Overclocking my 970

itzhalo · Nov 21, 2016

Hello TH forums. I'm an extremely new and inexperienced overclocker and was really hoping to overclock my GPU. I have had my 970 since 2014 and have tried overclocking it multiple times in the past yet have still ran into the same issue over and over. What happens is pretty much I get a seemingly stable overclock. Test it in both kombustor for a good 30 minutes and then in Unigen Engine Heaven for another 30 minutes. Works absolutely phenomenal. No crashing or artifacting. As happy as I was with this overclock I decided to play some games. I launched up Killing Floor 2 and after around 10 minutes of playing I noticed my 2nd monitor went blue, then around 15 seconds after my game just completely crashed. This has been the only thing keeping me away from overclocking. This isn't the first time either. Even back in 2015 when I tried this my battlefield 4 crashed.

It just seems too much trouble for what it's worth. Any ideas/tips about how you guys get around this issue? I would love to get a little more performance out of this card but it just keeps bugging me to work on the seemingly perfect overclock just to get let down by it crashing while I am in-game. Thanks!

JackNaylorPE · Nov 21, 2016

1. Always buy AIB cards .... MSI Gaming, Asus Strix, Gigabyte Windforce, Zotac Amp, EVGA FTW (not SC, s that is a usually a refence PCB w/ improved cooler). The reference cards will experience thermal throttling, even when not overclocked, at least with the x70 and x80 lines.

3. Look at sites like Duru3D to get settings to 'start with".
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_970_gaming_review,26.html

With AfterBurner we applied:

Temp Target 80 Degrees C
GPU clock +185 MHz
Power limiter 110%
Mem clock +500 MHz
Volatge + 87Mv
FAN RPM 70% (remains silent)

4. When using MSI Afterburner or alternatives, be prepared to store multiple profiles. I keep:

1 - Stock (reference) settings ... this is so you have a base to check with
2 - Outta the box settings (cards oft come w/ factory overclock) ... you will oft find that some cards (i.e. EVGA SC) will not be able to maintain stability at factory OC
3 - Best settings using benchmarks (Unigine / Furmark) .... this should work for most games
4 - Best settings for those weird games ... I found 3 spots in Metro 2033 where I had to cut memory speed a notch.. 1st was on loading during credits going down track, 2nd was when coming out of tunnels overlooking junkyard and 3rd was when following the gully where that bull thing was. Other than that game ran at setting 3
5 - Best settings for Battlefield ... have had to reduce settings for Battlefield on every build.... not that it has been the only game, just that every time on every box has a problem with the max settings that work in all other games.

itzhalo · Nov 21, 2016

JackNaylorPE :

1. Always buy AIB cards .... MSI Gaming, Asus Strix, Gigabyte Windforce, Zotac Amp, EVGA FTW (not SC, s that is a usually a refence PCB w/ improved cooler). The reference cards will experience thermal throttling, even when not overclocked, at least with the x70 and x80 lines.

3. Look at sites like Duru3D to get settings to 'start with".
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_970_gaming_review,26.html

With AfterBurner we applied:

Temp Target 80 Degrees C
GPU clock +185 MHz
Power limiter 110%
Mem clock +500 MHz
Volatge + 87Mv
FAN RPM 70% (remains silent)

4. When using MSI Afterburner or alternatives, be prepared to store multiple profiles. I keep:

1 - Stock (reference) settings ... this is so you have a base to check with
2 - Outta the box settings (cards oft come w/ factory overclock) ... you will oft find that some cards (i.e. EVGA SC) will not be able to maintain stability at factory OC
3 - Best settings using benchmarks (Unigine / Furmark) .... this should work for most games
4 - Best settings for those weird games ... I found 3 spots in Metro 2033 where I had to cut memory speed a notch.. 1st was on loading during credits going down track, 2nd was when coming out of tunnels overlooking junkyard and 3rd was when following the gully where that bull thing was. Other than that game ran at setting 3
5 - Best settings for Battlefield ... have had to reduce settings for Battlefield on every build.... not that it has been the only game, just that every time on every box has a problem with the max settings that work in all other games.

Dang thanks for all the info. I unfortunately have a Evga SC 970 so that could be the culprit. What seemed to be a stable overclock for me was:
GPU clock +125 MHz
Power limiter 110%
Mem clock +300 MHz

And that was the one which still crashed during games yet seemed checked out on all the benchmarks.

aquielisunari · Nov 21, 2016

itzhalo :

And not even a little overvolt? That's the one variable missing from your OC that can help with instability. You are asking for more work but you don't offer any more food. I used this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyk5DCladcY step by step guid. But now IT'S GONE!!! I'll have it back up in a couple of days, I hope. First I'll have to contact Asus about the legalities. Rather not have my account closed because of a DMCA which involves educating. It isn't my video. It allowed my EVGA 970 FTW to overclock successfully with Furmark, Heaven, some of my games and some other utilities. I was using Asus tweak for logging but MSI Afterburner is best for overclocking. I'll be back in a few days. Hopefully I will have a new link.

JackNaylorPE · Nov 21, 2016

Read this....

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review/3

1. Hopefully you got one of the newer ones ... early boards had this problem where on;y 2 of the 3 heat pipes were touching the GPU

2. The VRM here with the SC (4+2) is a slight upgrade from the stock 4+1 design which is a bit light for overclocking.... MSI for example used 6+2, Asus 6.

3.

The GPU MOSFETs are directly cooled by the main heatsink, which has a thermal strip on to draw heat up into the fin stack. On the other side of the GPU is a metal contact plate that partially cools two of the four memory chips on this side, leaving the other two exposed. It also cools the MOSFETs of the power phases serving the memory, but no thermal pads are used, so heat transfer is likely to be limited.

Those are the kinda things that help one card OC better than another.

4. I suggest...

a) 1st take Core up as high a sit can go, leave memory alone, and see if it's stable

b) the take memory up as high a sit can go, leave core at "outta the box" settings, and see if it's stable

Where ya wanna be will be somewhere in the middle.

itzhalo · Nov 21, 2016

aquielisunari :

itzhalo :

And not even a little overvolt? That's the one variable missing from your OC that can help with instability. You are asking for more work but you don't offer any more food. I used this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyk5DCladcY step by step guid. But now IT'S GONE!!! I'll have it back up in a couple of days, I hope. First I'll have to contact Asus about the legalities. Rather not have my account closed because of a DMCA which involves educating. It isn't my video. It allowed my EVGA 970 FTW to overclock successfully with Furmark, Heaven, some of my games and some other utilities. I was using Asus tweak for logging but MSI Afterburner is best for overclocking. I'll be back in a few days. Hopefully I will have a new link.

Sounds good man good luck on everything so far :bounce:

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Overclocking my 970

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