Underclocking to Fix Stability Issues What do I do?

[Critter]

I have a Gigabyte GTX 660 OC Edition, its factory overclocked and causes "Display driver has stopped responding and has recovered" related freezes and crashes in games including: Borderlands series, Batman Arkham City, Bioshock Infinite, Darksiders II, and rarely in Smite.

I am going to be using the included Gigabyte OC Guru II so what increments should I lower my core clock and memory clock by? Percentage or number will suffice

Will I have to restart my computer every time the change is applied and will I still have to monitor the temperature since I'm underclocking?

[Azza ☠]

Being factory overclocked should still be stable - they do a hell of a lot of testing to ensure that. If your overclocked beyond that, just remove those settings and set to default.

Firstly make sure it's not an overheating issue. Ensure good airflow, fans are working, enough gap around the PC to the allow escape of hot air, blockage-free, dust-free, and that the back of your system isn't building up a hot pocket of stale air which is cycling back into the rear of your case / graphics card - forcing it to work overtime just cycling hot air around.

I would suggest ignoring the software which came with the graphics card. Uninstall the overclocking software, etc.

Download the latest drivers from: http://www.geforce.com/drivers

Do an express / full installation (with everything ticked) and fresh install. The reason for doing full, is for Geforce Experience to function completely without issues (later on).

Go to your folder located: C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation

Right-click it > Properties > Security (tab) > Advanced

Ensure this says = Type: Allow / Name: Everyone / Permission: Full Control

If it does, click the 'Change Permissions' and tick the 'Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object'. What you are doing here is ensuring Nvidia graphic card drivers and software won't be security blocked by permissions inforced by Microsoft Windows. Sometimes Windows denies Nvidia own graphic drivers from functioning and working 100%.

Then also download and re-install Geforce Experience:
http://www.geforce.com/geforce-experience

Give that your game folder locations, scan, and apply optimal game settings (calculated based on your hardware). This will give you a good starting point for best quality to performance ratio, for what your system is spos to be able to handle smoothly.

After you have done all that, monitor your CPU and GPU temperature levels again, keep them low, and benchmark or game for a long period to see if the crashing still occurs.

[rojimboo]

Is it this one?

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_660_windforce_oc_review,2.html

If so default GPU clocks are 980mhz, and yours is running at 1033mhz.

Try underclocking first to 980mhz, then run Heaven 4.0 benchmark succesfully. Then you can go up in 10mhz increments if you want, seeing where it is stable.

If you can't finish Heaven 4.0 at default clocks, you have an overheating problem in your case, maybe even CPU.

[Critter]

Thanks I did everything you said before this except for the properties thing which is an interesting work around. I assume you are on Windows 7 because instead of name mine says principal. 2 of those have "Read & Execute" access. They are "Users (PCNAME\Users)" and "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES". I still checked the "Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object" though. I'll test the affected games with this on.

Also this is in a HAF 912 which is in my desk, and admittedly does get a little bit hot, but this still happened when it was not in the desk and was cool. So it is not a heat problem.

In response to rojimboo I will try Azza's solution first. Also keep in mind guys this only happens in specific games for some reason you can check my profile to see the other games I have none of other ones crash or freeze.

EDIT: If I shouldn't have checked the box then should I'll need an explanation on how to correct that?

Azza's solution did not fix the problem how do I reverse it? Do i just hit disable inheritance and it shows 2 options from there:

"Convert inherited permissions into explicit permissions on this object"
or
"Remove all inherited permissions from this object"

[Azza ☠]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Zealox:

Azza's solution did not fix the problem how do I reverse it? Do i just hit disable inheritance and it shows 2 options from there:

"Convert inherited permissions into explicit permissions on this object"
or
"Remove all inherited permissions from this object"

You can use the "Remove all inherited permissions from this object", but you should be able to leave it as is anyways. The settings I suggested should be applied as default by the drivers themselves (that's why you inherit from the root permissions - you didn't actually adjust the security making it less secure or anything like that), it was just a manual way of doing so if the Microsoft OS was blocking one or more of it's files/folders underneath from it's correct installation, due to it's own global permission security. You want graphic card drivers to have full control to function, there's no concern against this, unless they are not signed offical drivers or infected.

