After 5 years of the same windows install in my home PC, I decided it may be beneficial to do a good 'ol backup/wipe/reinstall. Got things up and running, reinstalled my apps, and as I'm playing games or doing anything graphically intensive, the screen will freeze or go black qnd restart. Nothing of note in event viewer, nothing from bluescreen viewer, and no consistent correlations between any particular game and the crashes. The only real lead I have is that on occasion, whatever I'm using or playing will slow as if under heavy load, HWmonitor and Task manager both show my GPU at 90% utilization, and then boom, crash.

This is my setup: (Current hardware, between 2-3yrs old) Intel i5-10400 MSI GTX 1660 6GB GDDR5 ASUS Tuf H470-PRO SanDisk Ultra 3D NVME 16 (2×8) GB Corsair Vengeance 3200mhz

What I have tried: (to no avail) - Different windows install - DDU and driver reinstall - Driver reinstall thru Windows - Disconnected all unecessary peripherals - Booted into safe mode

Additionally, I was at one point getting the VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE stop code in a formal BSOD, but as of late, nothing of the sort. I don't know at all if this correlates at all with my reinstalling windows.

My next step is to try a different GPU, so I will report back if thus solves the issue, but for the moment I just want to know if there is anything else obvious I'm missing or could try, as it's beginning to occur more often. Thank you in advance, I am currently pulling my hair out.

I'm not currently in a position to buy myself a new GPU though, so I'm really hoping I can solve the issue without involving the wallet.

EDIT: No crashing on just my integrated graphics, so it's definitely either the card or the riser cable I'm using (I have a small form factor case with vertical gpu mounting) Any further suggestions still appreciated!