Sounds like a frame rate limiter is enabled.

Thanks Dr. Death for the response. The only place I saw the fps drop was in a few passes of Heaven. When I start the games the fps will quickly ramp to 44 and stay there.
What utilities should I use for stress testing? What did you use for the example data you posted?
My wife has a an i7 3770k z77 machine with 16gb that she uses for work but doesn't play games. I could use that to test the 970 but it would require installing drivers and downloading games and utilities.
I haven't tried disconnecting one of the monitors or testing the cables yet.
This is really bugging me now. At one time the fps was running at 60 fps on older games (monitors are 60hz with vsync on) and in the 50's on newer ones.
Please let me know on the utilities and I'll start there.
Thanks!

well my copy of the free  mark3d firestrike has the stress test  for it , but they get cheap with each later release and make you pay or become a ''member ''..    heck you cant even uise there data base like to look at scores anymore  / cheap ..  I don't allow it to update . 
 

 
I would try each monitor on there own and check each cable as you do that   ..    maybe a signal issue in one of them things preventing things ?      you need to test the card in a known working rig and monitor  to insure its not the card .    I keep backup rigs / atlerast one of my old gaming rigs  for testing as trhat or I take it to my buddies  to test on his latest strong rig  if still fgunny and get his opinion  on how and what he sees for it . 
 
 
 
lol ....your resolve post popped up    there you go     I was going to suggest removing that like afterburner or pre -x  [uninstall ]   to be sure it was not a glitch in them in some way or you clicked a setting unknowingly  and cant re-find it to change back     [pre-x did not work right and I had to uninstall it the first time I used it as a matter of fact  ] 2ed time was the charm...lol..
 
 
well looks like you got it going on now . so enjoy 
 
 
 

bob16314
Yep..The leftover .cfg files can/will cause problems..Used to have the option in Precision to delete them when uninstalling the program like MSI Afterburner does, but not anymore..EVGA should bring that option back again.

And don't forget that after making any changes in the Precision/HWM/OSD settings and clicking OK where applicable that it's always a good idea to close Precision and open it again to make sure changes have taken effect because some things will not get written/saved to the .cfg files unless you close Precision..And always close HWM (if it's open) first before closing Precision..Closing Precision after disabling the Framerate Target just may been all that was needed to fix your issue.

You should probably be able install Precision again and have no further problems as long as you do what I suggested above and in my other post..Precision versions 6.1.16 and 6.2.3 seem to be the least problematic..MSI Afterburner is an alternative to Precision.

 
 
+1
 
think that was what I was seeing    when I first used it with this card when I got it up and going    . clean uninstall and reinstall did the trick and not had issue since  [???]]