Sajin
Tell EVGA you want to exchange the card for something different. Tell them you've already rma'd the card & psu.

Jshiver90

Sajin
Tell EVGA you want to exchange the card for something different. Tell them you've already rma'd the card & psu.

Sigh.
 
Is there really nothing else I should try?

bsmegreg
They would accept another EAR if you applied most likely and than you could live with downclocking the card for the mean time until it arrives, and of course it may not work, but its free so why not.  You may be even able to sell the replacement as 'new' if you go down that road. 

sahafiec
just reading such complains way too often about the 980 FTW, that's alarming.
someone should finally take care of this issue, glad I switched to the SC version as last minute decision.

bsmegreg
I think djmorgan partly believes that every 980 FTW has this issue when instead it's just a handful of the many card owners.

EVGATech_JaesonW
Jshiver90,
 
I see from your last email to us on 5/24 that you mentioned the PSU did indeed fluctuate more than you though, but you never mentioned exactly how much it does or how often. Did you ever test with a multimeter or another power supply as the tech had suggested? This very well could be the cause of your issue. Do keep in mind the first card you RMA'd did pass testing after you sent it in, which strongly points to another component being the issue. 
 
Let us know how much and how often the power supply fluctuates, and maybe we can rule it out as the culprit. 

EVGATech_JaesonW
Jshiver90,
 
I see from your last email to us on 5/24 that you mentioned the PSU did indeed fluctuate more than you though, but you never mentioned exactly how much it does or how often. Did you ever test with a multimeter or another power supply as the tech had suggested? This very well could be the cause of your issue. Do keep in mind the first card you RMA'd did pass testing after you sent it in, which strongly points to another component being the issue. 
 
Let us know how much and how often the power supply fluctuates, and maybe we can rule it out as the culprit. 

Jshiver90

deuce985

Jshiver90
I do have the GTX 980 FTW ACX 2.0. I just can't imagine it being another part if down clocking the GPU fixes the problem 100%. Like I said, I'm not a techie, and that's why I came here. I've done everything people have suggested so far to test the other parts in the PC, and the only thing that's worked so far is down clocking the GPU. I even replaced a PSU that Corsair said was working within normal parameters; they were very helpful, and replaced it anyways.
 
I really don't know what else to try.
 
I've updated my support ticket several times, but still haven't gotten a reply. Guess my next step is to just buy a new GPU.

Nothing you can do except RMA the card. Looking at all the steps you did above and saying only underclocking the GPU makes everything run stable directly points to a bad GPU. It sucks you have to RMA another card but that's the way it is. If it was something like RAM you would get errors doing the testing or if it was a bad motherboard you would likely get BSODs no matter if underclock or not. If it was a bad PSU then most likely your entire PC is going to shutdown like someone pulled the plug or you would get certain errors. You mentioned you checked your PSU and even RMA for a new one. It's a bad GPU. You have an unstable overclock is why it's stable when you underclock. It could be it was stable leaving EVGA's facility but quickly went bad. Sounds like you just got unlucky unfortunately. I would demand EVGA pay for your shipping on both sending and return.
 
I had the ACX 2.0 980 SC. My drivers would crash and Windows would recover. It was TDR errors I was getting. I'm 100% sure it was the GPU because when I took it out and put another one in I didn't get the crashes. I'd take the faulty card and underclock then never experienced another crash for months until Witcher 3 came out. When I went back to factory OC settings on the other games they would again crash. Underclock, problem solved in every game except Witcher 3 which might have driver problems right now.
 

I'm still willing to try whatever suggestions people have to further test the issue. EVGA said my last card worked fine during "testing", despite having the same exact issue; I do find it hard to believe I got two bad cards in a row. I've tested both cards with FurMark3D and don't have any issues, which is weird. It's only while actually playing games that I have the issues, and the only fix I've found is downclocking the GPU.

stalinx20

Vlada011
I would like first that GTX980 FTW work excellent, but somehow now I would choose rather reference SC or SC.
Even if higher clock mean lot for me. But If someone sell used 980 FTW and explain that she work normal than why not.
Because I only think that number of unstable GTX980 FTW is higher than number of unstable Classified or SC models.
Than one more thing is very important... GTX980 FTW no compatible full cover block on the market I think.
Thermosphere is only block compatible for 980 FTW.

Vlada, you seem to know your stuff pretty well. I finally got my 980 step-up last week (reference model), and i'm getting clocks of 1450 (core clock) and 19xx (Memory clock). Is this pretty good? It's running pretty stable.

Vlada011

stalinx20

Vlada011
I would like first that GTX980 FTW work excellent, but somehow now I would choose rather reference SC or SC.
Even if higher clock mean lot for me. But If someone sell used 980 FTW and explain that she work normal than why not.
Because I only think that number of unstable GTX980 FTW is higher than number of unstable Classified or SC models.
Than one more thing is very important... GTX980 FTW no compatible full cover block on the market I think.
Thermosphere is only block compatible for 980 FTW.

Vlada, you seem to know your stuff pretty well. I finally got my 980 step-up last week (reference model), and i'm getting clocks of 1450 (core clock) and 19xx (Memory clock). Is this pretty good? It's running pretty stable.

I think that's very good... Than your card could work on same clock as 980 Classified. She boost on 1430-1440 as owners report.
That's nice why not. I think 1900MHz is enough for memory clock and you shouldn't go over that.
Video Memory want to die without any reason and than you can throw working chip in garbage. 
Suddenly artifacts when Windows start and in most case nothing help. 
OK ACX 2.0 is good for memory cooling but you will not notice difference if you OC memory more.
Even benchmark score improvements will be very small.