Question Low overclocks on GTX 980 TI

[Power2PC]

Hello, This is my first time using this forum site. This seemed like the perfect place to ask this question so here I go.

I own a GTX 980 Ti Zotac AMP! (Non extreme) which is not exactly one of the best cards out there but should still be able to hold a decent core clock on the GPU regardless according to reviews. The PCB used in the card is a reference style and comes with a max out of the box boost of 1228Mhz for me. According to other forums these cards can easily reach 1400+ Mhz on the stock 1.187 Vcore, however mine struggles to maintain over 1340Mhz at 1.187 Vcore and tops out at 1405Mhz on 1.24 Vcore, and even then the card can randomly freeze.
All testes were done on Heaven 4.0 at MAX details, AA, Tessellation, DX11. The card drives a 2560x1600 display and gests around 30 - 50FPS at said settings.

I may be doing something wrong, The card has never been flashed with a custom VBIOS from purchase, the card has not been overclocked since I have owned it, I have had no problems with it previously. The card is not thermal throttling either due to operating temps of 55c - 60c throughout the lifetime of owning the card with a custom fan profile on MSI AB. The card is clean of dust and dirt and has been repasted shortly after discovering the low OCs just as my last ditch effort, repasting dropped temps by 2c from the factory paste. I had also taken the time to measure the VRM and Vram temperatures with a K-type: VRM 70c - 80c (Hottest MOSFET), Vram 70c - 80c (Hottest VRAM IC).

My pc is connected directly into the wall outlet, I have a 240V supply here. EVGA GQ 750 PSU. GPU has 2 individual PEG power connectors from the PSU, 1x 8pin, 1x 6pin. The PCI-e slot is running at gen 3.0 X 16 as manually configured in the BIOS.

Can anyone offer any tips going forward? Is my card somehow borked?

 

[Power2PC]

Hello, This is my first time using this forum site. This seemed like the perfect place to ask this question so here I go.

I own a GTX 980 Ti Zotac AMP! (Non extreme) which is not exactly one of the best cards out there but should still be able to hold a decent core clock on the GPU regardless according to reviews. The PCB used in the card is a reference style and comes with a max out of the box boost of 1228Mhz for me. According to other forums these cards can easily reach 1400+ Mhz on the stock 1.187 Vcore, however mine struggles to maintain over 1340Mhz at 1.187 Vcore and tops out at 1405Mhz on 1.24 Vcore, and even then the card can randomly freeze.
All testes were done on Heaven 4.0 at MAX details, AA, Tessellation, DX11. The card drives a 2560x1600 display and gests around 30 - 50FPS at said settings.

I may be doing something wrong, The card has never been flashed with a custom VBIOS from purchase, the card has not been overclocked since I have owned it, I have had no problems with it previously. The card is not thermal throttling either due to operating temps of 55c - 60c throughout the lifetime of owning the card with a custom fan profile on MSI AB. The card is clean of dust and dirt and has been repasted shortly after discovering the low OCs just as my last ditch effort, repasting dropped temps by 2c from the factory paste. I had also taken the time to measure the VRM and Vram temperatures with a K-type: VRM 70c - 80c (Hottest MOSFET), Vram 70c - 80c (Hottest VRAM IC).

My pc is connected directly into the wall outlet, I have a 240V supply here. EVGA GQ 750 PSU. GPU has 2 individual PEG power connectors from the PSU, 1x 8pin, 1x 6pin. The PCI-e slot is running at gen 3.0 X 16 as manually configured in the BIOS.

Can anyone offer any tips going forward? Is my card somehow borked?

(I already asked this question in Overclocking, I posted here too for optimal coverage)

 

[kerberos_20]

maybe youre hitting your board power delivery design?
extreme edition has few extra VRM and 2x 8pin for better overclocks

 

[ko888]

Possibly bad luck of the draw in the silicon lottery. A high overclock is not a guarantee.

 

[Zerk2012]

Hello, This is my first time using this forum site. This seemed like the perfect place to ask this question so here I go.

I own a GTX 980 Ti Zotac AMP! (Non extreme) which is not exactly one of the best cards out there but should still be able to hold a decent core clock on the GPU regardless according to reviews. The PCB used in the card is a reference style and comes with a max out of the box boost of 1228Mhz for me. According to other forums these cards can easily reach 1400+ Mhz on the stock 1.187 Vcore, however mine struggles to maintain over 1340Mhz at 1.187 Vcore and tops out at 1405Mhz on 1.24 Vcore, and even then the card can randomly freeze.
All testes were done on Heaven 4.0 at MAX details, AA, Tessellation, DX11. The card drives a 2560x1600 display and gests around 30 - 50FPS at said settings.

I may be doing something wrong, The card has never been flashed with a custom VBIOS from purchase, the card has not been overclocked since I have owned it, I have had no problems with it previously. The card is not thermal throttling either due to operating temps of 55c - 60c throughout the lifetime of owning the card with a custom fan profile on MSI AB. The card is clean of dust and dirt and has been repasted shortly after discovering the low OCs just as my last ditch effort, repasting dropped temps by 2c from the factory paste. I had also taken the time to measure the VRM and Vram temperatures with a K-type: VRM 70c - 80c (Hottest MOSFET), Vram 70c - 80c (Hottest VRAM IC).

My pc is connected directly into the wall outlet, I have a 240V supply here. EVGA GQ 750 PSU. GPU has 2 individual PEG power connectors from the PSU, 1x 8pin, 1x 6pin. The PCI-e slot is running at gen 3.0 X 16 as manually configured in the BIOS.

Can anyone offer any tips going forward? Is my card somehow borked?

I would just leave it alone, not sure what your trying to get to happen by overclocking it? If it's just benchmarks OUCH, if it's for gaming then if you were getting 100 FPS and could overclock the card 10% you get a whopping 110FPS with the chance of damaging/killing the card.

EDIT Look at the prices of new cards not really something I would be playing with right now.

 

[Power2PC]

Nope, I’m no where close. The card sips around 200w - 220w at full tilt, I raised the board power to 275w in MSI AB and saw no change.

I may just have a terrible overclocker in my hands.