How to convince myself to go red

ICDP · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:03

Kaapstad said:
I see where you are coming from, Titans are pretty good at maintaining their temps over a prolonged period, probably because they are not clocked that high in the first place. But GTX 770s are clocked very high out of the box and thinking about it I can see the temps creeping up over a prolonged period.

It would be interest if someone like whyscotty who owns a GTX 770 could test this.

Agreed, testing in Crysis 3 would be ideal IMHO.

LtMatt · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:06

I wonder if its more likely to affect cards with worse performing cooling solutions than the lighting? THe lightning coolers have always been pretty good haven't they?

ICDP · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:11

arc@css said:
I don't know all that much about boost technology, though from what I've read I think I would prefer the static overclocking we used to see, not all that long ago.

Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages IMHO. The old method would allow someone to set an overclock that would eventually result in a hard lock up after a prolonged period.

The new boost methods allow the GPU to throttle to avoid this problem. Though it is not foolproof.

What this means is that the stable overclock you think is running 24/7 is actually throttling after prolonged periods. It could show a difference of 5%-8% in performance depending on if you bench when the card is cool or hot.

whyscotty · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:14

LtMatt said:
I wonder if its more likely to affect cards with worse performing cooling solutions than the lighting? THe lightning coolers have always been pretty good haven't they?

Correct.

Lightning have excellent cooling, mine hovers around 60 on 247 clocks

Unless I put silly volts thru it, then hits low 70's

Kaapstad · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:17

LtMatt said:
I wonder if its more likely to affect cards with worse performing cooling solutions than the lighting? THe lightning coolers have always been pretty good haven't they?

The lightnings would probably be ok but it would be interesting to see how well some of the other cooling solutions work over a prolonged period.

I also think when reviewers test a graphics card they should have a look at the room temps used. I think it is pointless testing a graphics card when the room temp is around 20c as with the recent weather a lot of us have been experiencing room temps of 30c or more and we still want to be able to use our graphics cards.

ICDP · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:17

LtMatt said:
I wonder if its more likely to affect cards with worse performing cooling solutions than the lighting? THe lightning coolers have always been pretty good haven't they?

Absolutely. From memory my GTX680 lightning would maintain ~1330-1370 but in extreme cases it would drop below 1300 in FC3 or Hitman. My stock EVGA GTX680 would do 1306 but would drop to ~1230 after prolonged gaming in the same games.

I am referring to 2+ hours of gaming, none of this quick run through lark

On a HD7950 I have to do a lot more testing of my overclocks as instead of throttling like the GTX680s it just gets hotter and hotter until the game locks up. So Nvidia boost does have its advantages.

Kaapstad · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:18

whyscotty said:
Correct.

Lightning have excellent cooling, mine hovers around 60 on 247 clocks

Unless I put silly volts thru it, then hits low 70's

Does your GTX 770 hold a constant overclock over an extended period when gaming.

ICDP · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:21

Kaapstad said:
I also think when reviewers test a graphics card they should have a look at the room temps used. I think it is pointless testing a graphics card when the room temp is around 20c as with the recent weather a lot of us have been experiencing room temps of 30c or more and we still want to be able to use our graphics cards.

I dislike reviews that use totally open systems then declare their GPU could reach a massive overclock.

Put that GPU in a closed case and try that again and I bet you get nowhere near that OC bucko-me-laddio.

Kaapstad · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:22

ICDP said:
Absolutely. From memory my GTX680 lightning would maintain ~1330-1370 but in extreme cases it would drop below 1300 in FC3 or Hitman. My stock EVGA GTX680 would do 1306 but would drop to ~1230 after prolonged gaming in the same games.

I am referring to 2+ hours of gaming, none of this quick run through lark

On a HD7950 I have to do a lot more testing of my overclocks as instead of throttling like the GTX680s it just gets hotter and hotter until the game locks up. So Nvidia boost does have its advantages.

Once I was using my Asus Matrix Platinums on Civ 5 for an extended period, no problems with the cards locking up but they nearly melted all the pipework on the waterloop for the CPU. The level in the res dropped quite a bit as the pipes sagged.

whyscotty · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:23

Kaapstad said:
Does your GTX 770 hold a constant overclock over an extended period when gaming.

Never really monitor clocks, only have the temp displayed.

It's my lads card so that's all I ask him to keep an eye on.

