NVIDIA GTX 970 OWNERS THREAD

Ayahuasca · 22 Sep 2014 at 12:07

IIRC the power target doesn't make that much of a difference anyway compared to voltage. When unlocked bios or afterburner commands come along most cards will be on a level playing field for max power target and volts.

My MSI does 1600mhz boost and has only 110% power target.

Ayahuasca · 22 Sep 2014 at 13:51

You get 2 per item usually that's why stooeh got 4

Ayahuasca · 22 Sep 2014 at 14:43

xraycat87 said:
My driver keeps crashing :/

Bad OC?

EDIT: returned clocks to stock, still persists

Try installing these if you haven't already http://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/78242/en-uk

Ayahuasca · 22 Sep 2014 at 14:46

^

Never owned an EVGA card, strange of a company who are regarded as the best brand for nvidia cards.

Ayahuasca · 22 Sep 2014 at 15:20

Check the sensors tab to see what it's really boosting to. At +155 it's probably around 1500mhz.

Memory you should be able to do +500, that puts it at 8000mhz which everyone seems to be hitting on Samsung memory.

Ayahuasca · 22 Sep 2014 at 23:10

I'd be very surprised if that's stable in benches and gaming, that's boosting over 1700mhz. I'd be careful.

Ayahuasca · 22 Sep 2014 at 23:12

xraycat87 said:
Back it down to 1450?

Well try running a proper full screen bench or gaming for half an hour. You need to click the sensors tab in GPU-Z and see what your card is actually boosting to. If your card can do 1700mhz+ game stable without even full voltage applied and auto fan you've got a golden sample chip.

Ayahuasca · 22 Sep 2014 at 23:52

Terrier_Jimlad said:
Anyone got a good OC guide/tutorial (using MSI afterburner) for the 970?

What do you need to know?

It's pretty simple, if you're going for max OC, max the voltage, max the fan and go up in small increments +20mhz until firestrike crashes then back it down till it's stable. When it's stable you can try lowering the voltage by 5mv and see if it's stable at the same clock, sometimes you don't need all the extra voltage to keep it stable.

JediFragger said:
Just did it and crashed out at 1560 core Think I'm asking a bit much with SLi and an insulated case like mine

I'll keep fiddling.....

Was that with +87mv and was 1560 the proper boost clock? You need to check in the sensors tab in GPU-Z to see what it's really boosting to.

Ayahuasca · 22 Sep 2014 at 23:55

Terrier_Jimlad said:
If i leave the voltage/power_limit alone and put +100 on the core, and leave the mem alone for time being, driver fails as soon as 3D mark runs

You may as well leave the power limit at 110% it doesn't make much difference. If it's crashing then you need to add more voltage.

Ayahuasca · 23 Sep 2014 at 00:00

Locky said:
Adding more voltage to my cards made little difference to the limit of the clock if I'm being honest. I think I got like +30 core with max volts over my max stock volts clock.

It helped mine, could only do around 1500 on stock, can do 1600 with +87mv. Temps hardly changed and the fan at 100% doesn't bother me, it's the quietest cooler I've heard.

Ayahuasca · 23 Sep 2014 at 00:05

You may have been unlucky and got a poor clocker, I know that feel, my 780 was shocking.

I wouldn't get too down about it, 100mhz on the core equates to a few FPS in games.

Ayahuasca · 23 Sep 2014 at 00:12

Very similar to my speeds xraycat apart from my memory is at 2000mhz which is +500 on the slider.

Ayahuasca · 23 Sep 2014 at 00:15

75.3%

My 780 was 67% and awful so ASIC % might have some truth to it.

Ayahuasca · 23 Sep 2014 at 00:32

JediFragger said:
Xraycat, I've settled on very similar clocks to you at the moment - 1460core and +200 on the mem but that's without touching the voltage. If I can get to 1500core for 24/7 with a little fiddling then I'll be more than happy

You checked what it's boosting to? 1460 boost on the 1st tab of GPU-Z isn't what it actually boosts to. Should boost to around 1560mhz in a game or benchmark.

xraycat87 said:
Yeah it froze half way though with 2000mhz @ +20mV plus artifacts gah

Try +87mv, if it works lower it till it crashes then raise it to the voltage that worked. Or just leave it at +87 like I do lol.

Ayahuasca · 23 Sep 2014 at 01:34

xraycat87 said:
Won't that require a lot of power or be bad longterm?

No, +87mv is nothing and will hardly shorten the cards lifespan at all. It's only when you start messing with custom bios and voltages you need to be careful, these cards don't even get that hot when overclocked. Does anyone know if the VRM's have decent cooling?

Ayahuasca · 23 Sep 2014 at 11:43

I wouldn't say the cooling is a lot better on the Giga, the two large fans on the MSI work wonders. Even at 1600mhz core I've yet to see it break 70c after long periods of gaming. It's also likely to be quieter with less and bigger fans. You can't go wrong with either though and the back plate is a nice edition on the Giga but didn't interest me.

Ayahuasca · 24 Sep 2014 at 00:57

I've took the +87mv off mine and running it at 1500/2000 stock voltage with 110% power and priortised for temp. This way GPU-Z tells me the PerfCap reason is Vrel which means more voltage required, if I add voltage it then splits the PerfCap reason between Vrel and VOP which means more power is needed and for some reason the card will throttle to lower clocks and voltage. Not quite sure what's going on to be honest. Afterburner might not support these cards properly yet.

Ayahuasca · 24 Sep 2014 at 11:54

I don't think anyone has said it's silent at 100%, you can hear it but compared to other coolers I've had with the fans at 100% it's much quieter.

Ayahuasca · 24 Sep 2014 at 14:44

P0tenc said:
I will have lower overclocks but this is a compromise I will make.

Not necessarily, it's more down to the chip than the cooler how far it will overclock (apart from watercooling of course). When GIGA say their 970's are cherry picked they just mean they will all do the advertised boost clock. They won't of tested everyone at say 1600mhz.

Ayahuasca · 24 Sep 2014 at 14:57

rob77 said:
Those running MSI 970 SLI, what temps are you seeing? On my single MSI 970 I have seen 75c in heaven after 30 mins continuous and might want to add an extra card if the temps do not go too high.

Cheers

That's warm for single card, were fans on auto?