The Witcher 3 - GPUs shutting down?

alanps

Honorable
Nov 27, 2013
268
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10,790
Hey everyone,

I'm running The Witcher 3 and after a few minutes of playing the display shuts down but the sound keeps running for a few seconds till the computer finally resets itself. When starting after that reset, the display doesn't work but I can hear the Windows starting.
If I turn the computer off and wait like 10 seconds and start it again, everything works normally.
I usually play GTA V ultra 1080p and this didn't happen. I also run recently 3Dmark test and everything was fine.

I checked the GPUs temps while running The Witcher 3 and the primary GPU reaches almost 80°C before display shuts down. Secondary one around 65°C.

Here is a screen of the GPUs and CPU temps idle (running just Chrome and other stuff):
http://imageshack.com/a/img537/9692/TZJd8N.png

This is my rig:

- ASUS Sabertooth Z87
- 4670k @ 4.000MHz
- 2x8GB GSkill Sniper 1866MHz
- x2 SLI EVGA GTX 970 SC
- SSD Samsung 840 EVO 512GB
- Seagate Desktop 3TB
- Corsair CX750
- Corsair H110
- Windows 7 x64

-

Thanks!
 

alanps

Honorable
Nov 27, 2013
268
0
10,790

Are temps ok then? I mean, 80°C is ok for the primary GPU?
 
80c is very much a normal temperature. In fact, it's exactly the Temp Limit that your cards are set to target. With Turbo Boost, your cards will alter their fan speeds and Turbo Boost clocks to maintain exactly that target temperature.


I think your power supply isn't up to the task. Corsair is good, but the CX series is their budget model. You have Superclocked cards and an overclocked CPU on top of that, to go along with a graphically intense game is bringing your PSU to its knees. I would start by returning your CPU to stock speeds.


Here is Guru3D's power supply recommendation:
GeForce GTX 970 or 980 - On your average system the card requires you to have a 400~500 Watt power supply unit.
GeForce GTX 970 or 980 in 2-way SLI - On your average system the cards require you to have an 700~800 Watt power supply unit as minimum.

If you are going to overclock your GPU or processor, then we do recommend you purchase something with some more stamina. There are many good PSUs out there, please do have a look at our many PSU reviews as we have loads of recommended PSUs for you to check out in there. What would happen if your PSU can't cope with the load:

Bad 3D performance
Crashing games
Spontaneous reset or imminent shutdown of the PC
Freezing during gameplay
PSU overload can cause it to break down
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_970_sli_review,4.html
 

alanps

Honorable
Nov 27, 2013
268
0
10,790

Dude you are the best! :p

I solved the issue anyway, I don't know why but the SLI was disabled in the NVIDIA control panel. Now, with SLI enabled and framerate set unlimited plus v-sync off or on I get between 70-100 FPS with no crashes at all.

Regarding the PSU, you are totally right, I should get a new one. Which one would you recommend me?
I was thinking in some EVGA SuperNOVA or maybe OCZ fatal1ty, Corsair RM series..
 

murilodel

Reputable
Jul 21, 2015
2
0
4,510


Hello,
I needed to comment this post because I'm having the same problem and nothing that I do seems to help.
I have an Asus P8 h61-m ux2 R2.0 motherboard
geforce gtx 970 gpu
an intel i5 3330 cpu
8 GB ram
2 TB hd
thermaltake 600w real power supply.
I was having this problem when I had the c3 tech 500 w power supply installed before, and I thought it was the reason why the computer was shutting down, but when I installed the 600 it kept happening
So I decided to check on the temperature with HWmonitor, keeping in mind that my entire system is refrigerated with normal fans.
What happens is that the cores sky rocket the temperature once I run the witcher 3, but what is funny, like you said, is that I run games just as heavy for my overall configs as the witcher is, but they play just smooth, with no further problems.
So my conclusion over that matter is that the witcher has something wrong within its drivers libraries which is forcing the processor overspeed trying to reach its unneeded necessities once it is not optimized well enough to supply the systems with correct info.
I think the only thing we can do is hope CDproject red sees that a whole bunch of people are having this problems, and together with Nvidia, try to fix it in a future update. nevertheless I just bought a watercooler system, which is comming by mail, just to make sure that I've done EVERYTHING possible to cover all possibilities. Trying to play this game has proved to be a big time trouble on my budget.:pt1cable:
 

Have you tried something called "unparking your cores"? It's apparently a way to provide better CPU performance in Witcher 3, particularly when using Hairworks. You would have to do a search for it, but I've seen the technique posted a few times. Otherwise, feel free to open a new thread to get some help from the community.
 

murilodel

Reputable
Jul 21, 2015
2
0
4,510


Never tried that before, I'm looking over the internet to understand how it works and I'll tell you what I think about it later, but thanks for the advice