I've built a high-performance gaming PC, but for some reason, I keep having trouble launching games. I thought I had updated my BIOS, but after double-checking, it turns out that was the problem. Before that, I was really struggling to run games like Apex Legends, Dishonored, and others without immediate crashes. My specs include an RTX 4080 GPU, i9-13900K CPU, ASUS ROG motherboard, and significant storage and cooling solutions. I've tried reinstalling Windows multiple times, but nothing seems to fix the issues. Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this?
3 Answers
It sounds like a hardware issue, especially since you've done multiple clean Windows installs without fixing the crashes. First, let's ensure all your drivers are up to date, especially the GPU drivers straight from NVIDIA. Missing or outdated drivers can lead to problems. Also, check the temperatures of your CPU and GPU while running a game; the 13900K can get pretty hot. Tools like HWInfo64 can help with that.
Did you check your BIOS settings? Sometimes a simple update or even a reset can solve strange issues. If you’ve updated the BIOS recently, try lowering the CPU voltages or adjusting some clock speeds. If not, you definitely want to get that BIOS updated.
I found out that the BIOS might've been the real issue! It's frustrating because I thought I'd updated it at the beginning of the year.
Make sure you’re aware of potential issues with Intel's 13th-gen CPUs. Some might experience degradation. Also, if you're running with 4 sticks of DDR5, that can lead to stability problems. Consider testing with just 2 sticks for now to see if that helps.
Thanks for the tip! I was thinking about upgrading to 4 sticks later, but I'll keep this in mind.
Glad you mentioned the temperatures; I'm interested to see how they're holding up. Have you checked whether the power supply is sufficient during high loads?