Undervolting/reducing power draw and overclocking questions

[Surfer]

Hi there i've never really bothered with this side of things in the past but because my 1080 heats up very fast indeed (goes from 45 idle to 82 in bench inc some games though i havent noticed throttling when it gets to 82 im assuming throttling would show the clock speed to reduce drastically?) i thought i would reduce the power draw on it. As i have heard in the zotac amp edition 1080 zotac basically give this baby too much juice?

i reduced power limit to 89% which did a marvelous job of reducing temps. Temps in benching average around 73 - 75 which is great as before it would peak at 82 when it was at 100% power limit.

i upped the clock rate +91
upped the memory clock + 106

= new boosted clock rate of 2050 around that. The auto boost before would only go to 1980.
stable in heaven bench and firestrike. I actually got a slightly higher score in heaven benchmark 2883 114fps as opposed to 2843 112fps at stock.

Unfortunately the firestrike bench was slightly lower 15095 and graphics score 22077 (at stock i think i got 15290 maybe)

But im quite please it maintained fps and was slightly better at reduced power. However i got a message on the screen (see screenshot) which said LIM POWER. Im assuming this meant limited power. Uhmm ? is basically a warning for me to up the power?

 

[Surfer]

Also did the benchmark for Tomb Raider (1st one) and got 103 fps avg at 1080p(maxed)(min 72 max 132) which was exactly the same as i had at stock and at 100% power limit. But of course i have the reduced temps now. But i also got the LIM POWER message in afterburner.

 

[Surfer]

I RMA'd my Zotac 1080 amp as it wouldn't hold the stock clocks due to thermal limitations which I suspect was poor tim application. After a lengthy battle as I'd had the card sat in its original box for 4 months I won and was offered a credit with which I spent on an ASUS GTX 1080ti strix which does 2000mhz at 65c!
Return the card to stock and if under stress testing it drops below the advertised clock speeds then I would regard that as false advertising provided you have good airflow in your case as without the temps may be much lower.
Josh.

Mine is holding clocks fine both at stock and when I changed it. I only slightly Overclocked it and got 2050 boost no problem Though I haven't put it through something like furmark. I was asking whether the limit power message is OK to ignore?

 

[Surfer]

ahh ok thanks.

I applied a small oc to the cpu (4400) and on the gpu now i have +122 (so usually 2060 to 2101) +220 on mem and increased power limit to 95%

did a bit better in firestrike - 16506, 23179 graphics, physics 8939. (still probably below average for similar systems)

I'm hitting the voltage limit ceiling as well though. I think i had little artifacts in heaven when i upped the gpu clock by 150 and memory by 500 so thats why dropped them. To stop artifacting at that level would need to up the power or voltage yeah? (only using 94%)

Also did the benchmark for Tomb Raider (1st one) and got 103 fps avg at 1080p(maxed)(min 72 max 132) which was exactly the same as i had at stock and at 100% power limit.

now getting 109 fps avg 76 min 136 max so thats a plus i guess.

 

[Surfer]

If your issue is the card running too hot, and with an AIB card I would definitely consider temperatures in the 80's a little too hot, then you are looking for a hardware solution not a software solution. Limiting voltage or power is just limiting performance.

What case do you have the card in? I think you need to rule out airflow issues.

i think case is fine. its a known issue with some zotac amp edition. Not a problem really just the temps ramp up quick. The amp extreme doesnt suffer from this (same pcb) because its cooler is apparently pretty epic.

Its interesting though i can oc the gpu to 2100 at only 95% power.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/4tc9wy/zotac_1080_amp_overheating_fix/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/4sgwg8/zotac_1080_amp_edition_owners_temperature_and/

 

[Surfer]

Clock speed becomes a bit meaningless if you are limiting performance via power limit as the gpu will limit the amount of work it completes to stay within the power limit regardless of the clock speed. Its like supercharging an engine and then sticking a block under the accelerator so you cant push it to the floor.

To continue your example. Its a ferrari engine which has slightly more power draw than the other v8 engines. So reducing the power output to the same as the other engines shouldn't compromise performance.

quoted the bit from the reddit thread

A comparison of 2 slot card power limits from other manufacturers

Zotac 1080 amp 100% - 270w, max 120% - 324w

Founders Edition 100% - 180w, max 120% - 216w

MSI Gaming X 100% - 240w, max 107% - 256w

Asus Strix 100% - 200w, max 120% - 240w

Gigabyte G1 100% - 180w, max 120% - 216w

So as you can see the zotac stock power limit is much higher than every other cards max power limit

edit: i'm able to hit the higher clocks and get more fps at this reduced power without difficulty.

