Azuroth

fkrIII
So I just received by stepup ssc+ today.  it runs cooler and quieter than the old sc I had.
 
I have reached a non crashing boost clock of 1550 without any extra voltage in heaven and valley.  I had to turn it down to 1530 so that I had absolutely no glitches in the benchmark.  the memory is at 7950 right now and I have pushed it right up to 8000 but once again I started getting some texture pop ins and such so I lowered it
 
I am running at 1530/7950 at stock voltage and 110% power limit.
 
asic is 67.

That's about where I'm at.  At 1540 I start to see artifacts on my core clock, so I dropped it back to 1530.  Memory is sitting at 8120 (2030 according to GPU-Z).  At 8140 I started to see artifacts in OC Scanner memory burn, so I dropped it back a bit.
 
Don't have firestrike ultra, but at regular settings, I get:
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5701591
 
ASIC is 66.6%

here is mine for comparison.  the FTW model.
 
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3948116

levifig
Final video on this series: overclocking the 970 FTW+ and SLI benchmarks. I also share my opinion on the #RAMGATE issue and give some recommendations for folks interested in stepping-up or upgrading from different cards: http://youtu.be/8gWwoqrtmNQ

Enjoy. :)

Thanks for the video, I watched the whole thing 
I agree with most of what you said. However, in my opinion the revised 970 SSC and FTW cards come with several important improvements that make them difficult to compare to the other 970s. Having had a 970 SC before with an ASIC of 78.5 and now an SSC with an ASIC of 64.5 I'm telling you the SSC overclocks much better and runs at lower temps. The SSC has yet to crash on me in a game running at 1500 MHz (a 130 MHz overclock, 110 power target) - the SC crashed frequently, presumably due to not getting enough power.
Yes, stepping up is a bit of a gamble as one might end up with a card that is of low or lower ASIC than the previous card. Taken all the advantages of the new cards together, the risk is worth it in my opinion.

@Levifig - Great start to you're youtube channel. I liked the vids! You're right about the gamble with step-up. I'll be a little disappointed on Wednesday when I get my FTW+ if it's a worse overclocker then the FTW that I had, with an ASIC of 68.4%. It wouldn't even maintain it's factory boost clock without a modded bios. It needed around another 10 watts. Adding voltage was useless because of the power limit. I did experiment with high power and voltage, but decided that since I have no idea how hot the vrms were to not use it with such an extreme increase of power for long periods of time. Teemeister does have a good point. You're 59.2% ASIC card while not being the greatest is a much better overclocker than mine was. The best stable overclock I could get was 1455mhz at 1.212v. And I questioned the stability lol.

Premise

@Levifig - Great start to you're youtube channel. I liked the vids! You're right about the gamble with step-up. I'll be a little disappointed on Wednesday when I get my FTW+ if it's a worse overclocker then the FTW that I had, with an ASIC of 68.4%. It wouldn't even maintain it's factory boost clock without a modded bios. It needed around another 10 watts. Adding voltage was useless because of the power limit. I did experiment with high power and voltage, but decided that since I have no idea how hot the vrms were to not use it with such an extreme increase of power for long periods of time. Teemeister does have a good point. You're 59.2% ASIC card while not being the greatest is a much better overclocker than mine was. The best stable overclock I could get was 1455mhz at 1.212v. And I questioned the stability lol.

Thank you man!! <3
Ya, the gamble only exists because EVGA isn't binning the chips for their top-of-the-line FTW+, which was the most disappointing part of this whole thing. It is surprising to hear of FTW/SC cards with higher ASIC rating getting significantly worse overclocks though… In those cases, maybe the gamble is worth it. To be honest, adding voltage to either of mine was barely helpful after hitting the wall at only +25mV even on the second card… :( So, 1455Mhz is how much of an increase over the "stock" (EVGA's) OC for that card?
 
