GTX 970 Won't overclock. Help!?

[Nitro192]

Hey guys. Just putt $150 into a new PSU so safe to say I'm a little fed up. Recently I got a Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 970 and no matter what I do, (throw up the core voltage and power limit to max , reinstall drivers) I can't seem to get the silly thing past 1270 MHz which is odd because I hear about people getting these things to 1500 all the time and it has the Samsung memory which is supposed to overclock well.

The problem is when I go higher, the display driver crashes. Same thing every time.

My CPU which is the i5 3570k is Overclocked to 4.6Ghz but even after bringing it down to 4.5 same thing, should I try lower?. I thought PSU so I just went and bought a Tier 1 EVGA 650W GS PSU, Gold rated too because I thought power was the problem but it had no effect, please help. Below is my GPU Z snapshot

 

[Robert Cook]

what are you using to overclock? that should not be a power shortage, unless your wall circuit is too weak.

 

[Shaun o]

Luck of the draw mainly.
Not all 970 cards will clock as high as you have seen other people get, It`s like the same as when you buy a cpu and intend to over clock it, it all depends on the quality of the silicone die produced.

Much like cpu`s Gpu`s will be speed bin tested, and the price is then worked out on how much Nvidia sells each batch of Gpu`s at what price range vendors or makers of the graphics card wish to pay per tray load Based on the quality of the formed silicone die.

They only in fact make one gpu die you see the Gpu`s are then speed bin tested to see how much of the Gpu die is formed and how much of it works, the lesser formed dies or the ones with fewer pixel pipelines, that are in good working order then get badged in the tier rating of gpu models 980,970,960 based on there functionality.

Just like a cpu you could get an I5 or I7 from a batch where it yields very good over clocking, with a very little voltage bump to the core of the cpu, where you can get a batch where the silicone formed to make the cpu die or Gpu die is not as good quality.

Makers in such a case apply limits or values in the bios of graphics cards to limit how high you can take the gpu core in speed and also the memory. Simply because the Gpu cannot perform at any higher frequency`s so it`s locked to a value in the bios where it does work stable.

If the card is limited by a bios then in some cases to unlock it you have to flash a graphics card with higher values programmed into the bios. no amount of voltage changes will help if the case.

Unless you know what you are doing, and know what exact bios to flash to the graphics card you should not attempt to do so as you may brick the graphics card all together.

It is common to find in a brand of graphics cards in the 970 card range that different models or ones with extra suffix or market as an over clocked version share the same bios but all that changes are the over clocking, and memory frequency values set in the bios firmware of the card. If you insist on trying to reach a higher gpu frequency along with the memory and shadier pipelines.
Then you do so at your own risk.

Once you attempt it your warranty is invalid on your card by the vendor of it.

Even if you manage to find a bios that has higher clock speeds that allow you to over clock the card there is no guarantee it will function as you expect it to because it was locked at those frequency's for a reason that the silicone die cannot handle running at them, and why it was locked to the values set in the bios in the first place.

That is all I can tell you on how to get a better clock speed out of your graphics card.
If Msi afterburner ect fails to over clock the card in question.

Have you tried running Afterburner or any other over clocking program in Admin mode, try that see if it applies the clocks you set then.

 

[junkeymonkey]

'' can't seem to get the silly thing past 1270 MHz which is odd because I hear about people getting these things to 1500 all the time ''

i hear folks say its raining cats and dogs all the time , but when it rains here I don't see any cats or dogs falling from the sky all I see is water ??? go figure

I would guess if this card you see only a 55% rating ?? there 980ti is 46% that should clue you in right to start ??
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125684

as said luck of the draw

then its not like with a 970 you started out with something ??

Furthermore, as we mentioned in our GTX 980 review, GTX 970 has been a pure virtual (no reference card) launch, which means all of NVIDIA’s partners are launching their custom cards right out of the gate. A lot of these have been recycled or otherwise only slightly modified GTX 700/600 series designs, owing to the fact that GM204’s memory bus has been held at 256-bits and its power requirements are so low.

with all that was reported on the 970's what do you really expect from them ?? folks act like it not there 970 affected ..

 

[Karadjgne]

You have a G1, it already has amongst the highest rated factory OC available. Add to that that any single processor is only able to OC 1% or more over factory settings, according to silicon lottery.
Also is the voltage settings. For instance, my Asus 660ti under Asus gpu tweak can be set from 101% to 125% power target. For some odd reason, anything from 115%-125% gets actual worse stability and performance, 114% is perfectly stable, 109% to 113% is unstable.
Stock: 1046/6008 @987mv 100%
Oc : 1190/6830 @1037mv 114%
Sliders are only 3/4 of the way used for clocks and voltage is only 1/3 used.

Maxing the Sliders is no guarantee that you'll get that performance, processors are very quirky at anything over stock settings. My i5-3570K maxes at 4.3GHz 1.216v. Even with 1.45v I couldn't get 4.4GHz. Say thank you lottery.

