I recently bought an EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra 12GB, but games frequently crash during play. Sometimes they close to the desktop, while other times the screen freezes and audio continues in the background. I have reinstalled the graphics drivers twice without resolving the problem.
Event Viewer shows nvlddmkm Event ID 13, nvlddmkm Event ID 153, LiveKernelEvent 141, and Application Hang Event ID 1002 involving Cities2.exe. Could the GPU power connection be responsible? I am currently using a daisy-chained PCIe power cable and have the GPU power limit set to 85% in Afterburner.
System specifications:
CPU: Intel Core i7-13700K
GPU: EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra
Motherboard: ASUS Prime
RAM: 32 GB
Storage: Kingston NVMe SSD and Seagate HDD
PSU: Corsair 1000 W
Cooling: AIO liquid cooler
OS: Windows 11
2 Answers
Those errors point to the NVIDIA driver or GPU crashing, which will usually take the game down with it. Start with the power connection: use a separate PCIe cable from the power supply for each connector on the graphics card instead of using one daisy-chained cable. A 1000 W PSU should have enough capacity, but the individual cable connections still matter.
If that does not help, use Display Driver Uninstaller in Safe Mode and install a fresh driver. If the newest driver continues to fail, testing an older stable version is worthwhile. Also run OCCT VRAM and 3D tests, along with FurMark. Errors or driver crashes during those tests would suggest a hardware or configuration problem, though not necessarily a failed card.
It is also worth checking the card in another PCIe slot after confirming the power cables are connected properly. Run a malware scan as a basic precaution, but the NVIDIA driver errors and LiveKernelEvent 141 make the GPU, its power delivery, or its configuration more likely than a game-specific issue.
I ran OCCT and GPU-Z soon after installing the card, and the results looked good. I am starting to suspect the daisy-chained cable or power spikes, even with the power limit set to 85%. I am going to try another dedicated PCIe cable and retest.