Screen going black after 970 OC

Muezick · Jul 5, 2015

Was playing around with Overclocking my EVGA GTX 970 SSC last night, didn't get very far, but I was basically just increasing memory and core clocks at random and hoping something stuck. I never touched the voltage, since I read that's about the only thing that can fry the card.

I was using Unigine Heaven 4.0 to benchmark and of course 90% of the time while I was trying to find a stable over clock, Unigine would stutter, the screen would go black and my clocks would reset back to factory.

There was one instance where the screen went black and never recovered. I could hear the music playing and keyboard inputs still registered, but my main screen, my DVI screen, went black and stayed black until I did a hard shut down and reboot.

Now while gaming, the screen will just randomly go black, but only the DVI goes black, this is also the screen I'm gaming on, but usually all three of my screens flicker a moment when switching between desktop and full screen you know?

Any ways, did I break my DVI port some how? Anybody have any similar problems?

KKAW · Jul 5, 2015

First of all for all 970 cards the voltage meter does not harm your card at all. If you do not change the max voltage and power you won't get very far with an overclock without getting a black screen or a blue screen or what ever.
I have my 970 core voltage at max +87mV which is completely safe. MSI afterburner or what ever other graphics card and program you use to overclock caps the 970 voltage to make sure it does not damage or decrease the lifespan of the card. (It does decrease the lifespan but it should be unnoticeable minimal.)
Make sure the power limit is also at max 110% for me. The maximum temperature should be around 85 degrees give or take depending on your preference.
After that you can play around with the settings.

additionally this is my settings on afterburner but i don't have a very good 970 its only a msi tiger edition oc edition which is not that good.
+180 on the clock
+400 on the memory
your clock speed and memory is already overclocked since you have SSC so you may not have the same overclock as me.
My GPUz:
clock: 1282mhz boost clock: 1421mhz
memory: 1953mhz

Fullmetalalkami · Jul 5, 2015

Sounds as thoigh you may have pushed the overclock a little too far. Bring it back down a few mhz on the core and memory and stress test it with msi kombuster for an hour or so, or a few heaven/valley benchies until you get a stable overclock. I think its worth taking this step before worrying about broken DVI port

Muezick · Jul 5, 2015

KKAW :

I think I may have mis worded my OP.

I have turned all overclock settings off. The card is back to factory clocks, but I'm still getting random black screens while gaming.

(Also thanks for the tip on voltages, I'll mess around with it. Finding a stable overclock is such a pain, but maybe adjusting the voltage will help. I've seen benchmarks where 970s perform as well as stock 980s, that's where I want to be for sure! haha, but errr, not if my cards some how been damaged by my tinkering. It never used to randomly black screen while gaming)

Also I used MSI Afterburner to OC. I tried EVGA Precision X, but the settings weren't sticking for some reason, so I swapped to MSI Afterburner.

Fullmetalalkami · Jul 5, 2015

ive not touched the voltage on my gpu but i have
+205mhz core
+320mhz memory
With 105% power i never seen it go above 70c and heaven score is 1628 avg fps 64.8

KKAW · Jul 5, 2015

check your motherboard settings perhaps and make it all back to default and check gpuz and HWmonitor or other sensory programs to make sure everything is back to normal.

Fullmetalalkami · Jul 5, 2015

How old is the card? If its at stock clocks thats even more worrying

KKAW · Jul 5, 2015

Fullmetalalkami :

you must have a nice card ;-;

Muezick · Jul 5, 2015

KKAW :

I have GPU-z Running, which is how I am able to tell it's back to stock clocks. I have no idea how to get into the GPU BIOS to check there. I just have to trust GPU-z is reporting well.

Fullmetalalkami :

Like, I dunno ...5 months at this point, I guess. Does EVGA RMA if I tell them I was Overclocking and something broke? lol

Fullmetalalkami · Jul 5, 2015

Definitely never tell them you were oc'ing coz it still technically screws up warranties coz of the extra heat and stress on the card, if its regular id consider RMA also the EVGA cards dnt over lock as well if you do return it see about a gigabyte g1 or MSI

Fullmetalalkami · Jul 5, 2015

@KKAW yeah i got lucky with this card it OCs great i could go further but i want some life in her lol

Muezick · Jul 5, 2015

Fullmetalalkami :

Ehhh, I feel like I'd have a pretty good argument. I don't remember any warranty popups when I downloaded Precision X and that's software they give you specifically to over clock.

Seems so weird that my DVI port of all things is acting up. None of the other display ports or HDMI ports are acting up. Though that might just be because the DVI port is where the game is being displayed and it only black screens when i'm gaming.

Muezick · Jul 5, 2015

I just checked. EVGA Warranty does cover Overclocking. So Maybe I'll just submit a support ticket.

I just uninstalled all of my overclocking software and removed any presets. These are whats responsible for overclocking the GPU when it's done in operating system right, so theoretically without the software installed, it HAS to be at base clocks.

Fullmetalalkami · Jul 5, 2015

If you do RMA id still suggest you just saying that you get random crashes, freezes etc and issues with the display i wouldnt mention overclocking at all but of course its your choice

a 5 month old card should still work the way it did on day 1!

Fullmetalalkami · Jul 5, 2015

Thats great they cover it its news to me as i remember OC never used to be covered in warranty

Muezick · Jul 5, 2015

Fullmetalalkami :

Yeah well thats the #1 reason to chose EVGA over Gigabyte or MSI.

They have the best Customer Service.

Fullmetalalkami · Jul 5, 2015

ive never had to use EVGA customer service but I have heard good things- nice to know they have decent policies in place

Muezick · Jul 5, 2015

well after uninstalling all the software and rebooting my computer a few times, the problem seems to have gone away.

How strange. Ah well, thanks for the help everybody!

Fullmetalalkami · Jul 5, 2015

Nice glad its sorted always better to not have to RMA

Screen going black after 970 OC

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