My gtx 670 has let me down *sigh*

[LOBOBAST]

I have a Gigabyte Windforce gtx 670. My entire build is 5 weeks old. Since day one I have been getting constant black screens and crashes to windows when playing BF3 and Tribes A. I get no artifacts or fps drops. It runs smooth as butter in ultra settings at 2048x1152. But it only runs about 10 min to 1hr before the freezing and crashing starts.

At first I thought it was just a driver issue but after weeks of scouring the net for a solution it looks like I have a lemon. Or the gtx 670 has a major bug with the 16x PCIE 3.0 lane on the z77 boards. Believe me when I say I have tried every possible option to make it run without the constant crashes. Well everything except reinstalling Win 7 64bit. Temps reach a high of 62c during BF3 play, but after installing msi afterburner I tweaked the fan settings and it now runs around 52c on full loads. At first I found it odd that the gpu fans were stilll spinning low rpm during gaming but msi seemed to fix that. Other than that, the crashing continued.

Then to make things worse, I can no longer RMA it back to newegg. I was 7 days late thanks to all those weeks trying to figure it out myself. Now I'm dreading having to deal with gigabyte. I don't know what else to do really. I'm thinking of just selling it on craigslist and getting something else.

I'm a very frustrated gamer.

Anybody else having issues with their gtx 670 on a z77 board and crashes playing BF3? Any other ideas on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rolli59]

62°C is not considered high for GPU under load. So you are going to sxrew somebody else by selling it without warranty. Do an RMA with Gigabyte if you are sure it is the card. Freezing and crashing can be caused by system ram so have you run memtest? http://www.memtest.org/

 

[LOBOBAST]

62°C is not considered high for GPU under load. So you are going to sxrew somebody else by selling it without warranty. Do an RMA with Gigabyte if you are sure it is the card. Freezing and crashing can be caused by system ram so have you run memtest? http://www.memtest.org/

I ran memtest overnight. Zero errors.

I'm not sure what you mean about the temps and how it screws somebody I sell it to. According to msi afterburner when playing BF3 my gpu is at 99% load. No fps drops, minimum of 50fps in ultra settings @ 2048x1152. Usually floats in the 60s fps. Temps stable at 53c at 50% fan speed.

Before installing msi afterburner, my temps were a constant 63c

Gpu memory usage is around 1500mb, it rarely goes higher.

 

[rolli59]

63°C is still low for a GPU under load! If the card is faulty like you are implying then you are the only one that can claim warranty with Gigabyte, so why sell it to somebody else.

 

[LOBOBAST]

Well, in terms of temps I was assuming my case runs my rig cool. No overclocks and my apt/ambient temp is always cool at 70c. After a thorough research my opinion is the comparability with my z77 board. May windforce users have been having this same problem with similar builds.

I'm dreading having to go through gigabyte. At this point I feel like I want it off my hands and hopefully somebody can put it to use in their rig.

 

[selayan]

Have you tried beta drivers? Have you tried latest drivers from Nvidia? Used Driver cleaner before installing new drivers? Before you say its the mobo..do you have another card to test in your Mobo?

Those temps are not really that high. You need to RMA with Gigabyte...I believe it has 3 years warranty. Sorry but no one will buy it off you knowing these issues. And it would be pretty shitty for the next person who gets it once they find out.

What is the big deal with RMA? I sold my card because I want to upgrade and I've been running Intel Graphics for a month or so. Make sure to write down everything you did in the RMA, they will have you run some tests and configurations. I don't know if they will ship you another card, they could by charging your Credit card and then when you send yours back they will remove it.

If you want to get rid of it, get it RMA'ed. Then take the new one they send you and sell it without even opening it.

 

[LOBOBAST]

Have you tried beta drivers? Have you tried latest drivers from Nvidia? Used Driver cleaner before installing new drivers? Before you say its the mobo..do you have another card to test in your Mobo?

Those temps are not really that high. You need to RMA with Gigabyte...I believe it has 3 years warranty. Sorry but no one will buy it off you knowing these issues. And it would be pretty shitty for the next person who gets it once they find out.

What is the big deal with RMA? I sold my card because I want to upgrade and I've been running Intel Graphics for a month or so. Make sure to write down everything you did in the RMA, they will have you run some tests and configurations. I don't know if they will ship you another card, they could by charging your Credit card and then when you send yours back they will remove it.

If you want to get rid of it, get it RMA'ed. Then take the new one they send you and sell it without even opening it.

Ya, I have the latest drivers. Used beta drivers. I uninstalled, booted in safe mode used driver sweeper. Still nothing.

I'll go ahead and get a hold of gigabyte and start the RMA process. I'm just dreading having to go through it, I'm just frustrated right now.

Been playing for about 40min now.

