OA 1.59 - Frequent CTD - NVIDIA nvlddmkm error

[OMAC 254]

I was using the 266.58's after the update and had HORRIBLE performance with any kind of AA enabled, with or w/o AToC.

Someone suggested to try the 270.51 betas and ever since performance impact is a lot less. Although it may not be the same for dual-GPU cards, several people have reported better performance.

I have avoided the 270 beta as the rel notes don't say anything about improvements/fixes for 200 series cards. For your awesome 560, though, I am not surprised at all that you have better performance:

GeForce GTX 560 Ti:

Up to 461% in Dragon Age 2 (SLI 1920x1200 8xAA/16xAF, Very High)

Up to 241% in Dragon Age 2 (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF, Very High)

Up to 19% in Just Cause 2 (SLI 2560x1600 8xAA/16xAF, Concrete Jungle)

Up to 13% in Just Cause 2 (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF, Concrete Jungle)

Up to 6% in Far Cry 2 (SLI 2560x1600 8xAA/16xAF, Max settings)

Up to 5% in Call of Duty: Black Ops (1920x1200 noAA/AF, Jungle Map)

Up to 5% in H.A.W.X. 2 (SLI 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF, Max settings)

Up to 4% in Call of Duty: Black Ops (SLI 2560x1600 4xAA/16xAF, Jungle Map)

Up to 4% in Civilization V (1920x1200 noAA/AF, Max settings)

Up to 4% in Left 4 Dead 2 (SLI 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF, Outdoor)

Up to 4% in Metro 2033 (SLI 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF, PhysX on)

My poor ol' 295 flagship is being left behind. :(

[Tom_Pynchon 10]

"I assume that something in the new patch is overtaxing my GTX 295. With the very high settings I have been using, my gpu temps will run as high as 89 deg C. I have had to start messing around with my A2 video settings for many hours to maximize fps and detail while keeping gpu temps down. Does anyone else notice significant performance differences with 1.59? I'm using 266.58 driver, multi-gpu, single display, triple buffering on, all other nvidia settings default." -OMAC

I had posted something about this earlier, but that was in relation to the 1.58 patch. I've observed an increase in average gaming temps with the 1.59 patch, as well, but what I've seen on my set up does not even come close to the 89 degrees you mention above. Using the 266.58 driver, I get up to around 72°C on my top card now whereas I used to get an average of around 65°c on both cards with the earlier 1.57 patch. My ARMA 2 graphics profile has just about everything on high or very high save for AA, AF and post-processing, all of which I have at normal to keep average framerates hovering between the 45 to 55 FPS mark. (Good performance increase with 1.59!)

Have you thought about configuring a more aggressive fan profile? It sucks when you have to lower graphic settings just to reduce system heat. Try ramping up your fan speed to a degree where the noise is tolerable for you, then go check your temps. I presently have the fans on my main card up to 70% speed. How's your cable management and stuff?

I've likewise heard the 270.51 driver tends to kick up GPU temps on all cards-- so that is something we should watch out for when the WHQL version is finally issued.

Anyways, hope you find a satisfactory workaround.

Edited April 8, 2011 by Tom_Pynchon

[OMAC 254]

Thanks for the info, Tom. The idle temp on the fanless card of my 295 averages about 57-59 deg C (about 55-56 for the card with the fan). My system is air-cooled only. Do you suggest NVIDIA system tools to regulate the fan speed? Or EVGA Precision? I have never messed around with fan profiles.

What cables should I check?

After blowing away fine dust with compressed air, A2/OA runs at least 4-5 degrees cooler. BFBC2 at maxed settings runs in the high 80s. Those temps are pushing it, but everything seems to run pretty well. As I wrote above, I think it was the 1.59 AToC that was causing the CTDs which were the primary subject of this thread. Turning AToC off has made the CTDs go away and enables me to run at settings in post #12 quite nicely.

Higher temps in the 270 drivers are all I need! :mad: I'll be sure to watch out for that. Thanks for the heads-up.

Edit:

I've never liked Nvidia system tools, and it doesn't seem to do much. I just installed Precision, and will post back if I can crank up the fans and lower my temps!

