SOLVED:
Yep, that's the one I was using. I saw "9 series" and assumed 970 was a part of that. It is not. I was using the wrong driver. 😩 Thanks for everyone's help
It came from Microsoft, direct download. I reinstalled Windows because I wanted a clean, snappy system, fresh registry, no lingering bloat - a clean slate. I do a reinstall every year to a year and a half.
Yes, I have tried two different chipset drivers from Asus. I forgot to add that to my list of things attempted. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
edit:
I reread my OP and I did mention chipset drivers
SOLVED: Tried to install the wrong driver. Got correct driver. Thanks all
Everything was working 30 minutes ago until I reinstalled Windows 10 and went about installing drivers for my GPU when I ran into this error:
"NVIDIA installer cannot continue
The graphics driver could not find...