GA-B75M-D3H (1.0) + Nvidia = Crashes All Games

[jacob1818]

My full system:
GA-B75M-D3H (1.0)
ZOTAC GTX660 / EVGA GTX SC 770 (both brand new) / r280x (borrowed for testing)
1600MHZ 8gb Hyperx Kingston
650W Antec PSU
i7 3770
1TB ST 7200RPM SATA3

All 100% new.

The issue: Whenever playing any game with nvidia video cards, the system will crash randomly within 5~30 minutes. The screen will get blue/white/brown/pink and the system will lock looping sound sound. I have to manually reboot or it will stay locked forever.
I tested over 10 nvidia drivers, all with same issue. I always used DDU to change the drivers, all fresh installs.
Disabling audio on motherboard and/or underclocking the cards make the system more stable on OLDER games, but whenever the GPU load gets high the system will get unstable and it will crash.

I tested both my GPUs on other computers and they worked perfectly fine. They worked fine with a Z77 motherboard (it was black, I don't remember the name).
I tested a R280X on my computer and I ran Heaven 4.0 benchmark for 3 hours with zero crashes.
With either Zotac GTX660 or my EVGA GTX770 SC I will crash within 15 minutes TOP on heaven 4.0 benchmark. Just to make this 100% clear, I'm using them 1 each time, not even trying to SLI or anything. Only one is connected to the motherboard at a time.

My temperatures are great, my case is very well cooled. Bios is latest (f15). PCH temperature is 60c stable. GPUs get at most to 67C under load. CPU at most 55C.
I posted this on a local forum and I found 4 other users with the exact same issue with this motherboard. Putting a Radeon card fixes the issue.

TL;DR: Again, it only happens with nvidia cards. 100% stable with Radeon cards.
Happens with all drivers and it takes LONGER to happen if the card is underclocked.
It happens really fast if the card is overclocked and/or using realtek audio driver.
It will also crash if I disable audio on motherboard and use an external audio card, but it will take longer.
Temps are great, comp is brand new, no disk errors, no memory errors.

Does anyone know a fix?

[dmdilks]

Does the other computers have the same kind of PSU? It sounds more like a power issue.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=157583

Here is a link to power & amps requirements for video cards.

http://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/power-requirements-for-graphics-cards

[jacob1818]

Thanks for the reply.
I am sorry, I believe it is not a power issue. Pehaps for the GTX770, but not for the GTX660, that psu has enough power to run it easy.
The r280x toxic has at least 40% more power draw than the GTX770 and it's stable under 99% load on GPU and 99% on CPU.

Issue only happens with nvidia cards.

Plus the GTX660 only takes 28A on a single rail. There's no reason a 100% brand new http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371044 wouldn't be able to handle it.
It has 38A on a single rail.

[dmdilks]

GeForce GTX 770 - 42A and a 600W PSU minimum

Radeon R9-280X - 30A and a 550W psu minimum

Geforce GTX 660 - 24A and a 450W PSU minimum

That PSU is not tellingl you the whole story. The real amps on the 12v rails are more likely 27a not 38a. 76a x 12v = 912w.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/how-to-determine-real-12v-amperage-on-your-psu.91124/

[jacob1818]

Again I thank you for the reply, but I can pretty much assure you this is not a PSU problem.
It should be able to handle the GTX660 nevertheless.

Here's a list of builds with the same PSU and GTX 670/680/560ti/7970/660+i5 overclocked with no issues.
http://pcpartpicker.com/builds/by_part/antec-power-supply-ea650green?sort=rating

The toxic r280X has no issues on my system. It's one of the most power hungry cards, you can check on benchmarks.

Anyway, you seem to have good knowledge so I decided to test it out nevertheless. For 25 bucks I tested my PSU on an Azrock Z77 pro3 this afternoon on a local computer shop here, with my GTX660.
Heaven 4.0 ran for 30 minutes no crashes.
It is not the PSU. I have done over 30 hours of benchmarks on this motherboard. I'm not the only one with this issue.

[jacob1818]

Sorry for back-to-back posting. I ran furmark for 4 hours and it had no issues.
The GTX660 should work perfectly on this motherboard but it doesn't, max I can game without crashes is 15 minutes (sometimes they're as fast as 5 minutes). I disabled all throtling so both my CPU and GPU were at 99% for 4 hours.

[jacob1818]

Issue solved.
Swapped GA-B75-D3H for an ASRock H77M.

No more issues with nvidia cards.
Thanks for feedback.