Over the weekend, boards across the Internet exploded with information of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 crashing in video games for some customers, adopted by (very knowledgeable) hypothesis by Igor Wallossek at Igor’s Lab that a part of the difficulty may by attributable to the capacitors used on varied customized boards. Read our explainer on the GeForce RTX 3080 crashing issues if you wish to know extra.
On Monday morning, Nvidia launched new GeForce Game Ready drivers that seem to repair the steadiness points. We had been capable of check the drivers on a on a hard RTX 3080 graphics card in PCWorld’s possession.
Nvidia’s article concerning the 456.55 Game Ready drivers overtly mentions solely enabling Nvidia Reflex in Call of Duty. But buried deep in the release notes had been an attention-grabbing tidbit: “The new Game Ready Driver also improves stability in certain games on RTX 30 Series GPUs.”
I’ve a customized GeForce RTX 3080 brimming with an all-POSCAP capacitor configuration that reliably crashed in Horizon Zero Dawn with the older, unique 456.38 drivers. The new 456.55 Game Ready drivers certainly places an finish to that, however it appears prefer it does so by barely limiting the utmost GPU Boost clock pace. Let’s dig in.
The graphics card that by no means launched
The EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 playing cards you should buy embrace totally different capacitors than my pre-production model; you may see it contains MLCC arrays between the black, rectangular POSCAPs on the rear of the GPU.
If you learn our information to the RTX 3080 crashing points, you’ll know that EVGA considerably confirmed Igor’s evaluation that the kind of capacitor used can have an effect on efficiency. EVGA’s hotly anticipated RTX 3080 FTW3 graphics card was delayed as a result of the unique configuration solely used POSCAP capacitors doubtlessly tied to the crashing points. (Again, learn our RTX 3080 crashing information to be taught the distinction between POSCAP and MLCC capacitors.) Here’s what product supervisor Jacob Freeman stated in an EVGA assertion:
“During our mass manufacturing QC testing we found a full 6 POSCAPs resolution can not go the true world purposes testing. It took virtually per week of R&D effort to search out the trigger and scale back the POSCAPs to 4 and add 20 MLCC caps previous to delivery manufacturing boards, for this reason the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 collection was delayed at launch. There had been no 6 POSCAP manufacturing EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 boards shipped.
But, because of the time crunch, among the reviewers had been despatched a pre-production model with 6 POSCAP’s, we’re working with these reviewers straight to interchange their boards with manufacturing variations. EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 XC3 collection with 5 POSCAPs + 10 MLCC resolution is matched with the XC3 spec with out points.”
To be completely clear in case you missed it: EVGA is not delivery FTW3 playing cards with an all-POSCAP setup, which couldn’t go real-world testing. They delayed the cardboard to incorporate an MLCC array to make sure stability. The playing cards you should buy must be high-quality.
But what are you aware: I simply so occur to have a kind of early pre-production FTW3 samples with six POSCAPs. And sure, I may get it to crash repeatedly whereas gaming.
POSCAPs vs. Horizon Zero Dawn
I’d shelved reviewing this FTW3 as a result of EVGA advised me they’d be delivery me a brand new one which matches the configuration patrons acquired. But after all of the ruckus I made a decision to poke at my pre-production POSCAP pattern to see if I may get it to misbehave reliably. I may.
My pre-production EVGA FTW3 comes full of POSCAPs and nary an MLCC module in sight, not like the fashions you may really purchase.
On the all-POSCAP FTW3, utilizing Nvidia’s unique 456.38 drivers, the Horizon Zero Dawn benchmark persistently crashes at 1440p decision on our check system. (Our GeForce RTX 3080 review contains full check system particulars.) Other video games work high-quality; even HZD works high-quality at 4K; however it all the time crashes at 1440p, and so arduous that it takes out GPU-Z, too.
As affected customers have stated in a number of discussion board posts, the crashing seems tied to the GPU clock pace. Popping open EVGA’s wonderful Precision X1 software program, I discovered that the benchmark largely ran at 2010MHz, and labored simply high-quality whereas doing so. About two-thirds of the best way into the benchmark, there’s a scene the place the digital camera swoops by means of a courtyard stuffed with folks. That’s the place the cardboard crashed. Precision X1 revealed that at that second, the GPU clock pace hits 2025MHz, then plummets when the sport locks up.