Bad luck, but worth a try at least. Let me do know if you manage to work out the issue.

[Critter]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από rojimboo:

Is it this one?

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_660_windforce_oc_review,2.html

If so default GPU clocks are 980mhz, and yours is running at 1033mhz.

Try underclocking first to 980mhz, then run Heaven 4.0 benchmark succesfully. Then you can go up in 10mhz increments if you want, seeing where it is stable.

If you can't finish Heaven 4.0 at default clocks, you have an overheating problem in your case, maybe even CPU.

What about memory clocks? Also when it is displaying core clock it shows Base/Boost = 1033/1098? What is boost? Maybe that has something to do with it?

The OC Guru II allows me to monitor the current speed and when I was playing Borderlands the Pre-Sequel it reached over 1100 mhz that is higher than both base and boost. this must be the cause but how do I limit it!?!?! I saw it most of the time at 1137mhz

[rojimboo]

I don't believe your card has a factory oc on its memory.

If its 6008mhz or a multiple of, then its at default.

Boost clock is tied to max temperature of 80C. Basically at high demand like gaming, the card will run at boost clock until it hits 80C. At which point it will throttle power and lower it and performance with it.

By increasing GPU clock, you directly increase your boost clock too. But you can't actually modify it per se, if you see what I mean. It's like Turbo mode, for gpus.

Basically, only look at GPU clock as that is the only thing you can modify xd

[Critter]

So it is Ok that my card went above boost clock? I will observe in non-crashing games and report on clock speed

It is still capping out at 1137mhz it says power target is 100%, the other option i had rather than underclocking is increasing voltage but I didn't think that was safe.. is it my only option?

More testing: Max clock was 1197mhz max voltage when checked was around 1.175V

[rojimboo]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Zealox:

So it is Ok that my card went above boost clock? I will observe in non-crashing games and report on clock speed

Oh yeah, the boost clock is like an average I think and Max Boost clock is your max that you will see, visible in like Nvidia Inspector for instance (or just visually seeing the highest clock).

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Zealox:

It is still capping out at 1137mhz it says power target is 100%, the other option i had rather than underclocking is increasing voltage but I didn't think that was safe.. is it my only option?

So you should have set Core clock = -53MHz right? To get 980MHz base clock?

Then save/apply and monitor temps with Heaven 4.0 benchmark.

By underclocking you don't need extra juice/voltage. So let that stay as is.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If a GPU came pre-overclocked; then the maker should support that like anything else. If the OC posses to be unstable down the road, RMA the card. Simple as that.

[Azza ☠]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Bad-Motha:

If a GPU came pre-overclocked; then the maker should support that like anything else. If the OC posses to be unstable down the road, RMA the card. Simple as that.

Pretty much this, but don't mention anything about overclocking your PC to them. Warranties are void if you overclock it whatsoever, weather it be GPU, CPU, and/or RAM, etc. Only a few add an exception to this, such as EVGA, then your meant to use it's own software rather than a third party or other graphics card overclocker.

[Andrius227]

What psu do you have ? Maybe it's just not getting enough juice ? Also drivers up to date ? (sry if it was mentioned already, i didn't read the entire thread)

And yeah, factory overclocked cards should run just fine. I myself have a superclocked gtx680, which i overclocked even more. It never crashed.

[AdmiralSpeedy]

This has nothing to do with overclocking. I have a factory OC 660 as well and every game you listed works fine for me.

It's likely a software issue or you just have some piece of faulty hardware.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Bottom line is if the card is unstable at the default clocks it ships as; then the brand should stand by and cover it as being and unstable/defective product. Simple as that really.

Only thing I might say to them about the Clocks and Software; is that the only way to gain stability in the product was to downclock it; that's basically all.
Which again u should never have to do. They advertised a product with certain clocks and features and thus stand by that as-is. So simply go to the maker's site, register your product and go to their warranty section and fulfill an RMA replacement.

If the product is new enough to be covered by the return policy of the place of purchase; then try that route. As the turn-around time would be alot quicker. And if u have doubts u can maybe get a refund on that brand/model of product and then choose another if u so wish.