The GTX 980 Ti owners thread.

[Aurhinius]

ref card. My 74 is 1281mv.
I see what you mean about voltage locked now. Everytime I look at the Bios Tweaker it usually gives me a headache figuring it out again.
However its not really limiting my overclock to what I like to achieve. At the moment its doing 1429mhz with 1.19v which I think is pretty good.
Altering the slider in Afterburner only lets me add +87mv which shows as 1.23v max so its possibly Afterburner first limiting me.

Ah so same as me. Yeah the clock boosts to 1478mhz for me on heaven but that is using the clock offset slider in AB. What that does is force the clock up but not the voltage to match that bin. Potentially making it unstable as voltage control seems based on meeting tdp and obeying that voltage table. So your actual boost is based on the boost bin the card boosts to. This sets the card default boost mhz but most importantly sets the voltage based on the temp or power. If power gets limited the card drops volts based on this. If your voltage drops below min for that boost bin your boost speed drops.

Now all AB does is add on some mhz to your default boost. So if your card makes it to entry 68 - 1341mhz with 1.212mv and you set AB to +150 you get 1491mhz but still 1212mv. So if you follow me the reason why overclocking is so lottary based is only part down to cards and more down to the way we overclock. Adding +mhz in AB doesnt add +mv and i think even if you add +mv the card still has to obey power/temp and as soon as it throttles the card is using the voltage table regardless of how much +mv you add in AB making your overclock suddenly unstable.

Long story short you do need to edit your bios to get highest stable clocks and if you do i suspect all 980ti could reach 1500 if they can stay in temp target as power target can also be adjusted.

 

[se_vietboi]

Ah so same as me. Yeah the clock boosts to 1478mhz for me on heaven but that is using the clock offset slider in AB. What that does is force the clock up but not the voltage to match that bin. Potentially making it unstable as voltage control seems based on meeting tdp and obeying that voltage table. So your actual boost is based on the boost bin the card boosts to. This sets the card default boost mhz but most importantly sets the voltage based on the temp or power. If power gets limited the card drops volts based on this. If your voltage drops below min for that boost bin your boost speed drops.

Now all AB does is add on some mhz to your default boost. So if your card makes it to entry 68 - 1341mhz with 1.212mv and you set AB to +150 you get 1491mhz but still 1212mv. So if you follow me the reason why overclocking is so lottary based is only part down to cards and more down to the way we overclock. Adding +mhz in AB doesnt add +mv and i think even if you add +mv the card still has to obey power/temp and as soon as it throttles the card is using the voltage table regardless of how much +mv you add in AB making your overclock suddenly unstable.

Long story short you do need to edit your bios to get highest stable clocks and if you do i suspect all 980ti could reach 1500 if they can stay in temp target as power target can also be adjusted.

So for those who don't or can't edit the bios, adding +mhz and +mv then setting an aggressive fan profile is the way to go to prevent throttling?

 

[Type_R]

So I have been experimenting a little with the Zotac this morning.

I have run Heaven stable using the following...max temps 62C. Waiting for Corsair to start selling the HG10 N980 so I can slam my H75 cooler on this thing and see what it can actually do!



How much is it safe to increase the voltage by?

The memory will easily do 8000Mhz on this board (love Hynix!) but doesn't seem to make much difference to fps so have left it stock whilst trying to increase the core.

 

[agt]

So I have been experimenting a little with the Zotac this morning.

How much is it safe to increase the voltage by?

The memory will easily do 8000Mhz on this board (love Hynix!) but doesn't seem to make much difference to fps so have left it stock whilst trying to increase the core.

If that's the ZOTAC AMP, that's a pretty fine result already, going to try to do the same

 

[andybird123]

Why is it so difficult to make a decision between the G1 and Gaming 6G?

If it helps, even on 100% fan, the gaming six is not at all loud and in no way annoying
Mine does 1535/8000 without breaking a sweat, stays below 70C in gaming

 

[Milky1]

Did you overclock the memory too?

Yeah, after some extended playing with the MSi and some voltage adjustment I think I have found the limit of my card. 1470Mhz on the core and 7658 on the memory.

 

[eyetrip]

Try Dirty Bomb for a good means of testing stable memory. Ran a bunch of tests which shwowed things 'stable' until I tried that game.

 

[thewanted]

If it helps, even on 100% fan, the gaming six is not at all loud and in no way annoying
Mine does 1535/8000 without breaking a sweat, stays below 70C in gaming

Very nice, thanks! I really wish that TechPowerUp had published their review of the Gaming 6G already. Their review of the G1 shows that the noise level under load is not far behind a reference card.

 

[Aurhinius]

So for those who don't or can't edit the bios, adding +mhz and +mv then setting an aggressive fan profile is the way to go to prevent throttling?

Yes an agressive fan profile will help against throttling happening due to temperature but you will not stop throttling of boost due to power because you cannot increase that above 110%.

so you will get throttling regardless it just means you will never achieve the highest boost bins with your card. Effectively you will rely more on chip quality or silicon.

Its not a bad thing we've been doing this for ages but it seems like most 980ti could hit 1500mhz i suspect with a simple bios edit. Some cards need more than 1180mv to hit 1500mhz some dont. So if your card can hit 1500 within the gpu boost power limit great and we see that with some cards. Lets say your card is like mine though and say needs 1200mv to hit 1500. I can set that in AB however as soon as the card hits the power limit of 110% it drops the voltage to 1162mv to maintain tdp limit in bios. This then drops my card boost speed down lets say 2 steps per the boost table 13mhz per step so i drop 26mhz to 1474mhz. Now here is the problem. If 1162mv is stil not enough voltage for 1474mhz the driver crashes.

