Did I lose the silicon lottery, or am I missing something?

[Setecastronomy]

I'm having some issues with overclocking and I'm hoping someone can help.  I just recently got the new EKWB Predator 360, and a EKWB full cover water block (with quick disconnects) for my 980 ti.  After leak checking and ensuring the new water cooling worked, I wanted to put that full cover water block to work and see how far I can push my 980 ti.  

Using this video as a guide: 

I followed Jays instructions and was hoping to get some decent overclocking results, but after several hours of working on this I'm sitting at the following overclock setting in Afterburner:

 

Core voltage: +10mv (it wasn't stable in Valley unless I did this)
Power Limit:  110

Core Clock:  +100
Mem Clock:  +150

 

Thats it.  If I raise ANY of those settings beyond that, the overclock becomes unstable and crashes.  

My 980ti has a default core clock of 1140 with a boost of 1228, so with my 100 mhz overclock I'm able to get an actual MAX of 1425 mhz (measured with afterburner) while running either Valley or 3DMark.

Hottest temp I ever saw was 40 degrees C on the GPU.   

The attached screenshots are of my current settings.

*Note, my 980 ti is an EVGA hybrid model, so I obviously took the hybrid cooling unit off and put the full cover block on.  I know the Hybrid card uses a reference PCB, so maybe that stock PCB is the weak link?  

Bottom line, this just seems like a REALLY weak overclock, I was hoping for a lot more than that given the awesome cooling from the full cover waterblock.  

Full system specs, if this helps:  
Asus Sabertooth z97 Mark 1

4670k, running at 4.0 ghz

16 gb ram

850 Evo 500gb

Corsair Ax760i (using two cable for the video card, one for each connector)

EKWB Predator 360 with GPU block in the loop.  
Win 10 Pro x64

Single monitor, Asus VG248QE running at 144hz

Using the latest nvidia drivers

 

 

If anyone sees anything glaringly obvious that I'm missing here, feel free to point it out.  I'm very new to overclocking, so I'm hoping I'm just overlooking something simple.  If I really did just get a weak GPU/card, that's fine, I just want to rule out anything I could be doing wrong.  

Thanks for any help, I appreciate anyone taking the time to read all that.  

 

[Volbet]

Well, you could try raising the core voltage. That should give you stability at higher clock speeds. 

If your card doesn't allow for a higher core voltage, then you might need to flash it with a custome BIOS. 

[2FA]

Try more voltage, +10 is hardly anything.

[Setecastronomy]

Okay, I tried adding more voltage.  If I add anything more than +15, Valley stutters and crashes within a minute.  I tried +25 and it crashed almost immediately.  
Is this just limitations of the board/bios?  

I'll start looking into flashing it with a custome bios.  Never messed with a video card bios before, and this card doesn't support dual bios.

[don_svetlio]

Okay, I tried adding more voltage.  If I add anything more than +15, Valley stutters and crashes within a minute.  I tried +25 and it crashed almost immediately.  

Is this just limitations of the board/bios?  

I'll start looking into flashing it with a custome bios.  Never messed with a video card bios before, and this card doesn't support dual bios.

you lost friend. You got a 980 Ti that can't overclock to save it's life

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Okay, I tried adding more voltage.  If I add anything more than +15, Valley stutters and crashes within a minute.  I tried +25 and it crashed almost immediately.  

Is this just limitations of the board/bios?  

I'll start looking into flashing it with a custome bios.  Never messed with a video card bios before, and this card doesn't support dual bios.

 

What driver version are you using? You should browse around the nvidia forums and see which driver version is that best for overclocking. 

[Praesi]

Okay, I tried adding more voltage. If I add anything more than +15, Valley stutters and crashes within a minute. I tried +25 and it crashed almost immediately.

Is this just limitations of the board/bios?

I'll start looking into flashing it with a custome bios. Never messed with a video card bios before, and this card doesn't support dual bios.

No. You dont lost. The Bios of this Generation is designed this way. You cant push it through the roof without custom bios. And i stronly recommend that you dont touch a custom bios. You will kill your Card faster than you think if you dont know what you do. And you lose your warranty. Your card is super fast as it is. Just enjoy it.

[TymmVonD]

I have a 66% ASIC ref 980Ti. I am set at +81mv on voltage, 110% power, +191 core, +377 mem. Your boost clock is higher than mine. Mine usually stays at 1404. It was stable at higher in stress test but I had an artifact in game so I backed it off. 

 

That voltage number isn't always applied either. It acts more as voltage headroom. If it can boost, it will apply the voltage. Mine doesn't ever apply the full +81mv it's set to. I've only seen it go +63mv.  

[Setecastronomy]

Thanks everyone for the advice. Guess I'll just live with it as I've never flashed a bios on a video card before and I'd really hate to turn a 980ti into a paperweight.