DISCLAIMER: This is not an official, EVGA approved fix/BIOS. Please use at your own risk! Flashing your card's BIOS always has a small risk that something might go wrong. Be sure you know what you're doing, especially how you would "unbrick" your card should something go wrong. I can not be held responsible should anything go wrong.
After lots of investigation and sharing experiences with others I/we concluded that the "Black Screen, needs PC reset" problem is because of that some cards, among them GTX 970 SC ACX2.0 cannot handle the overall load/power draw. (It's not so much a matter of that an overclock is not stable since those crashes are different, in those cases the driver crashes and the system can recover).
I found that the black screen issue can be solved by limiting the maximum voltage the card is using at it's maximum speed.
(In fact, my SC ACX2.0 does 1506 stable, tested, at 1.187V. Since my-2974 GTX ACX 2.0 is a very average card with ASIC quality 70% I have reason to believe that the fix should work for MOST -2974 cards)
The 1.187V - as compared to 1.212V or 1.200V (as would be the max voltage with the original bios) draws less power, prevents black screens, reduces temps and throttling.
If you have the black screen problem and want to save yourself a RMA, I can help you if you are comfortable flashing BIOS and know how to do this.
Of course you would flash your cards bios at your own risk. Don't flash if you would not know how to unbrick your card again should a flash go wrong! And obviously this is only for
EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX2.0 -2974 cards!
The BIOS here have more advantages:
* 1506 overclock without throttling
* Power Target increased to default 196W (from the stock 170W)
* The problem with instability at lower clocks is gone. (NEVER overclock those card's (-2974 models) core clock with Afterburner. Since you cannot add voltage with Afterburner, overclocking the core with Afterburner means that the entire voltage table won't be correct which results in instability at lower clocks). With my BIOS, this problem is solved, the clocks and voltages scale properly.
* No throttling due to "Voltage Limit" since the max. 1.212V which are specified in the BIOS are never used
Those BIOS also work great as general BIOS for your card, whether you have the black screen problem or not. As compared to some other modded BIOS out there, boost is not disabled and the card's voltages scale properly. BIOS 1) (Try this first)
1506 clock at 1.200V
https://www.dropbox.com/s...ACX2.0_1.200V.rom?dl=0 BIOS 2)
1506 clock at 1.187V (this might only work with cards with very high ASIC, 75%+)
https://www.dropbox.com/s...ACX2.0_1.187V.rom?dl=0 If your card has troubles with 1506, here the same with somewhat lower clocks:
BIOS 3)
1443 at 1.200V
https://www.dropbox.com/s...ACX2.0_1.200V.rom?dl=0 BIOS 4)
1443 at 1.187V
https://www.dropbox.com/s...ACX2.0_1.187V.rom?dl=0 I recommend you try BIOS 1 first and if you still have black screens under stress (Heaven Benchmark, Games etc.) try BIOS 2 which uses even less voltage at max clock.
Should your card be unstable (driver crashes, artifacts etc.) try the 1443 BIOSes with somewhat lower clock. Here too try the 1.200V first, if it black screens use the 1.187V BIOS. (I found the best test for black screens is Heaven Benchmark at Ultra/Extreme and have it run for at least an hour or longer).
Please share whether your black screen problems are solved with those BIOS!
** UPDATE May, 21 ** Updated BIOS with "proper" down-clocking voltage table. Ie. should the card ever need to throttle in the upper clock ranges it does now correctly decrease voltages. ** UPDATE May, 27 ** While the above and my workaround with those BIOS still works, I am at a point that I am rather certain that the black screens are from overheating components (voltage regulators) on those cards. There is an undeniable relationship between fan speed, temperatures, load on the card and the likelihood for black screens. My BIOS help since less voltage means less power draw/load and lower temps, therefore they can help to prevent the black screens crashes. HOWEVER it is important that you keep your fan running as high as you can tolerate it. I found the default fan settings in the original bios NOT sufficient. You need to get Afterburner or PrecisionX and create a custom fan profile where your fans are running 45% or faster at 75C depending how loud you can tolerate. This together with my BIOS is the best way to prevent black screens. Proper cooling of the card is important!! It is also likely that an aftermarket cooler like the Arctic Twin Turbo II with the included heat-sinks for VRMs should prevent the black screens. Here however you would need to find a way to attach the heat sinks of the Twin Turbo II in a way as that you can remove them again (the included thermal glue is permanent!) otherwise you would void your card's warranty. *** Guide: How to flash your card's BIOS: Please see
Easy NVFlash Guide with Pictures for GTX 970/980"at http://www.overclock.net/...ctures-for-gtx-970-980 *** Always Backup Your Original BIOS
You need your original, unaltered BIOS flashed back on the card in case you would ever need to send it in for RMA or something would go wrong and you want to flash your card with the original BIOS.
This is how you backup your card's BIOS: Get yourself
GPUZ. Disable your card in Windows device manager. In GPUZ, below the Nvidia symbol is an arrow symbol. Click on the arrow. It will ask you to save your card's BIOS to a file. Save this to your computer.
There is also a good collection of VGA Bios for various cards and vendors on
TechpowerUp's VGA Bios Database.
DISCLAIMER: This is not an official, EVGA approved fix/BIOS. Please use at your own risk! Flashing your card's BIOS always has a small risk that something might go wrong. Be sure you know what you're doing, especially how you would "unbrick" your card should something go wrong. I can not be held responsible should anything go wrong.