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Posted here for new eyeballs:
For the past few months, my pc has been consistently crashing under heavy load, in graphically demanding games like Escape from Tarkov, Warhammer 3 etc. In normal use and less intensive games like Rimworld, no issues.
After about 15-20 min of gameplay, I get a full crash to a black screen with the pc powered off, and it refuses to post for several minutes regardless of what I do, at which point it often restarts on its own. The American Megatrends screen doesn't usually show up unless I cycle power, at which point it doesn't tell me anything useful either. (I had a similar issue around 5 years ago, but that was almost certainly CPU thermals, since the American Megatrends screen called out CPU overheating, and I've changed CPUs since then and don't get the same error)
The crash seems to be so total and abrupt that I can't find any useful logs to figure out wtf is going on.
I've run CPU and GPU stress tests on OCCT and furmark, and they only seem to cause issues unreliably.
It seems thermally related, since the problem is less severe when the AC is running, but unfortunately the AC is currently on the fritz exacerbating the issue, but fixing the AC isnt really a definitive solution is it?
I noticed >85° C temps on my Ryzen 5600x, so I changed the thermal paste just a few days back, and while temps dropped by 5-10 degrees, the crashing hasn't abated.
GPU temps hover in the 50s-60s range in Tarkov, which seems quite reasonable. It's a 3070 for what that's worth.
The other potential culprit is my geriatric 600w power supply, over 10 years old at this point, but why would it be thermally related?
I'm not running any OCs, and I've maxxed out my fan curves to help, not that it's doing much. My case has two extra blowers, and I even took off the sides to help with airflow.
Anyone have any idea as to how I can figure out what exactly is wrong? I can't really afford to replace my GPU, but I could consider buying a new PSU if need be.
This issue didn't plague me when I first built this current setup with the same components, but it's been several months and I'm losing my mind :(
What I've tried:
Switching GPUs with my brother's pc. Couldn't reproduce crashing.
Dusting pc
Repasting thermal paste
Checking for any OC (none)
Stress tests, which are unable to reliably cause crashes while games can.
Always grateful I buy prebuilt from Dell for expensive gaming PCs. Every four years I go to the Alienware website, get whatever the moderately good spec is (-80/i7 tier rather than -90/i9 tier), and pay the extra $200 for four years of whatever the ultra-premium Dell Support tier is. I also call them and haggle on the phone and can usually get the price down to the cost of parts on popular PC-parts websites, actually last time it was even cheaper because all the parts store were price-gouging on the 3080. So all I'm paying extra for is the warranty.
Whenever there's an issue, they're at my place the same or next day with a truck full of parts (including even replacement motherboards), I let the guy into my office room, go do something else, an hour or two later it's fixed. No endless diagnosis, no scouring hardware forums, no mountain of Indian youtube videos, trawling error messages, trying to resit my RAM, fiddling with the BIOS, downloading furmark, downloading and running memory testing software etc. Most importantly, absolutely zero RMA-ing. GPU fails? He puts a new one in, done, no waiting a month or whatever. The one time the whole PC was apparently FUBAR I got a new one a few days later. Apparently you can even use it abroad so if you move or buy one of their laptops they'll come to your hotel or holiday home and fix it there too.
You may be an exception given your comments on what Indian doctors get paid, but certainly for the average Western PMC unless you enjoy tinkering or building your own PC I can't see a major reason not just to buy the Dell because the hours you spend fixing it (even if breaks down only very occasionally) aren't worth it financially. 100% piece of mind and I never have to think about the Bios ever again.
PC gaming is the worst form of gaming, except for all the others.
I'm glad to hear you've got a good experience from a name brand, in the future I might not need to pinch pennies and just buy a good pre-built. I'm not overly enamoured by the PC building process, but I do have plenty of parts that might last me a while, so I'm not leaving yet.
In India at the least, I've never heard of any company providing such excellent customer service, but then again PC gaming is a rarety here since we've steadily been priced out of the market. My RTX 3070 was the equivalent of 1.5x my current monthly salary, to put it in perspective. We pay 50% more for comparable electronics on 1/5th the salary compared to the West, which is many Indians resemble a walking Microcenter after a US vacation as they bring as much can fit back home for their friends and family.
In what unholy universe can one justify spending 1.5x one's salary on a GPU...
With 1.5x my salary I could buy a... used Ford Mustang (currently debating whether to save for a rainy day or blow it all on a Corvette). But I would still flinch when buying a 3070. In fact I won't. My 1070 serves me fine.
Do you just.. not think about the future or retirement or are you just that bullish on AI doom or have an extensive support network? I literally cannot fathom spending that much on a GPU!
Uh, that's more an indictment of my salary being shit than anything else, why do you think I intend to emigrate?
This was in the middle of the pandemic, and I paid 90k INR for that, or about a thousand USD today. In fact, it might have been two months salary at the time, my current job is about a 50% payraise, but after 2 years, so who knows how much inflation ate up.
A Mustang is 90,000 USD equivalent here (!), or about 12-15 years of my current salary lmao, maybe a year or two for my dad, at the peak of his career. Shit is expensive, and we earn less, what do about it?
When you make such a pittance, you have little incentive to save any of it. If I'm making 5 or 6 times more abroad (at a minimum), then the paltry sum I could save here isn't worth the inability to indulge in my only expensive hobby. But yes, I have plenty of familial support right now, so I don't have to worry about that cash not going to rent, fuel or other expenses. That'll change when I'm out of the country of course.
I actually don't care in the least about retiring, at least not voluntarily. I'm not kidding about my AI timelines, if I'm cost competitive with AGI in 10 years I'll eat my hat. To the extent that I want more money and more savings, it's because money can buy security and safety, I'd rather become unemployed with a hundred k in the bank than when I'm broke!
Okay, I think I underestimated a new Mustangs cost, I'm not anywhere near making 60k USD a month. But that was the most absurd comparison that came to mind, albeit a heavily used Mustang. But eh.
Just don't go crazy when you emigrate and end up with not paltry amounts of money on tap on a monthly basis. Hit yourself in the head with a frying pan and tell yourself "This is not India, COL is higher here, and I don't have parents to support me here" because you might feel like a newly minted millionaire as you do a quick currency conversion in your head.
I'll keep that in mind, but gaming and takeout aside, I'm quite frugal, and the former is unlikely to be a proportionally equivalent expense in the West!
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