Hanging or CTD issues for Nvidia GTX 970/980 users since IL2 GB v3.20x release?

[Stoopy]

Would like to hear from other users with NVidia 970/980 video cards who are experiencing Crashes To Desktop (CTD) or program hangs with the release of the Bodenplatte map in v3.201.

 

My own experience with my GTX-970 based system is that although my system has been rock-solid stable with IL2 GB for years, now only with the Bodenplatte (Rhineland) map, after a time flying on that map my system will suddenly either hang/freeze or, more often now with 3.201c patch, just exit out to the desktop with no warning.  This happens most frequently in MultiPlayer, usually right as I shoot something down or bomb something, although I have also experienced it in Single Player just flying around on the Rhineland map in QMB for about an hour.  In MP, it can happen in minutes.  

 

I'm running pretty modest graphic settings in "Balanced" mode with NO STUTTERS (this isn't about stutters).  I've also disabled 4K textures and the new Far Draw distance option which has generally improved stability, but after about 30-45 minutes in MP I still get crashes to desktop with no warning.  I don't have many options left to disable at this point.  I'll post a screenshot of my graphic settings below as soon as I can. 

 

GermanWolfe has more than one thread about stutters in MP and fixing them.  What got my attention is that others responded to his thread when I questioned what video cards are using and a common theme seems to be we are all using 900-series NVidia cards.  Understanding that this range of cards is by no means current, but isn't exactly a slouch, I'm wondering if now with the most recent update it's finally no longer in the minimum system requirement spec range any longer.  Or maybe it's a driver issue.

 

I'm getting a very solid 60 FPS locked with VSync enabled so this problem is very different than traditional cases where FPS rates decline when we hit video card GPU limits. 

 

AND I'm also not having any problems with pre-existing maps or the Arras map for FC, so it's really hard to say this is a system problem, or a software problem; all I can say is it looks like it's a potential map problem (or GPU RAM shortage since this map is the largest and most detailed to date). 

 

Systems specs:
Intel i7 4790K @4.00/4.40Ghz
NVidia GTX 970
16Gb RAM
Windows 10 on SSD boot drive, Steam version of IL2 on 2TB WD HD
 

Edited October 24, 2019 by =[TIA]=Stoopy

[ZachariasX]

1 minute ago, =[TIA]=Stoopy said:

but after about 30-45 minutes in MP I still get crashes to desktop with no warning.

I had that once with my old 4770K. I vaccumed the inside, especially the cooler and after getting rid of about one bag of dust, it ran well again. Ah, stories. I remember doing that back then at work, when the divisions server crashed and wouldn't restart anymore. After being deemed a hopeless case, bringing on a vaccum under the puzzled eyes of all watching me and cleaning out the inside of the server to make it run again perfectly earned one tremedous social score amongst the secretaries. You know, at some point, there's just too much sock residue in the can.

 

Other than that, parts do age, especially if you use them heavily. Electronic parts do have a finite lifespan. I noticed that the new map puts a much harder strain in the GPU, especially since it is no problem for the game using 8 GB of VRAM. Your description sounds to me like your GPU has had most of its life behind it and the extra load due to the new maps is the tipping point. Provided it is all clean in there, can you run other tasks over that duration that max out all your GPU can do?

[Stoopy]

Thanks very much for the thoughtful response Zacharias.

 

My 4770K is water cooled and not o/c'd, and temps are good - I ran a load test with IL2 about a week and a half ago and didn't see any problems (I've actually done quite a bit of troubleshooting that I didn't go into detail about above since it would be a snoozefest, but thank you very much for reading what I did write about).  I do perform periodic cleaning of the system components and case but that being said, it's now due, so it can't hurt at this point.  

 

The only other demanding use this systems sees has been other flights sims, FSX, Xplane11, Aerofly, with no issues like this at all.  I don't have anything that is graphically more demanding since I'm not a gamer - this system otherwise runs Audacity and some amp simulator software for guitar playing when I'm not flying (and heck, I'm tempted to back full time to just that now).  It's powered up 24/7 and believe it or not quite a solid performer always (power cycles take their own toll on that finite lifespan of electronics).  

 

But I agree with you that the overall feel I'm getting after all this is that the ol' 970 has seen (literally, I guess) too many miles in the air and could be ready for that Great Card Slot in the Sky.   I'm just a bit curious though after seeing a couple others reporting similar problems with this GPU type on this same map in another thread, wanted to see if there was more folks in that situation and maybe more to it. 

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by =[TIA]=Stoopy

[Remontti]

I'm getting crashes and total freezes after the patch with 2080ti.

 

Just got one yesterday on Combat box server running the Bodenplatte map. Usually the freezing or crash happens after 20-30 min.

Switched to Kota server and no crashes there. They were running Kuban map.

Anyway, I reported it to this thread

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/21111-finding-the-cause-of-a-random-crash-issue-special-thread-1/

 

[ZachariasX]

16 hours ago, =[TIA]=Stoopy said:

The only other demanding use this systems sees has been other flights sims, FSX, Xplane11, Aerofly, with no issues like this at all.

If it runs XPlane and you know that there is no dust in there that can cause a short, then it is definitely weird. FSX, P3D are usually a good burn in test for system stabilty, even when Prime95 is no problem. Becuase aside from the GTX 780 that the game doesn't like, I find IL2 one of the most stable running sims.

 

I don't think general uptime is a problem (except for the PSU) but the amount of time where you put significant load on it. Even though you keep a lot up uptime, I wouldn't consider that out of the ordinary.

 

What I notice with the new maps and the far draw distance though is that IL2 uses significantly more VRAM and thus has a much higher load on the bus. FSX (depending on the addons uses relatively little VRAM, then again XPlane does AFAIK. Typically games use very little I/O, so if one game suddenly does an underlying (hardware) problem might surface.

 

In your case, if a clean new Win10 install is out of the question, I'd opt for a new GPU card. I mean, how many $ are weeks of problem solving to you? I have little patience with things that don't do as i expect. But it's up to you.

[Stoopy]

Thanks.  I'm also wondering, since this really has the feeling of being related to VRAM utilization with the bigger map etc., if the way the 970 series has oddly segmented VRAM (one 3.5GB + one 0.5GB segment) is related.  

 

I have one last thing to try which I should have looked at already, but haven't:  Disabling the Win10 Gaming feature for replaying game clips.  That has to be eating memory or causing load somewhere. 

 

I agree this is only worth so much time, and I'm afraid that years of tweaking flight sims ('specially FSX ever since it's initial release) has led to an unfortunate habit of not knowing when to quit and just buy better hardware.  Shoulda learned that by now, but it's hard for us tightwads to give up I guess.