MrDonoman
I'm having problems as well with the 970 ftw acx 2.0.  I played skyrim for a while without the mods, had good fps constantly, and no problems.  Now I have some mods that are putting my card to the test, and I'm at around 50-60 fps, but now I randomly lose the HDMI signal to my TV.  This has never happened to me before in any other game ever since I got this 2-3 weeks ago, and now it's starting to act up.  Is there anyone that has solved the problem without returning the card?  It's my only card and I need to be at WoW raids every week, so RMA would be my absolute last option :'(.

You can cross ship RMA your card, you have to pay up front for the replacement card they send it and then you send yours back and they refund what you paid.

Argh...wonderful...
 
I have a basically brandnew SC ACX2.0, I am the second owner but the card was just bought on March 8 from Amazon.
 
While I didn't see problems in the BF4 session yesterday, I *DO* have the black screen problem in Heaven Benchmark. It's like the card is shutting off and doesn't come back. Black screen. I will test this further with more games and benchmarks. If I see this problem in other games etc. it looks I will have to RMA.
 
Note: I am rather savvy with Windows and hardware, I can almost certainly exclude my PSU (750W Thermaltake) or any other issues (didn't have any with the old GTX 660 TI). I am also using the exact same drivers after complete clean and reinstall for the GTX 970. It is my suspicion that those older SC cards have weak components (VRM), it's some sort of H/W issue I am very certain. My temps otherwise are fine. I just HOPE that the RMA (I already registered my card with EVGA) wont cost me additional s/h since shipping from here in Spain to Munich would be exceptionally expensive, €35 something. I already paid a lot more than I planned for this card.

Reading this (helpful) thread again it looks almost certainly a hardware issue, I already started the RMA process after a WHOLE lot of testing.
It looks as if that mainly SC ACX2.0 are affected by this. My personal guess is that it has to do with on-board components of the cards, possibly the voltage regulators getting stressed too much (?) in some scenarios. Best example certain scenes in Heaven Benchmark. It goes black, then the PC reboots with black screen, the card "vanishes" from the system until hard-reset.

I have the same problem and I am waiting my new card. EVGA just disappointed me so hard. 

Wow! I was so happy with my card, Mine is the GTX 970 SC acx 2.0 model, It does run games just fine, But after running Unigine Heaven I got the infamous black screen! I ran 3dmark after, and it did fine until the sky diver bench then the black screen. But when I downclock it does fine on both benchmarks! You know this is absolutely ridiculous that so many cards are doing this! When a company makes a overclocked card they are supposed to make sure they use the better chip to make sure it stays stable! But apparently they just threw these cards together and overclocked them without caring a bit about quality! This makes me so mad that I am going to have to pay for shipping during a RMA when they are the ones at fault! First no backplate and now this! I can assure this will be my last EVGA if they make me pay shipping! 
 
EDIT: going to try a clean windows install first, But with the way it acted fine in unigine after downclocking it, I doubt this will help, But it might be possible even though I ran DDU, it was where I had a AMD gpu installed before this one. 

Increase your FAN SPEED.
 
It's a problem with components (VRMs, NOT your GPU) overheating.
 
I can avoid black screens running my fan at 47%. But obviously this should not happen at stock speeds.

Ok she is fine! I got Windows 8.1 re-installed, And I installed the new driver. and I ran 3DMark Sky Diver and Unigine Heaven and it ran flawless! And a better score! (Thank God) So whatever it was, Seemed to be making it crash after the card would down clock from GPU boost. Not sure what it could have been, But this has to be a driver conflict of some kind. Now I have to re-install GTA V and War Thunder and Watch Dogs, LOL,, But I suppose it is better than a RMA.

flexy123
Increase your FAN SPEED.
 
It's a problem with components (VRMs, NOT your GPU) overheating.
 
I can avoid black screens running my fan at 47%. But obviously this should not happen at stock speeds.

 
I have had this problem with mine for a few weeks and I can verify this works, although this is something you shouldn't have to do at all.
 
Setting the fan speed to Auto causes the black screen crashes, but if I force the fan speed to 40% or above it doesn't crash, or at least it hasn't for the last few hours.

staticus712

flexy123
Increase your FAN SPEED.
 
It's a problem with components (VRMs, NOT your GPU) overheating.
 
I can avoid black screens running my fan at 47%. But obviously this should not happen at stock speeds.

 
I have had this problem with mine for a few weeks and I can verify this works, although this is something you shouldn't have to do at all.
 
Setting the fan speed to Auto causes the black screen crashes, but if I force the fan speed to 40% or above it doesn't crash, or at least it hasn't for the last few hours.

You are 100% correct, It is something that should not have to be done, However my temps never got high, Mine barley got to 70c, And that was why I was so confused, I figured it out though, My problem was software related, It had to have been something left over from my AMD software Because after I did a clean format and re-install of windows 8.1, The card now longer crashes. I figured it out after I noticed it was crashing not when stressed, It was crashing after being stressed, as soon as the GPU boost would clock itself back down the driver would crash causing the blackscreen. Maybe you all should try a format/re-install, But if you are having temp issues, I would say it's a different problem, If your case has good cooling and it is still getting too warm I would RMA. I would have liked to figure out what was causing the conflict, But I am a impatient idiot, And I did not feel like spending hours on it. But it would have helped others.   

Hey, just wanted to chime in and note that I'm having the same issue. I'm doing a cross-ship RMA with EVGA and should hopefully have the card in in a day or two. I'll post back once I get the new card (By the way, increasing fan speed isn't always enough. The Witcher 3 broke that fix for me.)