Help diagnose GPU's deterioration

Mischievous · February 1

Hello all, in 2020 I got a 2080 SUPER;

http://www.palit.com/palit/vgapro.php?id=3352&lang=en

That one to be precise. And everything was fine.

In 2020,2021 I did some really graphically intense projects in Unreal 4 no problems.

In 2022 I wanted to play Control with Ray tracing enabled but like once every two days or so of gameplay I'd get a GPU driver crash I thought nothing of it.

Then in 2023 started to get a GPU Driver crash while doing Unreal 5 stuff like every half hour to an hour. I chalked it up to a bug in UE5, and read somewhere to just under clock my GPU by a hundred mz. And it worked.

By the end of 2023 I got Cyberpunk 2077 and I couldn't even start it, it immediately crashed with a GPU Driver crash unless I under clock my GPU by 200 mz.

Baldur's gate 3 came out, same story, unless I under clock by 200 mz it crashes.

But the reason I write this now is that as of today it's gotten worse, games that I didn't have to under clock for now I have to, and for things like Ue5, Cyberpunk I have to under clock by more than I used to last year.

So I tried to open one of those projects I did in 2020 and yep they crash too unless I under clock by about 300 mz.

Like the amount I have to under clock this seems to rise slowly and I'm wondering what could be causing this.

I tried to ask for help at a tech center but they just told me "They sometimes do that." . Fair. They do indeed sometimes do that. But why?

PS: I've tried both BIOS options for the GPU the same behavior persists in both.

Tetras · February 1

It could be a lot of things, e.g. deterioration in the GPU, or due to the thermals as the card gets dirtier and paste dries up.

You might like to watch this:

OddOod · February 1

What are your thermals like under load and at idle?

Mischievous · February 2

12 hours ago, OddOod said:

What are your thermals like under load and at idle?

35-40C at idle and like 60-65C at load with like Cyberpunk or Unreal 5

12 hours ago, Tetras said:

It could be a lot of things, e.g. deterioration in the GPU, or due to the thermals as the card gets dirtier and paste dries up.

You might like to watch this:

Wow, an hour long gpu techie video I'll watch it after work today, thanks!