RTX 5070 black screens and random reboots after launching GTA V – OCCT passes with 0 errors

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to figure out if my RTX 5070 is defective or if this is a driver, motherboard, or software issue.

PC Specs

• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 5070
• CPU: Ryzen 7 7700X
• Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming B650E WiFi
• PSU: ASUS 1000W Gold
• Windows 11 pro

The Problem

The issue started after I launched GTA V.

Both of my monitors suddenly went black, and about 10 seconds later my PC rebooted automatically. I think a blue screen

After that first reboot, the PC became extremely unstable for the rest of the day. It kept randomly black-screening and rebooting by itself. I never fully shut the PC down during that time—it only kept restarting automatically after each crash.

The strange part is that after I finally performed a complete shutdown and didn't launch GTA V again, the PC seemed to work normally.

What I've Tried

• Clean reinstall of the NVIDIA graphics driver.
• Updated the BIOS.
• Ran sfc /scannow, which found and repaired corrupted Windows files.
• Tested with one monitor and with two monitors.
• Tested using the integrated GPU (iGPU) for about 20 minutes without any crashes.
• Reseated the graphics card and checked all power cables.

OCCT Results

On the first day, while the system was unstable, I ran the OCCT GPU stress test at 100% load for 10 minutes.

The test completed with 0 errors.

However, about 10 seconds after closing OCCT, both monitors went black again and the PC rebooted.

The next day, before launching GTA V, I repeated the same OCCT GPU stress test with one monitor and then with two monitors.

Everything passed successfully with no errors, no black screens, and no crashes.

Event Viewer

Event Viewer showed several NVIDIA nvlddmkm driver errors and hardware-related events around the crashes.

Question

Does this sound like a failing RTX 5070, or is it more likely a driver, motherboard/PCIe, or GTA V issue?

The fact that OCCT passes with 0 errors and the PC is stable after a full shutdown makes me unsure whether the GPU is actually defective.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.