To counter this you either need to edit the voltage table to compensate or probably best fix the card speed and disable boost altogether fixing the cards voltage and core speed.

I think you can do this with precision and kboost in software. Though not sure if that would also disable a tdp throttle. If it cant then the only way to fix it is to edit the bios to up the tdp to a limit the card wont hit.

When you think about it this is why by nature a 2x 8pin card like the g1 or classified etc will always clock higher. They have higher tdp limits in bios so throttle much later due to a power limit and throttle less thus maintaing a higher core voltage and higher clock. All makes sense.

So try kboost if you dont want to flash the bios otherwise sadly you need to buy a 2x8pin card which already has the higher power limit on it. I suspect most cards will hit power limits before temp unless you have bad airflow.

 

[Deviance1942]

I hope we'll get an update on the hybrids today

 

[marcus2704]

I am going to buy a 980TI today, most likely the G1 - is this the right card to buy?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-164-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1402

 

[Winnter]

that Roll of Honour is growing and growing

 

[marcus2704]

Should I buy the G1 now, or is it worth waiting for the Zotac Amp Extreme - is the latter notably better/worth the wait?

 

[se_vietboi]

Yes an agressive fan profile will help against throttling happening due to temperature but you will not stop throttling of boost due to power because you cannot increase that above 110%.

so you will get throttling regardless it just means you will never achieve the highest boost bins with your card. Effectively you will rely more on chip quality or silicon.

Its not a bad thing we've been doing this for ages but it seems like most 980ti could hit 1500mhz i suspect with a simple bios edit. Some cards need more than 1180mv to hit 1500mhz some dont. So if your card can hit 1500 within the gpu boost power limit great and we see that with some cards. Lets say your card is like mine though and say needs 1200mv to hit 1500. I can set that in AB however as soon as the card hits the power limit of 110% it drops the voltage to 1162mv to maintain tdp limit in bios. This then drops my card boost speed down lets say 2 steps per the boost table 13mhz per step so i drop 26mhz to 1474mhz. Now here is the problem. If 1162mv is stil not enough voltage for 1474mhz the driver crashes.

To counter this you either need to edit the voltage table to compensate or probably best fix the card speed and disable boost altogether fixing the cards voltage and core speed.

I think you can do this with precision and kboost in software. Though not sure if that would also disable a tdp throttle. If it cant then the only way to fix it is to edit the bios to up the tdp to a limit the card wont hit.

When you think about it this is why by nature a 2x 8pin card like the g1 or classified etc will always clock higher. They have higher tdp limits in bios so throttle much later due to a power limit and throttle less thus maintaing a higher core voltage and higher clock. All makes sense.

So try kboost if you dont want to flash the bios otherwise sadly you need to buy a 2x8pin card which already has the higher power limit on it. I suspect most cards will hit power limits before temp unless you have bad airflow.

Hmm yeah I just tried EVGA Precision X and it was more stable with Kboost.

 

[RanxZy]

Should I buy the G1 now, or is it worth waiting for the Zotac Amp Extreme - is the latter notably better/worth the wait?

There is not much in it really. I would much prefer the G1 personally because although the boost clock is about 60MHz more on the Amp Extreme I would be shocked if

a. 60MHz made any visible difference in a game.

b. You could not open any OC program and manually add 60MHz to the G1 if needed.

G1 has the best reputation so far in terms of speed out of the box so it would be popular if you came to sell it in the future too.

I went for the MSI Gaming mainly for reason a and b above. The difference is the G1 has 12MHz higher advertised boost clock, even though mine boosts to 1316 out of the box (1350 with the included MSI Gaming OC app) and with +150 on the core it's happy at 1465MHz boost.

 

[SaintJimmy]

Which case is that? Almost too long for those tubes.

Haha yeah it does look like quite a stretch, but there is a few inches of play left. The tubes have enough slack that they are touching the side panel which is causing vibrations from the pump so will need to try and pad them.

Case is a coolermaster silencio 650 so no too big. Looking to replace this but the dual boot function is quite useful.

 

[marcus2704]

There is not much in it really. I would much prefer the G1 personally because although the boost clock is about 60MHz more on the Amp Extreme I would be shocked if

a. 60MHz made any visible difference in a game.

b. You could not open any OC program and manually add 60MHz to the G1 if needed.

G1 has the best reputation so far in terms of speed out of the box so it would be popular if you came to sell it in the future too.

I went for the MSI Gaming mainly for reason a and b above. The difference is the G1 has 12MHz higher advertised boost clock, even though mine boosts to 1340 out of the box and with +150 on the core it's happy at 1465MHz boost.

Many thanks, G1 it is

 

[Type_R]

If that's the ZOTAC AMP, that's a pretty fine result already, going to try to do the same

Yep it's the AMP! The £499.99 one

I must add its sitting in a very well ventilated enthoo primo with a custom fan profile through afterburner.

 

[Aurhinius]

Yep it's the AMP! The £499.99 one

I must add its sitting in a very well ventilated enthoo primo with a custom fan profile through afterburner.

My amp does 1470 on the core 8000mhz on the memory.

Though thinking about this if the memory contributes to the tdp limit it might be worth leaving memory at stock to give the core more tdp room to boost.

 

[colinmcr]

I should have dual Zotac ref coming today I hope will post pic later with any luck. Liked the 5yrs warranty