Gigabyte Gtx 980 Ti - crashing randomly display driver in Witcher 3 after ALT-TAB.

[sew333]

Hello. My gpu is Gigabyte Gtx 980 Ti reference, stock clocks. I have a weird problem.

The most weird thing is that Witcher3 crashing randomly display driver after alt-tab. When playing game i have 0 crashes. Only when i alt tab from game to windows, and then i want back again to game ( alt tab )i cant, because i see ( randomly , not always ) black screen and pop up about driver crash ""353.06 stopped responding and has successfully recovered".

Is this related to voltage jump or power fluctuation ?
Something wrong with card or drivers?
Please help , because i have 14 days for a refund and i can take card back to shop for exchange.

rest pc
4790k stock
8gb ram
Corsair 750 RM

[kalniel]

Drivers/game software. Very normal. Don't alt-tab.

[retromoustache]

This could possibly be simply the game or driver as stated by kalniel
If you frequently alt-tab out of game, try running the game in full screen windowed mode. This can be achieved in-game or if you're playing on Steam, you could set some launch options:

1. Right Click the Game on Steam
2. Properties
3. Click Set Launch Options
4. Type the following:

 -sw -w <width> -h <height>

Simply replace the width and height variables to your resolution. Hopefully, this should resolve your problem.

[sew333]

yeah but listen. What you think about it. It dont crash when gaming.

It would only driver crash after a transition (from loading to the game or menu to the game) because the card was going from about 3% power draw to 90-100% and I think occasionally the voltage hadn't increased quick enough , therefore causing a crash.
It would only crash when coming out of the menus (ie when the card was downclocked load and sipping power and then going back into the game). Or just crashing display driver when alt tabbing.

.
So is this card issue or just driver?

[retromoustache]

I can imagine what you mean, but the method I provided enables you to transition from your desktop to the game without reloading the graphics card. In other words, the game is running in the background as you browse - the power draw out the game would be the same in the game (sorta). It's fairly difficult to explain unless you actually experiment with the launch options, however game crashes on alt-tabbing is and has been a common problem on many games.

[sew333]

So randomly display driver crashes ( TDR ) when alt-tabbing is not issue on my card?

[stevie lee]

theres an ingame option under video settings, to change to windowed or borderless-fullscreen.


what patch version of witcher 3 are you on by the way?
because there is a alt-tab crashing bug in one of the versions that only borderless window mode will fix. in that mode you just press the windows key instead, and it doesn't crash.


and alt-tab crashing affects many cards on many systems, theres not a lot you can do about it, except to just not alt-tab atall.

[deejayburnout]

Alt tabing out of games is not recommended. I have the same issue with Dues Ex. Game made over 10 years ago and game crashes if alt tabbed. Not my GPU, game doesn't like it. Better to run windowed.

[sew333]

theres an ingame option under video settings, to change to windowed or borderless-fullscreen.


what patch version of witcher 3 are you on by the way?
because there is a alt-tab crashing bug in one of the versions that only borderless window mode will fix. in that mode you just press the windows key instead, and it doesn't crash.


and alt-tab crashing affects many cards on many systems, theres not a lot you can do about it, except to just not alt-tab atall.

I mean .
Its crashing my display driver. Not app simple crash, but display driver. On right corner i see:""353.06 stopped responding and has successfully recovered". When i just alt - tabbing few times. Is this normal that alt tab will crash display driver recovery ?


You guys mean TDR display driver crash or simple game crash ?

[stevie lee]

You guys mean TDR display driver crash or simple game crash ?

both types of crash, crash to desktop and display driver crashes. they both happen randomly when alt-tabbing. in pretty much every game ever.

witcher 3s case, borderless window pretty much eliminates crashing,

but it may still happen.

nothing you can do, except to not alt-tab.

[sew333]

ahh ok so i will be not alt tabbingCheers thanks guys for help

[sew333]

Last thing.
But also i have that kind of crashes too.

Usually after loading a savegame witcher 3 will crash DRIVER instantly ( when game world is loaded ). Then it will black screen and driver crash.
And then pop up: " 353.06 nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered"

So is this related to driver or my card? It happens sometimes after 1 second after i load a savegame and gameworld appear.


Somebody said:"this is purely an issue of overstressed vendor overclocked or faulty hardware."

So my 980 ti reference is faulty? I have on STOCK settings, no oc.

It crashing display driver sometimes after 1-2 seconds after i loaded game, never when playing. I can play 24 hours without single crash. Any ideas?

[stevie lee]

current drivers are 353.30 I have them installed, fps has gone up ingame aswell.

so uninstall all Nvidia related programs in windows safe mode, then reinstall with the 353.30

also put the latest 1.06 patch on for Witcher 3. there have been a few instant crash bugs in the game, which are fixed in the newer patches.

1.07 should be out in the next few weeks, they're not saying when, but its apparently a very big patch. which should fix quite a few more things, like NPC pop ins and various stability issues.


so just patch up and reinstall Nvidia drivers

edit:
also have a read through http://forums.cdprojektred.com/forums/174-Tech-Support and the http://forums.cdprojektred.com/forums/180-PC forums for ~200 pages of threads of other people experiencing game crashes and tech bugs with the game, there's a few threads related to display crashes and black screens, which may prove useful to you.

the gist of it is : the game crashes for everyone, newer patches and drivers fix a lot of it, but generally its just a buggy game, get used to it crashing.

[sew333]

What you think about it?
Somebody said to me"
That's because when you first load into the game your gpu goes from 0% to 100% load so quickly it can't handle it. It causes it to become unstable. And it doesn't matter if your card is overclocked or not. It can still be unstable not overclocked if you were sent a dud graphics card. Dud's do happen time to time. I would RMA it if you can."

What you think about it, it can be really unstable card? I dont know what to do.

[sew333]

I think know where is the issue. My card is not stable on auto boost clock at starting 1177mhz.

I discovered today , that if witcher3 crash display driver it will crash randomly only on 1177mhz at start. Clock at start is 1177mhz then is decreasing due to temperature to lower values ,like 1150mhz and then 1100mhz. And on 1177mhz witcher 3 simply randomly can crash display driver. ( for example : start of loaded game or back to game from windows alt tab ).

Please tell me , what you think about it? Thank you and i am greatful for any suggestions.