https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33171
--- Comment #4 from Tobias Jakobi liquid.acid@gmx.net 2011-03-08 13:14:15 PST --- HL2 engine based games also seem to be particularly good in triggering a kernel crash, at least when a DX9 render path is selected.
E.g. I have HL2 (vanilla) running here with mat_dxlevel 81 (this is a DX8 renderpath with some additional eyecandy -- see http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/DirectX_Versions for more information) and all gfx settings ramped up. This works kinda good (lots of lighting errors) and more importantly: I doesn't trigger any GPU resets or crashes.
However once I select a 9x dxlevel, the GPU resets start and my system doesn't survive more than 10 seconds.