High "default" clock speed on EVGA 1080 FTW

[Dodge62]

I have an EVGA GTX 1080 FTW. I was disappointed I couldn't squeeze more than 100MHz overclock out of it using EVGA's Precision XOC.

But then when I looked at the speed using either PXOC's overlay, or using the Superposition benchmark, it appears it's already clocked at 2GHz. It starts the benchmark run at 2012 MHz, then drops to 1974 as the heat increases. With the 100MHz overclock it was running at 2.1GHz.

I have played around a bit with overclocking software, but none of it is loaded at startup and I still see the 2GHz in Superposition without loading PXOC.

I understand that the boost clock is supposed to be 1860 MHz. Is there something in the card which 'saves' a previous overclock and implements it without running any additional software?

I'm running 388.59 Nvidia drivers and the 'GeForce Experience' if that makes any difference.

 

[Bluntwrapped]

I have the same card. Do you have the ACX or the ICX version?

There’s no hidden overclock settings, the efficiency of the power delivery as well as cooling allow the core to automatically boost higher than the advertised speed. This is similar for all pascal cards but the beefier the cooler, the better chance of reaching 2100+ and being able to hold it during a benchmark.

My FTW hits 2025mhz automatically, but to get more out of it I need to manually tweak the voltage/boost curve.

 

[Dodge62]

Ah, OK, thanks, I assumed they'd be limited to the advertised speeds.

ACX or ICX? Not sure, doesn't seem to say either on the box. How would I tell?

 

[Dodge62]

Looks like the ICX is the FTW2. Mine is just FTW, so ACX.

 

[Bluntwrapped]

Yep, it's a bit confusing but the 1860MHz boost can be considered generalised and worst case scenario, with the potential for much higher depending on the quality of the silicon, PCB and temps.

This is worth a read and worth doing:

https://forums.evga.com/EVGA-GeForc...11GHz-BIOS-Update-Available-Now-m2652350.aspx

It only mentions 1080 FTW2, but the FTW2 bios works perfectly on the FTW. I've been running it myself for quite a while now.

10GHz to 11GHz mem, without having to tweak anything in precision or afterburner. Quite a nice little boost for free, especially if you're happy with how far the core goes on it's own

 

[Panos]

I have an EVGA GTX 1080 FTW. I was disappointed I couldn't squeeze more than 100MHz overclock out of it using EVGA's Precision XOC.

But then when I looked at the speed using either PXOC's overlay, or using the Superposition benchmark, it appears it's already clocked at 2GHz. It starts the benchmark run at 2012 MHz, then drops to 1974 as the heat increases. With the 100MHz overclock it was running at 2.1GHz.

I have played around a bit with overclocking software, but none of it is loaded at startup and I still see the 2GHz in Superposition without loading PXOC.

I understand that the boost clock is supposed to be 1860 MHz. Is there something in the card which 'saves' a previous overclock and implements it without running any additional software?

I'm running 388.59 Nvidia drivers and the 'GeForce Experience' if that makes any difference.

The top of the range custom GTX1080Tis have already set boost 3.0 overclock to 2000. My Xtreme was also like that. Ram overclock is the only way you can play with.
Also without watercooling 2063 is the norm (lucky lottery winners go 2100) but on air with a pretty quiet fan curve all good ones are in 1989-2000 range without issue using normal boost 3.0 and no fiddling with power limits.

Also thats the reason I sold mine. As much fun the GTX1080 was to overclock (to 2190), the GTX1080Ti is as boring.
And because of the pretty generous default boost 3.0, and the lack to cap on drivers the FPS per game, I was burning 330W playing EUIV and CK2.

(FYI Vega 64 burns ~75W on those games).

 

[Disco_P]

The top of the range custom GTX1080Tis have already set boost 3.0 overclock to 2000. My Xtreme was also like that. Ram overclock is the only way you can play with.
Also without watercooling 2063 is the norm (lucky lottery winners go 2100) but on air with a pretty quiet fan curve all good ones are in 1989-2000 range without issue using normal boost 3.0 and no fiddling with power limits.

Also thats the reason I sold mine. As much fun the GTX1080 was to overclock (to 2190), the GTX1080Ti is as boring.
And because of the pretty generous default boost 3.0, and the lack to cap on drivers the FPS per game, I was burning 330W playing EUIV and CK2.

(FYI Vega 64 burns ~75W on those games).

Rivatuner (bundled with msi ab) can cap frames on a game by game basis.

 

[nashathedog]

Ah, OK, thanks, I assumed they'd be limited to the advertised speeds.

ACX or ICX? Not sure, doesn't seem to say either on the box. How would I tell?

Advertised clock speeds are what they are willing to guarantee a card can do under regular circumstances, Nvidia's built in gpu 3.0 software theoretically has no hard set limit so issues like case size and airflow have an effect on out of the box clocks, From what you're saying you've got a decent setup giving it room to push the clocks up, that's a good thing.

Today Nvidia's boost clock situation is the polar opposite to AMD's with Vega where you can't hit the claimed clock speeds out of the box and often can't hit them period.
You're in a good situation with no room for complaints even if it does make manual overclocking a bit boring..

 

[Bluntwrapped]

EVGA also released a slightly gimped version of the 1080 FTW “DT” which has a lower boost clock than the standard model.

I’d be interested to see what happens if you take the DT model and flash it with the standard bios.

 

[Panos]

Rivatuner (bundled with msi ab) can cap frames on a game by game basis.

It doesn't work on EUIV and CK2. And is just another 3rd party monitoring program needs to be installed to do the basic job AMD has on their drivers for 2 1/2 years now.