GTX 970 overclock results!

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jty0yt

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Sep 3, 2014
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So on my GTX 970 I have upped the core my 120 MHZ observing a boost clock of 1479mhz. MY fans are around 50 percent at 100 percent usage and the temps are 52 degrees! I have only upped the voltage by 15 MV and the power limit to 105%. I love this card, give me your results below!
 


Well..budget issues and fact that 3 years ago they fcked me up with wrong stick when I didnt know anything about PC's or atleast I didnt care about RAM. I know what I need to do but budget is problem so I will get 2x1866 module more but I will keep using 1333mhz at 1.4v until I dont get money for full 16gb since I need 8+ for photoshop and premiere.

Aside from that my PSU is probably bad, so coilwhine and being unable to overclock at any higher voltage then stock without artifacts is another issue. For now in Witcher 3 example or any other AAA game I found that 15mhz=1fps roughly. So even if I get to 1550mhz which was my ultimate goal and it's possible but its not 100% stable I do get like 4-5fps which is not important for me due to fact that I have 1080p60hz monitor.
 
EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0. 110% Power, +90 +120 (No voltage changes) Can't push any further.

Past that I just crash out of everything. Heaven would crash my entire Pc when pushed past that. Not sure if it's something to do with my build, or I just got a rubbish overclocker.
Any ideas?

Had two previous GPU's in this build, a Gigabyte GTX 970 Windforce about 9 months ago, and more recently a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X. Both overclocked like garbage. Is it my PSU, Motherboard, or am I just unlucky?
I have a general understanding of overclocking, no real advanced overclocking experience, but something just doesn't seem right here, when comparing my results with everyone else.

Some more info.
110% Power / +90MHz Core / +0MHz Memory = Past this, crashes on Heaven and FireStrike
110% POwer / +0MHz Core / +150MHz Memory = Past this, crashes on Heaven and FireStrike
Actual Numbers: +110% +90 +120 = 1470Mhz / 3623MHz (Read using MSI Afterburner)
ASIC 74.8%
Memory Type: Elpida
Bios Version: 80.04.36.00.70
 
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With a Gigabyte GTX 970 Mini, max. Temps are 69-71 Deg. Celsius
I think I picked an awesome card! Running nearly stable, I am just testing a little bit with benchmarks.

Build:
GTX 970 Mini (Gigabyte)
i7 4790k (at stock till today ^^ getting a new cooler)
16GB 1600MHz Samsung RAM

So, that's it, see ya :)
 
@Proxish

When the complete system crashes then something is wrong. More likely oc leads to artefacts or aplications crash to desktop.
The most secure way to overclook is in steps of 5-10 MHz and to test for stability.
It is also recommended to do a spreadsheet to confirm if the oc is increasing the performance (the opposite can be true as we have seen in this thread).

Another question is the temperature of GPU and CPU. For example 80°C can lead to crashes on some systems, even when it is not dangerous for the Hardware.

Because you say that this problem occured previously it could be indeed the PSU. Older PSUs become weaker with every year and low quality PSUs newer deliver what is writen on them. In ideal case the both power cords for the VGA should be from seperate 12V lines (look in PSU manual).
 



Thank you for getting back to me, I appreciate the time you took to write back and help me out.

I figured something was up when the entire system crashed during a Heaven Benchmark, not an issue I've had before, I have had benchmarks crash when trying to push too far, but never completely crash the system.

Just ran a Heaven Benchmark (During which my PC crashed again)
Max Temps: GPU 78c / CPU 64c
I think it must be a PSU issue, it's a CX600M, which I only learned months after buying it, is a rubbish PSU.
However, I was not aware I should have two separate 12v lines plugged in, I currently only have a single 12v cable powering my GPU, I'll try two separate 12v lines and let you know the results.
 


Had a look at the PSU, and apparently I have it set up right, GPU is plugged into the 6+2 PCI-E & 4+4
psu_rear.jpg


I think my issue is my PSU. I bought it a year and a half ago, and had it replaced a year ago for terrible coil whine. Think I'll have to RMA it. This think cannot handle a basic overclock and it's getting worse.
 
Anyone know why i am getting pretty slow load rates?
I mean witcher 3 at ultra loads in 5 seconds. but games like league of legends, batman take a while
I have SLI MSI 970 GTX
Asus Rampave V extreme
32gb DDR
5930k Haswelle intel CPU
At high setting 55 Celsius is my max.
 
I just bought a gtx 980 classified and it has a rep for being a excellent overclocker?
stock it is at 1455 in boost so should i bother to oc this card?
it is pretty damn fast stock?
the ASIC quality is 88 according to GPU-z
 


What exactly are you talking about ?
 
Hey guys. I'd like you're input on this below?

(MSI GTX 970 4G Twin Frozr)

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I've had to up the voltage to 15 to get these clocks without the driver crashing and coming back on (Unigene Valley. Not even a test, just letting it run) Something doesn't sit right, as I've seen others get better clocks without having to up the voltage so I'm wondering if anyone can give me some input.



 
My stock Zotac GTX 970 scored 1717 on Heaven 4.0 with 69 FPS with everything maxed-out at 1920x1080. I only have an i5 3570k CPU with 8 GB of RAM. I'm loving my results, but am curious why they're better than overclocked cards with better CPU's and more RAM...

 


Something is definitely not maxed out, most likely AA (or tessalation). Normal score on stock is 50-55fps for GTX970 usually, I get 58 with 1471, and only after 1520 I get 60+.
 


What drivers do you use ? Anything over 350.12 could be really unstable. I recommend 347.xx drivers for stable overclock and then go for upgrade and find stable one. Nvidia is in mess since 4 months ago in terms of drivers.
 
It's maxed out, I ran it twice. WITHOUT AA I got 99.8 FPS and a score of 2512. Only thing I can think of is it's a new clean build without anything installed yet and no other applications using any resources...

 


Nah that doesnt matter. I have clean windows only for benchmarks. Who know but its clearly reasonable that its impossible to get that fps in Heaven Benchmark 1.0 on maxed out settings. I'm not arguing here or anything like that, just stating facts. If by some miracles you actually got some hybrid card have fun dude.
 
Heres my Heaven benchmark- all maxed fullscreen 1080p full tess and AA

FPS:65.1
Score:1639
Min FPS:25.5
Max FPS:144.8

Thats with GPU clock of 1299mhz, Memory of 1968mhz and boost of 1438 mhz. 105% power limit with no voltage touched. Ive never once had any artifacting or crashes, just atm I have no need to push any further. Temps stay between 67-70c during heavy benching and even lower while gaming
 
Thanks, I'll just be happy and roll with it. I just ran it again, maxed out, and got a 1801 score with a 71.5 FPS, 37.7 Minimum and 177.4 Maximum. I HAVE seen videos posted by others showing an FPS of 67 maxed-out, so I believe the card can achieve those numbers. I was just curious why my stock card was getting better results than OC cards.

 
Am I the only one to break the 3000 mark with a single GTX 970? That is 3000+ score on Valley benchmark, using the Ultra HD preset only with the 8XAA on. Some people like to cheat by turning that off and setting the quality to high. Looking back thru this thread I havent seen anyone close to 3000. I need to make a video of my results so they can be validated lol
 


Well yes, 59.5 FPS in Heaven with that OC is realistic. Previous comments were about 63-67FPS on stock..thats why I was like "sure..".