GTX 960 4GB SSC core 99 - 100% for no reason

castro168

Prominent
Mar 1, 2017
3
0
510
Hi all, lately I've been having serious issues with my 960. It worked fine out of the box until this past December when it started acting up.

Whenever I startup my PC (or during gaming, or streaming, or just whenever), around the 10 minute mark, the GPU core and Memory clock speed, Temperature, amount of Memory Used, and Power Consumption jump from idle values:

GPU Core Clock = 135 MHz
Memory Clock = 202.5 MHz
Temp = 31°C
Mem Used = 199 - 212 Mb
GPU Load 0 - 3 %

To extremely high values that I don't get even while gaming:

GPU Core Clock = 1164 MHz
Memory Clock = 1502.3 MHz
Temp = 47°C
Mem Used = 2190 Mb
GPU Load 99%

(here's the GPU-Z Log if anyone wants to see https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2TxidKH5kF6dkNieHltSXJnR3M/view?usp=sharing)

System Specs:

i7 - 3770 3.4 GHz (Jan 14)
8GB RAM (Jan 14)
EVGA GTX 960 4GB SSC (Aug 16)
1TB HDD (Jan 14)
EVGA 500 W1 80+ (Aug 2016)

I usually run 3 monitors, 2 at 1080p and an old Dell monitor at 1280x1024. Right now I'm only running one monitor at 1080p.

Steps I've taken to try and address the issue:
1. Searched far and wide online for this error with no luck.

2. Update drivers, works fine for a couple of hours or days, then the same thing happens.

3. Wiped drivers completely with DDU and reinstalled (literally just did this twice) and at the 10 minute mark it happens again.

4. Installed driver through Windows update just in case the download from Geforece Experience, or from Nvidia's driver page, was corrupted n some way.

I'm going insane trying to find a solution, since this doesn't just affect my gaming performance (15 - 20 FPS when I had no problem hitting 60 in many cases), but also other aspects (video streaming, chrome web browsing lags and such)

Please help.
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
2| Have you tried reverting to older drivers to see if the issue is persistent?
3| You forgot to include the OS and the motherboard for your system's specs. Speaking of motherboards, have you made sure your BIOS is up to date?
4| Reverting to the drivers prior may show some change. This also leads me to assume you're on Windows 10.

Prior to the issues cropping up which drivers were you on?
 

castro168

Prominent
Mar 1, 2017
3
0
510


Right sorry, complete specs:

i7 - 3770 3.4 GHz (Jan 14)
8GB RAM (Jan 14)
EVGA GTX 960 4GB SSC (Aug 16)
1TB HDD (Jan 14)
EVGA 500 W1 80+ (Aug 2016)
*Win 10 Pro
*ECS H77H2-EM Motherboard

Currently the system is on Nvidia 378.66, which was released on 2/14/17. I'm not sure which version I was on before, but everything started acting up mid December. Since everything worked fine from September up to December, I'll try drivers from that time period.

As for the MOBO, its BIOS is American Megatrends Inc. 4.6.5, from Sep 13... I'm trying to see where I can find an updated BIOS that's the same vendor, but I'll probably go with something else since it's been a pain finding something regarding that MOBO and that BIOS.