Gpu crashing (Driver Crash)for no known reason

kau1997

Honorable
May 31, 2012
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10,710
Ever since i upgraded my GPU to a GTX 650Ti, every time i run a game, it gives me CRAZY artifacts, black screens and crashes.
Now i upgraded from a GT 520 to a 650Ti about a month, probably less time ago.
Im currently on:
i7-2600
2x4Gb RAM 1333Mhz
Intel DH67BL_ Mobo
Hyper 212 cooler
1 Tb SATA 7200rpm drive and win 7 ultimate 64 bit.
My psu used to be 350W(SS 350HS, and YES IT HAD A 6Pin PCIE), thinking it was a PSU issues, i promptly upgraded to a Corsair VS650 , however the problem persists.
I tried many things, new drivers, old drivers, BIOS flash and update. Short of reinstalling Win 7 (the amount of software i have is incredible, i REALLY dont need to reinstall it ALL)
The ONE thing that fixed this was underclocking it by a -200 offset to 728Mhz, which ran very stable for 1-2 hours, but then sometimes it randomly spiked to 928Mhz and crashed(monitored by ASUS GPU tweak, its an ASUS 650ti). I only observe crashes at 928 Mhz. After one such crash the clock gets stuck at 549 Mhz till i reboot. Then again i have to UC it to 728 to be able to use it.
Nothing ive tried has stopped it.
Games like Aom:titans (2002) works fine but newer, more demanding games crash it. CoD 4 doesn't crash but i has lag spikes very 5-20 seconds. CRAZY LAG SPIKES AND ARTIFACTS.
It runs stable at 549Mhz and not ONCE has it crashed at that frequency.
Ive never seen my CPU or GPU temps exceed 65C, and idle is 30-35 for the CPU and 28-32 for the GPU.
The exact message i get during such a crash is:
Display driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version xxx.xx(currently 331.65 ) stopped responding and has successfully recovered. ive tried 314.xx (dont remember) and the provided 306.xx on the CD provided with it.


Im on the DX 11.1 platform update too, if that counts for anything.