New 304.79 beta drivers may fix this down-clocking issue for some/all of you:
 

Fixes an issue where some manufacturer’s factory overclocked cards default to and run at lower clocks.

The best way to tell if your GPU has the same problem that some of us have seen is to monitor the "Power, %".   My faulty GPU shows the power shoot up to 275% when the clock and framerate drop.
 
 

sjlabuda

The best way to tell if your GPU has the same problem that some of us have seen is to monitor the "Power, %".   My faulty GPU shows the power shoot up to 275% when the clock and framerate drop.

I'll start monitoring it as I play around with the cards. Like I said, it happened the first time I tested Heaven, but not the second, nor were there any problems with 3DMark 11, so who knows what's going on...

That's odd your guys' power jumps way up... when it has been happening to me with 690's, the power suddenly just drops and then clocks and framerates drop as well, and game often crashes. And yes, power is not an issue in this equation. I swear it's never ending problems for these cards.

DarkAngel_ZERO
I've got two cards in SLI, one hits 1176, the other 1206, stock settings only...I think that's considered within normal levels for the card (they are advertised as having 1150 boost clock), unless you've been having problems with it that are unrelated to clock speed.

 
You may be right I might have been mistaken. It looks like according to the EVGA website, the boost clock on a 4GB FTW+ is only advertised to be 1150mhz and the Classified is at 1176mhz. It was strange because my first two cards always defaulted to 1189mhz boost. I guess I just got lucky? I could SWEAR the FTW boost clocks were higher. Did Evga officially lower the specs to meet market demand I wonder? Well I guess I just got to see how far I can push this 1176mhz card. I guess I should be fortunate that's it's not just 1150mhz?
 
Edit: Oh great now I'm getting red screens of death when I NEVER received any on my first two cards.

Installed the new drivers and it makes no difference. They still do the same thing. Although it does seems to happen more often now? Ill post a screen shot of whats happening when the chaos with the card stops.

WannaB

Temp wise they rarely even go over 50c so i dont think thats the problem. Im starting to think its the cards problem :(

 
When I run Diablo 3 or Starcraft II, according to SpeedFAN my gtx 680 ftw 4gb reaches a max temp of 74C.  All settings are at stock.

seyumi

DarkAngel_ZERO
I've got two cards in SLI, one hits 1176, the other 1206, stock settings only...I think that's considered within normal levels for the card (they are advertised as having 1150 boost clock), unless you've been having problems with it that are unrelated to clock speed.

 
You may be right I might have been mistaken. It looks like according to the EVGA website, the boost clock on a 4GB FTW+ is only advertised to be 1150mhz and the Classified is at 1176mhz. It was strange because my first two cards always defaulted to 1189mhz boost. I guess I just got lucky? I could SWEAR the FTW boost clocks were higher. Did Evga officially lower the specs to meet market demand I wonder? Well I guess I just got to see how far I can push this 1176mhz card. I guess I should be fortunate that's it's not just 1150mhz?

Edit: Oh great now I'm getting red screens of death when I NEVER received any on my first two cards.

You were very lucky as already said the advertised boost is 1150. With both of my FTW 680's they boost to 1163 stock.

X10D3
Try turning  the power target all the way up in precision. That should make it hold at the max power level you have setup. Seems to be working for me...

 
It makes no difference.

Newegg made me pay $12.71 for return shipping even though the product is defective. 

Sorry some are having issues my FTW+4GB has been a champ so far hours of games and not one crash or hiccup

I installed both my cards and configured them for surround in SLI when I got them.   The very first thing I did was start up Heaven and I immediately saw the issue,  stuttering due to low framerate periodically.   However, in the process of trying to figure out what was wrong the issue seemed to "fix" itself after the PC had been up for a while.   I soon found that the problem returned after a reboot or waking from sleep(power off).
 
I don't think this is a software or driver issue.   I removed my cards and tried them one at a time in the same slot with the same power cables.   One card works flawlessly and the other exhibited the symptoms we have been discussing.  I tested both cards using the lastest released driver and the beta driver.  
 
There seem to be a fair number of cards with this issue.  I'm getting mine replaced, but it would still be nice to know what the issue is.   At least the issue seems to fade away after the PC has been on for a while.   However, it is very annoying to have the clocks jumping arround for the first half hour under load.
 
  

Once i get my card ( from my RMA ) im going to package a letter in the box with my card with contact info. I really want to know what is effecting these cards. I have never seen an electronic get better over time, normally it just gets worse lol.

Its not precision.
 
i have ran the card with and without it ( installed/running) and the card continues to do the same exact thing. Sure i cant "watch" it do the same thing but i can see my frames jump in game from 15 to 60 rather easy with my own two eyes :)
 
Besides, i have ran this card in a completely different rig and it does the same thing.

So what was the conclusion to this little problem?