Hello! :smile:
I've had a couple problems with my PC that I have purchased pre-built with the intention to keep upgrading it myself over years. I have purchased it a year ago, and here are the specs:
CPUIntel Core i7 3820 ( 4 cores, 3.6 GHz, cache L3: 12MB s2011, 130W)
MotherboardGigabyte X79-UD3 chipset X79 s2011, DDR3, SATA3, GLAN, USB3.0, ATX
GPUNvidia GeForce GTX660Ti OC 2GB DDR5
OSWindows 7 Home Premium 64b SP1
Power supply
750W Seasonic
Sorry for the upcoming wall of text.:angel:
The problems I have been having from the start are actually related to the Graphics Card, GTX660Ti. It has been running well at first, but later on I have noticed the drivers crash while playing certain games. I have tried various benchmarks and attempted to overload my GPU by rendering infinite frames, but the temperatures never got dangerous and the stability was rock solid. I have done a clean install of different driver versions multiple times and it never had any impact on the issue. :banghead:
As time went I have indentified that the problem happens only in certain engines, namely CryEngine 3. The driver was certain to crash within 5 minutes of playing games like Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 5 or ArcheAge. It took 30 minutes or even hours to crash in Planetside 2 or Shogun 2: Total War or Civilization 5, while other games like ArmA 3, Space Engineers, Dark Souls 2 or Starcraft 2 never caused any issues. :facepalm:
I have later tried experimenting with the GPU clock speeds with MSI Afterburner and found out that underclocking the Core Clock by 40MHz completely eliminates the issue in all instances. Knowing that I assumed the GPU is faulty and am currently planning to buy a GTX970 and send the GTX660Ti back to the manufacturer and ask for my money back. :cool:
However, the main issue I have questions about is not related to my GPU. My motherboard has been acting a little strange as well for a while. When I leave my PC, I tend to set it to Sleep mode rather than turning it off. Saves time and all. However, after trying to wake up the PC, from time to time it didn't turn on. The fans started running, but the screens nor the keyboard/mouse lit up. The PC just kept running for 8 seconds or so and then shut down, followed by turning itself on again but failing again and so on and so on. It has never successfully booted up once it got into this state and the only solution is to turn the power off manually and then try again, after which it always works. Now this is the only thing that ever happens while trying to wake the PC up. :nonono:
I have identified this problem as being related to the motherboard and started thinking, maybe my GPU problem is also related to the motherboard? Perhaps that's the piece of hardware I should send back to the manufacturer? How should I try to troubleshoot this issue? Google hasn't given me much insight. :huh:
Thanks for your time and help! :grin:
I've had a couple problems with my PC that I have purchased pre-built with the intention to keep upgrading it myself over years. I have purchased it a year ago, and here are the specs:
CPUIntel Core i7 3820 ( 4 cores, 3.6 GHz, cache L3: 12MB s2011, 130W)
MotherboardGigabyte X79-UD3 chipset X79 s2011, DDR3, SATA3, GLAN, USB3.0, ATX
GPUNvidia GeForce GTX660Ti OC 2GB DDR5
OSWindows 7 Home Premium 64b SP1
Power supply
750W Seasonic
Sorry for the upcoming wall of text.:angel:
The problems I have been having from the start are actually related to the Graphics Card, GTX660Ti. It has been running well at first, but later on I have noticed the drivers crash while playing certain games. I have tried various benchmarks and attempted to overload my GPU by rendering infinite frames, but the temperatures never got dangerous and the stability was rock solid. I have done a clean install of different driver versions multiple times and it never had any impact on the issue. :banghead:
As time went I have indentified that the problem happens only in certain engines, namely CryEngine 3. The driver was certain to crash within 5 minutes of playing games like Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 5 or ArcheAge. It took 30 minutes or even hours to crash in Planetside 2 or Shogun 2: Total War or Civilization 5, while other games like ArmA 3, Space Engineers, Dark Souls 2 or Starcraft 2 never caused any issues. :facepalm:
I have later tried experimenting with the GPU clock speeds with MSI Afterburner and found out that underclocking the Core Clock by 40MHz completely eliminates the issue in all instances. Knowing that I assumed the GPU is faulty and am currently planning to buy a GTX970 and send the GTX660Ti back to the manufacturer and ask for my money back. :cool:
However, the main issue I have questions about is not related to my GPU. My motherboard has been acting a little strange as well for a while. When I leave my PC, I tend to set it to Sleep mode rather than turning it off. Saves time and all. However, after trying to wake up the PC, from time to time it didn't turn on. The fans started running, but the screens nor the keyboard/mouse lit up. The PC just kept running for 8 seconds or so and then shut down, followed by turning itself on again but failing again and so on and so on. It has never successfully booted up once it got into this state and the only solution is to turn the power off manually and then try again, after which it always works. Now this is the only thing that ever happens while trying to wake the PC up. :nonono:
I have identified this problem as being related to the motherboard and started thinking, maybe my GPU problem is also related to the motherboard? Perhaps that's the piece of hardware I should send back to the manufacturer? How should I try to troubleshoot this issue? Google hasn't given me much insight. :huh:
Thanks for your time and help! :grin: