Question PC suddently crashes (sometimes) when under load/gaming

[Dawis67_AE]

Hello,
I'm sorry if this is posted in the wrong topic, but my best guess is that this is a GPU problem, so I'm posting here. Feel free to move it around.

Intro:
- I haven't been gaming for many months. I recently booted into Windows to update it (usually run Linux) and got an urge to game some. After updating Windows 11 and Nvidia drivers I decided to give Cities Skylines 2 a try. After loading the map however, the PC just outright crashed. Not a BSOD, just shut off. Event viewer and Reliability Monitor doesn't report anything other than just "sudden shutdown". Can't find any Windows logs.

Troubleshooting:
- 3DMark test: First I tested 3DMark, the free demo. This gave varied results. The test doesn't always crash, but sometimes it does. Bear with me. I was not able to identify when or why the crash happens. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. I'll admit, I don't know which voltage a certain transistor must have, but I think the VRAM, usage, frametimes, fan speed, and utilization looks good. About the crash, the first time I tested 3DMark, it didn't crash. Then I opened some YT video to add some more load, and about midway into the next 3Dmark test it crashed. I tried the same setup again, didn't crash.
Then I went more extreme with my testing. I ran Cinebench 2024 CPU multicore benchmark while running 3DMark to max out both CPU and GPU; ran 3DMark 2 times with this setup...didn't crash. I also tested the same using OCCT. Ran each OCCT benchmark (CPU, GPU load, Memory, VRAM, Power) with the extreme settings (one at a time) together with 3DMark and PC didn't crash. Tested maxing out CPU and GPU power, total of 340W(GPU) and 130(CPU), didn't crash
- Memory test: I ran 1 pass through all of the MemTest86 tests without a single error. In addition, I tested nearly maxing out memory usage with OCCT and nothing happened.

- The times it did crash: I would be doing other things on my PC and decide then to test 3Dmark again. Put on some YT video, and ran through the benchmark...it would crash. A guaranteed way to crash the PC was to run Cities Skylines 2. Usually it would crash some seconds after loading into the map (no mods). But it also managed to crash once while I was in the menu. The last time it crashed it broke the game, so I'm waiting for it to reinstall.

- Other games: I've been unable to get the game to crash in other games. I've tested Spiderman Miles Morales, CounterStrike 2 and Cyberpunk. Don't have much else installed atm.

- GPU driver reinstall: Initially after updating Windows I also updated to Nvidia driver 561.09. Thought this might be the culprit so I clean-installed it. Things still crashed. I then used DDU in Safe mode to uninstall the driver and installed 560.94. Things still crashed.

- Hardware check: I opened up the PC to double check GPU power connectors. Re-connected them. Nothing looks burnt. Nothing smells off.

The part you likely been waiting for, specs:
- GPU: MSI RTX 3080 Tri GAMING
- CPU: Ryzen 7 5800x
- Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200MHz 64GB
- PSU: Corsair SF750
- MoBo: Asus Strix B550-I GAMING (3.3 BIOS)

- I have not overclocked anything, as far as I know. I have also been hesitant to upgrade BIOS as I've seen reddit threads with people having stability issues with newer BIOS versions. I have not updated any of the AMD chipset stuff.

Appreciate you reading my long post. Hopefully you have an idea of what I can test. No I don't have spare components. Let me know if you need logs of any kind.

 

[Lutfij]

PSU: Corsair SF750
How old is the PSU in your build?

MoBo: Asus Strix B550-I GAMING (3.3 BIOS)
I don't see 3.3 listed on the BIOS list here;

ROG STRIX B550-I GAMING | Motherboards | ROG Global

rog.asus.com

If you can please use CPU-Z and see what's listed under the Mainboard tab.

Your specs for the build is incomplete, please list the make and model of your case and the temps as well as the number and orientation of the fans inside the case as well as the temps you're seeing when the system turns off.

FYI, the reason why the system would turn off for a couple of reasons;
1| Your PSU can't handle being taxed
2| You're having an overheating issue whereby you're seeing a thermal shutdown

It might even be an issue with the VRM area of the motherboard when at idle.

Use DDU to remove all GPU drivers(Intel, AMD and Nvidia) in Safe Mode, then manually reinstall with the latest GPU driver sourced from Nvidia's support site in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

I have not overclocked anything, as far as I know.
Not even your ram? Anything above DDR4-2133MHz is an overclock and you'd need to enable D.O.C.P/X.M.P or manually input frequency, timings and voltage in BIOS.

 

[Dawis67_AE]

PSU: Corsair SF750
How old is the PSU in your build?

MoBo: Asus Strix B550-I GAMING (3.3 BIOS)
I don't see 3.3 listed on the BIOS list here;

ROG STRIX B550-I GAMING | Motherboards | ROG Global

rog.asus.com

If you can please use CPU-Z and see what's listed under the Mainboard tab.

Your specs for the build is incomplete, please list the make and model of your case and the temps as well as the number and orientation of the fans inside the case as well as the temps you're seeing when the system turns off.

FYI, the reason why the system would turn off for a couple of reasons;
1| Your PSU can't handle being taxed
2| You're having an overheating issue whereby you're seeing a thermal shutdown

It might even be an issue with the VRM area of the motherboard when at idle.

Use DDU to remove all GPU drivers(Intel, AMD and Nvidia) in Safe Mode, then manually reinstall with the latest GPU driver sourced from Nvidia's support site in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

I have not overclocked anything, as far as I know.
Not even your ram? Anything above DDR4-2133MHz is an overclock and you'd need to enable D.O.C.P/X.M.P or manually input frequency, timings and voltage in BIOS.

Guess I was wrong. According to CPUZ the BIOS is 2803, so yeah kind of outdated.

I doubt the temps are the issue here. Have never had issues with temps when gaming before. In fact I have been running Cities Skylines 2 just when it came out, on the same PC and setup. I've also used synthetic benchmarks to max out CPU and GPU at the same time. This gave about 68C on GPU and around 79C on CPU and it ran longer than it took the game or 3Dmark benchmark to crash . If it is a temperature issue, its maybe some very sudden high spike which just cooks something, but thats not normal anyways.

I will try reinstalling AMD using DDU when I get time. I know how to reinstall GPU driver, but where would I source the AMD/CPU drivers?

Regarding RAM, I think I may have XMP enabled, but thats about it I think. Haven't checked the BIOS in a while. Also remember enabling the Re-Bar or whatever its called.

 

[Dawis67_AE]

Update: I remembered that I had downloaded Cities Skylines 2 on my Arch dual boot. Sure, its running the game using Proton and Vulkan, but I had no issues what so ever. Nothing crashed. This issue seems to be present on Windows only.
I had re-installed CS2 on Steam on Windows, but was still unable to launch it, so something somewhere is broken, not only with the drivers/OS but the game...ah Windows.

 

[Imperat0r]

So, you say that the computer crash ONLY in that game?
Since you used a synthetic test to see if it crash and...it did not... then we can assume that is something wrong with the game. Or...in your STEAM platform.
What is your computer case airflow?
How many fans you have in your computer case and how are they organized?
For testing purposes, enter in BIOS and disable XMP.

 

[Imperat0r]

You can try 16 GB RAM DDR5; this is good for gaming.

I am pretty sure he can't use DDR5 in his mainboard.

 

[manish_kumar]

It sounds frustrating, but this issue can often be fixed! Try checking for overheating or driver updates first. With some troubleshooting, you can get your PC running smoothly again!