PC Crashing Issues When Playing Games

[TheBosnianDragon]

I have an issue when playing video games with a dropping frame rate and eventual crashing of my computer. The issue started a few weeks, maybe a month ago, with my framerate in games dropping dramatically and my computer eventually crashing due to it. When it crashes it is just a black screen and an instant shutdown of the computer. This happens only when playing video games and stressing out my computer. What I suspect to be the culprit is my GPU overheating due to either the fans failing slowly (as they are making weird noises once in a while) or the GPU failing slowly as a result of years of heavy use. I have checked the GPU temperatures when I am playing games and once the fps starts dropping the readings are around 100 to 110 degrees Celsius on the GPU's sensors. I might be completely wrong with assuming that it is the GPU but it does seem as the only logical explanation because all the other components are pretty much brand new and the only one that is old is the graphics card which has seen around 5-6 years of heavy use. When it comes to dust buildup there is almost none as I have replaced the case and a few components a few months ago and checked the dust filters on my case in the past few days and they were mostly clean. I am asking all of this because the problem is really impairing me from doing any gaming on my computer and I would like to see if anyone has any ideas about what else might be causing the crashing or maybe suggests any diagnostics to test what exactly is happening.
My computer specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 4-Core 3.4GHz
PSU: Thermaltake Smart SE 630W
RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600MHz
GPU(probable cause of the problem): ATI Radeon HD 6850 GigaByte Edition
Case: NZXT H440 Razer Edition with stock cooling

 

[cynicalimpulse]

What is happening is you are playing games that are stressing your GPU and causing it to heat up. Once it heats up to a certain point, your GPU will "Throttle"; which is an attempt by your GPU to run at a lower performance state to attempt to lower the temperatures. So that explains the drop in frame rate. so it seems to me that your GPU throttles and tries to lower temps but even in its throttled state, it is unable to sustain an acceptable temperature so the card's built-in safety measures kick in, causing you to crash.

You card is a pretty old one so it could be the fans on your card that are failing (you mentioned weird noises) and the thermal paste may have also degraded over the years.

What are your GPU temperatures when idle?
you could replace the card's thermal paste and see if that makes a difference. If not, its probably your GPU fans

It seems to me like you may need a new GPU; those symptoms are not from drivers or software, it is definitely overheating.

 

[TheBosnianDragon]

What is happening is you are playing games that are stressing your GPU and causing it to heat up. Once it heats up to a certain point, your GPU will "Throttle"; which is an attempt by your GPU to run at a lower performance state to attempt to lower the temperatures. So that explains the drop in frame rate. so it seems to me that your GPU throttles and tries to lower temps but even in its throttled state, it is unable to sustain an acceptable temperature so the card's built-in safety measures kick in, causing you to crash.

You card is a pretty old one so it could be the fans on your card that are failing (you mentioned weird noises) and the thermal paste may have also degraded over the years.

What are your GPU temperatures when idle?
you could replace the card's thermal paste and see if that makes a difference. If not, its probably your GPU fans

It seems to me like you may need a new GPU; those symptoms are not from drivers or software, it is definitely overheating.

Thank you for actually explaining the issue in more technical detail! Now I know that the fans are most likely at fault or it is just the GPU failing because I have taken the whole card apart a few months ago, cleaned it completely and put new thermal paste in. After cleaning the card and trying to fix the fans a little with the help of someone the fans were all right and not making any noise but now they seem to be making more noise than ever and sometimes seem to actually lower their speed due to the bearings failing.

When it comes to the idle temps they are around 65-75 degrees Celsius and that seems normal for me.

I was thinking of upgrading the GPU anyway so I might go for a new one now that I'm pretty sure that it is the problem. Now I have a dilemma in terms of what GPU to choose between the different companies that make the AMD R9 390 series.

All in all thank you again and if you have any suggestions for a GPU in the range of the 390 series by any company or possibly a comparable NVIDIA card feel free to suggest it to me as it would help out a bit in choosing one.

 

[cynicalimpulse]

What is happening is you are playing games that are stressing your GPU and causing it to heat up. Once it heats up to a certain point, your GPU will "Throttle"; which is an attempt by your GPU to run at a lower performance state to attempt to lower the temperatures. So that explains the drop in frame rate. so it seems to me that your GPU throttles and tries to lower temps but even in its throttled state, it is unable to sustain an acceptable temperature so the card's built-in safety measures kick in, causing you to crash.

You card is a pretty old one so it could be the fans on your card that are failing (you mentioned weird noises) and the thermal paste may have also degraded over the years.

What are your GPU temperatures when idle?
you could replace the card's thermal paste and see if that makes a difference. If not, its probably your GPU fans

It seems to me like you may need a new GPU; those symptoms are not from drivers or software, it is definitely overheating.

Thank you for actually explaining the issue in more technical detail! Now I know that the fans are most likely at fault or it is just the GPU failing because I have taken the whole card apart a few months ago, cleaned it completely and put new thermal paste in. After cleaning the card and trying to fix the fans a little with the help of someone the fans were all right and not making any noise but now they seem to be making more noise than ever and sometimes seem to actually lower their speed due to the bearings failing.

When it comes to the idle temps they are around 65-75 degrees Celsius and that seems normal for me.

I was thinking of upgrading the GPU anyway so I might go for a new one now that I'm pretty sure that it is the problem. Now I have a dilemma in terms of what GPU to choose between the different companies that make the AMD R9 390 series.

All in all thank you again and if you have any suggestions for a GPU in the range of the 390 series by any company or possibly a comparable NVIDIA card feel free to suggest it to me as it would help out a bit in choosing one.

65-75c for idle is not normal aha...
Most of them are just based on the reference PCB created by AMD. That being said I personally prefer sticking with more well-known brands; that is: ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA and etc, over lesser known companies like Powercolor, though I hear they are more popular in Europe (i live in NA)

the more expensive ones use custom PCBs and usually bin better chips to ensure maximum overclocking

If have 0 plans to ever overclock I would say choose the highest factory overclock available (so long as the price isnt outrageously high, a brief search seemed to point out that the XFX double D version had the highest)

-OR-

if you have a budget or just dont want to spend $30 extra on a card that is just 30MHz faster than reference then choose the cheapest one availiable from a reputable brand.

That being said... It really doesn't make a difference what you pick, as stated before the ones priced closely to reference all have the exact same PCB design, difference is the aftermarket coolers attached, which will cool the card just fine and much better (and quieter) than reference.

I personally like triple fan cards but they are long, i believe the ASUS strix R9 390 is 16 inches (~400cm) so make sure you have room.
My gigabyte r9 270x is a triple fan card and i enjoy the larger than necessary heat sink on it (it extends well past the PCB). When idle I set it to turn all fans off and to be cooled passively. At idle while being passively cooled my card sits at 45-47c

Brands I have used myself or on other people's builds:
Gigabyte Windforce
MSI TwinFrozr
EVGA ACX 2.0
ASUS Strix and ASUS Direct CUII

All have never had a problem. If you have a themed build choose which ever matches!

Ambiguous as my answer may be... Hope this helps! and good luck!

 

[TheBosnianDragon]

It does help and currently I am thinking of the Gigabyte G1 R9 390 or the same from MSI, possibly from ASUS. Also if one of the guys I know at a local computer shop finds replacement fans for my current card I could go with this thing for a while more instead of spending money. Anyways thank you for a detailed analysis of the problem and suggestions for a new card.