So i've had my 2080 TI for less than a year. Its been on water (full cover block and a dedicated 360 rad) since day one and I had no issues doing benchmarks and long gaming sessions on a +170 core | +500 mem overclock (temps never go over 60C).

Now, recently I've been getting hardlocks during gaming (this is also more frequent when playing a game using DX12). I cannot stress enough that temps are the same and have not changed since this started happening! I've done extensive testing with OCCT, Heaven, and Super position (heaven and SP will successfully run benches at my regular OC). OCCT will give errors now if i go above 145 on the core. This was never the case before. I used to only get errors going into +220 territory.

I've reinstalled windows multiple times, i've tried different versions of nvidia drivers (443.xx all the way through the most recent 450 drivers) using DDU to clear them out each time. I've tested with just OCing the core and no mem (memory OC doesn't seem to be the source of the problem, the card can handle +1200 on the mem no issues), I've tried with XMP off, no CPU OCs, and my regular OC of 5GH w/ -2avx. I've removed the block, checked for burnt out components, reapplied TIM, etc. 

Games like MHW and TR i will get artifacting at the menu screen with only a +145 on the core. With TR i can successfully go through the benchmarks multiple times but as soon as i try to play it hardlocks).  And games like Metro exodus will hard lock if i attempt to turn on RTX mode while at 4k (i know the gpu can't handle 4k RTX, but i've been able to turn this on before but just get really garbage framerates. This was just for testing purposes). Some games i can run +170/+500 and no issues some i can't. All of the games that are now hardlocking on me used to be perfectly stable at +170/+500 for the longest time. It seems that depending on what game im playing will determine if i need to adjust my OC settings. I'm starting to see trending degradation in my OC capabilities with this card. Any one having similar problems.


8700k
EVGA XC Ultra 2080Ti (samsung die, stock bios)

Thanks. I also ran the msi OC tuner and i came back with a 107 which is still good for me because that puts me at 2100Mhz on the core. Its not worth pushing it to 2160 and a ton of instability. I was worried that i'd have to RMA my card and i really dont feel like dealing with all that.

CraptacularOne

Zan
Thanks. I also ran the msi OC tuner and i came back with a 107 which is still good for me because that puts me at 2100Mhz on the core. Its not worth pushing it to 2160 and a ton of instability. I was worried that i'd have to RMA my card and i really dont feel like dealing with all that.

You wouldn't be able to RMA your card anyway. It's running well past it's rated boost frequency even if it's no longer able to clock as high as it once did. You can't RMA a card for better overclocking, it doesn't work that way. That's not what an RMA is for. 

I mentioned RMA, because due to the artifacting i thought that there might have been a possible memory issue with the card that i just wasn't seeing. I know that early model 2080 Ti (mine is an early model) were crapping out in droves due to memory problems. And with continuing degradation of instability im getting, I thought that i was seeing the early signs of memory/card failure.