Question RTX 3060 12GB card, DirectX12, and crashing fortnite

[drjohnnyfever]

My son has been having an issue with Fortnite crashing. Comes up as seemingly a Fortnite message, not a PC error. He downgraded to DirectX 11 on the RTX and the problem has ended, but that just doesn't seem a reasonable solution.

CPU - Core i5-14600K
MOBO - MSI Pro Z790 A-Wifi
RTX 3060 12GB
Thermalright PS120SE
ADATA 2TB SSD Legend 900 PCIe Gen4x4
Crucial RAM 32GB Kit (2x16GB) DDR5 5600MT/s
Seasonic Focus GX-850, 850W 80+ Gold
Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus Pure Edition

Any ideas on this would be appreciated.

 

[Lutfij]

MOBO - MSI Pro Z790 A-Wifi
What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?

Try and use DDU to remove all GPU drivers(Intel, AMD and Nvidia) in Safe Mode, then manually install the latest GPU driver sourced from Nvidia's support site in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator, and see if that sorts out your issue.

Following that, try and reduce your power limit on your processor in BIOS. If the BIOS updates+GPU driver reinstall doesn't help you out, can you see if other titles give you the same experience as Fortnite?

 

[drjohnnyfever]

The issue does not occur with any other games.

We updated to the most recent Bios back in September. It was released about the time Intel announced that it had made it's final power updates for Bios' after the whole over volting debacle. I did that update. I had the CPU downvolted and everything was running fine. I'm not sure it the issue began before or after the Bios update, but I suspect after. My son is not the best at reporting issues.

Nevertheless, I knew that the Bios changes that were part of the most recent update had made changes from what I had set. Temps inexplicably went up and performance down after the Bios update. I dug into that this weekend and changed the MOBO presets into the unlimited mode and then down volted the CPU using the CPU Lite feature. Power is down, temps are all below 85C and performance is thru the roof at 255xx on cinebench23.

I have not looked at the GPU yet to make sure that it is all up to date, but it always has been.

 

[mikemid]

Win + Q to open the search box, enter 'ncpa. cpl', press Enter to open the "Network Connections" window, select your network adapter, right-click > "Properties", double-click "Internet Protocol Version 4(TCP/IP)", then Set Predderred DNS server to 4.2.2.1,and set Alternate DNS server to 4.2.2.2

and do a clean boot and use the chkdsk method to check and repair the disk error.

power supply unit (PSU) may be a problem

 

[drjohnnyfever]

MOBO - MSI Pro Z790 A-Wifi
What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?

Try and use DDU to remove all GPU drivers(Intel, AMD and Nvidia) in Safe Mode, then manually install the latest GPU driver sourced from Nvidia's support site in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator, and see if that sorts out your issue.

Following that, try and reduce your power limit on your processor in BIOS. If the BIOS updates+GPU driver reinstall doesn't help you out, can you see if other titles give you the same experience as Fortnite?

It was the most recent Bios update - 7E07vM6 as of 9-5-2024, but today I notice there is a newer version... 7E07vM7 from 10/18/2024. I spent last weekend retuning the CPU after the September Bios update changed all of the settings. I checked earlier last week and that Bios was not listed, so I must have just missed it. I will probably update it again and then retune the CPU again.

Because of the known issues with this and other Intel chips over heating, I had undervotlted the CPU from nearly the time it was installed last February. It ran and runs flawlesslessly and FAST and COOL with the CPU Lite Mode at 5 with the other default board settings on the highest performance. Temps don't reach 85C while performance cores run at 5.5Ghz and the efficiency cores run at 4.3Ghz.

I did dig in a little to the GPU to see the settings, but that is something I have not really explored. The drivers are apparently up to date, but I'll dig into that a little more.

What should I expect performance wise on the GPU and what are some suggested baseline settings? His other games like Red Dead 1&2 do not experience the issue that Fortnite does, but I don't think forcing DirectX11 on the other games is best.

I'm a little hesitant to do the Safe Mode driver idea at this moment, only because it is NOT an issue with any other titles and I don't want to completely upset the apple cart potentially.