My wife's Windows 11 gaming PC has a Ryzen 5 5600X, Sapphire RX 6700 XT, and 16GB of RAM. Over the past month, games have started freezing or crashing. Earlier, the entire computer sometimes locked up, but lately only the games have been closing.
The CPU was reaching about 90°C while gaming, so I replaced the thermal paste and temperatures are now back to normal. I also reduced the GPU clock because the card may have been running aggressively, then lowered the RAM speed from 2666 to 2400 MHz. Games installed on both the SSD and HDD are affected, so I doubt one particular drive is responsible. Drivers are up to date.
What else should I check when I get home? Could this be related to temperatures, memory stability, BIOS or Windows updates, VRAM, or something else?
4 Answers
Since the crashes happen under load, memory stability is a possibility. Try running a proper memory test and, if any overclock or memory profile is enabled in the BIOS, temporarily return everything to default settings. Updating the motherboard BIOS may also help with memory training and system stability, but make sure important data is backed up first.
Look through Windows reliability history and Event Viewer around the exact time of a crash. The error details may point to a display-driver reset, application fault, hardware error, or memory problem. It may also be worth checking whether a recent Windows 11 or AMD driver update coincides with when the crashes started.
Monitor CPU and GPU temperatures, clock speeds, and usage while the game is running. Since the CPU reached around 90°C during gaming, overheating or unstable boosting is still worth investigating even after changing the thermal paste. Also check GPU hotspot temperature, not just the regular GPU temperature.
VRAM exhaustion is possible in demanding games, especially with high textures or resolution, but it usually affects particular games rather than everything. Try lowering texture quality and watching VRAM usage. If that does not change anything, a clean graphics-driver reinstall and testing the system at completely stock settings would be good next steps.
The CPU temperature mentioned was measured while gaming. I'll check the GPU hotspot and run a memory test as well.