Heaven Benchmark Black Screen (GTX 970) - Should I be Concerned?

[flexy]

I already excluded all common things like PSU etc.

So what happens, when I run Heaven Benchmark for a while (4 or so minutes , the screen goes black and I need to do a hard-reset of the PC. (It's not like on my old GTX 660 TI where the driver crashed but then recovered when I OCed too much )

This is on a brand-new EVGA SC GTX 970. It also happens at stock clocks. (My temps are fine: 75C GPU)

Now, I also did other tests with extreme settings, 3DMark11, Firestrike etc. and some BF4 gaming...but this black screen issue (as for now, knock on wood) ONLY appears with Heaven Benchmark.

Is it safe to conclude that it's some mysterious problem rather having to do with Heaven....and not so much the card itself? I mean, for me RMA would be a PITA (need to send the card from Spain to Germany at my expense, at least €30, #+#*'%!! Spanish mail....), although when I RMA the card I might actually get a SSC back. But then, for a problem in ONE particular benchmark I think an RMA would be...odd/silly.....then again, the card was rather expensive and of course I would want it perfect and not some "hidden" problems with it...

 

[Udgnim]

when I was overclocking my R9 290 and playing the Heaven benchmark game, I got black screens & needed to hard reset whenever I either did not give the card enough voltage for whatever OC settings I was using or when I fed the card too much voltage

you can try increasing voltage or decreasing clocks and see if that helps stability

if you're getting this instability at stock settings though, I'd RMA

 

[Deders]

Could be drivers, have you googled to see if anyone has similar problems?

 

[stahlhart]

Are you waiting long enough to see if it's timeout detection and recovery (TDR) for the Nvidia driver? Sometimes it takes several seconds for the PC to recover to the desktop from a black screen when this occurs.

 

[Annisman*]

Lower your clocks below stock if you can and run it.

 

[BSim500]

when I run Heaven Benchmark for a while (4 or so minutes, the screen goes black and I need to do a hard-reset of the PC. (It's not like on my old GTX 660 TI where the driver crashed but then recovered when I OCed too much)

Does it also crash in other Unigine benchmarks (Valley / Sanctuary / Tropics)? I found Valley "heavier" than Heaven, so that might show something up. What happens if you lower the Power Target to say 75% or even 50% or so?

 

[flexy]

Increasing voltage SEEMS to be a no-go. It shows the same 1.212V in Afterburner, even after modding the BIOS for a few notches higher voltage, doesn't go higher.

Some say that it's only the tools not able to read more than 1.212V..so I am actually not sure whether the card now has higher voltage as compared to BIOS.

The lower voltage was also my first guess...but then the 1.212V seems common for many GTX 970..and they obviously don't all crash

 

[flexy]

Are you waiting long enough to see if it's timeout detection and recovery (TDR) for the Nvidia driver? Sometimes it takes several seconds for the PC to recover to the desktop from a black screen when this occurs.

It's definitely something different..but I can wait even longer. I mean with the GTX 660 TI, it usually took 5 seconds or so. This doesn't seem to come back. It's really like the card "shuts off".

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

I already excluded all common things like PSU etc.

So what happens, when I run Heaven Benchmark for a while (4 or so minutes , the screen goes black and I need to do a hard-reset of the PC. (It's not like on my old GTX 660 TI where the driver crashed but then recovered when I OCed too much )

This is on a brand-new EVGA SC GTX 970. It also happens at stock clocks. (My temps are fine: 75C GPU)

Now, I also did other tests with extreme settings, 3DMark11, Firestrike etc. and some BF4 gaming...but this black screen issue (as for now, knock on wood) ONLY appears with Heaven Benchmark.

Is it safe to conclude that it's some mysterious problem rather having to do with Heaven....and not so much the card itself? I mean, for me RMA would be a PITA (need to send the card from Spain to Germany at my expense, at least €30, #+#*'%!! Spanish mail....), although when I RMA the card I might actually get a SSC back. But then, for a problem in ONE particular benchmark I think an RMA would be...odd/silly.....then again, the card was rather expensive and of course I would want it perfect and not some "hidden" problems with it...

Can you down clock the card and try again? When it does black screen have you hit the control>Alt>delete buttons? I had a few like this on my 780TI'S, on mine it was a high over clock when it happened. Just seemed like immature drivers for me at the time, though the 970 has been out a while right?

 

[Annisman*]

Try new drivers too, or older ones.

 

[xorbe]

RMA the video card. Classic TDR. Card isn't making clocks. Heaven is GPU intense, and it's showing you the problem. Install MSI AB and downclock GPU ... your problem will go away, and confirm card is faulty.

2 of my 3 EVGA SC cards were like that, and I simply flashed the clocks down myself. *shrug*

 

[flexy]

RMA the video card. Classic TDR. Card isn't making clocks. Heaven is GPU intense, and it's showing you the problem. Install MSI AB and downclock GPU ... your problem will go away, and confirm card is faulty.