 

[Nitro192]

'' can't seem to get the silly thing past 1270 MHz which is odd because I hear about people getting these things to 1500 all the time ''

i hear folks say its raining cats and dogs all the time , but when it rains here I don't see any cats or dogs falling from the sky all I see is water ??? go figure

I would guess if this card you see only a 55% rating ?? there 980ti is 46% that should clue you in right to start ??
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125684

as said luck of the draw

then its not like with a 970 you started out with something ??

Furthermore, as we mentioned in our GTX 980 review, GTX 970 has been a pure virtual (no reference card) launch, which means all of NVIDIA’s partners are launching their custom cards right out of the gate. A lot of these have been recycled or otherwise only slightly modified GTX 700/600 series designs, owing to the fact that GM204’s memory bus has been held at 256-bits and its power requirements are so low.

with all that was reported on the 970's what do you really expect from them ?? folks act like it not there 970 affected ..

Are you actually implying the 970 is a bad card? I think you'd be a bit mistaken if you actually thought that. Maybe you're an AMD fanboy maybe i'm wrong.

As for the over clock I'm not asking for a miracle obviously, it's as if you've never over clocked a card before. After pouring through hundreds of CPU Z charts, it seems i'm one of the few who can't get it past the 1300 mark so my immediate assumption was I'm being held back, if that's its max I'll live with that so I came here to get a second opinion. Also, if you take a look at the reviews for EVERY 970 on newegg, you'll see the same thing. They all have at least 30 percent bad ratings, Same goes for the 980. It's as if you've never shopped there before.

The only issue I know of the 970 is the 3.5GB VRAM issue which has no effect on over clock so honestly after all that, you didn't really make a valid point or come up with a possible solution or antidote.

I must have missed it in the midst of you trying to insult my hardware when you probably own a radeon 6550 or something/ 970 is a beast with or without a high overclock but I'm just picky.

 

[junkeymonkey]

''Are you actually implying the 970 is a bad card? I think you'd be a bit mistaken if you actually thought that''

and yes gtx 970 is a junk card junk when it first came out and still junk today as said from the review its a salvage card / no NVidia reference / free fpr all good luck card .. using old parts and chips that did not make a 980- that's all there is to it - all you got to do is get away from the hype sheets and read between the lines .

''The only issue I know of the 970 is the 3.5GB VRAM issue '' goes to show you dont read nothing up on anything but benchmark hype reviews

the 970 was just to get rid of old card parts and hand me down 980 chips -a suckers card -

and no I'm no amd fanboy nor NVidia I just use what solid and works as expected - and that's what I expect when I spend my hard earned money

enjoy

 

[Nitro192]

''Are you actually implying the 970 is a bad card? I think you'd be a bit mistaken if you actually thought that''

and yes gtx 970 is a junk card junk when it first came out and still junk today as said from the review its a salvage card / no NVidia reference / free fpr all good luck card .. using old parts and chips that did not make a 980- that's all there is to it - all you got to do is get away from the hype sheets and read between the lines .

''The only issue I know of the 970 is the 3.5GB VRAM issue '' goes to show you dont read nothing up on anything but benchmark hype reviews

the 970 was just to get rid of old card parts and hand me down 980 chips -a suckers card -

and no I'm no amd fanboy nor NVidia I just use what solid and works as expected - and that's what I expect when I spend my hard earned money

enjoy

Oh, I see so you're just pegging the parts they put into it. Because if you were to try and say the performance is bad, I'd have to say you're ripe insane. It gets the same framerates as the R9 390. And same FPS in Witcher 3 as the R9 390X and better than 780 Ti so to say it performs bad you'd be saying the R9 290X, 390 and R9 390X perform like crap also so that would just be plain stupid. All of which probably better than what you personally own i'm guessing.

. As far as overclocking, I could care less, It games everything at Ultra settings with no stutter, no issues whatsoever so I fail to see how anything with this card is bad, After all, there is that reviewer who owned the 970 and moved to 980 but didn't notice a single difference between the two. I also combed the internet and didn't find one website stating the 970 has bad parts in it so I'm gonna guess you made most of that up or you believe all the garbage you come across on reddit 😛

After all you still havn't succeeded at recommending a solution, or if all 970s are crap why do many reach 1,500 and match the 980's performance? I'm curious to know

I avoid AMD because if their build quality is as crappy as their driver support it'd be a waste of time.

 

[junkeymonkey]

as long as your happy its all good

''After all, there is that reviewer who owned the 970 and moved to 980 but didn't notice a single difference between the two.''

thing is the 980 is a true nivdia card - the 970 is a what ever you got around to make one up

form above
'', GTX 970 has been a pure virtual (no reference card) launch, which means all of NVIDIA’s partners are launching their custom cards right out of the gate'' [free for all built ]

 

[Karadjgne]

Evga and I believe Asus too, when first launched the 970 used cooling solutions from the gtx780ti which got some seriously lousy reviews since some of the heatpipes didn't even make contact with the 970's smaller die. It wasn't until later versions like the acx 2 that this was fixed. As stated, the original 970's were cobbled together, but time has given those partners chance to finish designs, which is where we get STRIX, acx2, G1 etc.

