All games start to hitch and drop frames after 2 - 3 hours

[MrH]

This thread is my last hope before I RMA my card and hope nothing goes wrong (MSI...)

Basically I will be able to play perfectly for hours, no hitching and no frame loss and then in a blink of an eye whatever game I'm playing will start to jolt constantly, and constant frame loss comes with it. I made a video showing this issue, please watch it in 60fps:

When this problem kicks in I can for example close the Witcher and open something less demanding like Counter Strike and the hitching will still be present, restarting the PC usually fixes this.

I'm really hoping someone has some idea what is causing this, maybe from experience, as I really don't want to RMA my card unless I have to.

I've been troubleshooting for 5 days now, I have formatted and installed both Win8.1 and Wn10, reset BIOS, removed overclock, ran all benchmarks (no crashing or errors), memtest, HD Tune and I'm no closer to knowing the problem. I've ordered Digiflex PSU Tester which should arrive tomorrow so I can test the power supply as well.

i5 3570k @ 4.3

MSI GTX 970 4G

8GB DDR

SSD

Creative XFI XtremeGamer

Asus P8Z77-V

Windows 10

[Paralectic]

Thermal throttling.

[Br3tt96]

Thermal throttling.

I was beaten to the punch.

[MrChavelo]

Well, take a walk to the refrigerator every 3 hours then

[Praesi]

Since you excluded most common issues, my Tip is the VRAM. Usual it takes some time till you reach a broken cluster, so its possible you game for some time without problems. Normaly it end in a crash or freeze, not just performance loss.

[Mattyd7829]

would the cpu show 100% usage in a thermal throttling scenario?

[GM_Peka]

Might be a GPU driver crash, often, nvidia cards will revert back to a sort of safe clock speed after a driver crash.

Check GPU and CPU Clock speeds with HWinfo or whatever when the thing happens.

[Taswell]

would the cpu show 100% usage in a thermal throttling scenario?

I Noticed that too, that would be a bottle neck.  but that could also cause the CPU the thermal throttle because its always at %100 so that might be the real problem here

[You_are_a_cunt]

Thermal throttling.

This 9/10

[GM_Peka]

Infact, in the video, all I'm seeing is what looks like vsync stutters (windowed mode forces vsync with no fps cap).

 

Try running fullscreen and see if anything looks less stuttery.

[Epiclol86]

would the cpu show 100% usage in a thermal throttling scenario?

not necessarily

[MrH]

I totally forgot to add my specs, I have updated the OP.

My temps are fine, both CPU and GPU sit around 60c. The CPU doesn't reach 100% if I'm not recording, but the issue still arises without recording.

Also, the event viewer shows no Nvidia errors, usually driver crashes show up here, so I don't think it's that.

And I have tried all combinations of settings, I'm only using windowed for the video, it goes well beyond VSync stutter, the video doesn't do the issue justice.

[MrH]

I've had the game running since I made this thread and it hasn't hitched yet, although I've changed nothing to fix it so I guess it's just a matter of time, I wanted to get readings while it was hitching. I have these readings of playing it now while it's fine, but the core clock keeps dropping, is that normal? Is it just from when the game loads new areas or something when using Fast Travel? No idea if it's of any help, but thought I'd post it anyway.

 

 

Isn't it strange how my core and memory cloak keep dropping while in the game, but tabbed out it stays constant?

 

EDIT: I forgot to set prefer performance in the NVCP when I formatted yesterday, the downclocks have stopped now. They weren't causing me any issues anyway as I said, but thought I'd mention it.

[MrH]

I've had the game running for 5 hours now with no issue, I've been trying to think of anything that's different this format, from the previous 3 and all I can think of is I'm playing on my PC monitor now, instead of duplicating my display to the TV as well. Has anyone ever heard of duplicated displays causing this type of issue?

[Mattyd7829]

I've had the game running for 5 hours now with no issue, I've been trying to think of anything that's different this format, from the previous 3 and all I can think of is I'm playing on my PC monitor now, instead of duplicating my display to the TV as well. Has anyone ever heard of duplicated displays causing this type of issue?

I am pretty sure that running two screens will indeed increase the strain on your gpu. (even though it is the same image)

[Deagon]

I've had the game running for 5 hours now with no issue, I've been trying to think of anything that's different this format, from the previous 3 and all I can think of is I'm playing on my PC monitor now, instead of duplicating my display to the TV as well. Has anyone ever heard of duplicated displays causing this type of issue?

YUP

 

I am pretty sure that running two screens will indeed increase the strain on your gpu. (even though it is the same image)

exactly, but the TV isn't as good as the monitor and will cause more problems

[MrH]

I usually play on the TV as I'm in recovery for a back injury, so sitting down gets quite painful, whereas laying in bed does not. Also, I've just thought of something else, when playing on the TV, my picture will go black for a second whenever my mini fridge cyles on as the HDMI cable runs behind it, and the fridge and TV are on the same extension cable. Jesus, if this is the cause I will be so happy as it's an easy, cost free fix but I'm not ready to blow my load just yet, but this is sounding feasable to you guys?

[MrH]

The issue has come back, so it wasn't that.

[MrH]

I'm still battling with this issue, here is my HWInfo during Dying Light when the hitching is happening: