Hi colesdav. Sorry for the radio silence. I needed some time to test things out with different games and uses to see how my computer was behaving since installing 19.12.1 UI with 20.2.2 drivers. Things improved for a bit but unfortunately games are still crashing. I played multiple titles like Diablo 3, Witcher 3, COD: Modern Warfare etc. and still get crashes. In fact, yesterday, Witcher 3 crashed about 5-6 times while I was trying to do 1 quest. Mid last week I was watching a show and I got a BSOD! It's been super frustrating to say the least.
So I worked on all the other recommendations you made in your other comment and here are my results (this is a bit long, forgive me):
"Run Memtest86 on your system BEFORE you even boot into Windows and make sure it passes:"
In our earlier messages, I got confused with the memtest you were talking about as I did another test with HCI memtest. Anyway, I had already ran memtest86 before booting into windows on April 25. Pass 100% on all tests. As I mentioned, I also did HCI memtest in Windows with 6 instances running of 2166MB unused RAM each (~13GB unused RAM total) for 8 hours or so, reaching 1000%+ coverage. Again, no errors (see manual here if you're curious what this test ishttps://hcidesign.com/memtest/manual.html).
Since I used HCI memtest in Windows, I thought there is no need to do Ramtest Karhu software but let me know otherwise.
Overall, it looks like my RAM is working OK?
"run the following commands on your existing Windows install:"
chkdsk /scan
Results: Windows found problems but were all fixed online. No further action required.
sfc /scannow
Results:Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
Results:No component store corruption detected.The operation completed successfully.
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Results:The restore operation completed successfully.The operation completed successfully.
It appears that my drives and install are working fine with minor problems that were repaired?
I did the PSU test on OCCT as you mentioned. I wasn't sure how to evaluate because there is no set test limit. It just runs indefinitely and shows graph of temperatures of CPU core and GPU. I ran it for about 5 minutes and temps on my CPU were reaching 80C+ and GPU were reaching close to 80C. Nothing happened, no restarts etc. Not sure if this means my PSU is working fine? Let me know if there is a better way to test. I tried to google this but couldn't find much advice on this.
Next, I tried to reinstall all my drivers while disconnecting from WiFi and internet. I did two passes of DDU as per your instructions. I installed with 20.4.2 to see if it would make any difference. Same problems, games continued to crash. Not just games crashed but sometimes my PC will reboot on its own. Maybe I should use same process and switch to 20.2.2 again?
I'm not sure how to interpret core clock, memory clock and boost clock info. Adrenalin says core clock is 1795MHz and memory clock is 1750MHz. I checked Afterburner to see what it was running at. Core clock was set to 2100 MHz and memory clock was set at 1750MHz. I think this was how it was set out of the box because I had never used Afterburner up to this point.
Gigabyte site mentions:
"Boost Clock : up to 1905 MHz
Game Clock* : 1795 MHz (Reference card: 1755 MHz)
Base Clock : 1650 MHz (Reference card: 1605 MHz)"
I've tried out multiple combinations of core clock - dropping it from 2100 to 2050, then 2000, and as low as 1900 but no change really. Games crash.
Sorry for the long message. I wanted to show you that I followed all your instructions and am desperate to get this solved. I contacted my local computer store where I bought the card and they said they would be able to handle the RMA process and ship the card to Gigabyte if I want. The rep also mentioned that they had got some calls about this card and Gigabyte may have shipped some "bad batches" but he wasn't very specific. I'm in the process of trying to secure another GPU from a friend or even purchase a super cheap one to make sure that I can use RMA option if necessary.
Let me know what you recommend now that I've been through all these steps. Thanks!