Driver crashing - GPU Core/memory clock sky rocketing

Hello everyone,

I have been having a weird problem with my GPU lately, which seems to happen more and more often.

It's the well known "driver crashed and recovered" problem. I have tried all sorts of solutions online, but nothing really helped. I am not sure if it's a hardware or a software issue this is why I need your help My pc will mostly crash when I'm on facebook (with all these videos autoplaying) or on youtube, and almost never when i'm playing a game.

I bought this computer about a year ago!

Here are the specs :


- Motherboard : MB MSI B85M-P33 (1150,B85,m-ATX)
- GPU : VGA Palit Geforce GTX660 2GB DDR5
- Processor : CPU Intel Core i5 4670 (1150/3.4GHz/6M)
- RAM : DDR3 ADATA 4GB DIMM 1333Mhz Bulk * 2 (total of 8 GB)
- PSU : TURBO-X 650W VALUE SERIES II
- Set Windows : 8 64bit Greek/Eng

The only game I was playing for a long time was dota 2. I was working too much at that time, so I wasn't spenting as much time at my new computer, as I have the last 5 months.

My problem started while playing DOTA 2 , almost 8 months ago - My screen would freeze and I'd see thin red lines, or just some red dots, in some parts of the screen or most parts -. Most times the driver recovered but I had to restart the game. Sometimes Nvidia would BLOCK the application from accessing the graphics hardware.

Another issue I had at the time is that, moving the monitors cable would cause my screen to create these weird red lines (I guess this is called screen tearing?). However I switched monitors with my father, who has the exact some model. This issue no longer exists, I am not sure even if they are connected.

Now my gpu driver crashes way more often now, especially if i'm watching videos on facebook/youtube or just if I'm browsing things on my desktop. It will also block chrome.exe or other applications, even random ones like MSI fastboot.exe! In fact I can play shadow of mordor and other games MANY hours without crashing, but it can crash 5 times in a row when i watch a youtube video or just in my desktop screen. In fact, I don't remember getting this problem ever during playing a game, besides dota 2. I will get it sometimes before/during the intro of the game, but if the game starts, it's smooth sailing from there.


This is what I have tried so far :

- Added the TdrDelay value in registry, as proposed in some forums,and by Microsoft (they actually have a fix for this)
- Changed power options for max performance, and turned PCI express OFF.
- Changed PCI from bios to second generation from third.
- Tried to disable fast boot and hibernate of windows 8.
- Changed screen resolution as well as try resolutions with different refresh rates (60-70-75-50-59)
- Changed a lot of drivers.
- Formated my whole drive, reinstalled windows and all starting drivers (since when I first got the computer, I never had this problem)
( did this yesterday)

Problem is still here. I downloaded the TechPowerUp GPU-Z application which helps me keep track of my GPU stats.
(I am only running google chrome with 4-5 tabs when I recording my gpu stats --> http://i.imgur.com/pHaN340.png although i doubt this is enough to stress anything in my computer build.)

This is what I noticed every time my screen would tear and my pc would freeze (with or without recovering) :


- GPU core clock goes from it's normal value of 324.0 MHz to 970-992 or sometimes even 1032.(VDDC increases reaches it's max value then too)

- GPU Memory Clock goes from it's normal value of 162.0 MHz to 1502.3 MHz.

- GPU temp is at a steady 26 C most of the time and it never goes above 45 C

- Fan speed is at a steady range of 810-870 RPM

- Memory used has a min of 98 and a max of 120

- Power consumption is steady at 10% or will increase to 35% when the GPU clock/memory skyrocks. Near crashes it has also reached a value of 105% quite a few times

- VDDC value is steady at 0.8750 V and it increases with the rest at 1.0870 V with a max value of 1.1250 V

I can also upload my logs in case you want to see them for yourself.

I should inform you that my GPU memory/core clock, will also get these high values randomly in a span of 5-10 secs but my pc/screen/driver doesn't always crash when that happens. If it crashes though, the value have been high for more than 5 sec

The last thing I tried about 10 minutes ago, is download EVGA PrecisionX 16, and change the memory/core offsets by -2MHz (it has worked for some people apparently)

I am not really well read in computer hardware, although I know my way around a computer more than an average user. I have no clue what the fault is, and I am not even sure if it's software related or hardware related. Knowing that would help me a great deal. If you have ideas for other solutions too though, I'd be more than glad to listen to them.

I am very confused, it seems like more than one problem occured at the same period, and I do not even know if they are connected. I hope you can help me. I am sorry that the thread is that long, I tried to make it clean and provide you with as much information as possible.

P.S I have never overclocked my GPU, or anything in my computer ever since I got it.

Truly yours, -TheDio

P.S 2: It took my a while to write this topic, and have a look at the value logs.My pc run fine. I just posted it, went on facebook, random video played, BANG screen red lines, driver crash. Just letting you know, the more info the better