Certain games freeze up, possibly faulty GPU?

mace200200

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So this has been happening since I first build my gaming computer. It started with Crysis 2 right when I installed it. Since then I've, gotten a new motherboard, new RAM, a second Hard drive for storage, over the course of about a year. So far none of these upgrades have done anything to fix the problem. Since I'm running games off a different hard drive now (OS still on the same one) I can't imagine it's cause by a bad HDD? So that leaves my GPU.
Nothings over heating or even close, CPU never goes past 32C on a hot day, GPU never goes past 55C, motherboard temps sit around 45C. HDD's around 25-30C
PSU seems fine, I monitor the voltages they get up to about 12.2V at load (although it's a 750w unit so it's not actually much of a load).
RAM is set to correct timings/voltage, can't imagine I've gone through 3 pairs of bad sticks (2 sets on my last board).

Here are the game that I own that are affected: Shift 2 (my new one that made this issue bother me again)
WarHammer 40k Space Marine (not quite so bad)
Crysis 2 (the worst one, it's unplayable and I bought it 6 months ago)
All my other games work just fine, Just Cause 2, Dues Ex, Guild Wars 2, and others that don't really load my GPU/CPU up much so they probably don't matter.

I've asked this many times before, no one ever has anything for me. Are these signs of a bad HDD (mine is a bit old), bad GPU. I'm starting to make some money again, the next thing I'm going to try swapping out will be my GPU (for a 660, it'll be bottlenecked, but I want to upgrade my CPU too) unless someone can offer me any help.

Thanks, and my specs are in my signature!
 
Solution
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Pretty much has to be either the GPU or your power supply. You have a very good power supply but even a Seasonic made unit can be defective.

The only way to be sure about RAM is memtest but since you have replaced both the board and the RAM I can't think that is your problem.
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Deleted member 217926

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Pretty much has to be either the GPU or your power supply. You have a very good power supply but even a Seasonic made unit can be defective.

The only way to be sure about RAM is memtest but since you have replaced both the board and the RAM I can't think that is your problem.
 
Solution

mace200200

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I sometimes worry that since I'm running such a high powered unit on a low powered system, it's not running efficiently, or that it actually stresses the unit. Have you seen any tests or anything done on this? I have done memtest before, not for very long (I think only 2 passes), but it didn't come up with any errors.
 
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Deleted member 217926

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You are not hurting anything running that GPU/PSU combo. It's just not quite as efficient as it could be. I am basically doing the same thing with my GTX 460 1GB and TX 750. I got the power supply on amazing sale back in the 8800 GTS days and was always going to add a second card but the GTX 460 performed so well I never got around to it. I'm finally going to bite the bullet here in a few weeks and grab a GTX 780 or 770 depending on price. I will probably grab a Seasonic X then as well since this TX 750 I have is an old first gen one and over 5 years old.

You need to run memtest for about 8 hours to fully test 4GB.
 

mace200200

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Yea I know I needed to run memtest longer, because it was new RAM, it makes it hard to justify letting it run for hours when you feel like it should be fine.
Anyway, I think I'll save up the money for a 660 first, hopefully that'll fix the problem if not, I'll probably buy one of those little $40 Antec 450 VP units I recommend to everyone else until I can get another bigger PSU (Rosewill capstone 550 or 750w probably, again something I recommend to lots and lots of people here). Hopefully a new 660 will just fix the problem and I can work on getting a new CPU. And by that time the new AMDs might be ready to come out.
Either way, that 660 will boost performance at least for the games I can play up to my CPU bottle neck.

I bought a big unit for the same reason too, I really wanted to run two 570's. But then my 220 died before I could afford a single 570, I didn't know PSU's so well back then, people linked me the 550w so I bought the 750w instead.
 

mace200200

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HaHa, I did just buy this board though, I had an AM2+ before it, upgrading my board and using the same CPU was the best way to go. When it's time for a new board, I'll probably be in the same boat again, buy a new board and CPU, or just a new board. I would go the Intel route but I'm kind of in a rut with AMD now. It doesn't matter to me though, I'm probably never going to drop enough money on a card/cards, where I'd need an all powerful CPU like that.
 

mace200200

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It might also be worth mentioning that sometimes the game will lock up (sound keeps going), the screen will black out for a second then the game will start going again. When it comes back my monitors DVI input detected thing comes up.
Now my friend says that means it's a bad video card. The thing about him though is that he never goes out of his way to learn things like I do, but he has been playing and building computers since he was like 9. So he does have that experience.
 
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Deleted member 217926

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You know it could be something crazy like a bad monitor cable.

Have you tried testing the GPU with something like Furmark? Generally 15-20 minutes of Furmark will stress any card enough to reproduce errors if it's a bad card,
 

mace200200

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I have done furmark before, and nothing ever came up. I've had this problem across three different monitor cables as well.
I also downloaded Black Ops 2 for the free weekend from steam, I just played multiplayer for a good 45 minutes and not a single glitch or anything. And that game works my GPU pretty hard.
 

mace200200

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Finally got my new 660 today, so far everything has been perfect, racked up a good amount of playtime on shift 2, downloaded crysis 2 and no problems there either (been waiting to play that game for 6 months). Good call on my GPU, at the time I asked this I think I was getting ready to buy a new HDD, which would have been a waste. Good to know my PSU is still solid as well.
 
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Deleted member 217926

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I loved Crysis, Crysis Warhead and Crysis 2. I'm waiting to upgrade my graphics card to play Crysis 3. There are some rumors of an AMD 8xxx series soon so maybe the GTX 780 will drop a bit soon. I sure want one but man it hurts to pay $650 for a graphics card! Anyway glad you got everything running good.
 
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Deleted member 217926

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The 770 has really turned out to be a great value. The 780 is just on a different level though and the EVGA ACX model equals or even beats the Titan in some benchmarks. Not bad for a card that is $400 less than Titan.