GTX 970 Power Limit

[Shaan5]

I want to OC my GTX 970 but I am wondering about the power Limit, I've heard people say to just immediately slide it to the MAX. the GTX 970 only goes up to 110

Is This how you OC

1. Run Valley and Record FPS and Temps
2. Max power limit
3.Add 10 To Core Clock
4. Repeat until issues arise with Stability and Bugs
5. Dial Core back to last safe Clock
6. Add Mem Speed by 15 until issues with stability then dial back and Stop
7.Hit Apply at System Startup and Run Benchnmarks while monitoring Temps

I will most likely not be adding Voltage however, I might depending on temps

I have the G1 and I currently get temps that Max at 68 or so and average in the mid-low 60's

I just ran Valley and here is what I got, I let it run for 20 Mins before benchmarking

AVG FPS 57.4
Min FPS: 30.1
Max FPS: 104 FPS
MAX Temps: 64 Degrees Celsius
AVG Temps: 62-64
Score: 2398

I usually get 57.8 FPS so keep that in mind
The Define R5 Comes with a fan controller and I set them to Max while running this(Which is most likely what I'll be running while gaming anyway)
I might have set the fans to a lower speed when doing earlier tests which would explain the higher temps

Thanks

 

[Sergeant_Sneaky]

The power limit made no difference to the max overclock I could achieve but it may be different for you.
The steps you provided are pretty much correct, go up by 10 each time until you get a driver crash or articfacts, then dial it back a bit, keeping an eye on the temperatures the whole time too.
The 0.4fps difference is completely normal, no GPU will get the EXACT same fps each time you benchmark, but when overclocking if your fps starts to go down each time you add 10Mhz, the overclock is unstable and you should dial it back to where you had the highest score and retest that, also you can stress test it for a bit longer to make sure its completely stable.