980ti Strix

it can be how you have the card tuned.  it can be the silicon lottery.  you can't do much about the latter but you can fine tune your vid card with software.  ASUS has their own tuning software for the Strix, or you can try EVGA Precision or MSI Aferburner.

and FYI, all Strix cards are factory overclocked so, technically, other people's scores are from oc'd cards as well.  the Strix also has 3 pre-loaded settings-two of which are a mild boost to the oc and the third is actually an underclocked setting.  you can also save your own profiles. 

there isn't really anything you can do to hurt the card, as it will throttle on its own.  you'd need a custom bios and Nvidia won't allow that.   have fun playing with it.  my Strix cards were under water so i maxed out voltage, core and memory speeds and never saw the temps get over 40C.  if you're just using the custom air cooler that comes with it, you'll probably see max load temps in the 75C range@100% fan speed, if you push the card as far as it will go. 
 

Edited by db188 - 30 Mar 2016 at 12:32am

try giving it more voltage to stabilize the oc, or back down the clocks.