[PC] - Game is overly sensitive to GPU overclocking

[MikeP999]

[PC] - Game is overly sensitive to GPU overclocking

I have a GTX 970

If I use the card's default core/memory clocks, I have no problem.
If I set my card to be even slightly overclocked further, the game will usually minimize to desktop, followed by a crash.

Whether this is a GPU driver issue OR the game engine, I'll leave that for the experts to decide.

Note: I have tested my clock rates in my other demanding games, with no problem.

 

[Sapath]

I realize that this is a problem, however, it does seem like your OC is simply unstable. Just because it's working in other titles, doesn't mean it's 100% stable. For example, my 980 usually stays below 65°C in 99% of the game I play, however, it goes up to 74°C in Witcher 3. I've overclocked my 980 by 20% on the core clock and have been playing for 15 hours without any crashes.

Have you tried setting power options to "prefer maximum performance" in the Nvidia control panel for the Witcher 3 profile?

 

[Mnk_]

I have a GTX 780 and I really need the OC power to play the game smoothly. Even a slight OC crashes the game after a couple of minutes.

 

[Sapath]

Many people have been reporting the same thing with even light OCs. I wonder what the reason might be, since there also people running relatively high overclocks without any problems.

Have you tried the "prefer maximum performance" option from above?

 

[yotam7stern]

I have 780 ti gigabyte windforce oc (from the factory)

and i have the same problem of crashes every time after 1 hour or less....

the only thing that help me was to underclock my gpu (-105 core clock and -170 memory clock)

 

[Mnk_]

I`ll try that when I get home, I`ll keep you guys posted.

 

[IMRicko]

Looks like there's some issue with the game engine. It runs way too hot for most GPU. My 970 usually stays at 67 degree for most game, but on Witcher 3 it can go up to 82 degree

 

[Sapath]

I've been hearing that a lot. I'm in the same boat. My card usually stays 'cool' and quiet, but this game turns it into a mini frying pan. Still stable though.

 

[Guest 3819801]

It 100% is unstable oc. I have gtx 680 with factory overclock. I can easily oc it myself with +504Mhz vram speed (7010Mhz in total) and 124Mhz core speed (1300Mhz in total). But if I use anything higher Witcher 3 crashes the way you described. The answer is: you can't overclock you GPU.
The reason why you can run those clocks in other games is because they don't load your GPU as much.

 

[MikeP999]

Many people have been reporting the same thing with even light OCs. I wonder what the reason might be, since there also people running relatively high overclocks without any problems.

Have you tried the "prefer maximum performance" option from above?

Yes - I've tried that, to no avail. I'll tinker around further.
It's not the end of the day, but we'll see what happens over the next couple weeks.


OCCT / Prime95 / Valley / Heaven
Shadow of Mordor, Dying Light,Wolfenstein,Lords of the Fallen,Dragon Age:Inquistion,Crysis 2 etc. - all of those seem fine with my modest OC.
Perhaps none of those tests or games push the gpu as much as Witcher 3.

 

[scorpgul]

I am having the exact same problem.

I have an EVGA GTX 780 Ti Classified KINGPIN Edition, a card MEANT for extreme overclocking and I get instant artifacting/crashing even with a mere +20 MHz on the core clock. This is NOT normal. The GPU temperature is also MUCH higher than in other games.

This now renders overclocking useless in a game where Kepler GPUs are already struggling...

 

[bogdan36]

To any of u who have problems even passing the main menu after oc ur gpu,u need to make sure to also adjust the power limit(voltages) accordingly and that the psu can sustain the power constantly (cheaper psu even if they are rated to a set voltage can`t maintain it for long periods).
I don`t know why the game is so sensible (even if the gpu passed a stress test the game may still not go past the main menu ) but this happend to me to on both nvidia and amd cards and the only solution that worked is manually adjusting the gpu voltages and testing the game until it becomes stable(don`t mess with this if u don`t have clue of what i`ve just typed.just leave it alone).
P.S when u test this it won`t hurt to run the gpu fans at 100%,or set a custom fan temp curve in afterbuner(don`t go over 90 c on vram temp and 85-90 c gpu diode)

 

[Asmodean778]

Yeah. The game is ridiculously sensitive to overclocks. I seem to be able to leave my GPU's memory overclocked fine though, at 1952. But overclocking the core will result in crashes.

 

[Gerudon]

It is not the game, it is the mf driver. Since the GTA V driver it has made problems with the new driver for TW3 it didn't get fixed but became even worse.

 

[GObonzo]

8GB 290X stock 1050 \ 1375. running 1125 \ 1450. has reached ~65° at it's highest.
before first dloadable patch it had crashed a couple times and determined it was the OC causing this. never crashed with it at default speeds.
after that patch it never had a problem again through another 40+ hours.

 

[bogdan36]

It is not the game, it is the mf driver. Since the GTA V driver it has made problems with the new driver for TW3 it didn't get fixed but became even worse.

Not true,it happens on both amd and nvidia cards on current or one version older drivers.

 

[CrocPoulet]

If you do a monitoring, you can notice that the GPU is always 100% load and demands more than 100% power most of time (103 for me), other games and even bench tools don't need such power. That's why you experiment crashes. You can tune up the power limit and if it's still crashing that's because the OC is unstable (maybe unstable PSU too).

I've plenty issues with this game like many others but I never exced 67% for my GPU which is stock OC with a backplate.

You can cap a fps limit too to not reach 100% use all the time.


Edit : I finaly had a black screen in gameplay, temps were fine, so my stock OC maybe not so stable too :stuart:

or maybe an issue with a loop somewhere, can't say

 

[Azath123]

The new nvidia drivers still making my game crash/freeze. Still using GTA ones and its fine (crash once in 5-9h, otherwise with new drivers once in 10 min).
I bet its the overclock thing, just not sure what to do/ I have Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti so i guess its factory OC. Any suggestions ? Is it more of nvidia driver fault or game engine ?

 

[razorpakk]

Used to have BSODs with my 970s, fixed it by setting the power limit to 108% (MSI Afterburner - Both of the cards were @106% with the core @ 1430 during boost). So that 2% fixed it.

 

[CalinTM]

Short answer, yes it is, need to lower my clock by 13mhz to make it stable, or to incrase the volts a little bit higher, but i turned the clock down, since i want better temps. Probably the drivers/game patches aren't that mature. Wait for proper drivers. I estimate in max 6 months the game will be at his apex in terms of game patches, and drivers. Then i think overall vs.1.0 version the game will have a boost of at least +10 fps on average.