Gtx 970 OC problem

[didokon]

Hey,
so I've bought this new PC with a gtx 970 by Gigabyte;
Overclocked with MSI AB, it reached about +500 memory and +175 core, passing valley, heaven, firestrike, and about 10min of furmark with max settings and intense burn in.
Altough, 1 day ago or so, it crashed while playing BF4 (the game froze), happened 2-3 times after 5 min of gameplay, and today, even after lowering the OC to +490 memory and 140 core, while playing BF 4 my ENTIRE PC froze and I had to forcefully shut it down with the button on the case.
I hear people reaching 1500mhz easily with the boost (I read about multiple guys reaching something like +220 core and +550 memory), and currently I've lowered the mem to 450 and the core to 130 and I'm testing it on furmark with no problems, but I'm still afraid to play BF cause I Don't want to break something :/
Pretty much a noob in OC, and I want to avoid increasing the voltage ifpossible.
My ASIC score is 75.7% so not bad tbh, but I don't get why I can't OC to 1500 while being stable; max OC in the current state (as stated above, 130 core and 450 memory) is, with boost, 1479mhz core, reading GPU-Z.
Any help?
I don't need it to be 4Ghz but I paid for the Gtx 970 cause I saw the oc potential and I can't really stand the fact that mine can't oc for good...
Thanks a lot.

 

[popatim]

Which 970 did you get? Did you install any cooling on it?

 

[didokon]

Which 970 did you get? Did you install any cooling on it?

it's the Gigabyte version, No custom cooling just the three fans by gigabyte.

 

[Tradesman1]

Which one? If it's the G1, it comes pre OCed so may not have much headroom - if it's not might be the same, verry little headroom (otherwise it might be the G1)

 

[didokon]

It's not the gaming edition.
Still artifacting, now in Wow, reduced memory to 430 mhz.........
disappointing......
Maybe I should lower the memory and increase the core? Idk I want it to be as high as the other overclocks

 

[Tradesman1]

What OC you can get depends on the chip you got, same as with CPUs and DRAM, could prob RMA and hope to get a better one.

 

[didokon]

There must be some other way lol, the ASIC score was 75.7 which is more than average from what I've read...
Maybe a driver issue, since it's so new? Maybe a voltage problem?
Also I've noticed that the power is almost always at 60-70% while on the tests online I saw an average 100-105%, is it normal?

 

[Tradesman1]

Can continue to play with it - latest BIOS, different drivers, if a different PSU available, try that

 

[didokon]

BTW, gpu z shows that after I increase the clock by 140 now in AB, the under load max clock goes up to 1480! I've read it's this kepler thing, but does it mean that my actual increase on core clock boost was from 1253 (stock) to 1480? So it's not +140mhz but it's actually +227mhz ?
Does this mean that people are counting the gpu z sensors when reaching for ex 1550 mhz or are they still counting it from AB (which would be a crazy +300mhz increase in core clock, for gigabyte at least) ??? Cause if that's the case, maybe I can reach 1520 or something more by reducing the memory clock to +350/400 maybe? Would it work?
Thanks

 

[didokon]

Do you suggest leaving stock memory and focusing on a bit higher core clock instead? I can currently reach, with the boost, 1450 or so but used to reach also 1500. Do you think leaving stock memory would allow a higher core clock to be stable?

 

[Tradesman1]

Can try, I start with clock, then try adding memory to see if it can help or hinder clock