First of all sorry if this is the wrong section. Wasn't sure where else to post this.
I'll do my best to explain the steps I done in order.
Put 50% Fan Speed on MSI Afterburner to ensure I won't have any GPU temp problems.
 
Core Clock -  Increased the core clock from 0 - +25% and opened Heaven Benchmark 4.0 and done a whole playthrough. After every successful benchmark playthrough I was increasing the core clock by +25 up until I hit a point where my PC/Driver would crash. My crashing point was +120 on the core clock so I immediately reduced the core clock back down to +110 then I done x2 benchmark playthroughs and everything seemed to be ok.
 
- I set the core clock back to 0% to start on the memory clock separately
 
Memory Clock - I started at +100 on the mem clock and after every successful playthrough on the benchmark I kept adding another +100. When I got to +600 I crashed, so I took away  50+ and crashed again. Took away +25s until I stopped crashing. Managed to get +500 on the memory clock with no crashes.
 
Core and Mem clock settings - https://gyazo.com/2ef27eaffb3f733ef1a3fc5128ebef9e
 
 
I then put my highest core and memory clock back into MSI Afterburner together and managed to do x3 benchmark playthroughs without any problems.
 After benchmarking at default and overclocked these are the results, just wanted to check if this was normal and good?
Default - https://gyazo.com/dd77652368a6b5135b5a26d86d50c689
Overclock - https://gyazo.com/8fceacfe62257db5c8a3719e535c8ee4
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Intel Core i7 @ 4.00GHz
16.0GB
MSI Z170A GAMING M5 (MS-7977) (U3E1)
BenQ XL2411Z (1920x1080@144Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (EVGA)
465GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB (SATA (SSD))    
931GB Western Digital WDC WD1003FZEX-00MK2A0 (SATA )
EVGA Supernova 850w

My question now is should I take it to the next level and increase the core clock by +1 up until I crash to try and get the most out of my gpu or just leave it how it is?
Also how safe or reliable would it for me to run the benchmark with the stable clocks I got above and go AFK for a while (for example go and shower and leave benchmark running in a loop)

Sorry for the huge thread this is my first time actually putting in the time to overclock a GPU. Do you think I will notice a better performance if I keep the overclock?

Cool GTX
Moving to Overclocking section of the Forums

Oops, thank you!

Cool GTX
Basically looks good what you have done
 
1) Benchmark number do Not always work in games or other software as they are synthetic loads
 
2) Did you do a clean boot ?
 
3) I usually step back 10% for stability from max stable OC
 
 

I took 5% of the core clock from where i crashed.


What do you mean clean boot?
 
Also I'm going to try a more intense benchmark such as MSI Kombustor. My question is if I crash with my current core and mem clock I achieve on heaven benchmark where would I begin in attempt of making my overclock stable. I reduce the core or mem first?

Cool GTX
Clean boot -- do not load more than the basics  "web search" will tell you how
 
---> Of course all this testing has to be built upon a good stable MB & CPU setup / OC
 
 ---> Custom Fan profile could help, Temps should be kept low as possible.  Balance "sound quality" (noise) with performance to your prefferences
 
 

Ok thanks. So essentially safe mode.


Should I ever touch the voltage or not? Heard bad rumors about increasing that, potentially fry the gpu?

Read this thread https://forums.evga.com/FindPost/2504606
 
and this https://forums.evga.com/FindPost/2820280