Well thats what I was saying in a post earlier, since the update of 12/18 my gpu is now taking 103%+ power when it used to sit nicely at 95%
And if i up my voltages to where they normally are for stable gaming my core speed drops and so does my hashrate. So really right now these settings will instantly crash with any game or anything intense. Thats because my voltage is so low because I wanna keep my clock speed high for mining, even though it doesnt get nearly as high as it used to. As for lifespan, this is a MSI Power Edition card so I'm confident with the integrity however I don't understand how my power usage shot up like by a full 10% after 12/18 with the exact same settings I was using in 12/10.

EDIT: Also, what pool are you using because I was seeing the same results all yesterday. I was getting just chunks of stales in 5-10 when normally I'm at a 99% valid yesterday was like at 96%.