I got this evga superclocked gtx 970 a few weeks back and found something peculiar with it. When I play the game planetside 2 without the Precision X software running in the background my system crashes and I have to do a hard restart in order to get it up and running again. When it crashes I can still hear the audio, but my rig makes this weird sort of grinding noise and the screen goes blank. The only way for me to fix this is by a hard restart. However when I use the precision x software in the background the game doesn't crash at all. I'm not sure if this happens on other games since after the Planetside 2 incident I make sure to always have my precision x software up and running before launching a game. I don't really understand why this is happening and would like to know if anyone else is experiencing similar issues. 

Don't use precision x. Use the older if you can find it or msi afterburner

I'm having the same issue with my 970. Purchased First of the month. Just contacted support about possible RMA.
 
Are you getting Nvidia driver not responding errors?
 
Going to try running precision X and report back if it helps. 

@dukenukem899 please cite your source? I believe you, but I don't accept the answer as optional software shouldn't have to be run for hardware to work correctly... 
 
setting the fan to 80% manual in precision X seems to fix the problem for me so far too. Perhaps it's an overheating issue.

so what does that mean about the card? Faulty Bios?
 

dan2600
@ please cite your source? I believe you, but I don't accept the answer as optional software shouldn't have to be run for hardware to work correctly... 
 
setting the fan to 80% manual in precision X seems to fix the problem for me so far too. Perhaps it's an overheating issue.

I can't link to it, because it was a response to a ticket I submitted to their support system.
 

David from the Nvidia Support team
Hi David,
Thanks for the update. It does not sound like you have a hardware problem. The issue sounds just like the bug we are investigating. Its one of those bug that's hard to replicate. Hopefully we can find out the reason soon. We posted 347.09 beta driver today. Can you try this with NFS and Dragon Age and see if its reproducible? 

If NFS is still reproducible, please send me your system log, time it takes to repro, steps to reproduce the crash, and screenshots of the ingame graphics/video and nvidia panel's "manage 3d settings" so we can investigate it. 
Example of screenshots:





1) Have Windows search for "msinfo32" and then run the program

2) This will bring up the Microsoft System Information utility. With your mouse, left-click over the top menu bar and select "File" and then choose "Save".

3) Give the file any name you wish and save it to any directory on your hard drive as long as you can remember the location afterwards.

4) It will take about a minute or two for the file to be created. The default file extension for this newly created file is ".nfo".

5) Attach the *.nfo file to this support request so that we may review your system configuration.

Best regards,

-David

 
I had asked them about black screen crashes I'd been suffering on Dragon Age Inquisition and Need for Speed Most Wanted. After more testing I discovered that the games weren't the culprit, since I could reproduce the crashes in other games if I didn't use the Precision X app. When he sent that response he didn't know about the Precision fix yet (I didn't know about it either, as I stumbled upon it by chance while I was testing)

ty_ger07

dan2600
@ please cite your source? I believe you, but I don't accept the answer as optional software shouldn't have to be run for hardware to work correctly... 
 
setting the fan to 80% manual in precision X seems to fix the problem for me so far too. Perhaps it's an overheating issue.

You are correct.  The video card should not require this sort of software for it to work properly.  Using the video card in a compatible computer (hardware), video card BIOS which comes with the card (firmware), and using the NVIDIA drivers in a working operating system (software), the card should work properly.  Those are the only three conditions which should be required.
 
If you NEED Precision X or Afterburner or some similar program to modify the video card's behavior in order for the video card to work properly:
1) you can accept that solution to fix your faulty video card
2) you can reject that solution and demand a warranty replacement
 
If I were you, I would think that a software crutch to fix my expensive video card is not an acceptable solution; I would replace the video card.  NVIDIA can claim that it isn't a hardware issue; but I would disagree.  It's either a hardware issue, a firmware issue, or a software issue.  You should put the pressure in NVIDIA's court to fix the issue by demanding a new card instead of accepting their software workaround using a program which otherwise should not be required.

While I agree with you, I am not in a position to demand a replacement for my card. I live in Argentina, and RMA equals hell to me.

So far for the last hour and a half or so, running fans non-stop at 80% has resulted in 0% problems. Performance has also been more stable (frame rates seem more solid in Day-Z) So it's either thermal or more likely, a power issue as Sajin suggested, as the temps seem low (extremely low when the fans are cranked the whole time). 
 
I agree with ty_ger07 and I want a OOB working card, I haven't had it for even a month yet, and this is a brand new machine. Also, I shouldn't have to run the fans at 80% all the time, its loud and the whole point of ACX 2.0 is to run on less power.   The card is great when it works. I already emailed EVGA support, they are usually good at getting back quickly. I guess we will see how it goes.

@ty_ger07 Thanks for the update. Somehow I manage to have problems like this only during the holidays :-p
 
 In the meantime, running Precision X and keeping the fan speeds high has alleviated the problem. I hope this card is just part of a bad batch and not something else, as it is really great when it works.

Count me in on the issue. EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 that black screens during graphic intensive games between 5-15 minutes. Have to hard reset ... well you read the symptoms earlier in the thread. I read many troubleshooting suggestions. 
 
Here are the things I tried and failed to fix the issue:

• Tried different games: Far Cry 3, The Crew, Battlefield 4 - all crashed at different intervals, but within 15mins.
• MB Bios update
• Reinstall Chipset/MB drivers
• Clean install of Video Drivers
• Beta drivers
• Uninstall/Disable all drivers except for PhysX and Video Driver
• Use Precision X Fan Curve (tried several different levels) - although this did extend the time before crash.
• Installed new 1000W 80Plus Gold PSU
• CLEAN install of Windows 8.1 (I would suggest leaving this as a last ditch effort ugh)
• On a side note, my old EVGA GTX 660 (which I loved) worked fine when I tried reinstalling that.

 
What finally fixed it for me and should have be tried before most of the above, but I was too stubborn (don't make my mistakes):

• Underclocked Memory to -106 and GPU to -101 or maybe that was vice versa.

Now the stubborn part was "Damn it I bought a SC card, so why would I want to underclock to basically a reference card". I do wonder if I would have been better off with the reference card, but that ACX 2.0 seemed to cool to pass up.
 
Anyways, I suggest you underclock with precision X like I did before you play the game (I have it set to start with windows, but sometimes it resets to the SC clock speeds, so you may want to double check before you get a black screen in the middle of something important). Obviously this is a temporary fix to get you through the holidays of game playing since support/returns will be on a huge delay this time of year.
 
My hope is that there is something that can be done with a vBios update or some Nvidia driver magic.
 
EVGA I loved my GTX 660, so enjoy your holidays and then give us a hand to hopefully avoid RMAs.