Anyway, a gamble might be what you need… not sure! :P
 
Thanks for the feedback on the videos man! <3

asic and overclock:
 
  starting with the asic score.  this does represent efficiency and it also sets what the max boost clocks that card will run at out of the factory (this is why a bios flash can help as it changes the asic to boost clock variable).  but efficiency has nothing to do with a max overclock of a gpu.  a high asic will achieve a more reliable overclocking potential since it is already closer to the overclock naturally.  simply put if you have a ASIC 82.9% then you have a Boost 1442.8 MHz, so getting to 1500 is not really all that much meanwhile a ASIC of 65.0% gives a Boost of 1379.5 MHz so getting to 1500 is a pretty significant increase.  In the end you are probably going to have to keep those temps significantly lower on that 65 asic card to get a good overclock but this does not correlate to the actual highest overclock that you can achieve.
 
 
when overclocking I noticed in your video you said that you never broke 80C.  why are you that close to the thermal limit.  people use ln2 to lower temps so I would assume you would use all of the cooling potential you have while testing an overclock.  do you run all of your tests at 100% fan speed, if not you really should when wanting to know what your max overclock is.  you can then lower your fan speed to see what the max temp that overclock will run at but I have noticed a temp barrier of around 60C while overclocking and I keep a slightly aggressive fan profile to keep my boost clocks but I have to stay under 60C to keep it completely stable. 
 
so the above is really all just to say that everybody should absolutely upgrade to the new ssc+ or the ftw+.  the new cooler, the new voltage control and increased limit, the extra 2 phases of voltage,  the mosfet plate, a second bios switch (if you wanted to flash now you can safely);  these all increase the longevity and reliability of the cards and are all things more than worth the upgrade from the old sc at the max potential cost being 50-100hz.  you would have to have such an exceptional example of the gtx970 to not upgrade for what is a significantly better overall GPU.
 
in the end I would bet that 90+% of the gtx970's will get to 1500 on the core with the correct temps and maybe a bios fix if needed.  In the overclockers world sometimes you have to be willing to do a bios flash to get the most out of your card or increase your fan speeds but these are the joys of overclocking not the why has this not been done for me attitude.
 
coil whine:
 
as far as coil whine I get none except for when I am f@h and doing a core 15.  I will get a noticeable but faint whine from the gpu.  I run this rig pretty nonstop and it seems that the coil whine is getting less and less with time.
 
frame pacing:
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Frame-Rating-GTX-970-Memory-Issues-Tested-SLI
 
read through these 4 articles for a great understanding of the situation and some good testing.  these reviews are still missing some info on shadow of mordor and what happens with frame pacing and runt frames at that 3.5 barrier but those are referenced and covered by others. 
 
AMD CF:
 
your experience may have been bad but I started running CF with a 7870 tahiti le (replaced an evga gtx560) and a MSI twin frzr 7950.  I later swapped out the 7870 for another MSI 7950.  I never ran into issues at 1440p @110hz.  frame pacing was an issue that came into play at first and for a long while but I ran a fps cap of 60 fps and at first I only had a 1080p monitor so it always seemed to run well for me since I was not pushing a resolution or performance limits.  later I bought a 1440p and by then frame pacing was inline with nvidia and as of now sites like hard ocp say that amd is better at frame pacing now than nvidia.  these things change with every driver but to say AMD has not caught up is wrong.  I understand that AMD has a resent history of driver issues but nvidias past is not exactly great either so who ever is performing right now is all that I care about.

chrcoluk
thanks for info guys, I paid for the step-up now.
 
So I guess for couple of weeks I will be running on my igpu or my older 760.
 
I am hoping isnt no shipping isuses tho as when evga sent my first backplate it never arrived, I have no idea how to package and send the old card to them and do they use UPS to send the new one?
 
Cros-ship would really pu tmy mind at ease here, as when cros-shipping the sending courier can also be used to pick up the old one at the same time as he delivers (other companies have done this for me).

