I've been collecting some data on my overclocks and when crashes occur, and 99% of the time they are related to power states - or rather power state lag, let me explain.
So, I overclock to 1500mhz boost, have gpu-z open and at desktop voltage is 0.85v and clocks are 150mhz. Launch 3dmark and I see the clocks go up to 1126mhz and volts to 1.05v. When the bench starts, the clocks go up to 1500mhz and the volts briefly go to 1.075v then to the full 1.21v. Bench completes no problem. If I clock above this, when the bench starts, the clocks go up to 1510mhz for example but the volts still step to 1.075v then to the full 1.21v. More often than not though the bench freezes at 1510mhz and 1.075v, causing a driver hang and reset. If the bench gets past the first couple of seconds the volts get all the way to 1.21v and the bench completes ok, I've benched up to 1600mhz successfully as long as it gets past the first couple of seconds.
A game I play a lot is Planetside 2 and the only crashes I see when overclocked are of the same variety. I'll be playing quite happily but as it doesn't require a lot of gpu power it'll often be running at 1126mhz and running 1.05v. Occasionally though there will be a big explosion on screen and the card will upclock to 1500mhz boost due to the load but the power state and volts will lag behind occasionally causing a driver reset or hard lock up at 1.075v again. This is very repeatable.
So, it seems my card is quite capable of running at a high mhz, but when the voltage lags behind due to the powerstates, it's causing me instability. as obviously 1.075v isn't enough to push 1500mhz or above.
I'm hoping the above gets fixed with a driver update and/or modded bios. I thought EVGA precision had a function called kboost which fixed clocks/voltages so I could test this but the option cannot be clicked when I try it.
