GTX 580 crashing when playing a demanding game

[Hardware Fanatic]

I'm at a total loss here. I have the latest drivers and use MSI Afterburner to monitor my card. I understand that the GTX 580 with the default BIOS has issues running DX11 games at stock voltage so I increased the voltage. My temps never go higher than 79C. Yet whenever i run a demanding DX11 game the screen will eventually turn off, the GPU fans start running at max settings and the computer restarts only for the mobo to not recognise my GPU. I then have to shut down and restart manually using the power button. The only solution I have been able to achieve is underclocking the card at 640MHz. Yet increasing the voltage up to 1138mV does not stop this issue from happening when running at stock 772MHz clock speeds or higher. I also know the 1050 PSU can't be the cause as it can run 2 580s in SLI so surely it isnt an issue of not enough power.

So if the temperatures appear normal and voltage is increased to 1138mV then why is this happening? What is causing my card to shut down the computer in this strange manner and then not get detected by the mobo? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I can provide additional information if required, this is really doing my head in.

 

[bignastyid]

My Evga GTX 580 has never had an issue with dx11 and I have never had to bump up the voltage. Sounds to me like the card its failing. Contract the manufacture its probably still under warranty. Note you may want to leave out the over volting part this trends to void most warranties.

 

[Hardware Fanatic]

Thanks for the reply. The Evga GTX 580 has a BIOS with a higher voltage than 1V which is why you don't encounter issues with it. I have an Inno 3D 580. I'd rather not contact the manufacturer until I've exhausted all my options since I made the mistake of buying it from Hong Kong when living in the UK so it would take weeks before I got it back.

 

[Hardware Fanatic]

I should also add that I have ran 3DMark 11 on the very highest settings numerous times just fine and that is extremely more demanding than any video game. Yet if I start up The Secret World or Assassin's Creed 3 on max, a crash happens soon enough. How can this be explained?

 

[bignastyid]

Have you tried nvidias current beta driver?

 

[Hardware Fanatic]

Have you tried nvidias current beta driver?

Yep, afraid so, it didn't change a thing.

 

[bignastyid]

Thinking it maybe bad video ram. 3dmark is gpu intensive but doesn't max out the memory (just under a gig if I remember right). AC3 on the other hand will use a bit of video memory. If it was the PSU 3dmark would crash it too. Hate to say it man but you got an odd one here. You would happen too have access to another system you could try the card in do you?

 

[boju]

Reading around the net regarding your problem seems to be quite common with/but not all 5xx series cards.

http://forums.eidosgames.com/archive/index.php/t-120806.html ( There are a few more results that might help you out further, Googled gtx 580 directx 11 crashing )

Setting the voltage to 1.050 seems to be the magic number for some of those folk. Depending on the model and type i guess, there have been mention of overclocked models of the GTX580 not having any problems.

One guy theorized it might have something to do with the Directx 11 render component not responding due to lack of voltage and crashing as a result. Some people needed to go higher than 1.050v though so guess its different for each model/make.

There was also mention of earlier drivers not affected.

So either there is truth in this or you may have a borked card. The guys above mentioning they have no problems may very well be factory overclocked or by brand quality insured the card is working properly.

 

[Hardware Fanatic]

Thinking it maybe bad video ram. 3dmark is gpu intensive but doesn't max out the memory (just under a gig if I remember right). AC3 on the other hand will use a bit of video memory. If it was the PSU 3dmark would crash it too. Hate to say it man but you got an odd one here. You would happen too have access to another system you could try the card in do you?

I do have access to another comp, I will go about testing the GPU there and report back. Oh also my 8GB RAM is still sitting at 1333MHz. Could this be the cause, do I need to increase it to 1866MHz? The sticks I have support 1866MHz but require being overclcoked through the BIOS to turn it on.

Thanks for your reply boju, I am aware of that issue however and no amount of extra voltage is stopping my crashes sadly.

 

[Hardware Fanatic]

Though if the RAM is the cause then why does underclocking the 580 stop the crashes, or going into DX9 mode sometimes?

 

[Hardware Fanatic]

Ok I OCed the RAM and ran memtest. 10 passes later and no errors. So the RAM is fine I take it. I've looked all over the net and can't find an incident like mine. Any further ideas I could try out? I'll be testing the card on another computer today and tomorrow hopefully.

 

[Sillydork]

I have the same problem with most DX11 games. wow, civ5, far cry 3 are the ones I found that have problems crashing out to the desktop. My fix has been to under clock (using exga percisionx) the gpu to around 720Mhz from its stock 815Mhz. i have a full water cooler on my card it never gets over 40c. ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 ZT-50102-10P