Hi!
I've been trying to fix game crashing for months and am hoping people much smarter than me might be able to help.
Games have been crashing typically stating a memory error which of course led me to think perhaps the RAM is messed up or my config just won't work since I have 4x 16gb sticks for a total of 64GB. I've tried XMP I and II and default, the ram is rated for 7200mhz but I run at 6800 since that is stable with 4 slots in memory tests. (also have ran at 6000 and the default 4400 without XMP I think it is but all options had crashes until I started trial and erroring settings in the BIOS). I think I've ruled out RAM and found it's actually the CPU as I changed the RAM to just have 2 sticks in the dual channel slots according to mobo manual, still had crashes and then changed to the other 2 sticks in the correct dual channel slots with the same crashing results.
What finally made the biggest difference where games rarely crash now is by lowering the CPU multiplier by 1 so 100mhz lower from a 55 to 54. From there I was still noticing a crash every once in a while so I lowered the multiplier to 52 and put PL1 to 125watts and PL2 to 240watts and then PL2 to 180watts to see if that made a difference but eventually a crash will happen in a game like Diablo 4, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty or Sons of the Forest so it seems like that 100mhz difference is the key to reducing crashes. There is never an error in event viewer for these crashes, most games say memory access violation, some form of memory error or in the case of Sons of the Forest it just crashes to desktop with no error. Also will sometimes see discord go blank and restart which I'm guessing is it crashing and then reloading itself.
I've tried 3 different BIOS versions as they've come out along with the applicable intel ME drivers/firmware stuff, same with windows updates, nvidia graphics drivers and SSD firmware and if anything I feel like the last 2 ASUS BIOS updates made things worse (until I lower that CPU multiplier or disable boost entirely which seems to make the CPU run slower than even the base speed without boost).
I haven't tried to overclock anything (unless you count the XMP profile but I've never went past it's rating and put it lower as I knew 4 dimms would be harder on the controller) nor do I need to as I feel like this should be a beast of a machine at stock, if anything I'd like to keep lower power limits to reduce heat and perhaps increase longevity of the PC.
At the 55 multiplier which is 5.5Ghz it is impossible to play most games as they will crash immediately, my best test is Call of Duty that crashes on the very first splash screen loading the game. Thermals seem good, even more so with the power limits and lower multiplier.
Would greatly appreciate any help as I don't know what else to do and would really like to avoid replacing the CPU or motherboard!
PC Specs are:
i9-13900K
64GB RAM (16GB x4) G.Skill F5-7200J3445G16GX2-TZ5RK @ XMP I 7200 downclocked to 6800
Asus Maximus Z790 Hero
Seasonic Prime 1300 Platinum PSU
Asus TUF RTX 3090
WD_Black SN850X x3
Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer II 420
I've been trying to fix game crashing for months and am hoping people much smarter than me might be able to help.
Games have been crashing typically stating a memory error which of course led me to think perhaps the RAM is messed up or my config just won't work since I have 4x 16gb sticks for a total of 64GB. I've tried XMP I and II and default, the ram is rated for 7200mhz but I run at 6800 since that is stable with 4 slots in memory tests. (also have ran at 6000 and the default 4400 without XMP I think it is but all options had crashes until I started trial and erroring settings in the BIOS). I think I've ruled out RAM and found it's actually the CPU as I changed the RAM to just have 2 sticks in the dual channel slots according to mobo manual, still had crashes and then changed to the other 2 sticks in the correct dual channel slots with the same crashing results.
What finally made the biggest difference where games rarely crash now is by lowering the CPU multiplier by 1 so 100mhz lower from a 55 to 54. From there I was still noticing a crash every once in a while so I lowered the multiplier to 52 and put PL1 to 125watts and PL2 to 240watts and then PL2 to 180watts to see if that made a difference but eventually a crash will happen in a game like Diablo 4, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty or Sons of the Forest so it seems like that 100mhz difference is the key to reducing crashes. There is never an error in event viewer for these crashes, most games say memory access violation, some form of memory error or in the case of Sons of the Forest it just crashes to desktop with no error. Also will sometimes see discord go blank and restart which I'm guessing is it crashing and then reloading itself.
I've tried 3 different BIOS versions as they've come out along with the applicable intel ME drivers/firmware stuff, same with windows updates, nvidia graphics drivers and SSD firmware and if anything I feel like the last 2 ASUS BIOS updates made things worse (until I lower that CPU multiplier or disable boost entirely which seems to make the CPU run slower than even the base speed without boost).
I haven't tried to overclock anything (unless you count the XMP profile but I've never went past it's rating and put it lower as I knew 4 dimms would be harder on the controller) nor do I need to as I feel like this should be a beast of a machine at stock, if anything I'd like to keep lower power limits to reduce heat and perhaps increase longevity of the PC.
At the 55 multiplier which is 5.5Ghz it is impossible to play most games as they will crash immediately, my best test is Call of Duty that crashes on the very first splash screen loading the game. Thermals seem good, even more so with the power limits and lower multiplier.
Would greatly appreciate any help as I don't know what else to do and would really like to avoid replacing the CPU or motherboard!
PC Specs are:
i9-13900K
64GB RAM (16GB x4) G.Skill F5-7200J3445G16GX2-TZ5RK @ XMP I 7200 downclocked to 6800
Asus Maximus Z790 Hero
Seasonic Prime 1300 Platinum PSU
Asus TUF RTX 3090
WD_Black SN850X x3
Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer II 420
