Games crashing - CPU or GPU?

DragonQ · 29 Oct 2018 at 22:08

I've been getting game crashes pretty frequently for a few weeks and I am not sure what the cause is. Typically I run my CPU overclocked and GPU undervolted but even after returning my GPU to stock settings and upping my CPU voltage by 3 stages, I still get crashes. I have not yet had a crash outside of a game.

Is there a way of knowing which component is causing the issue? I tried running Firestrike, hoping it'd crash pretty quickly if my GPU was dying, but it didn't. Running my CPU at stock would be tricky since my games would likely then be CPU limited. My CPU passed an overnight IBT run when I first set it up but it's possible it's unstable when not running maxed out.

EDIT: Literally just had 3 crashes in about 5 minutes with GPU at stock. :/

Doogles · 29 Oct 2018 at 22:31

Could be RAM issue, check it with P95/Memtest. PSU could be suspect, depending on how old it is, although you can have them go at any time. Run everything at stock, if it works you know something is up, and you can add overclocks slowly to each component, which could also indicate PSU failing.

mattyfez · 29 Oct 2018 at 22:33

Upping your cpu voltage by 3 stages? What does that mean?

More info needed. What are your temps?

Does the system run OK at standard settings/nothing overclocked?

DragonQ · 30 Oct 2018 at 10:18

mattyfez said:
Upping your cpu voltage by 3 stages? What does that mean?

More info needed. What are your temps?

Does the system run OK at standard settings/nothing overclocked?

3 increments in the BIOS, so from 1.4 V to 1.425 V or something like that. Temperatures are fine, CPU was in the 60s, GPU in the low 70s. I haven't run my CPU at stock for 9 years, I can try but I am not even sure the games will play smoothly.

Doogles said:
Could be RAM issue, check it with P95/Memtest. PSU could be suspect, depending on how old it is, although you can have them go at any time. Run everything at stock, if it works you know something is up, and you can add overclocks slowly to each component, which could also indicate PSU failing.

RAM is an interesting one, since I know the IMC on my chip is weak. I'll try a memtest overnight.

EDIT: I've been told by Blizzard that the crashes I've been seeing are down to RivaTuner. I will try disabling it and seeing if that helps. I know that non-Blizzard games have crashed too but those are also set up to use RivaTuner, so fingers crossed that's the only issue. If not, I'll try the memtest thing!

Doogles · 30 Oct 2018 at 18:08

DragonQ said:
3 increments in the BIOS, so from 1.4 V to 1.425 V or something like that. Temperatures are fine, CPU was in the 60s, GPU in the low 70s. I haven't run my CPU at stock for 9 years, I can try but I am not even sure the games will play smoothly.

RAM is an interesting one, since I know the IMC on my chip is weak. I'll try a memtest overnight.

EDIT: I've been told by Blizzard that the crashes I've been seeing are down to RivaTuner. I will try disabling it and seeing if that helps. I know that non-Blizzard games have crashed too but those are also set up to use RivaTuner, so fingers crossed that's the only issue. If not, I'll try the memtest thing!

I'm interested to see what is happening now, please report back once you've tested more!

DragonQ · 30 Oct 2018 at 19:17

Well it wasn't RivaTuner. Guess I'll do a memtest overnight.

Diddyman · 30 Oct 2018 at 23:04

How old is your PSU ?

DragonQ · 24 Nov 2018 at 13:38

Update on this: I upped my RAM voltage from 1.52 to 1.6 V (sticks are rated at 1.5 and are not overclocked) and my QPI/DRAM (i.e. Uncore) voltage by 2 stages and haven't had a crash since. So it probably was RAM related but the sticks themselves are fine.