to be able to replicate the issue since. I have ran tons of 3DMark tests, played Watch Dogs 2 (where I could easily replicate it before) and it hasn't happened once since replacing the pcie cabling.