Edit:

That Precision is AWESOME. Cranked the fan up to 55%, and idle temps went down by about 4-5 degrees! Do you suggest that before starting A2/OA, I start Precision and crank up the fan, or should I have Precision start when Windows starts and constantly run the fan at higher than normal speeds. The default idle speed is 41%.

Edited April 8, 2011 by OMAC

[liquidpinky 11]

That Precision is AWESOME. Cranked the fan up to 55%, and idle temps went down by about 4-5 degrees! Do you suggest that before starting A2/OA, I start Precision and crank up the fan, or should I have Precision start when Windows starts and constantly run the fan at higher than normal speeds. The default idle speed is 41%.

Just start it before the game, unless you do get high temp problems then give it a cooling run before starting the game. I would tend to only do a pre-cooling run before benchmarking an overclocked card though, if you need to do it with a card that isn't overclocked to play a game you need to look into your case airflow a little more.

EVGA precision is good though, handy for keeping an eye on the cards CPU and memory usage in game to give you an idea of what is limiting your performance or where you can make adjustments to get the best out of it.

[=wfl= sgt bilko 10]

Some googling gives that the "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding" is:

- Not limited to nvidia but also appears with ATI and Intel gfx.

- Mostly on systems running SLI/crossfire

- Microsoft has some info about the problem related to timing issues.

- Started in Vista and carried on in Win7 (presumably they made some core changes to GFX in Vista).

I had the same problem with my SLI GTX460 set up. It got really bad after the windows update in December last year. If I disabled SLI and run on only one card I had no problems. Ended up swapping the two GTX460 for one 580. No problems after that (and it also fixed some horrible texture flickering I had in BFBC2 Vietnam add-on).

[Tom_Pynchon 10]

What cables should I check?

After blowing away fine dust with compressed air, A2/OA runs at least 4-5 degrees cooler. BFBC2 at maxed settings runs in the high 80s. Those temps are pushing it, but everything seems to run pretty well. As I wrote above, I think it was the 1.59 AToC that was causing the CTDs which were the primary subject of this thread. Turning AToC off has made the CTDs go away and enables me to run at settings in post #12 quite nicely.

Higher temps in the 270 drivers are all I need! :mad: I'll be sure to watch out for that. Thanks for the heads-up.

Edit:

I've never liked Nvidia system tools, and it doesn't seem to do much. I just installed Precision, and will post back if I can crank up the fans and lower my temps!

Edit:

That Precision is AWESOME. Cranked the fan up to 55%, and idle temps went down by about 4-5 degrees! Do you suggest that before starting A2/OA, I start Precision and crank up the fan, or should I have Precision start when Windows starts and constantly run the fan at higher than normal speeds. The default idle speed is 41%.

Which cables would depend on your set up, really. Just tuck them away neatly somewhere that they don't hamper with the airflow. I reduced temps on my PC by around 7°C that way -- and, of course, a routine cleaning sked would do wonders, as well.

I use the Nvidia system tools to adjust fan speed. I really don't fiddle with the GPUs that much -- mine are running on stock clocks. I hear Precision is much better, yes.

I'm not sure about the idle temps on the 295. I hear it's an excellent bit of kit. I'd say try to keep your idle and load temps at par with Nvidia's stipulations, if not lower. Have you checked the NVidia website for normal or safe temps for the 295 at idle and full load? I've a friend who owns a GTX 295 and he's seen some high temps, as well. But then today's chips are meant to endure really high temps -- some say (I'm not sure with what accuracy) as high as 105°C. The GTX 470, for instance, has a normal load temp that runs into the mid 90s. I never let my GPU temps go up that high, though.

So the 1.59 makes GPUs work a bit harder, it seems. That's good in a way, right? I mean, this game can churn out some truly stunning graphics at times, and when you've got your cards cranked up and performing well, you get to see things that conjure warm, fuzzy feelings in the heart -- like attack aviation blowing a couple of technicals into kingdom come. Haha!

Anyways, glad to hear you've made some progress cutting that heat down to a manageable level. System temps are of some consideration to me right now, as well. (I'm presently assigned to a post in the tropics and ambient temps here can run as high as 37°c at noontime! Jeez!)

