GPU overheating issues: it runs hot, then it doesn't. What's going on?

So, I've got this 7700 VTX that a buddy just handed over to me...
Man, it is absolutely overheating today, like seriously. I was playing Fallout 3 last night for hours and the temps never even touched 68°C, but today it's spiking past 100°C and just crashing straight back to my desktop...

I'm checking MSI Afterburner, and it shows the GPU1 clock speed at 1150MHz, but then I remember that when I was gaming yesterday, it was only showing 400MHz? I honestly have no clue what's going on here.

Basically—yesterday I could game for hours, but today I can't even last five minutes before it dies...

Edit: Okay, looking closer at Afterburner, the clock stays at 400MHz and when it does that, it doesn't overheat... but if it somehow manages to jump up to a real 1150MHz, then it starts cooking itself. The games actually run fine at 400MHz, stuff like GTA V, Fallout 4, and Fallout 3...

It's just so weird to me that it keeps reading only 400MHz.

And now, it's not overheating again... because the clock is stuck at 400MHz (that's it).

Quick update: I’ve been digging around online and it looks like everyone is dealing with this exact same headache... basically, the second my GPU hits full load at 1150MHz, it just overheats and dies on me. I keep getting that annoying "display driver stopped working" error message. If I somehow manage to keep it running at a measly 400MHz, then I can actually play stuff, and even though MSI Kombustor works at that speed, the performance is honestly terrible—I mean, I can run Fallout 3 on Ultra at 75fps if I throttle it down to 400MHz, and GTA V stays around 40-60fps with decent settings, but it’s painfully obvious the card is capable of so much more than this.

How do I fix this mess? And also, is it possible to install drivers without using Catalyst? I’m starting to suspect the issue lies somewhere within BBB.

Intel A10 6790k, 4GB RAM, VTX3D Radeon 7770 1GB X-Edition, PSU: Seasonic 430W 80+ Bronze.
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/b47...x-edition.html
I was thinking maybe it’s a power supply issue, but wouldn't the entire PC just shut down if that were the case?

So, it just throws an error saying the display driver crashed and recovered... though sometimes I actually have to hard reboot the whole computer (especially when I was testing it in Kombustor). Even when I drop the clock speed down to just 575MHz, the thing still crashes out on me...

Seriously guys, help me out here—do you think I should try repasting the card?

I doubt it's the power supply; you've got a pretty solid unit there.

First off—maybe try stripping it down completely to get all that dust out and swap the thermal paste. I’d also check if the fan is even spinning properly. Maybe set the fan curve manually to 100% just to see what kind of RPM you're actually getting.

Roger Gray8 said:Quick update: I’ve been digging around online and it looks like everyone is dealing with this exact same headache... basically, the second my GPU hits full load at 1150MHz, it just overheats and dies on me. I keep getting that annoying "display driver stopped working" error message. If I somehow manage to keep it running at a measly 400MHz, then I can actually play stuff, and even though MSI Kombustor works at that speed, the performance is honestly terrible—I mean, I can run Fallout 3 on Ultra at 75fps if I throttle it down to 400MHz, and GTA V stays around 40-60fps with decent settings, but it’s painfully obvious the card is capable of so much more than this.

How do I fix this mess? And also, is it possible to install drivers without using Catalyst? I’m starting to suspect the issue lies somewhere within BBB.

Intel A10 6790k, 4GB RAM, VTX3D Radeon 7770 1GB X-Edition, PSU: Seasonic 430W 80+ Bronze.
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/b47...x-edition.html
I was thinking maybe it’s a power supply issue, but wouldn't the entire PC just shut down if that were the case?

So, it just throws an error saying the display driver crashed and recovered... though sometimes I actually have to hard reboot the whole computer (especially when I was testing it in Kombustor). Even when I drop the clock speed down to just 575MHz, the thing still crashes out on me...

Seriously guys, help me out here—do you think I should try repasting the card?

Look, just go hunt down a stable driver for your GPU manually. Old ones, new ones, whatever... drivers and Catalyst can be a total mess sometimes. Just install them, test them out, and once you find one that actually works, stick with it.😁

William Richardson12 said:Look, just go hunt down a stable driver for your GPU manually. Old ones, new ones, whatever... drivers and Catalyst can be a total mess sometimes. Just install them, test them out, and once you find one that actually works, stick with it.😁

Wait, did you seriously not mention that?

@fadedorca66, the fan is spinning like crazy.

Because like I was saying, if I push it up by even 400MHz, the whole thing just overheats and crashes.

Got a tip from someone who knows more than I do: "tell him to set the core clock to 1100 MHz and the memory clock to 1250 MHz in Afterburner." Give that a shot... might be some weird driver issue tripping it up when it switches from idle to full load.

Also: "make sure he grabs the latest beta drivers for that thing."

William Richardson12 said:Got a tip from someone who knows more than I do: "tell him to set the core clock to 1100 MHz and the memory clock to 1250 MHz in Afterburner." Give that a shot... might be some weird driver issue tripping it up when it switches from idle to full load.

Also: "make sure he grabs the latest beta drivers for that thing."

Nah, that's not even it. It was probably just the thermal paste, right? Now that it's been repasted, it's running smooth as silk.

Sweet. If things actually stop crashing for once, we might be in business... 👍

William Richardson12 said:Sweet. If things actually stop crashing for once, we might be in business... 👍

She ran 20 minutes of the FurMark stress test at 1150MHz, and it didn't even break 67°C.

Before long, their friend is going to come crawling back. 😬

Kimberly Gomez34 said:Before long, their friend is going to come crawling back. 😬

🤣🤣🤣