GTX 970 PC Crashing (Started since I played GTA V and it crashed)

Question

This all started 2 days ago while I was playing GTA V. Someone recommended installing Afterburner to look at my CPU and GPU usage while in game. Once the program was installed I was trying to understand how it worked, and I was looking at the sliders in the middle. I attempted to move one as it looked as if the changed had to be applied by the tick button, I moved it a tiny amount tot the right and suddenly my PC decided it would start to lag. So, I just put it back to where it was and left it (without pressing the tick)
I have no idea if the above is actually relevant, but I never experienced any issues before then. The next day I went onto GTA V to play it again, and after a few minutes in the middle of a car chase where a lot was going on my game exited with the error message... err_gfx_d3d_init . This was followed by text saying: Failed Initialization. Please reboot and restart the game. Try re-installing the game if this persists. I am not prepared to download the 60gb game again unless it is outlined as the problem for sure, since I have a download speed of 700kbps.
This kept happening but then it started to just shutdown my PC all together when this happened. This has now risen to the point of I had to unplug my graphics card as I would have no display while turning on my PC. My PC is now working fine with the exception of the graphics card. I have decided to try reinstalling the drivers which is something I am attempting to do right now (Update will be posted below).
PC Specs:
i7 4790k 4ghz
16gb DDR3
Asrock Z97 Pro4 Socket 1150
Corsair RM 650W
MSI GTX 970 GAMING Twin Frozr V 4GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
If anyone has any suggestions that will help me and the rest of the GTA V gaming community about these crashes then it would be hugely appreciated.

Answer 1

Hey guys,
I'm having the EXACT same error. I don't know what to do anymore. I purchased newer faster RAM to see if it was a case of overloaded forcing a shutdown of the game?
I upgraded from 8Gb to 16Gb, anyways.. It didn't work.
Essentially, game crashes, I get the "D3D_INIT" error asking me to reinstall and nothing has changed, despite the clean re-installation of drivers and the game alike I am getting really frustrated with this especially when it drops during something like a 'Heist'. I've followed countless forums posts on here and 'Tomshardware.com' and the rest. I'm currently trying to make up my mind of whether or not to return the card since it's obviously not up to the job.
I would really appreciate some help on this.
I haven't changed any settings as its factory set and OC'd (Maxwell Edition).
Current set up:
MoBo: MSi Gaming 5, Z97
CPU: Intel i7 4790k @ 4.4Ghz (Factory/MoBo Turbo)
GPU: Single MSI GTX 970, Maxwell Edition
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x8Gb @ 1866Mhz
Storage:
1x 120Gb SSD (w/ OS)
2x 2Tb HDD (Junk and the rest)
I really need help with this one guys. I went out to purchase the new GPU for the purpose of the newer gen games and it's been a massive let down!