Asus Strix 980 not fully stable? Far Cry 4 - Display driver stopped responding

[litwicki22]

Get today first driver crash in Far Cry 4. Application stopped. Then i saw on events: Nvlddmkm Display driver stopped responding and has recovered. Its very random , sometimes i can play even 24 hours without driver crash and sometimes like today its crashed driver after 5 minutes of started game.
Its problem with driver or my its just my card? ( i am using stock Asus Strix 980 ). I am using the newest drivers. All other games runs without even single crash. I tested Unigine Heaven for 10 hours, without crash. I tested Metro Last Light for few hours without crash too.

Only Far Cry 4 sometimes crash after 5 minutes,but mostly often i can play 24 hours without driver crash.

Using 347.88 WHQL.


All my pc is stock, cpu is 4790k stock. GPU is on stock too.

From what i know,crashing display driver Nvlddmkm its always graphic card ( hardware ) failure? Rma graphic card?

 

[Magic Carpet]

Have had the same issue in FC4 with my 670. Happened maybe ~10 times. Don't think you have any hardware issues with your stock asus card.

 

[litwicki22]

TDR's are always happening because of "bad/broken" hardware?Or it can be software too?

 

[Burpo]

You could try an older driver version..
http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/81877

Others having same issue with Far Cry..

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/821871/geforce-900-series/far-cry-4-random-crashes-gtx-980/

 

[xorbe]

Get today first driver crash in Far Cry 4.

That's weird, because 8 days ago on 4/3 you said that FC4 was crashing already in this thread of yours that got locked:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2426937

I will humor you this time though, because I am having the same FC4 problem, and I suspect my system ram. After downclocking my 1.65v 4x8GB (stock) 2400-10-12-12-31-2T ram to (conservative) 1600-9-9-9-24-2T no problems so far but not a lot of testing time yet. I also pegged my 4790k cpu to 4GHz@1.2v to rule that out, and GPU at stock settings. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was giving the same issue, so I don't think it's FC4. Either game may crash after 20 minutes - 2 hours or run for 3 hours fine. I have blown too many hours trying to narrow it down. I might remove half the ram and just run 2x8GB, but that entails removing the cpu HSF for the one stick under the edge of the tower heatsink. I also have a new PSU on the way since mine is old and barely enough wattage if cpu+gpu hit full load (which doesn't come remotely close to happening when gaming, as far as I know.)

Others having same issue with Far Cry..
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/821871/geforce-900-series/far-cry-4-random-crashes-gtx-980/

That's exactly what happens -- only fix is to log off and sign in. If it crashes again, my last resort is to test underclocking my brand new Titan X / swap in my previous og Titan (well I can swap in old 2x4GB ram too). My previous 2500k + Titan system had no such niggling gaming issues. I really hope it's the system ram. If I over-overclock the GPU then Heaven bails right out with a driver recovered. This FC4 / BL:TPS crash is much different. New system has 144Hz gsync, so I could disable that too for 60Hz no vsync, but seems unlikely.

Far Cry series is historically notorious for being an excellent system stress tester and crashing marginal hardware.

 

[Deders]

I think the latest drivers might be a bit crashy, quite a few people have been complaining of similar problems, completely locked up in various games at random times. It's even started doing this on my 780.

 

[litwicki22]

That's weird, because 8 days ago on 4/3 you said that FC4 was crashing already in this thread of yours that got locked:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2426937

I will humor you this time though, because I am having the same FC4 problem, and I suspect my system ram. After downclocking my 1.65v 4x8GB (stock) 2400-10-12-12-31-2T ram to (conservative) 1600-9-9-9-24-2T no problems so far but not a lot of testing time yet. I also pegged my 4790k cpu to 4GHz@1.2v to rule that out, and GPU at stock settings. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was giving the same issue, so I don't think it's FC4. Either game may crash after 20 minutes - 2 hours or run for 3 hours fine. I have blown too many hours trying to narrow it down. I might remove half the ram and just run 2x8GB, but that entails removing the cpu HSF for the one stick under the edge of the tower heatsink. I also have a new PSU on the way since mine is old and barely enough wattage if cpu+gpu hit full load (which doesn't come remotely close to happening when gaming, as far as I know.)



That's exactly what happens -- only fix is to log off and sign in. If it crashes again, my last resort is to test underclocking my brand new Titan X / swap in my previous og Titan (well I can swap in old 2x4GB ram too). My previous 2500k + Titan system had no such niggling gaming issues. I really hope it's the system ram. If I over-overclock the GPU then Heaven bails right out with a driver recovered. This FC4 / BL:TPS crash is much different. New system has 144Hz gsync, so I could disable that too for 60Hz no vsync, but seems unlikely.

Far Cry series is historically notorious for being an excellent system stress tester and crashing marginal hardware.

So my card on stock is not fully stable then if it crashing display driver on that game?

 

[Burpo]

That's not what anybody has said to you. It is most likely a driver issue and NOT your hardware.

 

[Techhog]

Maxwell cards can crash if they suddenly go from minimum to maximum voltage, since the minimum voltage is ridiculously low. You usually need to be overvolted for this to be a problem, but a bad card could cause this issue. It could also be the driver itself, so try a different driver first.

 

[ShintaiDK]

TDR's are always happening because of "bad/broken" hardware?Or it can be software too?

Its much more software than hardware. Just using sensor applications can make it happen.

The TDR implementation from MS is quite broken.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Maxwell cards can crash if they suddenly go from minimum to maximum voltage, since the minimum voltage is ridiculously low. You usually need to be overvolted for this to be a problem, but a bad card could cause this issue. It could also be the driver itself, so try a different driver first.

Interesting theory.

But these driver crashes are also happening with Kepler hardware.

