VR frequently crashes, directing the issue to the GPU despite recent upgrades.
VR frequently crashes, directing the issue to the GPU despite recent upgrades.
Here are some specs:
CPU:
AMD 9800x3d (previously 7800x3d)
GPU:
Palit 5080 GamingPro OC (previously Merc 310 7900 XTX)
GPU Riser:
NZXT vertical GPU mounting kit
Mobo:
NZXT N7 B650E
RAM:
2x16GB Corsair Vengeance 6000 CL30
PSU:
Refurbed Corsair RM1000e FMod 80PLUS Gold
VR:
Meta Quest 3
Peripherals:
Steering wheel, pedals, haptics..etc all on individual USB ports
OS:
Windows 11 Pro (26100.3915 24H2)
GPU Driver:
Geforce Driver 576.28 (though just seen that 2 days ago 576.40 was released, so going to upgrade)
I mainly play iRacing, and don't play enough other games over PCVR to know if it's specific to the game, though have had enough crashes in other non-VR games to still raise the concern (Rust primarily).
When I had my 7900xtx, occasionally whilst racing using PC Link (USB) my VR would crash the PC. From inside the headset, I'd get black borders and I could still look around (very laggy), but the image I was looking at was static. At the same time, my steering wheel would lock full left. Sometimes after around 20 seconds, my PC would recover and I'd get a GPU driver timeout error. My VR would still not work until a pc reboot either. If I went to EventViewer on these occasions, it showed me a LiveKernelEvent 141 or 142, and iRacings own logs would suggest that my GPU "Device Hung".
A workaround to calm this down seemed to be to uninstall the full AMD Adrenaline package and go back to bare bone driver install, which still made it happen occasionally but seemingly less. Could have been pure coincidence. I did multiple DDU and reinstalls at the time. I kept up to date with the new drivers as they were released, tried the beta program, and the issue persevered throughout.
I eventually got annoyed with it, and seeing that the nVidia range could get better performance on iRacing both through SPS and Foveated rendering, so bought a 5080 thinking it would solve all my issues (and picked up a 9800x3d at the same time), however I carried on getting the exact same crash symptoms and the LiveKernelEvent 141/142s, along with the some errors on EventViewer, which typically would be one or both of the below (I used to get EventViewer errors but since my wipe I can't see them of course):
Somewhere around here I thought that maybe it's because, despite using DDU, I still had remnants of the old AMD drivers so did a full fresh install of windows and redownload of everything, yet it persevered.
I've tried overclocking (both manually and from nVidias auto tool), upping power limit to 105%, underclocking (-200MHz on both clocks), lowering power limit to 95%, and nothing seems to help.
I figured that being as I have a lot of USB peripherals, between steering wheels, pedals, haptics...etc. and that the VR headset was running on USB too, maybe it was a USB bandwidth/power issue. I bought a powered USB hub to run it through and made sure my VR was straight to a mobo port, however still continued.
I've now started trying to run through Virtual Desktop over wi-fi. I have a great connection seemingly and for the most part I get good performance. However, I get the same crashes again. They seem to come out of nowhere; it's not like my frame rates start going up or anything.. it runs smoothly up until the exact moment everything just freezes. This time I'm still getting the nvlddmkm error, and also got this appear in the bottom right (though can't find a log where I can read the full message after it disappeared):
At the time, it closed the game and crashed SteamVR, but everything else carried on running.
I'm at a loss. So in summary, I'm still getting issues that look seemingly related to GPU despite having a new GPU from a different brand, installed on a fresh wipe of windows, and utilising a VR headset across both USB and/or wifi."
I think there might be a problem here.
PSU:
Refurbished Corsair RM1000e FMod 80PLUS Gold
Completed the OCCT power supply test successfully, no issues found.
The approach was reasonable at the time for saving money, though it felt a bit rushed.
Is there any method to track power fluctuations during gameplay and notice spikes or drops, or are they usually too short for loggers to capture? I’m thinking more like trying to figure out the cause of a crash by guessing settings rather than getting clear data.
Before Virtual Desktop (which was previously running through SteamVR), I was using Oculus Link and still had the issue. Max Cars is already at the lowest.
I've used AI and googled a bit, and it led me down a path of analysing the watchdog LiveKernelEvent dmp file. I pasted it into AI, and here was it's output:
Whilst the errors above showed that so it wasn't the definitive piece I was hoping for, it did lead on to some further discussion around settings. Based on that and the recommendations that followed, I have so far today made the following changes:
Disabled "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling"
Installed AMD chipset drivers
Added a Tdrdelay registry key with a value of 10
Disabled nVidia audio in device manager
Disabled SteamVR as the OpenXR codec, and using VDXR instead
Turned on "Performance" mode in the nVidia Control Panel's power management
Whilst knowing what fixes it would be great, I'm more in a position of just wanting it fixed so until it comes to spending money, don't mind doing multiple things at once. I may eat those words if I make it worse.
I'm going to do some races tonight and will hopefully get a gauge on whether it's fixed or not, with the intention of doing nothing else until the next crash.
Additional suggestions, both from here and AI/google, are:
New PSU
Remove the vertical riser for the GPU
Disable XMP
Thank you for sharing this. I truly understand your feelings and situation. Have the same upgrade path and end up in the exact same place.
I've tried everything, performed multiple reinstalls, switched to virtual desktop via the link. Still experiencing random crashes.
I've been struggling for months, and iRacing support can't provide any helpful advice.
Have you found a solution yet? Or are you still facing problems?
I will update the thread if I discover a fix, but it would be a waste of money and time since my setup is specifically for iRacing and doesn't work in this case.