2 of my 3 EVGA SC cards were like that, and I simply flashed the clocks down myself. *shrug*

You are correct, seems -20 core or so seems to "fix" it..sort-of pissed now. Now debating whether to RMA or not...

 

[imaheadcase]

No concern, the Heaven benchmark is notorious for not working with certain drivers. Let alone the program is not updated enough.

I think i've had that issue you have with every new card i've gotten at some point since heaven has been out. Games work fine, other benchmarks work fine..heaven would not.

I had to switch to drivers almost a year old to get it to work when i had my last GTX 580..when i got my 780Ti i had to switch to a older driver to get it to work as well.

 

[flexy]

No concern, the Heaven benchmark is notorious for not working with certain drivers. Let alone the program is not updated enough.

I think i've had that issue you have with every new card i've gotten at some point since heaven has been out. Games work fine, other benchmarks work fine..heaven would not.

I had to switch to drivers almost a year old to get it to work when i had my last GTX 580..when i got my 780Ti i had to switch to a older driver to get it to work as well.

You might be right there, I will simply ignore Heaven for the time being.
The thing is, I can overclock the card +100 core +470 Memory easily and can run everything I throw at it, Firestrike, 3Dmark, whatever... I wouldn't be surprised it would actually do 1500 on the core fine and not have a problem anywhere else. Just odd.

Edit:

It runs eg. 3DMark11 Graphics Test 4 on extreme at 1430 at only 1.150V...ok...definitely something up with Heaven

 

[P39Airacobra]

No concern, the Heaven benchmark is notorious for not working with certain drivers. Let alone the program is not updated enough.

I think i've had that issue you have with every new card i've gotten at some point since heaven has been out. Games work fine, other benchmarks work fine..heaven would not.

I had to switch to drivers almost a year old to get it to work when i had my last GTX 580..when i got my 780Ti i had to switch to a older driver to get it to work as well.

This man is correct! It did this with my brand new GTX 970 SC, And it ran perfect until the end of the benchmark and then I got the black screen. I had to do a hard restart. Unigine is about as bad as AMD when it comes to coding software. You have absolutely nothing to worry about! I tested my card in many other benchmarks and OCCTPT and Prime 95 and I had no crash. However I do not suggest running prime 95 as it can be rough on your system, Running stress programs is not good for long life. Honestly if you can run games and have no issues, and your FPS is close or matches other hardware identical to yours, that is all you need to worry about. All this benching and stressing does is just help to shorten the life of your rig, But it is fun to know how well you do.

 

[xorbe]

The reason switching drivers "works" is because the driver stresses the card in a different way, not that that it has fixed your faulty overclock. Just sayin'. Heaven and Valley will run for hours, there is nothing wrong with those programs.

 

[Deders]

The reason switching drivers "works" is because the driver stresses the card in a different way, not that that it has fixed your faulty overclock. Just sayin'. Heaven and Valley will run for hours, there is nothing wrong with those programs.

There are some drivers that will break Ungine benchmarks even at stock speeds.

 

[deanx0r]

OP, were you using MSI Afterburner when benching the card? I had my GTX970 running stock and it would almost always crash in StarCraft2, a game that doesn't even stress the card. I tried different drivers over the past 8-9 months of ownership and it would still crash.

I had a hunch that it may be a software conflict, and uninstalled the MSI Afterburner and the crashes are now gone.

 

[flexy]

Wow...old post...

A lot happened in the meantime...

First, I got the card RMAed and the new one they sent me does NOT black screen any more at stock settings.

However, I as well as some others did extensive testing and overclocking and we concluded that this is LIKELY a problem of the VRMs of those cards overheating at some point.

What points to this is that...I still can force Black Screens in Heaven at higher voltage and when I run my cooler at a low setting, say when I overclock to 1506 at 1.212V and have the fan only at 30% where the GPU hits 77C or higher.

It's really not so much related to core frequency, but more to the load the card has and then the temps. (I can force black screens also at lower frequencies but max voltage).

I am 99% convinced that the black screen issue can also be solved with a good aftermarket cooler and heatsinks on the VRMs. One guy said it looks like VRM over-current protection kicking in, but right now I think it's purely a heat issue (not GPU, VRMs!) because there is definitely a relationship between fan speed and black screens.

 

[ocre]

OP, were you using MSI Afterburner when benching the card? I had my GTX970 running stock and it would almost always crash in StarCraft2, a game that doesn't even stress the card. I tried different drivers over the past 8-9 months of ownership and it would still crash.

I had a hunch that it may be a software conflict, and uninstalled the MSI Afterburner and the crashes are now gone.

i had some issues out of MSI afterburner several months ago. it was crashing certain games but was very repeatable.

if i tabbed out of a game to open up MSI for the overlay, the game would crash when i tabbed back in. If i started the game with MSI already open, it was okay. It seems to have gone away (a few updates later). Just saying, i have had some afterburner flaky stuff.

Seems better now