I'm not sure about over there but here in the states you can take your item to a UPS store and they will pack your item for you for a nominal fee. Otherwise just find a store that sells boxes slightly bigger than your video card box and wrap the video card box in bubble wrap or surround with foam packing peanuts. Ship to EVGA, wait, get new card, profit!

no cross shipping available for the step-up program to much risk for them and they will not accept full payment then refund to do the cross-shipping.
 
when i shipped mine back in i used the original box then stuck it in another box with some packing peanuts.
 
also be careful if you are downloading the new drivers they have issue with the geforce experience so only install the drivers
 
http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/geforce-347-52-whql-driver-released
 
everybody thinks nvidias drivers are so great but there are allot of complaints on this release.

will evga accept the card with my free backplate fitted?

chrcoluk
will evga accept the card with my free backplate fitted?

Packaging
Please make sure that you include all parts and accessories with the retail box when you send your product in. Please be sure to ship your return product to EVGA via a traceable air express company, which can provide you with a proof of delivery if necessary. (i.e. UPS, FedEx, Airborne Express, Burlington or DHL).
 
Products must be returned in their original factory condition (back plates, brackets, etc. will be removed and discarded) and must be free from physical modification or damage per the terms of our warranty.
 
http://www.evga.com/support/stepup/

fkrIII

chrcoluk
will evga accept the card with my free backplate fitted?

Packaging
Please make sure that you include all parts and accessories with the retail box when you send your product in. Please be sure to ship your return product to EVGA via a traceable air express company, which can provide you with a proof of delivery if necessary. (i.e. UPS, FedEx, Airborne Express, Burlington or DHL).
 
Products must be returned in their original factory condition (back plates, brackets, etc. will be removed and discarded) and must be free from physical modification or damage per the terms of our warranty.
 
http://www.evga.com/support/stepup/

I have already that so the copy and paste has me still confused.
 
yes or no to my question please.

taking it off is risk of me breaking it plus will need to clean the memory chips from the thermal goo.  So I prefer not to.
However it seems to do a step up in the uk is over expensive, I am not proceeding if I have to spend £80+ to ship the card to evga.  Thats the UPS standard price, or £90 for express.

levifig

Premise

@Levifig - Great start to you're youtube channel. I liked the vids! You're right about the gamble with step-up. I'll be a little disappointed on Wednesday when I get my FTW+ if it's a worse overclocker then the FTW that I had, with an ASIC of 68.4%. It wouldn't even maintain it's factory boost clock without a modded bios. It needed around another 10 watts. Adding voltage was useless because of the power limit. I did experiment with high power and voltage, but decided that since I have no idea how hot the vrms were to not use it with such an extreme increase of power for long periods of time. Teemeister does have a good point. You're 59.2% ASIC card while not being the greatest is a much better overclocker than mine was. The best stable overclock I could get was 1455mhz at 1.212v. And I questioned the stability lol.

Thank you man!! <3
Ya, the gamble only exists because EVGA isn't binning the chips for their top-of-the-line FTW+, which was the most disappointing part of this whole thing. It is surprising to hear of FTW/SC cards with higher ASIC rating getting significantly worse overclocks though… In those cases, maybe the gamble is worth it. To be honest, adding voltage to either of mine was barely helpful after hitting the wall at only +25mV even on the second card… :( So, 1455Mhz is how much of an increase over the "stock" (EVGA's) OC for that card?
 
Anyway, a gamble might be what you need… not sure! :P
 
Thanks for the feedback on the videos man! <3

The stock OC on my FTW was 1392.2 so 1455 was not much of an increase. It would have been great if EVGA had binned these. It could have been a major selling point and a reason for overclockers to get the FTW+ over the SSC if the backplate and higher factory OC wasn't enough.