As far as performance, its a Maxwell gpu, its going to perform well, but that's all about the processor, not it's supporting electronics or hardware.

And yes, the Maxwell 970 is no different than an AMD 8320. Starts out life as a 9590, if it fails it's thrown in the 9370 bin, if it fails, 8370 etc till finally bottoming out. All the same cpu. The 970 is just failed 980 chips. Doesn't mean it's not a beast, its just a beast with chipped teeth.

 

[junkeymonkey]

I think they found away to get rid of all the junk in old inventory - kinda like amd did not release the 300 cards until the old 200 cards inventory fot low ??

NVidia just quick released cards putting them chips on old hardware and hyped them up to sell [lol ] and why the NVidia higher end cards quickly were out of stock

 

[Karadjgne]

That was my thinking after reading about the 780ti coolers, which is why I waited till now to buy my 970, and why it'll be mid July next year before I swap my main pc (if I even do) from win7 to win10. New stuff is always buggy.

 

[Nitro192]

That was my thinking after reading about the 780ti coolers, which is why I waited till now to buy my 970, and why it'll be mid July next year before I swap my main pc (if I even do) from win7 to win10. New stuff is always buggy.

Couldn't agree more, Same reasons I waited almost a year after release to get my 970. The G1 Gaming which I got has been rated the best for cooling because it is. It stays nice and cold no matter how much I pump into it. Plus is in the top 10 of the best cards on the planet. It performs like a monster. Glad I waited tbh. The 300 series of AMD were just rebrands of the 200 series, they're not even new GPUs. So obv they had alot of old 200 series GPUs laying around collecting dust and needed to sell them off so thus, the 300 series.

You're gonna love it btw, the 970. It is such a powerful card and overclocked performs roughly the same as the 980 and 390X. Destroys every 290X out there, it's a monster. I fell in love the same day I got it. Probably why in every Top Graphics cards of 2015 site you go to, it's in the top 3 because of performance per dollar.

 

[Tradesman1]

Evga and I believe Asus too, when first launched the 970 used cooling solutions from the gtx780ti which got some seriously lousy reviews since some of the heatpipes didn't even make contact with the 970's smaller die. It wasn't until later versions like the acx 2 that this was fixed. As stated, the original 970's were cobbled together, but time has given those partners chance to finish designs, which is where we get STRIX, acx2, G1 etc.

As far as performance, its a Maxwell gpu, its going to perform well, but that's all about the processor, not it's supporting electronics or hardware.

And yes, the Maxwell 970 is no different than an AMD 8320. Starts out life as a 9590, if it fails it's thrown in the 9370 bin, if it fails, 8370 etc till finally bottoming out. All the same cpu. The 970 is just failed 980 chips. Doesn't mean it's not a beast, its just a beast with chipped teeth.

_____________

the 8350 came out as the top of the line, the 8320 fell through not meeting the 8350 specs. The 9590 and 9370 were publicity stunts and are basically OCed 8350s as is the 8370.

 

[Tradesman1]

I think they found away to get rid of all the junk in old inventory - kinda like amd did not release the 300 cards until the old 200 cards inventory fot low ??

NVidia just quick released cards putting them chips on old hardware and hyped them up to sell [lol ] and why the NVidia higher end cards quickly were out of stock

_______________

The 300 series in large part is rebranded 2xx series - there have been numerous reports on this, i.e.

http://techreport.com/news/28231/official-specs-confirm-300-series-radeon-rebrands


This type of stuff has gone on for years, and all over, in DRAM sticks that don't meet say 2133 get downgraded to 1866, some manufacturers take 1333 sticks and loosen the CL and sell at 1600 to get a better price

 

[Shaun o]

How many times have we seen a model name change but the physical Gpu of the board does not.
I guess it`s a good way of fooling people into buying what they think is a more newer graphics card.
Due to not being informed enough, or reading reviews of graphics cards when a new model range is launched.
That way Company`s such as Nvidia and Ati get rid of alot of Gpu`s still sat on the Fab plant racks.
Due to a re badge of a card. Nividia have done this trick but also Ati has.
And 8800 GTX to a 250 card anyone ?. Or a 7970 card for a R9 280X card ?.
With a few subtle tweaks.

We all remember them.

Bit of a sneeky trick isn`t it. Of getting rid of old stock or a surplus of fabed gpus sat waiting around for card vendors to by them to put on a re badged card.

 

[Nitro192]

I had to revisit this Forum to let everyone know. Turns out my GTX 970 was overclocked to damn near 1600mhz the whole time and GPU Z was giving me a wrong reading, GPU Z said 1300Mhz Core Clock but it was actually at 1560Mhz Core. I had to update GPU Z to fix this issue/

So thanks to everyone but it turns out my 970 was heavily overclocked the entire time, (Over 1500Mhz) GPU Z just wasn't picking up on it. If anyone else runs into this, that's the reason.