KrayKaz

Thanks for the replies. So I have a new question to ask. My system has a 750W PSU as list in the op. If I decide to OC the CPU at this point, what would be a good wattage to up my PSU to? Would 850 be enough to support an overclock? Not looking to go crazy, (right now I think it sits at like 3.4 [?]) but maybe push it up to around the 4.0GHz range... As well as maybe push my RAM to the full 2400MHz it's advertised as (if I don't get a different set at a higher clock). Some more details about the system to better help answer the question. CPU is being cooled by a Corsair H60 (more than likely will need an AIO that is at least 240). I have a standard 7200 RPM mech drive, a m.2 SSD, and 2.5 SSD as well. USB Mouse, Keyboard, Mic, and Mixamp (Astro TR Mixamp Pro to be specific). I don't really know the full power draw of the system so I figured I would ask just in case something like 850 would not be enough. Again, all help is appreciated and thanks in advance.

Currently, my system is pretty decent - or so I feel it is. Current specs: (all parts bought in 2015) CPU - Intel i7 5820K (not O/C) Mobo - MSI X99A Gaming 7 RAM - 16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 2400MHz PSU - EVGA SuperNOVA 750 Not concerned about upgrading my GPU, as it's recently purchased and all I need at the moment. (For those curious - EVGA GTX 1080Ti FTW3 hybrid). So, here is my question (as the title states) - is it time to upgrade or do I wait? Gaming focused, but if it can support doing other things like running multiple VMs and doing some video editing I am all for it. I haven't been following tech as closely as I used to, so not sure if I should stick with Intel or consider a change to AMD for the core components. All help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Recently I have been experiencing a problem with my system in relation to graphics. I have been getting the "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped working and has successfully recovered." However, this is not true. While playing games, my screens (dual monitor setup at 1080 res) will go black and my monitors will enter a state that implies I do not have anything plugged in to them. At the same time, the system is running normally as I can still hear people talking / I can talk to people in discord, my game sounds is running as if nothing happened, and I can even play the game with input controls, but I don't have a picture.... I have to force restart my system everything works again. Checking the event viewer in windows, I get a double event of the same thing stating the above message, but as I also said, this isn't the case. I have my Precision XOC running, and when the event occurs, nothing is happening on there that is telling me my card is starting to / has freaked out. I have installed several different drivers using the DDU software to remove old drivers cleanly and in safe mode. I have physically gone in after the DDU and removed anything left over that the DDU program does not get. But this issue keeps happening everyday / every time I play. It mostly happens when I am playing Guild Wars 2 (not an overly demanding game in terms of graphics), it has happened a few times during Rocket League games (usually the screen just flashes, the sound gets all crazy for a min and the drivers actually do recover and the screen returns), and in CSGO, I get an insane amount of frame instability for a short bit before it levels itself out (the same in other similarly engined games). At this point I am at a loss for how to fix this issue aside from either buying a new card or reinstalling Windows. I am open to suggestions at this point.

100F is normal. Are you are having system crashes, or major instability? Also, if you are using CAM, I would suggest setting up your temps to read in Celcius. Most people on here are used to reading temps in "C", so when you are talking about "F" or "Fahrenheit", it may confuse some people.

Geforce Experience is very hit or miss when it comes to what is "optimal" for games. Try this - (keep in mind I do not play W3 so I don't know the exact locations of all settings) load up your Witcher 3, go in the options and change your graphics a little bit. I would look for things like anti-aliasing, bloom, etc. I would tweek these a little bit. Turn them down or off (i usually have bloom off because that is my personal pref). These will definitely affect your performance. It may not look as pretty as you want, but the gameplay will be better. Also, and someone will probably come in here all in a rage after reading this, but I would try turning on Vsync. If your monitor is only a 1080 screen, I am willing to bet it won't push more than 60 FPS anyway (even if the counter says it is). That is obviously up to you, as I don't have vsync enabled in all my games either, but it helps in some.

From OP. 100F = shy of 38C. If the Fahrenheit read is accurate, then there is nothing wrong with the system. If OP meant Celcius, then yes, there is definitely a problem. OP, please clarify this.

Bump for hopes and dreams (and an update). Update - Just upgraded to Windows 10 (yikes, but got it free so eff it right...?). It seems to have somewhat fixed the problem. I still got a driver crash, but that could be due to me not reinstalling the driver after I did the W10 upgrade. I am going to try that when I get home today, but I am still at a loss as to why it was happening before on 8.1. I should point out something that I forgot to mention in my previous post - I am not sure the mobo is the same one as the one I purchased originally. As stated in the first post, the original CPU went out and I had to get it replaced. Well, before that happened, I thought my mobo was the issue and had sent that in for RMA as well. Not sure if they tested and sent me back the same one, or sent a different one. I will am going to see if I can dig up the RMA serial numbers and match them up later as well.