Edited April 8, 2011 by Tom_Pynchon

[OMAC 254]

Liquidpinky: Thanks a lot for the info. I enabled an auto fan control profile, and will keep Precision running while I play games.

=WFL= Sgt Bilko: Very useful info - thanks. I wonder if the new dual-cpu GTX 590 will experience those errors?

Tom_Pynchon:"Have you checked the NVidia website for normal or safe temps for the 295 at idle and full load?" Ah ha! I've never seen those - I'll try and find them. Do you know the URL? Googling shows people have some idle speeds around 69-70 :j: and generally higher temps all around. One person said that the 295 can handle up to 120, but an NVIDIA person once said that high 80s are near the "upper end" of the safe temp range. It is good that BIS is adding cool new graphics tech in the new patch, but those CTDs are bad news, and few people seem to like the AToC effects. BIS has mentioned some bugs in the AToC implementation also. Thanks for all the useful info!!!!! :)

[OMAC 254]

Apparently NVIDIA System Tools does not support fan control for GeForce GPUs, only overclocking and temp monitoring. It does support full control of nForce GPUs. ???

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_system_tools_6.06.html

Edited April 10, 2011 by OMAC

[OMAC 254]

Some googling gives that the "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding" is:

- Not limited to nvidia but also appears with ATI and Intel gfx.

- Mostly on systems running SLI/crossfire

- Microsoft has some info about the problem related to timing issues.

- Started in Vista and carried on in Win7 (presumably they made some core changes to GFX in Vista).

I had the same problem with my SLI GTX460 set up. It got really bad after the windows update in December last year. If I disabled SLI and run on only one card I had no problems. Ended up swapping the two GTX460 for one 580. No problems after that (and it also fixed some horrible texture flickering I had in BFBC2 Vietnam add-on).

If the problem is mainly to do with SLI/Crossfire, it is interesting to note that A2/OA is the ONLY game in which the problem occurs with my GTX 295. With Crysis, BFBC2, Far Cry 2, Deadspace, Bioshock, COD:MW, Quake4, Doom3, etc, etc. - No CTDs. So, it looks like the A2/OA graphics engine has a problem with SLI, eh?

[liquidpinky 11]

Watcha, the "no problems with SLi" police will be on your ass shortly for even daring to suggest such a thing.

I'll see you in the cells mate, already doing time for mentioning SLi can be problematic in A2.

Unfortunately I am unable to disable it now thanks to using NVIDIA surround, the latest drivers don't permit it.

[no use for a name 0]

Apparently NVIDIA System Tools does not support fan control for GeForce GPUs, only overclocking and temp monitoring. It does support full control of nForce GPUs. ???

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_system_tools_6.06.html

You also need to dl nTune to add the more advanced OC'ing/monitoring tools: http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

It will "integrate" into the nVidia CP and add fan control once installed.

[=wfl= sgt bilko 10]

If the problem is mainly to do with SLI/Crossfire, it is interesting to note that A2/OA is the ONLY game in which the problem occurs with my GTX 295. With Crysis, BFBC2, Far Cry 2, Deadspace, Bioshock, COD:MW, Quake4, Doom3, etc, etc. - No CTDs. So, it looks like the A2/OA graphics engine has a problem with SLI, eh?

I can't speak for your set up and I'm sure there are plenty of people who have no problems at all in some/all/no games.

I only report what I saw after a few hours googling and from my own experience.

There are a lot of people posting all over the net about this. It's been on and off since Vista release but there's a lot more posts after Windows update of December'10 and many of these people running multi GPU setups.

Personally, I never had any gfx problems in A2 but I started having serious CTDs in COD:BO and BFBC2 and also a lot of weird texture flickering mainly in BFBC2:Vietnam after that December patch.

My first thought was overheating but GPU-Z told another story.

For test, I disabled SLI and run games on one of the GTX460 for a few days and then on the other without any problems at all.

That's when I gave up on SLI and just swapped one of the GTX460 for a GTX580, keeping the other GTX460 for PhysX and secondary monitor. Haven't had any problems since then. Maybe I was just lucky (or unlucky since I ended up wasting more money on yet another gfx-card).

