Small disclaimer -
I work as a computer tech and have a long history of troubleshooting and testing. I don't claim to be the guru of everything, but I'm not fumbling in the dark.
I've been battling game freezes, error-less crash to desktop, and crashes where my system will fully power off and reboot.
When errors have turned up in the Windows System eventlog they have been things like this -
My system specs -
Intel i9 13900KF - Under-volted, and power-limited to 253W avoid the Intel voltage flaws.
64GB RAM with XMP profile for DDR5-6600
RTX 4090 at time of writing, on nvidia driver 560.94
Typically my system is stable in every application/game I use, except for Deadlock.
The errors, pretty obviously indicate that it's something going on with either the graphics card, or the nvidia drivers.
The two things that I've done that have made the most difference to stop the crashes are, under-volting the graphics card, and applying program settings with a framerate limit for Deadlock in the nvidia control panel.
I followed this undervolt guide on youtube -
(I have no affiliation to this guy, I just found it while searching)
This has given me better temps on my GPU, with less power draw and no noticeable loss of performance.
The reason I did this was attempting to put a limit on how much power the GPU was allowed to draw, rather than this being controlled by the nvidia driver.
Onto the nVidia control panel -
Go to Manage 3D settings. and switch to the Program Settings tab.
Add the Deadline executable. Path may vary depending on your system, but for me it was -
c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\deadlock\game\bin\win64\project8.exe
In section 2. Specify the settings for the program I have altered -
Max Frame Rate 165 FPS (matching my 165hz monitor, you might like to choose something appropriate to your setup)
Monitor Technology G-SYNC
Preferred refresh rate Highest available
Vertical sync Use the 3D application setting
Since applying these changes I have not crashed again.
This may be too early to call it solved as it's only been 2 days, but a day without a crash is a massive improvement over what was happening prior to working on it.
During games my FPS sits on 165 instead of fluctuating up and down depending on action.
Deadlock currently doesn't have any nvidia related tech in the settings. (I understand it's still in early days, not throwing shade.)
No g-sync, no DLSS etc.
Effectively my solution is forcing a g-sync profile onto Deadlock using the nvidia control panel.
Additional no evidence/pure speculation -
I think Deadlock is at times doing things that is making nvidia cards think they need to ramp up and pull too much power, or power spiking.
This could be nvidia's driver implementation, it could be a Deadlock issue - I don't know, but I hope whatever it is, is fixed between Valve and nVidia.
Hope this helps someone.
I work as a computer tech and have a long history of troubleshooting and testing. I don't claim to be the guru of everything, but I'm not fumbling in the dark.
I've been battling game freezes, error-less crash to desktop, and crashes where my system will fully power off and reboot.
When errors have turned up in the Windows System eventlog they have been things like this -
- Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.
- Event ID 153 from source nvlddmkm, \Device\Video3 Error occurred on GPUID: 100
My system specs -
Intel i9 13900KF - Under-volted, and power-limited to 253W avoid the Intel voltage flaws.
64GB RAM with XMP profile for DDR5-6600
RTX 4090 at time of writing, on nvidia driver 560.94
Typically my system is stable in every application/game I use, except for Deadlock.
The errors, pretty obviously indicate that it's something going on with either the graphics card, or the nvidia drivers.
The two things that I've done that have made the most difference to stop the crashes are, under-volting the graphics card, and applying program settings with a framerate limit for Deadlock in the nvidia control panel.
I followed this undervolt guide on youtube -
This has given me better temps on my GPU, with less power draw and no noticeable loss of performance.
The reason I did this was attempting to put a limit on how much power the GPU was allowed to draw, rather than this being controlled by the nvidia driver.
Onto the nVidia control panel -
Go to Manage 3D settings. and switch to the Program Settings tab.
Add the Deadline executable. Path may vary depending on your system, but for me it was -
c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\deadlock\game\bin\win64\project8.exe
In section 2. Specify the settings for the program I have altered -
Max Frame Rate 165 FPS (matching my 165hz monitor, you might like to choose something appropriate to your setup)
Monitor Technology G-SYNC
Preferred refresh rate Highest available
Vertical sync Use the 3D application setting
Since applying these changes I have not crashed again.
This may be too early to call it solved as it's only been 2 days, but a day without a crash is a massive improvement over what was happening prior to working on it.
During games my FPS sits on 165 instead of fluctuating up and down depending on action.
Deadlock currently doesn't have any nvidia related tech in the settings. (I understand it's still in early days, not throwing shade.)
No g-sync, no DLSS etc.
Effectively my solution is forcing a g-sync profile onto Deadlock using the nvidia control panel.
Additional no evidence/pure speculation -
I think Deadlock is at times doing things that is making nvidia cards think they need to ramp up and pull too much power, or power spiking.
This could be nvidia's driver implementation, it could be a Deadlock issue - I don't know, but I hope whatever it is, is fixed between Valve and nVidia.
Hope this helps someone.
