What is the point of this thread?
Primarily. Collect information on which VRM controller is on a particular card.
Secondarily. Verify if MSI afterburner can use voltage control with a card using a supported VRM controller and if necessary direct user to the appropriate support thread for MSI afterburner.
Why should I care?
If you care to overclock and have a cooling solution with headroom to spare (if you're throttling at stock forget about it until u upgrade cooling) you can either buy a card with the VRM controller you need or find out if your card has the ability to be voltage adjusted by 3rd party application.
Have u ever tried to use software to increase GPU voltage of your graphics card? Your ability to do so will depend on which VRM controller you have. Basic low cost controllers can hold a few predetermined voltages and the graphics driver can control these using powerplay:
en.wikipedia.org
These low cost controllers are not addressable via the I2C bus, which is what makes the difference between a low cost VRM controller and a better one.
The difference between a low cost VRM controller and an I2C addressable controller is that you can have far more control over the voltage that is supplied to the GPU.
A low cost VRM controller can output e.g. 0.95v for idle clocks, 1v for youtube videos, 1.15v for 3d gaming (and if you're lucky an extra overvolt e.g. 1.233v from voltage tweak or similar).
A VRM controller with I2C addressing is accessible not only via the driver but 3rd party apps like MSI afterburner. If MSI afterburner natively supports it or it has a VRM controller on the supported list (i.e. the VRM controller is I2C capable) then there will be a slider for voltage.
Since MSI afterburner 4.1.1 there is support for adding VRM controllers with I2C bus addressing. All you have to know is the manufacturer of your VRM controller, then visit the afterburner 3rd party hardware database thread linked to at the bottom on this post.
However what if you want to buy a card which fits your budget but you know for sure it has a I2C addressable controller? I know first hand how tricky it is to find a clear picture of a VRM controller, not only that I believe that Asus is rebranding its VRM controllers as Digi+ which makes identification impossible for an individual without owning the card and testing it out.
Here is a picture of a VRM controller (as you can see its sitting next to a long line of VRMs and is square with 10+ pins on each side):
This one is cheap and nasty with no I2C addressing.
Here is another picture of a different VRM controller:
Since its on the list below its supported by MSI afterburner. If a card carries one of these it is either already in the hardware database or it can be added to the hardware database (by probing the I2C bus).
CHL8214
CHL8228
CHL8266
CHL8318
IR3567B
L6788A
NCP4206
NCP81022
UP1637
UP6204
UP6208
UP6218
UP6262
UP6266
VT1165
VT1556
Note: MSI cards will likely have native support, and somehow I don't believe this is the full list due to the linked thread from 2013 about the same topic. What is new is that MSI afterburner has added unofficial support for 3rd party unlock of voltage control.
Third party hardware database v1.3, last modified on 09.06.2015.
Supported cards:
- ASUS ARES II
- ASUS GTX 780 DirectCU II OC
- ASUS 980 STRIX
- EVGA GTX 780 Classified
- EVGA GTX 780 Ti Classified KPE
- Gigabyte R9 270 (GV-R927OC-2GD)
- PowerColor HD6870 (AX6870 1GBD5-2DH)
- Sapphire Dual-X R9 280X
Disclaimer:
Third party hardware database and third party voltage control mode in MSI Afterburner are supplied "as-is", with no official support from MSI or Guru3D side. MSI and Guru3D assume no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of it.
My contribution:
I will keep this thread updated if there is the interest.
How to submit to the knowledgebase:
State the Manufacturer Title and P/N (should be easy to find on a reseller website or on the box or card sticker), add bios number found in GPU-Z.
Links:
Hardware database thread is here:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=399542
Another older thread about this topic:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1398725/...ds-some-with-llc-one-tool-for-all-ab-versions
Primarily. Collect information on which VRM controller is on a particular card.
Secondarily. Verify if MSI afterburner can use voltage control with a card using a supported VRM controller and if necessary direct user to the appropriate support thread for MSI afterburner.
Why should I care?
If you care to overclock and have a cooling solution with headroom to spare (if you're throttling at stock forget about it until u upgrade cooling) you can either buy a card with the VRM controller you need or find out if your card has the ability to be voltage adjusted by 3rd party application.
Have u ever tried to use software to increase GPU voltage of your graphics card? Your ability to do so will depend on which VRM controller you have. Basic low cost controllers can hold a few predetermined voltages and the graphics driver can control these using powerplay:
AMD PowerPlay - Wikipedia
The difference between a low cost VRM controller and an I2C addressable controller is that you can have far more control over the voltage that is supplied to the GPU.
A low cost VRM controller can output e.g. 0.95v for idle clocks, 1v for youtube videos, 1.15v for 3d gaming (and if you're lucky an extra overvolt e.g. 1.233v from voltage tweak or similar).
A VRM controller with I2C addressing is accessible not only via the driver but 3rd party apps like MSI afterburner. If MSI afterburner natively supports it or it has a VRM controller on the supported list (i.e. the VRM controller is I2C capable) then there will be a slider for voltage.
Since MSI afterburner 4.1.1 there is support for adding VRM controllers with I2C bus addressing. All you have to know is the manufacturer of your VRM controller, then visit the afterburner 3rd party hardware database thread linked to at the bottom on this post.
However what if you want to buy a card which fits your budget but you know for sure it has a I2C addressable controller? I know first hand how tricky it is to find a clear picture of a VRM controller, not only that I believe that Asus is rebranding its VRM controllers as Digi+ which makes identification impossible for an individual without owning the card and testing it out.
Here is a picture of a VRM controller (as you can see its sitting next to a long line of VRMs and is square with 10+ pins on each side):
This one is cheap and nasty with no I2C addressing.
Here is another picture of a different VRM controller:
Since its on the list below its supported by MSI afterburner. If a card carries one of these it is either already in the hardware database or it can be added to the hardware database (by probing the I2C bus).
CHL8214
CHL8228
CHL8266
CHL8318
IR3567B
L6788A
NCP4206
NCP81022
UP1637
UP6204
UP6208
UP6218
UP6262
UP6266
VT1165
VT1556
Note: MSI cards will likely have native support, and somehow I don't believe this is the full list due to the linked thread from 2013 about the same topic. What is new is that MSI afterburner has added unofficial support for 3rd party unlock of voltage control.
Third party hardware database v1.3, last modified on 09.06.2015.
Supported cards:
- ASUS ARES II
- ASUS GTX 780 DirectCU II OC
- ASUS 980 STRIX
- EVGA GTX 780 Classified
- EVGA GTX 780 Ti Classified KPE
- Gigabyte R9 270 (GV-R927OC-2GD)
- PowerColor HD6870 (AX6870 1GBD5-2DH)
- Sapphire Dual-X R9 280X
Disclaimer:
Third party hardware database and third party voltage control mode in MSI Afterburner are supplied "as-is", with no official support from MSI or Guru3D side. MSI and Guru3D assume no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of it.
My contribution:
I will keep this thread updated if there is the interest.
How to submit to the knowledgebase:
State the Manufacturer Title and P/N (should be easy to find on a reseller website or on the box or card sticker), add bios number found in GPU-Z.
Links:
Hardware database thread is here:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=399542
Another older thread about this topic:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1398725/...ds-some-with-llc-one-tool-for-all-ab-versions
Last edited: