Hello fellas, I'm having some troubles overclocking my GTX 470. The stock speeds are 607 MHz core, 1215 MHz shader and 3348 MHz memory(http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/ENGTX470G2DI1280MD5). I'm aiming to 700 MHz on core and 3400 MHz on memory. I know memory doesn't increase fps in games that's why I almost haven't touch it and I know it does some issues sometimes. First I tried at stock voltage but it wasn't stable. I had a very, very weird problem. My CPU(not cores) went up to 110-120 degrees, that's what it was showing after 30-40 minutes playing World of Warcraft. When I opened RealTeamp the cores were 55-60 degrees. Then I tried to find someone with GTX 470 overclocked to 700 core to see what are his voltages because as far as I saw I should be able to run it on stock voltages. Later I bumped them up to 1.025(i think, not 100 percent sure). I am playing WoW without any problems but when I started Battlefield 3, it gave me BSOD with code 124 which must be vcore problem but it can't be. Later I bumped it up to 1.037v and everything was fine till I started BF3 again, this time the game stopped working, not BSOD or anything, just the game stopped working. I am using ASUS SmartDoctor to overclock it, it's very simple. How is possible to can't run 700 MHz core on 1.037v when other guys run their on stock voltage, even on higher frequency. I have done a lot of tests for CPU stability, it can't be low cpu voltage. My rig: CPU: Intel Q6600 3,6 Ghz 1.40v (9x400) Mobo: ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP @n GPU: ASUS GTX 470 RAM: Kingston HyperX 2x2 Kit 4GB 1600Mhz Two HDDs: Main 250GB(forgot the model) and another Samsung 1TB Fans: One on the side, one for exhaust, ASUS turbine cooling the chipset Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PWM with better fan Mouse: A4Tech X7 X-705K Keyboard: A4 Tech X7 G800MU Monitor: ViewSonic VA1903wb (1440x900)

I head of people getting their 470 to over 900mhz on the core. I'm only in a slightly better boat than you Arctic. Mine is really bad with voltage, I instantly get problems at 1.087. I stick with 750 mhz core 0.975 voltage. Pretty much my max without artifacting.

What makes you so sure it's not the CPU?

There's something really weird here. I cleared CMOS cuz I thought there's a glitch/bug or something. I overclocked the card to 700 mhz while the CPU was fully stock(nothing changed in BIOS). It was stable and nothing was strange. After 30 min test I entered the BIOS and fixed everything. CPU frequency to 3,6 Ghz, this time I was running my RAM at 1:1 800MHz. The card was still overclocked to 700 MHz because ASUS SmartDoctor startup with the overclock. Some glitch appeared and my motherboard was showing -54 degrees in PC Probe and 44545446 degrees in Speedfan. When I set it to stock speed and restarted my PC, everything was normal. I had another graphic cards and all of them were overclocked. This one seems to make problems always when I overclock it.

It is a good PSU. You have to remember that like most PSU vendors they are liberal when it comes to the specs; your PSU for example is rated at a max of 720 watts across all 12v rails, a little bit of simple math and we come to 60 Amps or 15 Amps per rail, not the 18 Amps on the sticker. Since most multi rail designs are really just a single rail with over voltage protection on each virtual rail there is some leeway in the Amps allowed to each rail, hence the 18 Amps on the sticker. Add the age of your PSU and overclocking here and there combined with the multi rail voltage protection and you could run into some problems. For me personally I always recommend PSU with one strong single rail design. All in all I am just speculating from what you have posted is happening and the equipment in your PC.

No, it's not. Chieftec supplies are abysmal. It's most likely the culprit here. I might be thinking of a different brand though. I know there's a Chief something operating out of Europe that makes good stuff, and there's another one that's just terrible. I'm sure someone here knows.

Especially this Chieftec model is not a crap as I've readed before, it's CWT unit or something like that. They said it's similar to Corsair 750 but I don't remember which model exactly. Anyway I'm gonna reinstall my windows soon because it has so much bull**** and viruses and I'll see what will happen then. It has to be something from the CPU/RAM because at stock CPU frequency I can overclock the card without errors in OCCT GPU Test. Thanks to everyone for their replies, noone had this weird problem so it's cpu/ram problem and I hope it's not PSU.