Freeze Fix for NVIDIA GPU!

[ShaddixHD]

Freeze Fix for NVIDIA GPU!

Not sure if you guys are aware of it already, but here it goes:
Iam using Windows 10 build 10122 with Nvidia Driver 352.84
You do not need to downgrade the Driver!
I have tried everything in the past 2 days to get "Witcher 3" running for more than 15 minutes, and today i figured out these steps completely solved the Issue. Played for 3-4 ours straight without a single freeze.


Set Witcher 3 to Full screen not borderless window.
Set to unlimted FPS in the Options menu.

now here comes the acuall fix.
It seems the Engine does not go well with Stock OC Graphics Cards, the same happened with "Dying Light" back when it was released and even a few Patches in.

* Download Nvidia Inspector here http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/nvidia-inspector-download.html
* extract the Content into a Folderr on your Desktop.
* now search for your NVIDIA Graphicscard STOCK Clockspeed!
For example i have a GTX 770 which is overclocked by default. You would find the stock clockspeed here:
http://www.nvidia.de/gtx-700-graphics-cards/gtx-770/
Watch out for "Base Clock (Mhz) 1046" (not "Boost Clock" or anything else!)
* Now open NVIDIA Inspector. It will show all the details for your GFX. At the bottom left you will find "GPU Clock" and your current Clockspeed besides. In my case its "1150 Mhz" so i need to get down to "1046" Mhz, which is minus "104 Mhz"
* To do that, click on "Show Overclocking" on the bottom right. A new window opens.
* On the Top you will find "Overclocking" - Set it to Performance Level [3] (which it is by default, but just to make sure)
* The first slider "Base Clock Offset" is what we need. This is the ONLY slider you need to adjust!
* in my case, i clock down by -104 Mhz. You do the same, to get your Stock Clockspeed.
* After adjusting the Base Clock Offset - hit "Apply Clocks & Voltage" on the bottom right corner.
* You will see that "GPU Clock" adjusted accordingly.
* Thats IT! (iam not sure if you have to leave NVIDIA Inspecor open or not. I do leave it open! (Never tried if it works when its closed)

* Start the Witcher 3 and hopefully you can finally enjoy it aswell!

Cheers.

 

[sz0ty0l4]

i dont think you need to downclock, if you provide enough power it will run fine on higher clocks aswell.
Just make sure your psu and power limit is not limitting the card from drawing more power.
If it's limited it will crash

 

[jonwd7]

Before bothering to underclock, first try setting your Power Target to 110%, and maybe also overvolting by 12.5-25mV. You may want to also use a program to increase your fan curve.

Basically it seems a lot of factory overclocked cards aren't rock-solid stable and that you need to up the Power Target.

Doing this definitely made my crashes way less frequent with a GTX 980. However, I still have gotten one or two lockups while using Chrome, and a lot of people are reporting the same with the latest drivers. So I also think it's possible that the Nvidia drivers are to blame.

Edit:

Links

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/369210-google-chrome-crashing-35286-witcher-3-nvidia-drivers/
http://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/36x5ot/just_had_a_gpu_driver_crash_while_browsing_at/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/36hrd4/35286_driver_kernel_crash_with_chrome/

 

[ShaddixHD]

with a 550 PSU iam acually set, i doubt its underpowered, Since all the games i play never crash, except Dying Light and Witcher3, overvolting could cause issues if you are not carefull. IT could be Nvidia and the Fact iam unsing Windows10, cant really tell. Still, its interessting this very issue happens to people on all Kinds of Windows Versions with Dying Light so it makes me think if underpowered Systems or "bad" performing PSU's cause this.

However thanks for the input, ill definitly try to put in some more juice with the stock OC.
Hope this Workaround maybe helps some people out.

cheers

 

[kattala]

Yet another down-clocking /voltage upping "fix" thread. Doesn't work for most. Might work for you.

 

[suupar]

Your PSU doesn't set your GPU Voltage, your GPU does. It doesn't matter that you have a 550 PSU I actually have a 420 PSU and running an overclocked i5-2500k and an overclocked GTX 970. I had very frequent crashes too and reverting the GPU to stock clocks seemed to fix that problem but now I have it overclcocked again and since I switched to Fullscreen turned VSYNC on and FPS Limit to Unlimited I barely have any crashes anymore. Yes the game locks up from time to time but no Driver Kernel crashes just regular Crash-to-Desktop.

 

[blindhamster]

I changed the settings on my EVGA GTX 980 SC to have the power target be 106% and to have it get a more agrees I've fan curve (minimum us 50% in my curve and goes up quickly)

Since doing that, I've not had a single crash or freeze.

Hope it helps

 

[Smurfin]

Will they acknowledge this issue and fix the game instead of let us tampering with our hardware setting and make that permanent solution ?

The game had been patched 3 times since released and so far they haven't mentioned a fix for this issue specificly, not even in the breakdown of the most requested changes list for the upcoming patch 1.05.

 

[kattala]

Will they acknowledge this issue and fix the game instead of let us tampering with our hardware setting and make that permanent solution ?

The game had been patched 3 times since released and so far they haven't mentioned a fix for this issue specificly, not even in the breakdown of the most requested changes list for the upcoming patch 1.05.

I've come to the conclusion they have literally no idea what the issue is. That's why there isn't a single RED response to any of the 30 odd threads on this issue and similar issues, some of which are over 20 pages long.

 

[Smurfin]

I've come to the conclusion they have literally no idea what the issue is. That's why there isn't a single RED response to any of the 30 odd threads on this issue and similar issues, some of which are over 20 pages long.

It's weird that they are in bed with nvidia but can't solve a problem like this.

 

[Piasecznik72]

For me shutting down steam client fixed all crash to desktop (with sound and controls still on the game - I can hear armorer hammer hitting the anvil and if I move mouse the sound source change direction).

 

[AVMC]

As a general FYI, power draw is set by the thing using it, not the source.

That said, I don't buy that the cards aren't stable at their overclock. Do we say that processors that can be brought to their knees by linpack but crash during a program, are unstable?

Then why the hell would we believe that for video cards? It's misinformed bs that people are desperate to believe. It's something specific to this game that is causing these issues. What, we don't know. But to believe your OC is unstable after burn in and is stable after torturing it for months and months straight, because it can't run a single game without crashing for randomly... it's convoluted and it points to people looking for any answer that doesn't blame a developer or drivers.

Your hardware can be 100% stable and crash. It's because there's also this thing that's super important... It's called software, and it tells the card exactly what to do, what do execute, how to set itself up for operations... and with code that we can't access normally, it can even force your gpu to draw more power than it does under stock TDP.

OP, not upset with you, but these threads continue to appear with no response from CDPR. I appreciate it works for you and others and it's great it does! It doesn't work for everyone. I've had crashing at reference design clocks as well on more than one card. There are too many known issues to not have an official response by now.

 

[knosuhor]

I used to have constant freezes and crashes after updating geforce driver. I believed it has something to do with OC. But what actually prevented that from happening was to disable "NVIDIA HD AUDIO" in device manager, I also uninstalled all of unnecessary geforce apps (experience etc.). No more freezes since then.