The stuck clock is caused by instability of too high of an overclock. Overclock less and it won't happen. When any graphics card instability is detected, the driver locks the clock down and it can't be adjusted until you reboot.

well, after some testing done, either in Win 7 or win 8.1 tested diffrent driver versions even tryed to set my cpu clock back to stock just to check if there is something that would make it unstable but nope....
 
still cant slide the slider for Core clock pass the +20MHz mark or the driver will just crash while gpu boost happily OC the card up to 1430MHz :/ want to get to that magic 1500MHz mark but wont be able to clock with this card it seems shame, been in contact with EVGA support so hopefully they maybe can think of something or RMA the card 

thats what i been testing with fire strike and just as it finished loading its goes black scren crash and tells me that the nvidia driver kernel crashed and restored as soon i been going over 20MHz offset

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4271211 +75MHz
 
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4271318 +90MHz
seems to go abit higher now dno really what i change though since im still not changeing the voltage in prescion and this have never worked before ... maybe a fluke?
 
now this is funny, cleared 2 runs  though firestrike one on +50 and +75 havent done that before -.- 
 
as for vcore on my cpu Adaptive mode with 1.285 Vcore 24Hr stable test with AIDA64 done didnt have problems with this overclock with my old GTX690 that i OC abit didnt even work to OC this 980 in stock clocks and all on auto in bios. my memory is set on Auto to run at its stock speeds 1600MHz, 
 
have put in nVidia control panel to prefer maximum preformance instead of adaptive
 
 
*edit*
 
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4271404 +107MHz 1500MHz Boost clock achived 
i dunno what the hell i been doing before but now i seem to do run after run w/o failing... and even up at the 1500 mark still not OV but now im starting to get abit tired so will have to keep going tomorrow well thanks for the help anyway bcavnaugh

bcavnaugh
Lucky You!, I have never gotten passed +100
 
Look under Detailed scores.  Physics Score 13509.0  20980.0 @ 4.8 you have a higher score than my 4.3
Physics Test 42.26 fps -v- 66.6 fps Maybe the X99 CPU's are not as bad most think.
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/4271404/fs/3961700
Not really sure how much Memory a say so in Physics Scoring.

heh
 
but those 4 extra cores you in physics test kinda beats mine in a longshot :P, strange though wonder if its a limit due to the 2x 6pin instead of getting a 8 pin since i seen a review for a 980 with hydro copper but it could been a some other card they slapt on a hydro copper cooler on since they pushed the card up to 280MHz offset -_^ on the core
 
or not, funny its clears 3dmark with +107MHz playing Diablo 3 and the driver crashes...

bcavnaugh

n3xuz
heh
 
but those 4 extra cores you in physics test kinda beats mine in a longshot :P, strange though wonder if its a limit due to the 2x 6pin instead of getting a 8 pin since i seen a review for a 980 with hydro copper but it could been a some other card they slapt on a hydro copper cooler on since they pushed the card up to 280MHz offset -_^ on the core
 
or not, funny its clears 3dmark with +107MHz playing Diablo 3 and the driver crashes...

Diablo 3 will crash on me if I go passed +20. I see the Voltage to +25 in Precision X.
Dump GeForce Experience, I install only the Graphics Driver - PhysX on my computers, my gaming computer I also install the NVIDIA HD Audio Driver. But that is it. I do not have 3D Glasses so no point in install the drivers for them and I think that this GeForce Experience is a Joke, almost like NVIDIA is trying to Best Guess what our computers can handle.
Last because you are on Windows 8.x I Never Ever let the OS Install Graphics Drivers. I even have to hide them sometimes in Windows Updates tool.
 
Now you can use Precision X and create a Profile for Benchmarking and a few for Gaming, that is what is nice about Precision X 5.3.1
Remember that Precision X is a tool in progress and changes all the time, moistly to please users in games and third party Devices like KB and LEDs.

Ah ok, iom actully back on win7 again so xD but will try that out

Hi again!
instead of opening a new thread i though to use the same one
 
so after getting back my card from the RMA service i was glad and stoked to put it in, this time i let it have it for 24hr to let the water go and let it set it self and this weekend its like back to sqaure one again, but somehow now i can OC the card too 120MHz on the core run perfectly though firestrike and Heaven and valley but as soon i start up games either directly it crashes the driver or like 30min into the game it crashes,
 
i somehow fixed it for Diablo 3 to turn down the power limit from 124% to default 100% and it ran but other games like LoL wow etc wont run without crashes until i set it to stock clocks i have yet to change PSU since i know my old Corsair HX750 has a few years on it back now but it can run my system with my old 690 OCed abit w/o problems so i cant see how this would be the problem either in the first place. 
 
so now i really wonder what to do go for another RMA case or see to return the card and buy some other 980 card and put waterblock on it? because this is kinda starts to get frustrateing when a top card like this not preforming like expected yes i know its silicon lottery but still ? the Hydros are pretty much as the FTW and would be "picked" to preform better then some other chips wouldnt it ?
 
oh well 
thanks for any help on the matter
n3xuz

Vlada011
How much is your boost clock total when your card crash. I mean Hydro Copper model have same clock as 980 Classified. 
165MHz fabric OC... If you say 120MHz over that... We talk about almost 300MHz overclocking for games... 
You should be happy if you can play games on 200MHz OC, 165 + 35MHz Offset = 200MHz and it's nice number if you can benchmark on
80-100MHz over fabric overclock.

it is hitting 1513 boost and then final boost with GPU boost 2.0 is 1562MHz.
 
so if im getting you right
 
GTX 980 Engine Specs:
1126 Base Clock (MHz) 

1216 Boost Clock (MHz)
 
taken from the nvidia site, means that yes the card is factory OC but i have to take it from where these clocks are set i guess? means that im actully capping out the card with putting 100-120MHz offset? means i have to actully pour alot of more volts into the card to make it maybe even work with those offsets?
 
means in the end that im trying to push way over 300 MHz OC boost clock on the card from it stocks settings?

Vlada011
I think this... If you can play games on 1500MHz boost and benchmark on 1550-1560MHz no matter on voltage that's not bad at all and really no reason for complain. 

Sure not but, It feels strange that I can benchmark with a lot higher clocks then I can game on.... And it was yet only Diablo that seemed to work lol didn't want to be playable until I sat it down to stock clocks have to do some more investigation how much I can actually set if I can only set like +35 then be it

well its back to crash galore in the drivers from 350.xx til the newest, ftm sitting on 347.88 driver with my hydro dont dare to try OC it since it will most likely just crash the driver again but playing is stable atleast

bcavnaugh
Most likely your card is fine and the drivers are what we are all having problems with.
BTW with each new Driver you will need to start your overclock from Ground Zero.

with redoing my OC is no problem but that its still crashing  and seeing in the FTW post that they actully made a custom Bios to that card now means they now there is a problem due FTW cards has similair blackscreen crash to desktop with the drivers means that the hydro prolly is in the same boat

sorry for necroing this post but just wanted to give some new information about this problem i been havin the past months since i bought my Hydro 980, today for some reason i tried to use nVidia Inspector instead of MSI Afterburner or EVGA PrescionX and now pushing 1495Mhz on the core and 2000MHz on the memory w/o crashing the driver 24/7 since i cant even have the card in stock clocks and with Afterburner or PrescionX running bcs that will just crash the driver so something with these 2 programs will not run correctly with my 980 apperntly

You blame EVGA because you have problems when overclockong the video card? The video card is not guaranteed to operate correctly even 1 MHz above stock frequency. Good luck!