EVGA GTX 980 SC Overclocking?

[JimmyzHoopz]

So, I have a GTX 980 SC from EVGA, and it was my understanding upon buying the card, that it would be a great overclocker, like most if not all 980's. However, if I push it any further than the out of the box clocks, it crashes in the Heaven and Valley benchmarks withing 10-20 seconds. However, it runs like a mule all day at default without a single hitch. I mean, it's perfectly beast enough as it is, however, with my 144hz monitor I'd like to get a little more juice out of it considering I spent 600 bucks on it. If you guys could help me figure that out, that would be great!

[Firearm2112]

have you tried turning up the power limit and voltage

[JimmyzHoopz]

When I was experimenting, I had turned the power limit up as far as it could go. However, I never messed with the voltage.

[LiamApex]

So, I have a GTX 980 SC from EVGA, and it was my understanding upon buying the card, that it would be a great overclocker, like most if not all 980's. However, if I push it any further than the out of the box clocks, it crashes in the Heaven and Valley benchmarks withing 10-20 seconds. However, it runs like a mule all day at default without a single hitch. I mean, it's perfectly beast enough as it is, however, with my 144hz monitor I'd like to get a little more juice out of considering I spent 600 bucks on it. If you guys could help me figure that out, that would be great!

how many 144HZ moniters ?

[JimmyzHoopz]

Just the single BenQ

[ExcitezR]

up the power limit add more volts if that dont work then you have a card that can't overclock nothing else to say really 

[JimmyzHoopz]

Guess I lost the silicon lottery then, cause raising the voltage does nothing. Kinda BS for a 600 dollar card if you ask me.

[Slayer1443]

Well the cards SC which means its basically clocked as high as it should go without overclocking more Although i have 2 gtx 660s Sc in sli and Im able to over clock them

[JimmyzHoopz]

Hmm, I guess I'll just have to get a second one then if I want some more power. I could prolly grab a 4k monitor as well, take advantage of 2 of these. If I sli'd them, I wouldn't overclock anyway, so that might just work lol

[Slayer1443]

Or do that just gunna get another 1 with a 4k monitor no bigy LOL

[JimmyzHoopz]

I mean, my only other option would be waiting for a better card, say 980 ti, or try and get a different single 980. But I hate selling gpu's, takes forever, and can't deal with the downtime cause I use this computer for work.

[m_tieu]

For evga's parts, the SC is pretty much their lowest binned card, the FTW and classified editions are binned to be better overclockers, usually. The classified cards are also overbuilt with more power phases and multiple bios' for better overclocking. Overclocking performance is never guaranteed except for what's written in the specs.

[ablangc]

Just out of curiosity, what are your overclock settings?

[maizenblue]

Is this the ACX 2.0 SC or the one with the reference cooler?

[JimmyzHoopz]

It's the ACX 2.0. And my settings were not demanding at all. Even when adding something as small as 20mhz to the core clock, it failed the benchmark 30 seconds in. I mean, I was planning to eventually SLI them anyway, but part of me wants to hold off on getting a second one of these. Cause if they have a bad reputation in terms of overclocking, I don't want to have to get 2 poor overclockers off my hands when the next series comes out. I would like to transition to 4k soon though. And I can't do that without some sort of sli setup.

[SteveGrabowski]

So, I have a GTX 980 SC from EVGA, and it was my understanding upon buying the card, that it would be a great overclocker, like most if not all 980's. However, if I push it any further than the out of the box clocks, it crashes in the Heaven and Valley benchmarks withing 10-20 seconds. However, it runs like a mule all day at default without a single hitch. I mean, it's perfectly beast enough as it is, however, with my 144hz monitor I'd like to get a little more juice out of it considering I spent 600 bucks on it. If you guys could help me figure that out, that would be great!

 

My EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 isn't such a great overclocker either. I can do about 50MHz core bump and 100MHz memory bump and have it stable in long gaming sessions, but anything more and I'm gray screening after an hour or two even with a good voltage bump. But I knew the EVGA cards weren't great overclockers when I bought mine, and wanted the peace of mind from the quick turnaround if I ever need to RMA it for any reason instead.

[maizenblue]

I have the same card, but I haven't even installed it yet because I have zero time working and going to school full time. I was under the impression it would be a good overclocker as well. Kind of disappointing if that's not the case, but at least the card is already decently overclocked out of the box. what kind of temps are you getting? The 970 ACX 2.0 has a rep as being so so for cooling but I thought that issue was limited to the 970 and didn't affect the 980.

 

The card is unusually cheap for being one of the highest factory OC'd 980s out there, its like 50 dollars less than a gigabyte g1 despite being OCd from the factory higher. I guess we might have found out WHY its cheaper than most 980s.