Question Whats going on with my card?

Oct 12, 2020
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CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 @ 2.80 GHz(6 CPUs)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Motherboard: PRIME Z370-A
RAM: 16 GB
PSU: 800W(I don't remember the name, can check)

So, I bought a PC like a year ago. In the beginning, everything was going as expected until I got some crashes while playing World of Tanks. The game would just turn off, or freeze, thus forcing me to go to a different monitor to shut the game down through Task Manager. The issue would slowly spread out to other games throughout the year, which were fixed by lowering the settings of the games.(High/medium->Low). The games include Witcher 3, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Borderlands 2, Team Fortress 2 etc. Regardless of the crashes on high settings, It was still enjoyable to play on low settings with at least 200-300 FPS.

However, with the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, games that had no problem running at low settings were now either crashing without anything(no error message) or were freezing, thus forcing me to use the solution above. At that point, I started checking temperatures of both GPU and CPU, not sure which one was the problem. The CPU appeared to be running without an issue, with the temperature around 60°C. The GPU temperature would slowly rise up during the gameplay and at the temperatures of 58°C-64°C, it would crash. When looking at the GPU usage through Task Manager, I noticed that the games would just use around 3% of the GPU(even the titles such as The Witcher 3). Not even a month into January and when playing games such as CS: GO or Team Fortress 2, the textures would just be missing from maps before yet again, crashing or freezing the game.

I tried reinstalling some of the games but to no avail. I tried underclocking and overclocking the GPU, but that just didn't do anything. I tried pretty much anything I could find or think of, but nothing seemed to work. I also used DDU but nothing changed. Throughout 2020, the state of the GPU would slowly deteriorate. While benchmarking, everything would be in at least a Very Good shape, however, the GPU was way down from other ones with around 0,26%. As a last resort, I sent the GPU to the repair, but I was told that the GPU was running perfectly with no issues. And to be honest, the first 2 days after it was returned to me, it was running without an issue(???). But I guess the GPU decided to speedrun its destruction and throughout August-September, the majority of my games would just stop working. Even the games like CS:GO or TF2 would just either run at small FPS or just crash at certain moments.

At the moment, everything is up to date, including the Motherboard. I have no idea what to do. I tried benchmarking yesterday and my GPU was at the complete bottom, yet again. Everything was in good condition. I tried to meddle with GPU Tweak II for a little bit, but that only resulted in a bluescreen and after fixing the bluescreen, the PC would just restart when it came to the GPU benchmarking part. Help? Please?

P.S.: I might have forgotten something, I was trying to fix this for months after all, so I will be glad to answer all of your questions!
 
Oct 12, 2020
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Last edited:
Oct 12, 2020
7
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Looking good, did you test your card with OCCT aswell?
The 3d and vram tests?

Houston, we might have a problem here. Sooo, I started off with the 3D test and it took like 10 seconds(no errors). But every time I tried to repeat the 3D test, OCCT would just shut down. Then, I went for the VRAM test and this is the result: View: https://imgur.com/gallery/ce9k3T3


It went on until at least 2 million when it crashed - my monitor turned black and I couldn't do anything.

EDIT: Not 1.6 and 2 mil, 16 and 20 mil
 

wi5pa

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May 20, 2012
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I think your graphics card has an issue with its VRAM,
The graph of voltages on the right hand-side are normal,
but your graphics card has ram issues

with no tests running, is your voltage tab showing steady lines ? i.e power supply ok ?
also run memtest64 to make sure there is no issue with your normal ram.
 
Oct 12, 2020
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Apologies for not answering for such a long time. I had to send my PC to repair. The guy insisted everything was alright, the issue was he didn't check GPU even though he was told to do so. So I got nothing from his end. He just keeps saying that its a hardware issue and stuff like turning off the apps at the start etc. will fix it. Since the most stupid solutions seemed to work for at least a day or two, I tried that but, as expected, nothing changed.

I finally did memtest earlier today, no errors. GPU voltage seems to be stable, jumping up and down only when I bring up the OCCT. When its minimized, the GPU lines are completely steady. If it's up for a bit longer, the lines get steady after a few seconds.

I yet again apologize for taking so long to answer. I should have said something.
 

wi5pa

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May 20, 2012
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No worries on the delay, the PC repair man sounds lazy.

Have you done the 3D test and VRAM test again in OCCT.
Also look at the voltage tab of OCCT with the 12v 5v 3.3v and VCCIO only, this is the PSU, they should be steady lines.

You can update the graphics driver using this link, make sure you select STANDARD for the "windows driver type".
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us
October 7th - driver 456.71 game ready driver - would be the one to install.

Also you can remove the Graphics card temporarily (the i5-8400 has integrated graphics) to see if you are having the same issues running the pc without the graphics card.

Does any of this help ?
 
Oct 12, 2020
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So, I did the 3D Test, it ran for approx. 2 minutes, before cancelling itself, no errors detected. I ran the VRAM test(70% memory usage). For a minute, there wasn't a single error, but then they slowly started popping up. First, only one error, then more and more with the number of errors rapidly increasing from 49 to 260 to 262k. At that point, I turned the test off in fear of the PC crashing as before. During the testing, the lines were completely steady.

Regarding the newest driver - the repair guy installed it already.

I guess I could remove the GPU. I would like to add, that when I sent the GPU to repair, I still used the PC with the integrated GPU. Everything was going alright, but the games were unplayable due to low FPS(I am First Person Shooter kind of guy, so FPS matters a lot to me).
 
Oct 12, 2020
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Not anymore, I already sent it to repair as a part of the warranty(if the issue was too bad, I would be given a new one), but of course, they said that there was no issue with it. Guess Im just gonna have to buy a new one or something.

Thank you so much for your help.
 
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wi5pa

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Send them an email to them and say the Vram has failed,
you can also attach a screen shot of OCCT with all the errors.,
they should hopefully replace it.

If your system was running fine on integrated graphics (all be it low fps) but no crashing etc then its likely the Graphics card,
It should not fail the Vram test.

a new one will depend on your budget, but something like a RTX 2060 Super would be a good upgrade.