PC super stable for some games, constant CTDs in others...

Erlijus · July 15, 2021

Hey all,

My PC was running fine until a few weeks (or 1 or 2 months) ago. i7 8700K, Asus ROG Strix 1080 Ti GPU, 16 GB (2x8) DDR4 RAM, 1TB SSD + 4TB HD, Asus ROG MB, 750W PSU. Windows 10 21H1 (19043.1110). Problem I have is that some games are super stable (GW2, Lost Ark RU) while other are crashing to desktop every 5-10 minutes of playing (Outriders, CyberPunk 2077, Grounded, Sword of Legends Online,...). When I noticed that those problems were recurring way too often for normal random crashes, I ran some stress tools: Unigine Superposition for the GPU and Prime95 stress tests for the CPU. Both run without any crash (Unigine) or error/warning (Prime95). All temps and other parameters seem normal in HWMonitor.

I reverted to some older Nvidia drivers, no change. I installed the current hotfix ones (471.22 I think), no change. I re-installed Windows 10 from scratch, no change... I am at a loss. The only thing I could think of is PSU maybe, but that does not explain why Unigine Superposition runs super fine both in benchmark and game modes... Plus I do not know how to validate that theory to be honest aside from buying a new PSU...

Does anyone have an idea, I am really at a loss there ?

Edit: forgot to add that the PC is 3 1/2 years old (november 2017).

Erlijus · July 16, 2021

After further investigation, instability seems to be GPU related: I tried down-clocking (underclocking ?) my GPU frequency and GPU memory frequency by 100 MHz each, and instead of crashing every 2 minutes, CyberPunk 2077 is crashing every 10 mins or so... Worst period to have a GPU failure, so if anyone has some tip to get a 3080 or 6800 XT or MSRP, I would be very glad.

As a side note, I am including a screenshot of the event I get everytime I have an in-game crash (definitively seems to point to a GPU problem, am I correct ?).