660ti Crashing Problems.

[Escadora]

As reported in a thread on reddit.

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...0ti_gfx_cards/

There have been players specifically today whom have been crashing all day, getting black screened and forced to reboot, while playing FFXIV. The problem seems to be universal around the 660ti series (Using the Asus GTX660Ti DirectCU II OC)

People with MSI's have had problems today as well.

Wanted to see if anyone else using 660ti's were crashing and a possible fix?

I've stress tested in other games more GPU intensive than FFXIV, for example BF4 and have not crashed once.

This all seemingly started today for me, it could be my GPU but again I haven't had any trouble running anything else.

[KudzaiKuzan]

im having this issue with my radeon r9 290 >.<

[Escadora]

Lol, even the R9 290? Wow, I wonder what is going on.

[Kyana]

I'm running a 660ti too. It's crap.
I also have problems with random freezes -> black screens -> driver reset. I don't have to restart my PC though.
Also, this doesn't only happen in FFXI. I get the same in MWO and had this problem for months now.

I've done alot of research and the only thing I found out is that Windows seems to be part of that problem.
There is a Windows function which checks the response of the GFX card (or something like that).
If the card doesn't respond fast enough, Windows will do something, resulting in a driver reset in an attempt to get the thing back to normal without having to restart the PC.
While this worked and I was able to continue playing again after 5-10 seconds, the fps dropped to ~10.

This function is called TDR.
Changing some of the settings resulted in a quick reset and no more fps drop after comming back to the game.

The cause of this problem is still unclear.
No driver update or downgrade had any effect yet, although, with the latest nvidia drivers I get an error message telling me that OpenGL messed up.

Reducing anisotropic filter to bilinear x4 seems to reduce the number of errors for me.
Fullscreen/windowed mode, different resolutions, deactivating effects and other stuff didn't make any difference.


My solution: Next card will be a Radeon again. (EDIT: just read the above post...DOH ><)

[KudzaiKuzan]

i dont think this issue is to specific GPUs as i think its something to do with the game other games i play i have no issues like this whatsoever only when playing this game >.<

[Lurkios]

i dont think this issue is to specific GPUs as i think its something to do with the game other games i play i have no issues like this whatsoever only when playing this game >.<

Whether or not other games are affected does not change whether or not this specific game cannot be run in a stable manner on a specific GPU. It's entirely possible that FF is using some combination of calls not present in any/most other games that causes the crash.

[C-croft]

There is a Windows hotfix to extend the TDR timeout on GPUs. I don't have the KB article, but honestly, I don't think the fix completely solves the issue either. I still have issues on occaision as well on a GTX 680.

[Raist]

There is a Windows hotfix to extend the TDR timeout on GPUs. I don't have the KB article, but honestly, I don't think the fix completely solves the issue either. I still have issues on occaision as well on a GTX 680.

posted a link to one about a month ago... not sure if it's the same KB, but it talks about adjusting the timer:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2665946

[Lurkios]

There is a Windows hotfix to extend the TDR timeout on GPUs. I don't have the KB article, but honestly, I don't think the fix completely solves the issue either. I still have issues on occaision as well on a GTX 680.

I would not recommend using this bandaid. The crashing is a sign of instability, extending the timeout is not a fix - it's masking the problem and potentially allowing it to become worse.

Think of it as turning up the radio to cover up that weird sound your engine is making.

[C-croft]

When it happens to one game, which is the case for me, a timeout extension is fine. Many others have reported it only in XIV as well. You can virtually eliminate the timeout, but extending it only causes windows to react to the 'crash' later than sooner(by resetting the gpu). What you mentioned above regarding some of the calls is probably correct, but for the time being, it is a workaround that will allow you to play longer before crashing, assuming you crash at all at that point. If Nvidia and SE ever agree to optimize for Nvidia better, then we may be able to return the TDR timeout back to its default value.