Premise

@Levifig - Great start to you're youtube channel. I liked the vids! You're right about the gamble with step-up. I'll be a little disappointed on Wednesday when I get my FTW+ if it's a worse overclocker then the FTW that I had, with an ASIC of 68.4%. It wouldn't even maintain it's factory boost clock without a modded bios. It needed around another 10 watts. Adding voltage was useless because of the power limit. I did experiment with high power and voltage, but decided that since I have no idea how hot the vrms were to not use it with such an extreme increase of power for long periods of time. Teemeister does have a good point. You're 59.2% ASIC card while not being the greatest is a much better overclocker than mine was. The best stable overclock I could get was 1455mhz at 1.212v. And I questioned the stability lol.

That's exactly the clockspeed my old FTW was running on overclock, and it had an ASIC of 72.8% but I highly doubt that my new FTW+ coming in on Monday will be slower. Even with a lower ASIC it should still do better. It was all about the lack of power draw and 4+2 phase power setup. Did you get your FTW+ yet or did you mean next Wednesday?

Premise

aronh17

Premise

@Levifig - Great start to you're youtube channel. I liked the vids! You're right about the gamble with step-up. I'll be a little disappointed on Wednesday when I get my FTW+ if it's a worse overclocker then the FTW that I had, with an ASIC of 68.4%. It wouldn't even maintain it's factory boost clock without a modded bios. It needed around another 10 watts. Adding voltage was useless because of the power limit. I did experiment with high power and voltage, but decided that since I have no idea how hot the vrms were to not use it with such an extreme increase of power for long periods of time. Teemeister does have a good point. You're 59.2% ASIC card while not being the greatest is a much better overclocker than mine was. The best stable overclock I could get was 1455mhz at 1.212v. And I questioned the stability lol.

That's exactly the clockspeed my old FTW was running on overclock, and it had an ASIC of 72.8% but I highly doubt that my new FTW+ coming in on Monday will be slower. Even with a lower ASIC it should still do better. It was all about the lack of power draw and 4+2 phase power setup. Did you get your FTW+ yet or did you mean next Wednesday?

I got in on Wednesday and have been messing around with it for the last couple days. With no additional OC (1367 boost clock) it scores 12300-12400 graphics in firestrike! That's much better than my FTW that would score 11900 at it's stock 1392.2 clock.
 
The one small annoyance for me is that unlike the FTW, the FTW+ will throttle at 60-65C, lowering the voltage from 1.225v to 1.2v as well as one boost bin. I confirmed this by running the fans at 100%, keeping the card right at 60C. It didn't throttle. Adding atleast +25mV, putting the voltage at 1.243v seems to override the temp throttle and it will stay at 1.243 with the core temp around 67C.
 
The max stable OC I have so far is 1493mhz core and 7600mhz mem, run through multiple runs of firestrike and some CoD: AW campaign. This is without any voltage added so it mostly sits at 1481mhz at 1.2v. The ASIC is only 63.9%. At first when I looked at it I was a bit worried that it wouldn't OC and would be worse than my FTW.
 
One other thing I noticed. The FTW sagged a little bit in the PCI-E slot. This new FTW+ sits perfectly straight. I'm not sure if adding a backplate to the FTW is something that would have fixed that. Anyway, could go on, but I'll leave it at that

Nice to know that even with that ASIC you're that close to 1500 MHz. It's not always ASIC it seems, chips are always different.

 
I have noticed a consistent voltage drop that drops the core clock by 13Hz (not at reference clocks).  The only voltage offsets that really seem to do anything for me are at +10,20,30,40.  at +40 I can keep the voltage at 1.243.  anything lower  than +40 and that voltage will drop all on its own after a couple of minutes.  btw my power usage is still not breaking 100% and I can leave my power limit set at 100% and it has no negative effect.  this is a 67 asic score card.
 
Edit: Not sure what happened to the quote , but the above is a quote from fkrIII


It seems like you're noticing the same voltage/boost clock "behavior" as I am except that mine does this at it's stock settings of 1380/1.225v to 1367/1.2v. Only at 1.243v will the clock speed and voltage stay put. Have you noticed if their seems to be a correlation with temperature? I think these new cards are "programmed" to throttle at around 65C similarly to the Gigabyte G1, not sure what others are like this.