Just out of curiosity, is there a reason that you updated your BIOS? Generally speaking, you shouldn't really do anything with BIOS unless there is a known issue that is causing hardware to fail or malfunction, or unless the manufacturer has suggested doing so due to some upcoming hardware / software release that will require it. "If it isn't broken, don't fix it". From what I have read, it's one of 2 things. The BIOS update is corrupt or failed in some way that is triggering your USB ports to go haywire, revert back to the original BIOS that came with board, or whatever version you upgraded from. Or, the windows install is somewhat corrupted and will need to be redone. I would try doing a windows repair to see if that fixes the issue. Also, I would triple check your hardware to make sure that when you built machine you didn't bend any of the hard mounted USB connection that could have caused their connection to be skewed in way that they aren't making good contact with the motherboard. Hope this helps.

The problem I am having started 2 days ago randomly. Little bit of history before I mention the problem. Computer is roughly 2 years old. On it's second CPU since the first one faulted and had to be replaced (on Intel thankfully). I recently (within the last few months, don't remember when) overclocked said new CPU to 3.9 Ghz @ 1.28V (maybe, I don't remember the voltage exaclty), up from 3.3, has been running just fine ever since. Graphics card has not been OC'd ever. On to the problem... The other day I was playing and older game called Day of Defeat: Source (not by any means a graphical giant) when suddenly my screens went grey and orange (one grey, one orange) and I got caught in a sound loop. I had to hard restart my machine. In the process, I lost my CPU overclock and RAID configuration which in turn caused me to lose all my games, not that big a deal. I ended up skipping fixing the RAID right away and wanted to investigate. I opened up event viewer, and as you can see from the attached screens, it was flooded with errors, most of them reading the same message (something about application 'whatever' has been blocked from access graphics hardware) with the exception of the first few reading that the nv yadda yadda driver has stopped working and recovered successfully (clearly false). Seeing this, first thing I did was remove the drivers completely. I used DDU to accomplish this and even went in and deleted the driver number folders still in the C:/whateverpathitis/NVIDIA. Thinking that this fixed the problem, I reconfigure my RAID, installed a couple of games and began to play them with no problem (yesterday - 8 July 17). I tested a wide variety of games, PUGB, Rocket League, Day of Defeat Source, Neverwinter. Today however, I was playing Rocket League yet again, in a comp game, when my PC did the exact same thing as before. Only this time, I didn't lose my RAID configuration upon hard reset. I did find that for some reason event viewer did not register the driver crash nor did it pick on the sudden power loss to the system. At the time of the first incident I had Precision XOC running and my GPU clock was no where near max and the temps were sitting at a cool roughly 50C. I am at a loss here as to how to fix this problem. Has anyone come across this before / found a fix that didn't require a complete system reinstall? System Specs: MSI X99A Gaming 7 - BIOS Version H.F Intel i7 5820k cooled by Corsair H60 AIO EVGA Geforce GTX 980 FTW - Driver version 382.33 (on step roll back from current at time of post) 16 GB G.skill Ripjaws 4 DDR4 RAM RAIDed SSDs are ADATA SP600 256GB (x2 in RAID 0) PSU - EVGA SuperNOVA 750W 80+ Gold OS - Windows 8.1 on a Kingston V300 SSD

I don't know what happened, but it appears that the machine is operating normally. If I ever figure it out, I will be sure to pass along the info so that you all may know in case this problem occurs again.

Well if graphics are overclocked, wouldn't resetting or flashing the BIOS to a new version reset all the clocks back to stock? Also, the only benchmarking software that I have at the moment is Unigen Valley. I will get Heaven later. I think I am going to reload Windows and see if that does anything for the system. My last action will be to either return the machine or RMA it, depends on which is faster and if Newegg will allow me to take advantage of a specific deal they have going on right now.

If power delivery is the problem, what are the chances a BIOS update will resolve the problem? I was on the Asus download page that is specific to my model and noticed that there is a BIOS update as of Jan this year. I downloaded it, but I haven't flashed the BIOS yet because I don't want to do it unless I am at least somewhat sure that this will work.

RAM is very picky. SInce it wasn't bought all together as a kit, it's not guaranteed to work unfortunately, and it appears this could be the case here. When you buy RAM as a kit, it has the manufacturers guarantee that it will work together since they tested it before packaging it. Have you tested the new RAM by itself to see if it's running on it's own just fine?

Ok, I ran Valley and Cities again. Valley test was done on Medium settings with AA off at 1920x1080 - MSI Afterburner peaked during the test at 85C. Cities test was ran with similar options, AA / AF off, 1920x1080 res at "medium" settings - MSI Afterburner pegged at 86C. I have yet to do a test with an external display, but I will when i get the chance.

I have not done this yet. I will be doing this as a test later and I will post results when I get them. I didn't think of doing this... But when I ran Valley, the temps seemed to bounce around. I ran the test on all settings, Ultra being the worst of course, but not because of the fact that it's a 860m, but because it seems to make the screen flashing worse than all the other settings. Temps in Valley seem to cap at around 85c, even on Ultra. The air leaving the exhaust is clearly a bit warm / hot, but physically touching the machine around the exhaust port and where I am assuming the GPU is sitting, it's not hot at all... as a matter of fact I would say it's barely even warm and seems to cool off rather quickly after doing a test. I will download Afterburner or something like it to see if it gives me different readings than Valley and get back with the results.