PC crashes when I play higher end games.

[BerginUK]

Before I start, a quick rundown of my PC:

 

 

In the last week, my PC has started to crash at various points - but only when running games. It's different for each game; some crash on the main menu before the game even starts (TW: Atilla), and some will let you start playing for a couple of minutes (FIFA 15) before "losing signal" with the screen. Then either one of two things happen:

 

1. It crashes outright and the computer restarts itself.
2. The game apparently seems to continue running, but outputs no signal to the screen. Audio can still be heard, although I can't interact anymore (if I move the character with my controller, I won't hear footsteps, or whatever noises you'd expect a game to make when you interact with it).

Outside of games, the PC runs as well as ever. There's no unusual temperatures, no spiking of any sort that I can see.

 

Here's the really weird thing - it can run smaller, less intense games perfectly. Bastion and Valiant Hearts run absolutely great. 1440p, 60fps, absolutely no problems.

 

Games like Atilla TW, however, crash while loading the campaign map. FIFA 15, crashes as I load into the game, AC: Rogue, crashes as I load up the game world.

 

My first thought was to do a completely clean reinstall of the graphics drivers - no luck. I have tried rolling back to the last 2-3 versions with no changes. I updated the motherboard BIOS to the very latest version - nothing. My feeling is this is definitely a GPU issue, but I don't know for sure. It could be RAM, but that seems fine in Chrome, I managed to use nearly all 8GB of it without a crash.

 

I'm now completely out of ideas. At this point I'm thinking my only option is to try returning the GPU. Help!

 

 

 

[C0LL0SS0S]

Have you OCed that GPU ?

[Tedster]

Can you show us what the temps are like with the less demanding games?

[Firearm2112]

Use Display Driver Uninstaller to completely remove the Nvidia drivers, then reinstall them. I had a similar problem and this fixed it for me. 

[BerginUK]

Use Display Driver Uninstaller to completely remove the Nvidia drivers, then reinstall them. I had a similar problem and this fixed it for me. 

 

Tried it, no good. I did this each time I tried a new driver, too.

 

 

Have you OCed that GPU ?

 

 

I haven't touched it. It's this version out of the box.

 

 

Can you show us what the temps are like with the less demanding games?

 

 

Here's the temperatures after playing Bastion for 5-10 minutes:

 

[BerginUK]

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[BerginUK]

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[BerginUK]

Update: 

 

So today I managed to play Dying Light, maxed at at 1440p getting a very good frame rate, around 60 (basically flawless with G-SYNC enabled). This went on for about two hours before it crashed in the above-mentioned way. When I restarted the game, it managed about 20 minutes before crashing again. On the third restart, it crashed immediately in the main menu. So that's quite telling; the crashes seem to become more predictable the longer anything is being played.

 

My research online so far seems to suggest that this is most likely a PSU problem (it's a CoolerMaster, had it since July 2012). It's really hard for me to test without spare parts. If not that, it could only reasonably be a GPU problem, which I've had for 3 months.

 

I can probably get a replacement GPU if I go back and say it's faulty, so that's going to be my first call. If it produces he same crashes, I will have to buy a new PSU and see what CoolerMaster will do about refunding the (supposedly) faulty one.

 

Can anyone advise further? I'm happy to provide as much information as needed.