According to msi afterbuner:

GPU POWER: 75%
TEMP: 52c
FAN: 60%
GPU LOAD: 98%
FPS: 60s-70s

 

[Feedmemoarfood]

My guess your ambient temp is 70F. I would check and see if the card is seated properly. Check for any loose screws. Running the game on one monitor. Just to narrow down anything that could be missed. Check your power supply temps. 10 minutes of gaming then crashing in a demanding game looks like temp problems.... or maybe they set the voltage too low if it is an oc card. Look that last part up to see if that remedied the problem.

 

[selayan]

Yeh I would start the RMA process I heard they are not that bad really. Those temps seem ok but odd for now. How do you like the BlackHawk case I have been thinking about getting one sometime soon.

My guess is if it is shutting down crashing after a certain time, its most likely overheating. Try putting a fan by it or have the panel open and air getting to the computer while you play to see if it is an overheating issue.

 

[threehosts]

If you are sure that the PSU have the juice and isn't faulty, who knows some circuit in it may fail after a short while when under load, you may try to test the GPU on another motherboard. I've personally had a lot of bad luck with MSI.

If possible you may try looking into some logs that may reveal more specifically what it was that crashed, perhaps BF3 can be run in "debug mode". Have you tried running other 3D applications and got the same crashes? You could try to get the Unigine Heaven demo or some other benchmarking software and let it run for a while. Some of them may even generate logs and/or core dumps when it crashes, if you set them up properly that is. If you get a blue screen, carefully look at what driver it is that caused the bluescreen. Maybe there is some other component than the GPU that is failing.

 

[jstanley11]

I doubt overheating. My GTX 670 with a massive OC runs at 61 C in game and 64 C when benchmarking. More likely it is a voltage issue. BTW, I have a Z77 board and a i5 3570k

 

[LOBOBAST]

My guess your ambient temp is 70F. I would check and see if the card is seated properly. Check for any loose screws. Running the game on one monitor. Just to narrow down anything that could be missed. Check your power supply temps. 10 minutes of gaming then crashing in a demanding game looks like temp problems.... or maybe they set the voltage too low if it is an oc card. Look that last part up to see if that remedied the problem.

I reinstalled the card and even plugged in a different pcie power cable.

My GPU temps stay around 52c and my cpu temp is around 50c with a stock cooler. I'm waiting for newegg to replace the screw bracket for my cm hyper 212 evo.

 

[LOBOBAST]

How do you like the BlackHawk case I have been thinking about getting one sometime soon.

Overall I like it, good airflow throughout and is very quiet. However, the downside to this case is that I CANNOT use a Cooler Master Hyper 212 evo. When placed right to left in push configuration the top of the heatsink gets in the way of the 120mm side fan of the case. So when I slide it shut the edge of 120mm fan casing moves the heatsink/fan a few mm to the right.

This problem gave me temp issues when OC my cpu. During the trouble shooting process I snapped one of the screws from the lockdown bracket. Right now I'm just using the stock HS/F.

Once my replacement bracket comes I will sell my hyper 212 evo and get the corsair h80. Which to be honest, I originally wanted but after researching for my new build and taking opinions from the board. It was widely determined as being "overkill" for OC, that I should "save money" and get the hyper 212.

I would recommend this case only if you're using stock cooling which most gamers don't or if you're planning on using a corsair h80 or something equivalent as this case does have the brackets for the 120mm corsair h100 but I highly doubt it will fit. The ceiling is to low to mount it and will get in the way of your mobo.

For only $75, it's not a bad case.

 

[jumbolkna]

I'm not sure if this helps. But I had similar issue with my computer and BF3. I could play for 10minutes without an issue and then the game would just crash. I read on some battlelog forums people having the same issue which boiled down to either punkbuster or integrated AC 97 sound. I uninstalled punkbuster without success. I put in an old PCI soundcard and it hasn't crashed since. So if you can get your hands on either a usb or pci sound card to try, it can save you from having to get a new case

 

[LOBOBAST]

I'm not sure if this helps. But I had similar issue with my computer and BF3. I could play for 10minutes without an issue and then the game would just crash. I read on some battlelog forums people having the same issue which boiled down to either punkbuster or integrated AC 97 sound. I uninstalled punkbuster without success. I put in an old PCI soundcard and it hasn't crashed since. So if you can get your hands on either a usb or pci sound card to try, it can save you from having to get a new case

Thanks jumbolkna but I tried that too. I uninstalled my realtek audio drivers, booted in safe mode and removed evrything else with driver sweeper, disabled onboard audio in bios and installed my trusted old creative labs xfi extreme gamer sound card.


As far as punkbuster I have only reinstalled and repaired. I haven't tried uninstalling.

Still crashes.