@xorbe

In my case, it's definitely not system ram, my ballistix are running 100% stock.

Can't say about other games, as I don't really game much.

 

[Techhog]

Interesting theory.

But these driver crashes are also happening with Kepler hardware.

@xorbe

In my case, it's definitely not system ram, my ballistix are running 100% stock.

Can't say about other games, as I don't really game much.

Then I guess it's either the game or the driver.

 

[litwicki22]

On 344.75 WHQL i dont get any driver crash. Only on 347.88 WHQL i have random driver nvlddmkm crashes on Far Cry 4. Is this related to game\software or just stock OC of my card is not stable fully?
I am asking because from what i know TDR's are always happening because of "bad/broken" hardware. Or i am wrong?

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Could clock it back 100 Mhz, see what happens. My asus 670 has an unstable factory overclock, always have driver stopped responding in unigine heaven extreme setting, if I clock it back 50 MHz it's stable.

 

[Magic Carpet]

My asus 670 has an unstable factory overclock, always have driver stopped responding in unigine heaven extreme setting, if I clock it back 50 MHz it's stable.

Mine is stable at its maximum boost of 1254 Mhz (factory core clocks). There is a newer BIOS at Asus HQ with slightly lowered clocks for the "affected" Top cards. I keep it under 70c all the time (couple of quality 120mm fans @ fixed 800rpm).

On 344.75 WHQL i dont get any driver crash. Only on 347.88 WHQL i have random driver nvlddmkm crashes on Far Cry 4. Is this related to game\software or just stock OC of my card is not stable fully?

Play for some more, if no more crashes, driver it is.

I am asking because from what i know TDR's are always happening because of "bad/broken" hardware. Or i am wrong?

Wrong.

 

[xorbe]

So my card on stock is not fully stable then if it crashing display driver on that game?

We've told you on 3 forums in 9 threads already, there is no way to be sure without doing a lot of testing.

Another popular thing is when nVidia optimizes the driver, and it pushes the card even harder and reveals a card crash, then people blame the driver, when the new driver is simply revealing a problem with the card.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Mine is stable at its maximum boost of 1254 Mhz (factory core clocks). There is a newer BIOS at Asus HQ with slightly lowered clocks for the "affected" Top cards. I keep it under 70c all the time (couple of quality 120mm fans @ fixed 800rpm).

Thanks for the tip, how do you find the max boost clock? mine says 1137 "boost" in gpu z, but in cinebench it's at 1267.

I'll keep it the way it is for now, only heaven with extreme tessellation crashes it, and it's a driver timeout that always recovers.

 

[litwicki22]

You say:

We've told you on 3 forums in 9 threads already, there is no way to be sure without doing a lot of testing.

Another popular thing is when nVidia optimizes the driver, and it pushes the card even harder and reveals a card crash, then people blame the driver, when the new driver is simply revealing a problem with the card.

So i have propablly card issue when on 347.88 i have driver crashing only on Far Cry 4? Because driver pushes the card harder and is simply revealing a problem with card.?

 

[Magic Carpet]

Thanks for the tip, how do you find the max boost clock? mine says 1137 "boost" in gpu z, but in cinebench it's at 1267

My pleasure. 1137 Mhz is a guaranteed boost. You're guaranteed to have it, however, each card is different, and I've seen asus top cards boosting as high as ~1300 Mhz. Call this a "bonus boost", it is based on temperature & power consumption, the lower is the default voltage, the higher the boost can be. With the 117% power limit for example, my card spends most of the time in the maximum boost states, which is either 1254 Mhz or 1241 Mhz (13Mhz increments). It is possible to increase the power limit and push it further, but my card requires more voltage for that, so I don't bother. My Hynix memory overclocks better, +320 Mhz before artifacts, but I leave it at +250 Mhz to be on the safe side (7000Mhz effective). Of course I have good cooling, so it helps.

BTW, you can re-tim your card with some MX4. Works really well. But clean it properly beforehand. This works best.

I'll keep it the way it is for now, only heaven with extreme tessellation crashes it, and it's a driver timeout that always recovers.

You don't play benchmarks, do you? No crashing games, no problem. I once left my gaming pc with Furmark running over night with my OC settings, no issues (I was testing my temps over long period of time more than anything else, though).

 

[Magic Carpet]

You say:


So i have propablly card issue when on 347.88 i have driver crashing only on Far Cry 4? Because driver pushes the card harder and is simply revealing a problem with card.?

You can go back to the "crashing drivers" but underclock your Asus card this time (say -50Mhz on core & -100Mhz on memory, google msi afterburner), see if the problem remains.

 

[ShintaiDK]

You say:


So i have propablly card issue when on 347.88 i have driver crashing only on Far Cry 4? Because driver pushes the card harder and is simply revealing a problem with card.?

As said several times before. It may not be hardware related at all. And it usually isnt.

What else do you have installed? Any GPU utilities, sensoring/temperture tools or the like?

 

[litwicki22]

Ok i will left running Far Cry 4 for several hours on 350 HOTFIX and see if it crashes.

I will report here.Anyway thx for the tips.

 

[xorbe]

FC4 crashed (after 30 minutes) with my 4790k locked at 4GHz@1.23, with my 2400 ram locked at 1600, and gpu at stock settings.

Underclocked my Titan X by -90 core and -200 vram ... still testing after 2 hours no crash yet. D: Crash at 3h02m ... damn, I don't know what to do. Everything is underclocked, and it still crashes.

I'm going to rip out the Titan X, and put in the old Titan and see what happens. (No og Titan crash yet.)

 

[sxr7171]

350 driver solved a lot of issues for me.

 

[litwicki22]

Using 350 hotfix i left running Far Cry 4 for 18 hours, and without driver crash so far. But i will check for another couple of hours. And tell you if it crash.