GTX Geforce 970 is not performing as other GTX 970's are? Help please

[meritmaster]

I've recently replaced my GTX 660 TI PE, and bought my self a Gigabyte GTX 970 reference card, but I've noticed that the performance jump isn't as big as i expected, or as projected by benchmarks. I then started to watch numerous benchmark videos of different games, and only to find out i'm not squeezing out the same performance of my card.
CPU
I5-3570k
Motherboard
MSI GD-80 z77a
RAM
16GB DDR3 Vengeance 1600 Mhz
GPU
1x Gigabyte GTX 970 (non G1)
Case
Cooler Master Haf 922
Storage
256gb Sandisk SSD | 160gb WD Blue 7k 16mb Cache
PSU
Antec 750 watt (80+ bronze)
Display(s)
Samsung 720p 42' TV|LG Flatron e2250 (1920x1080)|Nivdia shield
Cooling
Cooler Master LED 200mm fans 2x|Cooler Master 120mm fan| Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Keyboard
Cooler Master CM Storm ($30) red
Mouse
Razor Naga Blue & Cooler master CM Storm mouse
Sound
Siberan v2 Headset & B&W fronts, infinities in the back, and energy 10' sub woofer
Operating System
Windows 7 & Android
I've benchmarked a series of games, but stills struggle to find out the issue.

Games I've bench marked:
Far Cry4 30-45fps (hits 50 rarely, and never goest to 60) Reference video for the benchmark:http://www.youtube.c...h?v=dqiOX-4fjdw
Arma III 15-high 20's
3d Benchmark (skydiver default) my score was: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4839575 22029

Others got higher scores, but i don't know why? I feel like my PC ins't pushing what it's suppose too. http://www.3dmark.co...0&cpuName=Intel Core i5-3570K Processor&gpuName=NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970



I didn't replace my GPU solely for getting better frames, but i also had issues with my PC, and i suppose i still do now, which leaves me to wonder: what part is bad? The problem is usually a desktop problem, but it tends to happen when i leave my PC on for long periods of time. The task bar form time to time will glitch out, and icons won't show, as shown in the pictures. During the time that this bug is active, my PC is prone to lock ups, and blue screens, and some times it would notify me that my Nivdia drivers had failed, but that has yet to happen on this card, nor the blue screen, but lock up in a black screen did, and it forced me to restart my PC.

The third photo with the bad resolution is when uninstalled the Nivdia drivers, and the problems persisted

I've also received a debug code:03 a few times during lockups, and blue screens, so what does this mean? I've had a post about it before http://linustechtips...and-hangs-help/


My orignal thread is here http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/257194-something-is-wrong-with-my-computer-and-its-directly-affecting-my-performance-please-help/#entry3517860, but i received no help, perhaps this forum can help me.

 

[cub_fanatic]

In the 3Dmark link of your system, why is your 3570K turbo clock only 1.6GHz? Stock turbo clock of a 3570k is 3.8GHz. You should check your BIOS settings to make sure the turbo clock is configured properly. You should also go ahead and check that your old GTX 660ti driver was wiped from the system before you downloaded and installed the newest Nvidia drivers from Nvidia's site. Then, check that Windows Updates are all up to date and anything else that may need to be updated or scanned like anti-virus and malware apps.

 

[meritmaster]

In the 3Dmark link of your system, why is your 3570K turbo clock only 1.6GHz? Stock turbo clock of a 3570k is 3.8GHz. You should check your BIOS settings to make sure the turbo clock is configured properly. You should also go ahead and check that your old GTX 660ti driver was wiped from the system before you downloaded and installed the newest Nvidia drivers from Nvidia's site. Then, check that Windows Updates are all up to date and anything else that may need to be updated or scanned like anti-virus and malware apps.

How do i go upon changing that setting, or what's the general area it would be in?

I reformatted to ensure the driver is gone, and wiped from my system, and i did numerous wipes!

 

[cub_fanatic]

In the 3Dmark link of your system, why is your 3570K turbo clock only 1.6GHz? Stock turbo clock of a 3570k is 3.8GHz. You should check your BIOS settings to make sure the turbo clock is configured properly. You should also go ahead and check that your old GTX 660ti driver was wiped from the system before you downloaded and installed the newest Nvidia drivers from Nvidia's site. Then, check that Windows Updates are all up to date and anything else that may need to be updated or scanned like anti-virus and malware apps.

How do i go upon changing that setting, or what's the general area it would be in?

I reformatted to ensure the driver is gone, and wiped from my system, and i did numerous wipes!

The only way is to go into your BIOS. If you are not familiar with a PC BIOS, do some basic research on it first. But, in order to access it, you most likely will see an instruction as soon as you turn on your PC on what button to press. It is typically 'DEL' or 'F2' or something like that. Since newer PCs are very fast and give you little time to even read that screen, it is sometimes hard to press the button at the correct moment and then you have to reboot the PC all over again. Because of this, I like to start tapping the button as soon as the fans start to spin up. This works 99% of the time with the other 1% usually giving you a keyboard error. Once you are in the BIOS, you probably will have to exit into some sort of advanced mode and look for the turbo setting which is typically under a CPU settings tab. The easiest way to find out where this setting is exactly is to consult the user manual that came with your motherboard. If you cannot find it, you can simply download it from the MSI website. Here is the link to the manual, just click on the English version: http://us.msi.com/support/mb/Z77AGD80.html#down-manual While you are on that website, check to make sure that you have the latest BIOS version installed as well. The latest is 1.7 for your board and is here: http://us.msi.com/support/mb/Z77AGD80.html#down-bios