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GTX 980 Causing Random Freezes and Reboots

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Joined
Oct 1, 2012
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3
Motherboard
Asus TUF Z270
CPU
i7-6700K
Graphics
GTX 980
Mac
  1. iMac
  2. MacBook Pro
  3. Mac Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
Hello,

As the title suggests, my computer will, at random moments, completely seize up, the sound will stutter for a second or so, and then reboot. I am not an expert on these sort of stuff, but I think that's what we call a kernel panic. This started happening after I upgraded from my old GTX 670 to a GTX 980. Installed all necessary Web drivers and CUDA but the issue still randomly occurs.

Well, when I say randomly, there seems to be a common thing that might be causing it but it's way too broad. The crashes will always occur if I have browser open and with a YouTube tab playing a video. That's it, the time it will happen though is wildly inconsistent. Some times it will crash 5 minutes in playing a video, other times it will crash after I have played a total of 5 hours of videos on it.

I run a lot of memory and graphically demanding apps, mainly Maya, but that won't crash it. When it decides to crash, it's always when a YouTube video is playing in the background. Doesn't matter which browser, it's like a ticking bomb, it WILL crash.

If there isn't a solution, at least I want to see if other people are suffering from the same issues, just so I can be sure I don't have a lemon graphics card.

This is my first built and that worries me a bit, plus, all search results on Google returned some people having some issues with Final Cut crashing on them but not a complete freeze and reboot.

Thank you for your time.
 
I experiences the same issue in a install I did today on:

ga-z87x-ud5h - i7-4770 - 16gb ram crucial ballistix, ssds samsung evo 950, gtx 950 previously working on yosemite during 3 years.

I installed Sierra fine, it looks working pretty fine, but when opening certain content in browser my hackintosh stuck (doesn't restart) literally crash. Sure it's something related to nvidia webdrivers in my opinion.

Some suggestions?
 
Well, when I say randomly, there seems to be a common thing that might be causing it but it's way too broad. The crashes will always occur if I have browser open and with a YouTube tab playing a video. That's it, the time it will happen though is wildly inconsistent. Some times it will crash 5 minutes in playing a video, other times it will crash after I have played a total of 5 hours of videos on it.

This.

I've been having this issue since updating to Sierra a while back. Tried different things, PM, bios, RAM test/swap, even removed my OC. I have a dual boot system with Windows 10 which runs fine, no issues there.

Last week I finally decided to do a clean install and upgrade to High Sierra. Was hoping it would fix this annoying freeze/reboot but no, just today, while watching a youtube video on 1 of my 3 screens it happened again. No kernel panic log this time though, usually it's something like "Google chrome helper...".

Running benchmarks for cpu or gpu triggers nothing, but some browsing or online streaming like youtube/twitch is causing something. Worst part is, just like you said, could happen right away or few hours later into watching something.

I also tried different browsers, beta/developers editions, doesn't helpt. Longest time without a a freeze/crash is like a week for me.

Oh btw, I don't have any Nvdia webdrivers installed. Tried with them installed but it still happened so went back to native os x drivers.
 
Last edited:
Sorry it took me so long to get back to this thread but I have some suggestions:

First off, you might already know this, but there is a discussion over at Nvidia's site about the same sort of thing, though it doesn't seem to be specifically browser video/YouTube caused like I'm noticing.

Link:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...ernel-panics-with-nvidia-web-driver-on-mac/1/
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...ernel-panics-with-nvidia-web-driver-on-mac/1/
I suspect that this might be the same issue as we have, and maybe the fact that a video is playing on a browser might be a very unfortunate coincidence. Keep that thread in mind, revisit it from time to time and see if more information has been posted.

One thing I need to add though: The kernel panics do NOT appear to be stress related after all. At least in my case, since I have a pretty beefy power supply unit. The card would melt before it could over-draw power.

But that's just me, if you want to make sure for your case try LuxMark.

Link:
http://www.luxmark.info/

This is a benchmarking tool that can test rendering capabilities for either or both CPU and GPU.
If you try the stress test option in it (That's in: Mode>Stress Test (OpenCL GPUs)) it will run your GPU at full capacity for a very long time. If you don't get kernel panics during that, it's very likely that it's not power related.

Another suspected culprit in all this might be CUDA.
On this, I am not entirely convinced but it seems to have greatly reduced my "random" kernel panics.
There was a discussion about some similar issues a few years ago in this thread:

Link:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6590781

One of the answers was to uninstall CUDA related components and see if crashes persist.
So far it seems to have worked for me as I haven't had any more kernel panics, but if I'm proven wrong I will post here again about it.

How is my browser playing a video related with CUDA? Beats me...
It does bum me out though as CUDA can be very useful within Adobe products and can be a strong selling point.

And...

there's always AMD's RX Vega...
but my wallet cries every time I say that name right now...
 
Hi, I am also suffering random freezes when cuda wordloads. Do you have any further exploration on this issue?
 
Hi, I am also suffering random freezes when cuda wordloads. Do you have any further exploration on this issue?

The problem has been solved somewhat, at least for me, by removing the CUDA drivers. This completely stopped the kernel panics and reboots, but every now and then, when CUDA was supposed to kick in, the computer will freeze for 1 to 10 seconds and resume what it was doing like nothing ever happened. It isn't the ideal solution (especially if you need CUDA for your sort of work) but beats the uncertainty and constant fear of surprise failure.

Instructions on how to do it on:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6590781

Screen-cap of related post in thread:


I'm afraid that's all I have to offer as help. The only, risk-free solution for now is to switch back to AMD cards until Nvidia resolves the CUDA driver issue. I wouldn't hold my breath on that though as it has been like that for 2-3 years now.
 

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The problem has been solved somewhat, at least for me, by removing the CUDA drivers. This completely stopped the kernel panics and reboots, but every now and then, when CUDA was supposed to kick in, the computer will freeze for 1 to 10 seconds and resume what it was doing like nothing ever happened. It isn't the ideal solution (especially if you need CUDA for your sort of work) but beats the uncertainty and constant fear of surprise failure.

Instructions on how to do it on:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6590781

Screen-cap of related post in thread:


I'm afraid that's all I have to offer as help. The only, risk-free solution for now is to switch back to AMD cards until Nvidia resolves the CUDA driver issue. I wouldn't hold my breath on that though as it has been like that for 2-3 years now.
Thanks for the reply.

However, my work is cuda application development, and it seems that it is not a good idea to develop it on MacOS.
 
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