Is there something you would like me to try?

teppic · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:26

arc@css said:
I don't know all that much about boost technology, though from what I've read I think I would prefer the static overclocking we used to see, not all that long ago.

Some boost cards already come with it effectively disabled, e.g. a 7950 factory clocked at 925MHz normal, 925 boost.

Kaapstad · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:31

whyscotty said:
Never really monitor clocks, only have the temp displayed.

It's my lads card so that's all I ask him to keep an eye on.

Is there something you would like me to try?

In some of the earlier posts in the thread the question came up of the 7 series throttling back after extended periods of gaming due to heat build. You are probably the wrong person to ask as the GTX 770 lightning has an excellent cooler and probably does not suffer from this.

It would be interesting to see how the other versions of the GTX 770 cope in this respect with their different cooling solutions.

LtMatt · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:47

Try sleeping dogs with SSAA on High or Extreme for an hour scotty and see what happens to the temps/core clock. That should push it as hard as you can reasonably expect. I'd be surprised if it affected a lightning though with its cooler.

Geeman1979 · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:47

Kaapstad said:
In some of the earlier posts in the thread the question came up of the 7 series throttling back after extended periods of gaming due to heat build. You are probably the wrong person to ask as the GTX 770 lightning has an excellent cooler and probably does not suffer from this.

It would be interesting to see how the other versions of the GTX 770 cope in this respect with their different cooling solutions.

I'll test mine when it goes back in my other machine. When I last ran it with BF3 for about an hour temps never passed 55/60 tops from what I can remember. Around the same running benchmarks. Gigabyte 770 4gb.

Kaapstad · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:50

Anyone testing their GTX 770 could they also post the results in the GTX 770 overclocking thread as it might get lost in the middle of this thread.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18526909

andybird123 · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:54

I disagree with all f the above - in a review I want to know what the best OC the card is capable of in ideal conditions, I can extrapolate that a poor case and hot weather will stunt this, but I want apples to apples comparisons of what the raw chip will do, I don't happen to care that joey has a crap case and refuses to open a window or get a small aircon unit in the hottest room in the house

whyscotty · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:55

LtMatt said:
Try sleeping dogs with SSAA on High or Extreme for an hour scotty and see what happens to the temps/core clock. That should push it as hard as you can reasonably expect. I'd be surprised if it affected a lightning though with its cooler.

That will make my lad happy

Makin him play his favourite game

ICDP · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:56

geeman1979 said:
I'll test mine when it goes back in my other machine. When I last ran it with BF3 for about an hour temps never passed 55/60 tops from what I can remember. Around the same running benchmarks. Gigabyte 770 4gb.

If you are using a 1920x1080 60Hz monitor with vsync enabled you will rarely reach the max temps in BF3 on a GTX770 as it will mostly stick at 60 FPS. I would suggest FC3 or Crysis 3 with vsync off to make sure the GPU sits at 95%-99% usage for the majority of the test run.

LtMatt · 22 Jul 2013 at 15:59

whyscotty said:
That will make my lad happy

Makin him play his favourite game

Its a mint game tbh. Completed it twice already and am on my third playthrough.

Make sure you have SSAA on though, otherwise it won't put out much heat.

ICDP said:
If you are using a 1920x1080 60Hz monitor with vsync enabled you will rarely reach the max temps in BF3 on a GTX770 as it will mostly stick at 60 FPS. I would suggest FC3 or Crysis 3 with vsync off to make sure the GPU sits at 95%-99% usage for the majority of the test run.

+1

I guess it only happens when overclocked ICDP?

ICDP · 22 Jul 2013 at 16:00

andybird123 said:
I disagree with all f the above - in a review I want to know what the best OC the card is capable of in ideal conditions, I can extrapolate that a poor case and hot weather will stunt this, but I want apples to apples comparisons of what the raw chip will do, I don't happen to care that joey has a crap case and refuses to open a window or get a small aircon unit in the hottest room in the house

Most people would prefer actual gaming results to be representative of what to expect in normal rather than ideal (read urealistic) conditions. Thankfully most decent reviewers agree and will test actual prolonged gameplay rather than brief canned or synthetic benchmarks in an open system. Even with an excellenty cooled case and in Winter (Dec - Jan) I would see throttling on my GTX680 Lightning in FC3 and Crysis 2.

I would tend to believe most people still purchase their cards for actual gaming.