GTX 970 : is mine underperforming ?

[-Miraw-]

Hello !
I've recently built a new computer and since the first day i'm getting pretty low performance in many many games. So, i've started to check each component one by one; did a couple of benchmark for the Cpu, RAM and GPU. CPU scores are pretty good, just like my RAM scores; but, my GPU is not performing as expected.
Here's my pc parts list and my score on Heaven 4.0 for my GPU benchmark :

Cpu : i5 6600k @4.5 ghz (1.26v)
Cpu Cooler : Corsair H100i V2
GPU : Gigabyte GTX 970 Windforce x3 OC
Mobo : Asus Maximus VIII Hero
Ram : 4*4 Gb Avexir ROG @3000 Mhz CL 15
SSD : Avexir E100 Series 240 gb
HDD : Western Digital 1 TB 7200rpm
PSU : Thermaltake Smart-SE 730w Bronze 80+
Case : NZXT s340

Heaven 4.0 results : ( no manual OC here, factory OC )

score: 801
FPS: 42.2
Min FPS: 23.3
Max FPS 71.8
Quality: Ultra
Tessellation: Extreme

While searching for an answer i found out that the GTX 970 usually gets around 1200+ score.
While gaming, i'm getting pretty poor FPS compared to what i see on some benchmark videos.

At Max settings i'm getting :

40 fps @ BioShock Infinite
45 fps @ Dark Souls 3
30 fps @ The witcher 3
40 fps @ Final Fantasy XIV

I tried to uninstall the drivers and everything related to the GPU with DDU and then reinstalled everything but this did not solve the problem. Tried to tweak with Nvidia control panel, still nothing. I overcklocked the GPU to 1420 mhz core / 3850 mhz memory, got some performance increase, but am i really supposed to do that to reach the performance of stock GTX 970 !?

Thanks for reading

 

[RobCrezz]

Have you checked your GPU load out of game? I've seen a few instances where something like a bitcoin mining malware was running in the background and gobbling up resources.

Yeah good point, ive seen this also.

I also second testing the card in another computer if at all possible.

 

[Wady2016]

Try using

http://www.userbenchmark.com/Software

This will check your whole pc but you can see the gpu performance compared with all other gtx970 cards. It will also show background cpu useage and if high as others mentioned could be throttling your system.

Evry other part of your pc seems great. Is the game on your ssd or hdd.. Ino the difference can sometimes be negligible but its worth a try just for testing purpose.

I found the witcher 3 to be hard on my mini itx gigabyte gtx970 and had to lower some settings to maintain 60fps.

There is the well known issue of the card only having 3.5gb full speed ram and although the other 0.5gb is usable i found breaking in to this amount to cause lag.

As others have said test in another pc if possible just to clarify the gpu is the issue and nt a faulty motherboard.