PC restarting while gaming. MSI GTX 970/i5 4690k/VS650

[DarkKnight666]

Normally it doesn't restart, only when I game it does. I need help. I'm kinda sure that it is not a GPU issue as once in 1000 tries I'm able to play for an hour or so. But then 99% it restarts.
The temperatures are normal. GPU reaches max 60 degs Celsius only. I haven't done any OC, but whats weird is that when I use afterburner and set power limit to minimum (i.e., 50) then it takes sometime before restarting. Otherwise if I don't used afterburner then it sometimes restarts immediately when I open a game.

My specs are:
MSI Gaming 3 Motherboard
2x4gb corsair vengeance 1666MHz rams
MSI GTX 970 4G edition
i5 4690k cpu with Hyper 212x cooler
Corsair VS650 PSU.

It's a 2 year old PC and this problem is from past 6 months.

Games I play:
JC3, DoTA 2, Resident Evil 7, Far Cry Primal, Watch Dogs 2.

Earlier PC used to not restart when playing DoTA 2, but now it does.
I maintain the PC really clean. Clean it every week. Even recently I applied thermal paste for CPU.

Please kindly help!!!

 

[DSzymborski]

If your temperatures are fine, the power supply is the next culprit for sudden restarts, especially as you have one that uses low-quality parts.

 

[DarkKnight666]

Hey DSzymborski,

Thank you for the fast reply.
I though Corsair VS650 was a good PSU and was not aware that it uses low-quality parts.

Kindly suggest an alternative PSU.

By the way, could that be the only problem or could it also be something else?
As in PC doesn't restart with normal usage.

Thank you.

 

[st3v30]

Try to reset BIOS settings, maybe something changed after few sudden resets and now is causing the problem.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

I assume you're using Afterburner to overclock the GPU? If so, remove the overclock and see if the problem reoccurs. In my experience, GPU overclocking and gaming compatibility can be hit and miss. For reasons I still don't understand, my overclock would perform just fine in benchmarks but not in games.

The VS series PSU may not be ideal for overclocking, but don't rush out and replace it just yet.

 

[DarkKnight666]

Thanks a lot bicycle_repair_man.

I'm not using afterburner to overclock. I'm using it to under clock the gpu. When I set the power limit, core clock and memory clock to minimum, then games run for quite a but of time.

 

[st3v30]

Have you done BIOS reset?

 

[Ecky]

With an issue like this, the easiest way to diagnose it is with spare parts. I didn't think my old video card was causing my very rare random reboots, but after swapping it out, the issues went away. I'm not suggesting that it definitely is your video card, just that it's hard to be sure unless you can test with a spare.

 

[DarkKnight666]

Hey,

Thanks a lot for replying.

@st3v30, I did reset my CMOS by removing battery and holding down power button, though it showed that settings have been reset to default, the problem still persists.

Just now I found something weird. I was playing Far Cry Primal. It worked for about 30 mins and throughout this time the GPU fan was off as the temps were low. Once the fan started spinning, PC restarted. What could be the reason?

Also, if I stress my GPU using MSI Kombustor, it doesnt restart though the fan switches on.

Please help.

 

[Crixilian]

I guess the psu is the culprit, restart when gaming since cpu and gpu will draw much power, meanwhile stressing gpu, only gpu draw much power
plus underclock your gpu will make your psu take a bit longer then restart

but you can make sure by use another psu from another computer, since test you psu on another computer is risky
or if you have any other way to test your psu