 

[forerunner]

If that card is anything like the gtx 670 ftw edition from EVGA you could try disabling the onboard audio drivers if you arent using sound through HDMI in your device manager. My 670 is crashing at low temps too, the card never goes over 75 degrees Celsius and when the drivers crash Precision X shows my card power usage at 333%, i gota new card from evga coming wednesday.

 

[selayan]

Overall I like it, good airflow throughout and is very quiet. However, the downside to this case is that I CANNOT use a Cooler Master Hyper 212 evo. When placed right to left in push configuration the top of the heatsink gets in the way of the 120mm side fan of the case. So when I slide it shut the edge of 120mm fan casing moves the heatsink/fan a few mm to the right.

This problem gave me temp issues when OC my cpu. During the trouble shooting process I snapped one of the screws from the lockdown bracket. Right now I'm just using the stock HS/F.

Once my replacement bracket comes I will sell my hyper 212 evo and get the corsair h80. Which to be honest, I originally wanted but after researching for my new build and taking opinions from the board. It was widely determined as being "overkill" for OC, that I should "save money" and get the hyper 212.

I would recommend this case only if you're using stock cooling which most gamers don't or if you're planning on using a corsair h80 or something equivalent as this case does have the brackets for the 120mm corsair h100 but I highly doubt it will fit. The ceiling is to low to mount it and will get in the way of your mobo.

For only $75, it's not a bad case.

I was planning on using the Hyper 212 fan. I heard you can remove the side window fan and it will fit fine. I think that's what they did in the review. Running on the Challenger, I figure I need something with more space but I don't want to throw money away or spend a lot when I do have something for the time being.

As for your card, seems like it is being undervolted and may be causing the crash to the desktop. I had a similar exerience. My apartment pays the utilities so the way they wired all the electricity sucks. I would turn on my pc and the light in the hallway would flicker.

At times when the pc was running full blast the opposite happened. At one point the got the your display has recently recovered windows has switched to basic mode. I took it over to a friend's house and it ran fine I guess because it was getting full power lol.

 

[LOBOBAST]

As for your card, seems like it is being undervolted and may be causing the crash to the desktop. I had a similar exerience. My apartment pays the utilities so the way they wired all the electricity sucks. I would turn on my pc and the light in the hallway would flicker.

At times when the pc was running full blast the opposite happened. At one point the got the your display has recently recovered windows has switched to basic mode. I took it over to a friend's house and it ran fine I guess because it was getting full power lol.

Well according to MSI afterburner I'm running at full 1.175v when playing BF3. I did notice that upping the power limit to 110% makes it crash less frequent. Now I can actually play about 2 hrs before it crashes.

On a side note, I purchased Counter Strike: Global Offensive ( a way less gpu extensive game) and haven't really expirienced any crashes to desktop. Although a couple of times it did seem like it was freezing with the sound loop error. I alt-tab out and back in and it was back to normal without crashing.

Anyways, I RMA'd it. Now I'm stuck with my trusty 8800gts for who knows how long.

 

[selayan]

Well hopefully they fix it. My card has issues too,just bouight it and want a refund to get another brand. Newegg is haivng me run through hoops though. SO it sucks dealing with both HIS and Newegg and then I will need to wait.

 

[LOBOBAST]

Well, it's been a week since they received it. Anybody have any idea as to how long it could take.

Anybody here, experienced RMA products?

 

[selayan]

Not sure but I heard usually Gigabyte is decent at CS. I would email or call them and ask. You should have it by the end of this week or so if they can fix it or just replace it for you.

 

[LOBOBAST]

Not sure but I heard usually Gigabyte is decent at CS. I would email or call them and ask. You should have it by the end of this week or so if they can fix it or just replace it for you.

I'll call later today.

 

[LOBOBAST]

I called, they shipped it out Monday and should be here today. I asked what they did to my card. All they told me was they found no issues and they just upgraded my firmware.

**sigh**

Funny, because I had updated the firmware a week before I shipped it out. I still had a bunch of freezing and crashing. Upping the GPU power to 110% with MSI Afterburner makes it a little more stable. A lot less crashes but still for a $400 card it's very annoying.

I'll test it out when it gets here and give an update. If it continues to crash I'm putting it up for sale on craigslist and never buying a gigabyte product again!!!

 

[selayan]

Wow that's all they did? Not even gave you another card refurbished? I hope it works for you. Other than that, it could be an issue with the motherboard but that is fairly new too so who knows.

Sounds more like the gpu than the pc components. Did they have any other firmware that publicly we can't download?

 

[LOBOBAST]

Wow that's all they did? Not even gave you another card refurbished? I hope it works for you. Other than that, it could be an issue with the motherboard but that is fairly new too so who knows.

Sounds more like the gpu than the pc components. Did they have any other firmware that publicly we can't download?

That's what I'm wondering too. I'll check to see what firmware version they installed and give an update.

After troubleshooting the ram I'm thinking it's either the mobo or the psu.