Did Far Cry 3 kill my GTX 570?

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knutover

Honorable
Jun 16, 2013
8
0
10,510
Hi

First my specs:

GPU: PNY GTX 570 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/GMGTX57N2H12ZPB-GeForce-GTX-570-PCI-Express/dp/B004ODQSA0)

CPU: i5 2500K

RAM: 8 GB (4x Corsair XMS3 DDR3)

PSU: 500W MIST 500BHE12

Mobo: Asus P8P67 PRO (with working sata ports)

All stock clocks and stock coolers


The story:

I got Far Cry 3 through Steam a couple of days ago and have been having fun blasting pirates and tigers in the beautiful jungle for over 9 hours in game in the last week, all without a single glitch or bug of any kind. The GTX 570 sounded like it was being pushed, but it was after all not an entirely new card anymore, and the settings were pretty high, but not ultra.

Then today I had played for a few hours when I get to a cut scene. Everything is smooth until the screen turns black and I get "Far Cry 3 has stopped responding". Restart the game, load save, everything is fine. Then total system freeze after maybe 30 seconds. Reboot, restart game, system freeze in the main menu. Reboot, rage, reinstall uPlay, update drivers, run CClean on the registry, switch to recommended settings, vacuum the card, restart the game, load, and "Far Cry 3 has stopped responding" after 5 minutes.

Cry

Then I decide to check if my GPU can still run other programs. I start Skyrim, since I have played it for ~150 hours on this system with almost no problems. The game loads and things look great. I press the left mouse button to bring up the animated flames on my hands, and the screen blacks out. Then it comes back again for 2-3 seconds, and then the screen blacks out permanently. Reboot, and decide to give up gaming and watch Game of Thrones. 5 minutes in: "Media Player Classic has stopped responding". Try again. Same result. The episode plays for 5 - 10 minutes, then the image crashes while the sound plays on until the error message pops up.

So, now I put the question to you: Have my 9 hours of Far Cry 3 somehow broken the back of my one and a half years old 570? Is it even possible for it to be broken this way, where the fan spins and desktop and Opera runs fine, and even the games and media run fine for a few minutes before they crash? And most importantly, is there a way to fix it?

Any help is very much appreciated!

I am going to go read a book. Hope it doesn't crash.
 
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K

knutover

Honorable
Jun 16, 2013
8
0
10,510
I checked the GPU temp now, just sitting in the main menu of FC3, and it rose from about 40 C idle to 78 in 3 minutes with the fan only on 48 % before i shut it down to prevent another crash. I think this might be relevant.

I vacuumed the card and brushed dust off the top of it, but I havent taken off the covers and cleaned it since I got it.

I was running the 314.07 drivers, and things crashed. I am now running the 320.18 drivers, and things still crash.
 
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K

knutover

Honorable
Jun 16, 2013
8
0
10,510
How can I find out if the problem is my PSU or my GPU? Does the rapid temperature rise indicate that the problem is with the GPU cooling? Can the cooling be fine, but the card suddenly be producing more heat?
 
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B

bystander

Champion
Dec 9, 2009
15,141
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57,965


When a GPU is under load, the temps will rise to near their max very rapidly. 78C is not too hot, though it is possible the VRM's are overheating which don't usually have a sensor on them.

As far as testing to see if it is the PSU, do you have another PC or friends PC you can try your card in?
 
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K

knutover

Honorable
Jun 16, 2013
8
0
10,510
Ok, thanks for all the help guys!

I agree that the PSU is looking suspicious. I talked with a friend, and I will try my card in his setup tomorrow, but I think I will be replacing the PSU in the near future anyway.

I also ran the OCCT power supply test. Graphs here (http://imgur.com/a/L9Qdu). Except for an error right at the start, where windows said that the grapics driver had encountered an error but recovered, and the screen saver kicking in at a little over 40 minutes, everything went alarmingly great. GPUz said that the GPU temp was at 91 - 92 degrees C during the entire test before the screen saver. Am I right in thinking that this removes a lot of suspicion from the GPU cooling?

Tried FC3 again. "Stopped working" after 3 minutes.

Will try the GPU : 3D test now.
 
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K

knutover

Honorable
Jun 16, 2013
8
0
10,510
That went fast. Graphs here (http://imgur.com/a/Xkwx5). The screen froze after 20 seconds, then it blacked out for a while and came back for 1-2 seconds at the 40 second mark before freezing again. Rinse and repeat every 20 seconds, with a "Graphics driver has stopped responding but recovered" message each time. Closed the test the seventh time I got the chance.

GPUz has the temp at 57 C for the first crash, and then never above 56 afterwards.

What does it mean?!
 
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M

MasFBailey

Distinguished
Jun 17, 2013
169
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18,680
FC3 is very very badly optimized, my GTX 580 sounds like its struggling even on 2 MSAA so expect it to be taking more of a tole than on skyrim for example. have to agree with the others your psu sounds like its had it, maby FC3 pushed it over the edge you'll probably never know.
 
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K

knutover

Honorable
Jun 16, 2013
8
0
10,510
Ok, I'm thinking it might be the graphics card and not the PSU after all. At least not the PSU alone:

I pulled out the card and tested it in my friends setup. It has an i7 970 I think, a 650 W PSU and 6 GB RAM. In this setup the card did 20 minutes with no problems of the OCCT GPU test that crashed after 20 seconds on my system. 1080p video played without a hitch. The game "Dead Island: Riptide" however, stopped working after 5 - 10 minutes. Then I tried "Warframe", and it froze the computer.

The temps during all of this were around 85 - 86 at full load according to the GPUz log. This might be because his CPU is water cooled, so no hot air got blown on the card.

I'm thinking this indicates that something is broken in the card that somehow only manifests completely when it runs games. Does this make sense?

Thanks again for all the help!
 
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G

Gee1337

Honorable
Jun 16, 2013
36
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10,530
Do you have another GPU which you can try in your rig and see if the problem persists?

There is another potential problem which a lot of people overlook. Check your RAM using a MEMTEST.

I had a problem where my PC would randomly freeze when gaming. I use to have 8GB of RAM, but the I found that two of the sticks were dodgy. Once I found out which sticks it was, I removed them and just let my system run with 4GB and in all honesty, I haven't had a problem since!
 
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K

knutover

Honorable
Jun 16, 2013
8
0
10,510
I am definitely thinking that "Far Cry 3 killed my GTX 570".

I have now done both memtest86 (2 passes, no problems) and the OCCT CPU test (1 hour, also no problems). I also took off the top cover on the card and cleaned out the dust on the heatsink and fan and checked that things looked in order. It seemed to fit flush with the card, but I didn't remove the heatsink, so there might still be a problem with the thermal paste or some contact issue in a hard to see place. I also changed to the 314.22 driver since I heard that it was more stable. I now managed to run EVE Online long enough to switch skills, and then some. FC3 still crashed after one minute though.

Action plan: Contact the seller and try to get another card on the warranty.

Thanks so much for the help!
 
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B

bystander

Champion
Dec 9, 2009
15,141
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57,965
Have you replaced that very poor PSU yet? 86C should not crash your system, and with the OCCT test, that is expected temps. Nvidia and AMD consider that and furmark to be heat viruses, and even with that, you are well below max operating temps, which is over 100C.

Until that PSU is replaced, you won't know if it is the PSU crapping out or not.
 
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K

knutover

Honorable
Jun 16, 2013
8
0
10,510
I will replace the PSU, but I still think the card is the main problem, since my friends system crashed repeatedly with my card, and my system did one hour of OCCT PSU test without problem.
 
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