Dealing with a Potential Lemon: My GPU Troubles and Options

As a passionate gamer, the excitement of upgrading my graphics card hit an all-time high the day I purchased a second-hand Zotac 3060 Ti for £180. A replacement for my aging GTX 970, this buy seemed promising—especially since it came from a seemingly trustworthy seller on Facebook Marketplace. Yet, I now find myself grappling with a troubling issue that’s dampening my gaming experience.

The Setup

My current gaming rig consists of a Ryzen 3600 processor, an MSI B450i Gaming Plus AC motherboard, and a solid 32GB of DDR4 RAM clocked at 3200MHz. While the GPU appeared to be in pristine physical condition, I made the classic rookie mistake of not conducting an in-depth test before handing over my cash. A quick check with FurMark showed no immediate problems, which I now regret.

The Crashes

Fast forward a few days, and frustration has begun to set in. I’ve encountered a persistent crash that raises the daunting nvlddmkm.sys event ID 153 error, particularly when playing certain titles. Games like Control, Borderlands 3, and Battlefield V are my usual suspects, but the crashes seem to trigger consistently during specific sections, notably in Control‘s Astral Plane after about 30 minutes. Interestingly, Destiny 2 and Battlefield V have remained crash-free, but I suspect that might be due to shorter play sessions.

Troubleshooting Efforts

In my quest for answers, I’ve explored numerous troubleshooting avenues. From tweaking drivers and BIOS settings to re-seating hardware components, I’ve meticulously followed the advice flooded across forums and tech blogs. My efforts led me to test the GPU in my partner’s setup—an equally capable Ryzen 2600 system running Windows 10. Unsurprisingly, the same error occurred there, ruling out Windows or CPU-related issues.

Attempts to resolve the problem included both older drivers from 2022 and the latest version, yet the crashes persisted regardless of the driver selected. The one remaining recommendation I haven’t tried is re-pasting the GPU thermal compound, but the temperatures I’ve monitored appear reasonable.

Seeking Advice

At this point, I’m reaching out to the community for guidance. Is there a miraculous solution out there that someone’s discovered? Or is it time to face the hard truth that I may be stuck