Nvidia 570 GTX Driver Instability

[Anteaus]

Is anyone else noticing any driver issues in regards to the 570/580? I recently made the jump from a 260 to a 570. The card works fine, runs cool and gives me consistant performance. The problem is that in some games i'm getting revert to desktop or in some cases a stutter.

So far, of the games I currently have installed Just Cause 2 is the worst offender. It worked flawless under my 260, yet with my 570 it runs fine but every now and then will revert to desktop. I can hear the game still running in the background yet I can't return to the game. If I run in windowed mode, the problem still happens but I can click back on the window and continue playing as if nothing happened. The problem occurs even in World of Warcraft, though there its just an occasional hard stutter.

There are no visual artifacts indicutive of overheating nor hard crashes, reboots or blue screens of death. Just a revert to desktop with the game still running in the background, albeit nonaccessible unless I was in windowed mode.

During gameplay my temps stay in the mid to high 50s so I'm pretty sure its not overheating. I just made a clean install of Windows 7-64 and only the latest drivers were used.

I've read about this problem happening in other games. Does anyone else have these problems? Potential buggy driver of Nvidias part or do you think its hardware?

Edit : It looks like it maybe a driver thing. Hopefully I can figure out something concrete soon in case I need to RMA my card. http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=188358

 

[Anomaly1964]

I have the EVGA 570 and no issues like you describe thus far...

 

[gorcorps]

I have the same issue with the GTX570 and Just Cause 2. The problem seems to be some GTX570s are factory overclocked (like the MSI I have) and that does NOT sit well with JC2 for some reason, though it's fine with almost everything else I have.

You should download MSI Afterburner and downclock your card back to where stock SHOULD be and see if it helps. You can then set it up to automatically downclock on boot, or you can just change the clock on a case by case basis.

Long story short, it's not a driver problem.

 

[Anteaus]

I have the same issue with the GTX570 and Just Cause 2. The problem seems to be some GTX570s are factory overclocked (like the MSI I have) and that does NOT sit well with JC2 for some reason, though it's fine with almost everything else I have.

You should download MSI Afterburner and downclock your card back to where stock SHOULD be and see if it helps. You can then set it up to automatically downclock on boot, or you can just change the clock on a case by case basis.

Long story short, it's not a driver problem.

So you've had good results with an underclock to stock? I happen to be running a EVGA superclocked 570 so I'll try that. I think it's ironic that I'm going to underclock to "increase" performance, relatively speaking haha. If thats the case, what is the real fix? Is there a way to change the clock permenantly at the card level or do you think a driver can address this in the future?

 

[gorcorps]

So you've had good results with an underclock to stock? I happen to be running a EVGA superclocked 570 so I'll try that. I think it's ironic that I'm going to underclock to "increase" performance, relatively speaking haha. If thats the case, what is the real fix? Is there a way to change the clock permenantly at the card level or do you think a driver can address this in the future?

I don't think it has anything to do with the driver, and more to do with the game itself. I've ran many other games (Crysis 1/2, Mafia 2, CS:S, and more) on my "overclocked" card with no problems so it seems unlikely a driver issue would affect just one game.

Some games are just not that stable and it doesn't take much to get them to crash. I can't remember if this fixed my problem entirely, but I remember after I changed it I was able to play for longer without a crash than I had previously. I was able to quit the game myself because I was done playing, not because the game decided I was done. The only fix would be to patch Just Cause 2, and any other buggy game.

There may be utilities to flash your GPU, but I wouldn't. It's not hard to do it via software, especially since you can set it to automatically adjust the clock on startup if you wanted.

 

[Anteaus]

I don't think it has anything to do with the driver, and more to do with the game itself. I've ran many other games (Crysis 1/2, Mafia 2, CS:S, and more) on my "overclocked" card with no problems so it seems unlikely a driver issue would affect just one game.

Some games are just not that stable and it doesn't take much to get them to crash. I can't remember if this fixed my problem entirely, but I remember after I changed it I was able to play for longer without a crash than I had previously. I was able to quit the game myself because I was done playing, not because the game decided I was done. The only fix would be to patch Just Cause 2, and any other buggy game.

There may be utilities to flash your GPU, but I wouldn't. It's not hard to do it via software, especially since you can set it to automatically adjust the clock on startup if you wanted.

Thanks for the advice. I'll try underclocking when I get home and see if that helps. What is interesting is that the problem is "mostly" avoidable by playing in windowed mode since it doesn't revert to desktop. Since i switched from full screen it doesn't do a full revert..just a shift to desktop. I just reclick the game window and game continues normally, almost like the video card forgets what to prioritize. Wierd.

I agree that it's not likely a driver issue, but it could be something more subtle like a conflict with Aero. I'll do some trials later.

 

[dpodblood]

I have the MSI OC card as well, but haven't tried JC2 yet. If there is a problem it's pretty ironic considering the card shipped with a free copy.

One thing I will note; I recently upgraded from an 8800GT to a GTX 570. I also had some stability/crash to desktop issues with a few games. I reformatted the PC and haven't ran into any issues yet.

 

[BD231]

I get a crash to desktop in some DX10 titles, but it's typically because adobe software is checking for updates. Not every time, but many of the times. I've yet to pinpoint what it is exactly, but the same thing happened on my HD 4850 so it's definitely not a card issue.

All you need to do is hit crt+alt+delete when the game minimizes then hit cancel, that should unlock the task bar and let you reopen the game right where you left off just fine.

 

[Anteaus]

After a bit of research, it seems the probably might be specific to DX10+. Seems there were instances where people with the exact same cards were reporting similar crashes with JC2, Crysis and Dragon Age 2 in DX10+ modes yet had zero problems with DX9 modes with Crysis and DA2. Just Cause 2 does not support DX9 at all so I won't be able to test that, but I own both Crysis and DA2 (have not played them since I purchased the 570/Clean install) so I'll test it out for myself tonight with both games to see what happens.

It may end up being a driver issue after all. Who knows... *shrug*

 

[Anteaus]

Just wanted to provide an update to any who might be interested. I installed the new beta 270.51 drivers and everything works fine with Just Cause 2 now. I played about an hour and a half with absolutely no problems whereas before it would crash 5-10 minutes in usually. I'm still running with my factory overclock. I'll post an update if the problem pops back up again.

 

[dpodblood]

Cool. This interests me since I plan on playing JC2 on my pre-overclocked card as well. Sounds like it's resolved in the next driver release.

 

[Destiny]

Maybe you're pushing the "Windows" key button by accident when you're running around in first person shoot games? Happens to me sometimes...:biggrin: