Screen Freeze then Crash GOTY edition

[Jacko®]

After several minutes of gameplay and/or cut scenes my screen freezes and although i can hear audio and make actions with gamepad the graphics on screen are frozen and then after about 30 secs it crashes to Desktop.
Specs;
Intel Core i7-5820K
GTX 780 Ti (OC edition)
32Gb DDR4
850 PSU
SSD M.2 500Gb
Win 10 (64) Pro
X99 MB - 2011 v3 Setup

Any help is appreciated and have sent a support ticket to Devs so if no reasonable solution can be found I am still within refund terms on Steam but really wanted to start the adventure with Witcher the 3rd.

[FrosTytheNoob]

Originally posted by Jacko®:

After several minutes of gameplay and/or cut scenes my screen freezes and although i can hear audio and make actions with gamepad the graphics on screen are frozen and then after about 30 secs it crashes to Desktop.
Specs;
Intel Core i7-5820K
GTX 780 Ti (OC edition)
32Gb DDR4
850 PSU
SSD M.2 500Gb
Win 10 (64) Pro
X99 MB - 2011 v3 Setup

Any help is appreciated and have sent a support ticket to Devs so if no reasonable solution can be found I am still within refund terms on Steam but really wanted to start the adventure with Witcher the 3rd.

did by any chance OCED your gpu? set it to stock clocks. Do a fresh install of your drivers, also try resetting the settings of Witcher 3 while running it in admin mode. Maybe we can determine the cause of the problem that way.

[Floid]

Is the card on boost clock while in game ?

[Jacko®]

Thaks for replies. No tweaking of clock speeds, all is set to stock speed - no OC done on GPU or CPU as of yet. Drivers are fresh but will try again by unistalling Nvidia drivers then reinstalling them tonight. I just installed Witcher 3 yesterday and have tried tweaking graphic options this way and that but with no success. A real shame so far as my rig is well over the minimum specs.

[Floid]

If your still eager to play heres two more widely used fixes that have worked for many people. Give em ago see if they help you:

First Tweak:
1. Open regedit, then make backup (file>export>export range=all) and save it somewhere.

2. Browse to and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers

3. On the Edit menu, click New, and then select the following registry value from the drop-down menu specific to your version of Windows (32 bit, or 64 bit):

For 32 bit Windows
Select DWORD (32-bit) value.
Type TdrDelay as the Name and click Enter.
Double-click TdrDelay and add 8 for the Value data and click OK.

For 64 bit Windows

Select QWORD (64-bit) value.
Type TdrDelay as the Name and click Enter.
Double-click TdrDelay and add 8 for the Value data and clickOK.
Close the registry editor and then restart your computer for the changes to take affect.

===================================================

Second Tweak:

Just try under-clocking you GPU by 50 to 100Mhz on the core and same on memory, and select "prefer max-performance" in power options in NCP. As your GPU is "OC edition" which means it comes with a factory overclock. So it's defaults are not nvidia reference defaults, they are just the slightly factory overclocked defaults for the vendor of that card.

[Jacko®]

Originally posted by Rehlem:

If your still eager to play heres two more widely used fixes that have worked for many people. Give em ago see if they help you:

First Tweak:
1. Open regedit, then make backup (file>export>export range=all) and save it somewhere.

2. Browse to and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers

3. On the Edit menu, click New, and then select the following registry value from the drop-down menu specific to your version of Windows (32 bit, or 64 bit):

For 32 bit Windows
Select DWORD (32-bit) value.
Type TdrDelay as the Name and click Enter.
Double-click TdrDelay and add 8 for the Value data and click OK.

For 64 bit Windows

Select QWORD (64-bit) value.
Type TdrDelay as the Name and click Enter.
Double-click TdrDelay and add 8 for the Value data and clickOK.
Close the registry editor and then restart your computer for the changes to take affect.

===================================================

Second Tweak:

Just try under-clocking you GPU by 50 to 100Mhz on the core and same on memory, and select "prefer max-performance" in power options in NCP. As your GPU is "OC edition" which means it comes with a factory overclock. So it's defaults are not nvidia reference defaults, they are just the slightly factory overclocked defaults for the vendor of that card.

Thank you for the time and effort mate. I will try the tweaks tonight but tweaking my GPU down each time i want to play W3 then changing it back afterwards might be too much messing around. Will try and see if it works but for a game at this price and a year after release I may refund if I am expected to jump through hoops to aviod crashes.

Thanks again Rehlem.

[Floid]

Yeah it's pretty ridiculous. I tried the game at launch and it was having constant TDR crashes. Just downloading it again now to see if it's any better now. But does seem like even 15 months after release and multiple game and driver updates, that people are still having issues.

Seems like anyone with a card that has anything other than standard nvidia official reference clocks, is having issues still.

I tried the whole underclocking thing at launch too - to no avail. Gonna be pretty sad if it still doesn't work after all this time.

Anyway give em ago, let us know how you fair.

[Jacko®]

Originally posted by Rehlem:

Yeah it's pretty ridiculous. I tried the game at launch and it was having constant TDR crashes. Just downloading it again now to see if it's any better now. But does seem like even 15 months after release and multiple game and driver updates, that people are still having issues.

Seems like anyone with a card that has anything other than standard nvidia official reference clocks, is having issues still.

I tried the whole underclocking thing at launch too - to no avail. Gonna be pretty sad if it still doesn't work after all this time.

Anyway give em ago, let us know how you fair.

Will update in a few hours when I try the fixes - fingers crossed

[Floid]

Hey jacko, just been researching this issue in prep for when my W3 download finishes. Anyway you said you wasn't keen on the idea of having to mess with afterburner every time you play the game.

Well I found a glimmer of hope. Apparently raising the power limit slider in afterburner can achieve the same effect as underclocking, by giving the gpu bit of extra voltage head room when/if it needs it, so undervloting doesn't happen.

Best thing about it is that it is on a as needed basis's, so it will only draw that extra voltage if it needs it. Basically you can whack it up 10-20% and leave it, and it should be fine, and the cherry on top is no need to underclock, so you can use the full power of the gpu! :D

Start off with +10% power limit, and work up to 20% untill the crashing stops.

Just thought i'd throw this in there with the other options, so you have a few different things you can try.

Good Luck.

[Jacko®]

Originally posted by Rehlem:

Hey jacko, just been researching this issue in prep for when my W3 download finishes. Anyway you said you wasn't keen on the idea of having to mess with afterburner every time you play the game.

Well I found a glimmer of hope. Apparently raising the power limit slider in afterburner can achieve the same effect as underclocking, by giving the gpu bit of extra voltage head room when/if it needs it, so undervloting doesn't happen.

Best thing about it is that it is on a as needed basis's, so it will only draw that extra voltage if it needs it. Basically you can whack it up 10-20% and leave it, and it should be fine, and the cherry on top is no need to underclock, so you can use the full power of the gpu! :D

Start off with +10% power limit, and work up to 20% untill the crashing stops.

Just thought i'd throw this in there with the other options, so you have a few different things you can try.

Good Luck.

Thanks Rehlem,
Tried your fixes plus a DDU clean and reinstall of Nvidia driver 370.54 WHQL suggested by the game Devs through support. Not the latest driver you can see.
Anyway still no luck so instead of burning through my time trying to fix it, I am going to play something else :)
Refund time through Steam and here's hoping if there is a Witcher 4 it actually works on all GPU cards.

[Floid]

For anyone else that comes acropper of this very niche issue. This thread pretty much explains the hidden mechanics possibly behind the issue:

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/848283/a-theory-on-why-these-new-drivers-are-crashing-so-bad-/

Don't let the fact that it's and old thread put you off, the figures banded around within it are still viable today. And it took me a while to piece the puzzle together, but I think I got it, and if I have issues with my W3, i'll test this fix.

TL;DR: Basically, 980's have a switch that kicks in at 68c, which cause's voltage to drop, causing insatiability which = game crash.
Trick is to +20mV (your optimum may be slightly more or less) in afterburner and bing bango bong, fixed ! 'apparently' :D

Still waiting for my W3 to finish d/ling, so I can test this.

If it works, i'll try to remember to add loads of one word tags to this thread, so people in future can find the solution easily.