Nearly Instant Crash running at native resolution?!

[chrisoverson]

Hi guys, could use a little help here

For the last few weeks every time I play a game, my PC crashes. Most of the time it's nearly instantaneous, but sometimes it will work for a few minutes first. No BSOD, nothing in the event log, no warning whatsoever, just instantly loses power and turns off then reboots.

Games I've tried, all with the same result:
- Unreal tournament 3
- Modern warfare 2
- F1 2013
- Black ops 2
- Fallout new vegas

I've tried throttling back my GPU and CPU as well as playing with voltages thinking this was an issue with an overclock, but no joy. Temperatures are lovely and low (around 30-40c).

The machine is 100% stable when not playing games, it runs 24/7 and never crashes, hangs or hiccups whatsoever running desktop tasks.

This morning I finally made some progress while trying UT3. It will ONLY crash when running at 2560x1440 or above using super resolution. If I leave the game at 1920x1080 it runs perfectly fine. Once I apply the resolution, my PC instantly cuts out.

I've tried completely uninstalling my drivers using DDU, rebooting and installing fresh with clean settings using all defaults but no joy. I've tried about 3 different driver versions too. I'm totally at a loss here.

I'm using Nvidia Drivers ver 344.65 on a Gigabyte Windforce GTX670 2GB.

Edit: Primary monitor is 2560x1440 (Dell 27" U2713HM).

If anyone can help, itd be much appreciated!

 

[VIPER258]

What wattage and rating is the psu? You may not have enough power for the cards.

 

[chrisoverson]

I'm using a OCZ ModXStreme 700w.

I did think PSU to begin with, but I can run benchmarks etc with no issue as long as I don't use native resolution. Even just having the menu screen open in 2560x1440 causes the PC to crash =/

 

[pete910]

I'm using a OCZ ModXStreme 700w.

I did think PSU to begin with, but I can run benchmarks etc with no issue as long as I don't use native resolution. Even just having the menu screen open in 2560x1440 causes the PC to crash =/

That's maybe because at a lower res it will be pulling less power across all components, At 1440p it needs more CPU/GPU grunt thus pulling more wattage. Could just be a weak/falling PSU

 

[VIPER258]

Perhaps you can try running the cards at stock and see how you get on.

If you have overclocked them and upped the volatges then that will draw even more power.

if you can get your hands on an 850 psu to test that should confirm if its your psu but I suspect it is.

 

[chrisoverson]

Thanks for the replies guys. I understand the idea in theory that higher resolution will draw more power, but surely 1920x1080 running a benchmark or in active play (left it running UT3 in a crowded bot arena for over an hour) must draw more juice than 1440p running the main menu? Without even having a map loaded?

Tried prime95, burn test, heaven benchmark and multiple games at 1080p and none cause it to crash whereas a couple of seconds at 1440p does.

I have tried stock clocks as well, even underclocking the gpu to below normal didn't help.

I'll see if I can bung a spare PSU on there, possibly even just run the GPU off it, but I'm stuck to see how it could be power at this point.

 

[Jono8]

Tried to replicate the gpu usage/ power usage of 1440p by slapping on 16xAA? Framerates will be awful but at least you could rule out the power supply being the issue.

Also try something like furmark as that should give it a serious stress.

 

[chrisoverson]

I will definitely try furmark just to see, but I have tried running everything at max and it won't crash unless I turn the res up. Even heaven benchmark with tesselation turned right up did nothing (although the framerate was rather low haha).

 

[chrisoverson]

Hey guys, just to report back, it's all working now

To my surprise it was the power supply. It crashed during Furmark, so I bought an Enermax 850w Revolution87+ (80 plus gold rated).

Everything works fine again and I've managed to push my card to 1320mhz now perfectly stable .

Thanks for the help chaps!

 

[OLDPHART]

Bigger PSU, nice 1.

 

[chrisoverson]

Yup

Fingers crossed it's a good one. I was looking at quite a few different models but Enermax is a name I've always known to be good. Gotta say it seems to be well made.