GPU crashes while gaming unless I underclock GPU

[sp0inK]

Used to have a GTX580 awhile back, when playing games/watching videos the GPU would occasionally crash with the 'Display driver has stopped responding' error. Got bad to the point where GPU artifacts occur and eventually died completely.

Switched to a used HD7770 and ran OK for a couple of months then same error occurred where games would flicker a black screen then an error 'Display driver stopped responding' pops out. I realized this only stopped happening when I used MSI afterburner to underclock core and memory clock by about 5%.

Any idea what is causing this problem? To me sounds most likely either a PSU or motherboard issue? Or just bad luck that two cards in a row have surfaced the exact same issue? Now I want to upgrade GPU but I don't want to proceed if knowing the same issue is going to happen again. All cards run at factory speed prior to underclocking. Have tried things such as clean reinstall of drivers, switching the power cable/ports connecting GPU to PSU.

PSU: Corsair HX650W
MB: Asus P8P67
PC is coming up to 5-6yrs now, no other issues other than this.

 

[hengheng220]

I think probably the thermal paste have dried up hence the heat increase cause GPU to crash. If you want can just reapply the thermal paste and try iirc cannot use normal CPU de.

 

[ZrE0_Cha0s]

btw when u did the switching of gpu did u also remove previous gpu driver? (as in completely remove all nvidia driver?

 

[Krabs.]

maybe the psu have a small voltage drop over split second , undervolting the graphic card and causing it to crash

 

[sp0inK]

I think probably the thermal paste have dried up hence the heat increase cause GPU to crash. If you want can just reapply the thermal paste and try iirc cannot use normal CPU de.

hmm i can confirm that temperature is never an issue, definitely no signs of overheating from monitoring

 

[sp0inK]

btw when u did the switching of gpu did u also remove previous gpu driver? (as in completely remove all nvidia driver?

yes, even went as far as to reinstall windows on the system. didn't fix it.

 

[wwenze]

PSU .

 

[sp0inK]

maybe the psu have a small voltage drop over split second , undervolting the graphic card and causing it to crash

could be, but that would pretty much mean that there is a fault in the PSU right? which i suspect could be the cause of this problem

 

[hengheng220]

hmm i can confirm that temperature is never an issue, definitely no signs of overheating from monitoring

Ah I see cause I had this issue on my older GPU but after reapply of thermal paste it works like normal.

 

[Krabs.]

thermal paste for graphic bare die cannot use conductive paste (artic silver 5)

non conductive like mx-4 can work