Crash, bang
After letting the crash type out, I popped open Microsoft’s Event Viewer to see what errors occurred. The sport’s executable tossed out a D3DDRED2 error, which prompted Windows to spawn a LiveKernel 141 (generic {hardware} element failure) occasion. That in flip pressured the nvlddmkm show driver to cease working and finally reset.
RIP show driver.
This occurred each time I ran the benchmark. I suffered by means of six benchmark-crash-repeat runs to make sure the reliability of the unreliability. (Almost) each time I attempted, the GPU clock hit 2025MHz in that scene and crashed the sport.
New Nvidia drivers repair crashing
After that, I ran the incredible Display Driver Uninstaller software to wipe Nvidia’s 456.38 drivers from my system, and put in the brand new 456.55 drivers with promised stability fixes. That made Horizon Zero Dawn repeat its excruciating shader optimization course of, however after that, the sport simply labored. I’ve rerun the benchmark 5 instances with the 456.55 drivers put in and efficiently accomplished each run. To quote Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang from the GeForce RTX 20-series reveal, it simply works.
But the all-POSCAP EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 doesn’t behave fairly the identical as earlier than.
As you may see on this Precision X1 screenshot, clock speeds in HZD prime out simply shy of 2GHz with the brand new Nvidia drivers put in, not like earlier than. (It goes greater in menu screens.)
As I stated, with the unique drivers, the HZD benchmark ran at a largely constant 2010MHz on this GPU till it hit the 2025MHz wall and crapped out. With Nvidia’s new 456.55 drivers, the the GPU clock pace in Horizon Zero Dawn now flitters between 1980MHz and 1995MHz (although it may possibly nonetheless hit a steady 2010MHz in menu screens). Nvidia’s repair seems to be dialing again most efficiency with the GPU Boost characteristic. I’ve requested Nvidia for extra particulars about what the brand new drivers do to enhance stability and can replace this with extra information if I hear again.
To put this in correct context, these most GPU Boost clock speeds stay effectively above the rated increase speeds for these playing cards. The “fix” leads to such a minor pace distinction that you just received’t virtually discover it within the sport itself. After repeatedly hammering the benchmark, I managed to get HZD to finish a 1440p run as soon as with the unique, borked drivers. It averaged 129 frames per second. With the brand new, barely lower-clocked drivers put in, it averaged both 127 or 128 frames per second throughout three runs. That’s basically the identical efficiency. When I examined the Nvidia RTX 3080 Founders Edition with the brand new drivers, there was no efficiency or energy draw change in anyway, although it didn’t come near breaking the 2GHz barrier.
To be clear as soon as extra: The EVGA RTX 3080 FT3 fashions you may really purchase don’t use this all-POSCAP capacitor configuration. The manufacturing playing cards deploy MLCC for added stability. Because EVGA caught the difficulty early, this doesn’t have an effect on FTW3 playing cards on retailer cabinets.
If a fast driver replace is all it takes to repair this difficulty on customized boards with six POSCAPs—just like the Zotac Trinity—or no matter else is inflicting stability points, then nice. We’ll must do extra testing to see if the brand new sub-2GHz restrict imposed in HZD with the 456.55 drivers carries over to different situations, to find out if this transformation impacts the very topmost efficiency within the very quickest customized RTX 3080 fashions on the market. (A fast run of the F1 2020 benchmark confirmed barely slower clock speeds there, too.)
But for now, in case you’ve been fortunate sufficient to attain a GeForce RTX 3080 or 3090, however unfortunate sufficient to get one which suffers from crashes, go download Nvidia’s Game Ready 456.55 drivers pronto. The new drivers must be out there through GeForce Experience as effectively. If our experiences with HZD is any indication, it could possibly be the repair for what ails you. Update: Users of the r/nvidia subreddit report an finish to crashing with their RTX 3080 playing cards in varied video games, too.
Stay tuned for our full overview of the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 (with MLCC put in) within the days to return. Spoiler: It’s good!
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