My KFA2 680 OC woes

Gibbo · 27 Jun 2012 at 11:19

Hi there

I've had this issue on all 680 cards and it seems random and very rare. Whether OC or not makes no difference.

It unfortunately seems to be a software / driver issue. I'd advice trying different drivers!

carrot1401 · 27 Jun 2012 at 11:23

I've tried the latest official WHQL (or whatever acronym) and the newer beta drivers. Going out this afternoon, but I'll have a play during tomorrow, otherwise it will be RMA time.....

pgi947 · 27 Jun 2012 at 11:32

Try downclock the boost to around 1150mhz, force constant voltage of 1.175v and see if it crashes again, if not my money is the chip can't handle the boost set by kfa2. Think a similar thing happened with some of the 670 dcuii cards, think there was talk of a vbios update to fix it?

F1aw1ess · 27 Jun 2012 at 14:16

pgi947 said:
Try downclock the boost to around 1150mhz, force constant voltage of 1.175v and see if it crashes again, if not my money is the chip can't handle the boost set by kfa2. Think a similar thing happened with some of the 670 dcuii cards, think there was talk of a vbios update to fix it?

+1

Im not sure what Gibbo has seen on these cards but usually the errors only occur if your card can't render everything correctly at the speeds its set to, this is generally because the clock speed is too high.

carrot1401 · 27 Jun 2012 at 14:20

F1aw1ess said:
+1

Im not sure what Gibbo has seen on these cards but usually the errors only occur if your card can't render everything correctly at the speeds its set to, this is generally because the clock speed is too high.

Indeed, Gibbo was wondering if you could elaborate on this, I'm about to format (using drivers from gigabyte website rather than cd, along with official WHQL graphics drivers) to see what happens, but could really do with more info on this...

carrot1401 · 27 Jun 2012 at 18:48

So yer, a full reformat using latest drivers and the 301.42 graphics drivers, 15 mins into DiRT Showdown, and then a black screen (needed to alt tab out) with event viewer saying 'Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.'. Gibbo, please advise

spixelspixel · 27 Jun 2012 at 18:59

the card is simply not stable at the speed it is meant to be stable at, returning it is the best option!

pgi947 · 27 Jun 2012 at 19:11

spixelspixel said:
the card is simply not stable at the speed it is meant to be stable at, returning it is the best option!

Yup, try what I suggested earlier, downclocking it and the card remaining stable firmly points the finger at an unstable factory boost, which I would say could only be fixed by a vBios update (setting a lower stock boost).

One other thing to check is that the card is running at 1.175v, I had a situation running an alternate bios on my 670 that resulted in a high stock boost but defaulted to 1.63v. In this case forcing the card to run at a constant 1.175v via PX may work.

For either of the above situations, in my eyes the card is still faulty, its not doing what it says on the tin.

carrot1401 · 27 Jun 2012 at 19:15

Can someone break down how to do either? I have no idea how to work MSI Afterburner (or any other program) to downclock/overclock this card (hence why I got a pre-overclocked one!)

pgi947 · 27 Jun 2012 at 19:21

Download and install EVGA Precision X 3.0.2 (or what ever is the latest).

Open the HW monitor (double click the graphs) and find the core voltage, load the card and take note of the peak reading. It should be 1.175v. If its not, click 'Adjust Voltage' in the bottom left of the window and move the slider all the way to the top and press apply (don't worry, its impossible to overvolt these cards without a soldering iron

)

Downclocking: In PX 3.0.2 move the 'GPU Clock Offset' slider to -100mhz, this should bring the core boost down to around 1160mhz, stress the card, either with a game or heaven, see if it crashes.

Let us know your results.

Edit: HW monitor in PX is called 'performance log'

carrot1401 · 27 Jun 2012 at 19:50

Just watched the speed of the card, temp and voltage for first time on my g510. It hit 1267mhz but interestingly voltage was 1.162v.....any KFA2 guys or girls on the OCUK forums??

carrot1401 · 27 Jun 2012 at 19:58

Ok that was DiRT Showdown, in BF3 the volts are 1.175 but EVGA reports card is at 1280mhz?!?!

spixelspixel · 27 Jun 2012 at 20:01

voltage/clocks can vary slightly, honestly I'd just return the card. you spent a lot of money on it and shouldn't have all this hassle. should be plug + play without issues. hurry before DSR runs out

pgi947 · 27 Jun 2012 at 20:16

Wouldn't need to worry about the DSR period, the card isn't doing what it says on the tin, in my eyes that means faulty.

Did you try downclocking the card?

The lower voltage in showdown...did you have vsync enabled per chance? If so, less demand on the core will give lower voltage, as long as its hitting 1.175v under maximum stress then the voltage side of things is fine.

carrot1401 · 27 Jun 2012 at 21:10

Vsync wasn't on DiRT Showdown. -12Mhz on GPU and an hour on BF3 with voltage at 1.175 seemed fine. I'll try Crysis 2 after the footie, that made a driver crash within like 10 mins...

pgi947 · 27 Jun 2012 at 21:32

You mean 1200mhz surely?

Heaven fully maxed out should find faults fairly quickly as well (8x AA, extreme tessellation etc..)

carrot1401 · 27 Jun 2012 at 21:39

pgi947 said:
You mean 1200mhz surely?

Heaven fully maxed out should find faults fairly quickly as well (8x AA, extreme tessellation etc..)

Nope, -12 from default is 1255mhz

Dammit footie going to extra time, may have to wait til tomorrow

pgi947 · 27 Jun 2012 at 21:55

ooooh minus 12mhz

carrot1401 · 29 Jun 2012 at 23:39

Nah this isn't a software issue. It's randomly crashing. Lasted 2 hours in battlefield 3 tonight and then a crash. The card is unstable....

Montegue · 8 Jul 2012 at 04:34

[ZiiP]carrot;22245389 said:
Nah this isn't a software issue. It's randomly crashing. Lasted 2 hours in battlefield 3 tonight and then a crash. The card is unstable....

I can attest to that to an extent. Not overclocked the card as it just doesn't overclock anyway past the factory pre set OC, so left it as it is. Was on the previous beta drivers and have been getting random black screens in games where PC just seems dead and no signal to monitor bar comes up, thus me having to reboot the PC. Tried the current Beta's and same thing happens at random times whilst in game (oh and I got the Red Screen Of death a few times too after exiting games.)

So I have clean installed the WHQL's which are pretty horrible and juddery frames but I got no random black screen PC lock up with them (touch wood as only been using them a few hours tonight) I don't know if it's the card or the drivers, but honestly say that this is by far the worst nVidia purchase to date and I've had a few nV' cards over the years.

Is it this card (KFA2 LTD ED White PCB V1 *higher boost than V2) or the drivers..?