I guess my bottom line is that I don't think it's related to any specific games or gfx brand but rather (as M$ already pointed out) a matter of timing issues that might be more prominent on multi GPU systems. I also think the only ones who can actually find out what it is and fix it is M$.

Edited April 11, 2011 by =WFL= Sgt Bilko

[OMAC 254]

You also need to dl nTune to add the more advanced OC'ing/monitoring tools: http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

It will "integrate" into the nVidia CP and add fan control once installed.

Thanks, but ntune only supports nForce, not GeForce. (What the heck is nForce, anyway? Very old card series?) And it doesn't work on Win 7 (it was released 3.5 years ago).

So, it still looks like software from NVIDIA is unavailable for fan control for NVIDIA GeForce cards. I find that hard to believe. :confused:

But it's moot since EVGA Precision works GREAT! :bounce3:

---------- Post added at 06:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:47 PM ----------

Watcha, the "no problems with SLi" police will be on your ass shortly for even daring to suggest such a thing.

I'll see you in the cells mate, already doing time for mentioning SLi can be problematic in A2.

Unfortunately I am unable to disable it now thanks to using NVIDIA surround, the latest drivers don't permit it.

I just got an e-mail from BIS saying that my A2/OA license and forum privileges have been revoked for blasphemy. ;)

---------- Post added at 06:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 PM ----------

I can't speak for your set up and I'm sure there are plenty of people who have no problems at all in some/all/no games.

I only report what I saw after a few hours googling and from my own experience.

There are a lot of people posting all over the net about this. It's been on and off since Vista release but there's a lot more posts after Windows update of December'10 and many of these people running multi GPU setups.

Personally, I never had any gfx problems in A2 but I started having serious CTDs in COD:BO and BFBC2 and also a lot of weird texture flickering mainly in BFBC2:Vietnam after that December patch.

My first thought was overheating but GPU-Z told another story.

For test, I disabled SLI and run games on one of the GTX460 for a few days and then on the other without any problems at all.

That's when I gave up on SLI and just swapped one of the GTX460 for a GTX580, keeping the other GTX460 for PhysX and secondary monitor. Haven't had any problems since then. Maybe I was just lucky (or unlucky since I ended up wasting more money on yet another gfx-card).

I guess my bottom line is that I don't think it's related to any specific games or gfx brand but rather (as M$ already pointed out) a matter of timing issues that might be more prominent on multi GPU systems. I also think the only ones who can actually find out what it is and fix it is M$.

So you never had any CTDs using SLI with A2/OA, just with other games? Who is M$?

[=wfl= sgt bilko 10]

Sorry I was a bit unclear there. By CTD I don't mean immediate Crash to Desktop but rather the sudden freeze of games with the dreaded "Display driver xxxxxxx stopped responding" popup and then the game some times work again and other times CTD.

M$ = microsoft.

[OMAC 254]

Sorry I was a bit unclear there. By CTD I don't mean immediate Crash to Desktop but rather the sudden freeze of games with the dreaded "Display driver xxxxxxx stopped responding" popup and then the game some times work again and other times CTD.

M$ = microsoft.

Thanks. I agree that M$ may be the only ones that can fix it, but for me the problem definitely has something to do with AToC in A2/OA 1.59, at least for the most part. With AToC=0 the CTDs (and "Display driver xxxxxxx stopped responding" error in Event Viewer, but no popup) generally go away. When the CTDs happen with AToC enabled, sometimes they will recur even with AToC disabled unless I reboot. Before A2 1.59, I only rarely got the NVIDIA error, sometimes in A2 and sometimes with Windows Media Player - I had thought that the problem had something to do with NVIDIA drivers, among other things like timing, etc.

So, for me, GTX 295 SLI + 266.58 driver + A2/OA + 1.59 + AToC = CTD after a few minutes of play, every time.

[mach2infinity 12]

I experienced an issue with the Nvidia drivers ceasing to function a while back. I think it turned out the driver would time-out. Try this method:

Handling "nvlddmkm.sys" Crash

The instances it would crash dramatically reduced for me.

[OMAC 254]

Quite interesting. Thanks!