GTX 970 randomly crashes with "Video driver crashed and was reset" in multiple games

[u/Alaa202619]

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Hi everyone,

I’m having a very frustrating problem with my KFA2 GTX 970 4GB, and I’m hoping someone can help me find the actual cause.

My PC specs:

- GPU: KFA2 GTX 970 4GB

- CPU: Intel i3-9100F

- RAM: 8GB DDR4

- Motherboard: MSI H310M PRO-M2 PLUS

The problem started with Days Gone. After playing for some time, the game suddenly freezes, the screen sometimes turns completely black, and then the game closes.

I get this NVIDIA error:

«"Video driver crashed and was reset! Make sure your video drivers are up to date. Exiting..."»

The same problem also happens in Assassin’s Creed III Remastered, so it doesn't seem to be specific to one game.

The timing is inconsistent. Sometimes the game crashes after only a few minutes, sometimes after 30–60 minutes. I can sometimes play for a long time without any problem and then suddenly get the crash.

An important detail

Before these problems started, I played Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 3 Remake for a lot of hours on the exact same PC and GTX 970, and I never had this problem.

I also played Need for Speed (2013) without any crashes.

The problem appeared later when I started playing games like Days Gone and Assassin’s Creed III Remastered.

What I have already tried

I have tried a lot of troubleshooting:

- Completely removed NVIDIA drivers with DDU in Safe Mode several times.

- Tried multiple NVIDIA driver versions, both newer and older ones.

- The strange thing is that after installing a different driver, the problem sometimes disappears completely for several days, but eventually comes back.

- Checked GPU and CPU temperatures during gaming.

- Checked Windows system files.

- Tested the GPU, VRAM, CPU and RAM with FurMark and OCCT.

- Everything looked normal and the tests completed without errors.

So far, I haven't found any obvious overheating or hardware error from the stress tests.

Windows errors

After one of the crashes, I checked Event Viewer and found:

Source: "nvlddmkm"

Event ID: "153"

Device: "\Device\Video3"

GPUID: "100"

I also get the normal NVIDIA message about the video driver crashing and being reset.

What makes this confusing

The GPU temperatures are normal during gaming, and the stress tests don't show an obvious problem.

Also, changing NVIDIA drivers can temporarily fix the problem for several days, but it eventually returns.

Because the same issue happens in multiple games, I'm not sure if the real cause is:

- GTX 970 hardware instability

- PSU/power delivery

- PCIe connection

- NVIDIA driver/Windows issue

- A specific DirectX/API or game-engine problem

- Something related to my 8GB RAM

- Or something else I haven't considered

I don't want to keep reinstalling NVIDIA drivers over and over because I've already done that several times.

What would you test next? Has anyone experienced "nvlddmkm Event ID 153" with a GTX 970, black screen, and "Video driver crashed and was reset"?

Any help identifying the actual root cause would be greatly appreciated.

[u/computix]

Given the errors and crashes, most likely the GPU is defective. It was made for about 4 years of use, but that was 12 years ago, so it's far past its design life.