 

[Surfer]

stock fan

30% - 40 deg
50% - 50 deg
80% - 80 deg
100 - 90 deg

idle 45
when benchmarking temps get to 82

aggressive custom fan

40% - 30
60% - 50
80% - 60 deg
100% - 70 deg

idle 38
peak temps around 74 - 78

 

[Surfer]

uhmm yeah i set it to aggressive and temps are around 74-78 depending on stress i think you overlooked my point about limiting power. This was an accepted solution by loads of people with the zotac.

 

[Surfer]

try actually under-volting instead of using the power limit and temps should drop better

Do you know any easy youtube guides for this? But tbh i will test with a few games and if temps stay fine but also great frames then its all good could just leave it as it is.

I need to look at a few comparison 1080 game benchmarks as i dont know what fps i SHOULD be getting in games lol.

 

[Surfer]

heres a few deus ex images. Running (well uhh rendered anyway) in 1440p with vsynch on 60 fps with vsynch off its 60 - 80 fps. Everything maxed except no contact hardening and no msaa.

I notice that gpu isnt at the limit..only 80 ish percent. It was like that in chivalry as well. 30% utilization or something. I guess the gpu usage only goes up if it is being challenged?

 

[Surfer]

Tomb Raider puts more stress on my system than Deus Ex does. Goes up to 80 deg on that (temp limit 81) Ahh yeah i thought i had disabled vsync lol hrmm. It limits to my monitors refresh 60hz. Still both were happy to go up to 1770p (slightly above 1440p) i think though tomb raider went to 43 - 60 fps (everything maxed). But that's odd because benchmarks I've seen for the 1080 amp edition for rise of the tomb raider show AVG FPS around 82 maxed settings at 1440p. Hrmmm. I have Ashes of the singularity will test that later

 

[Surfer]

Hrmmm good idea. I will use afterburner for that

 

[Surfer]

I think I will undervolt when I get home.

Also what sort of marks should I be getting in Firestrike and Heaven benches?

It's with an i5 4690k oced to 4.4. and 16 gig 1600mhz ram

 

[Surfer]

ohh FFS

i shouldve went for a 1070 or kept my gtx980 because tbh this 1080 performs like a 1060.....

Something is wrong somewhere

Benchmarking Ashes of the Singularity.

The ballpark fps i should get roughly is:

EXTREME PRESET
1080p = 74 fps
1440p = 65.5
4k = 50.9

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10325/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1080-and-1070-founders-edition-review/21

I get nowhere near that!

Firstly i set everything to stock (cpu and gpu defaults no OC)

1080p EXTREME preset average fps 54.9

1440p EXTREME preset average fps 44.9

4K EXTREME preset average fps 43.6

So thinking things could not get any worse..... i thought i would test at 1080p with everything on low or off....


1080p LOW average fps 53 !

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1080-review,15.html

heres another Ashes of the Singularity benchmark just in case the first place was wrong.


I have no idea why it says LIM VOLTAGE because its back at its defaults
Yes vsynch is off
No idea why gpu utilisation is never fully utilised ....very bizarre.

My system is a i5-4690k
16 gig 1600 ddr3 ram
on crucial SSD

Im using nvidia driver 382.53 maybe its them? A sliver of hope anyone?

 

[Surfer]

It could be that particular game. It could be a CPU bottleneck in that benchmark (see if the CPU hits 100% load when the GPU is sitting relatively low load).

Run a Firestrike test and check for 99% usage.

The benchmark is GPU focused though?

Firestrike score 14915 (gpu small oc and cpu 4.0)...quite low no? Though i have previously had a higher score 16590 when i overclocked the cpu(4.4) and gpu together

last one is CPU test and all the cores seem to be used.

Im not sure why i am getting the limited voltage message because i set everything back to default and then i applied same or smaller oc and also +5 to the power limit (so 105%)

Very odd. When i run Firestrike before i dont get limited voltage message.

Lastly, is it normal when you do an OC that the gpu runs and stays at quite high core base clock of 1683 instead of lowering to a much much lower state when idle or web browsing etc. I thought it was sortof adaptive....only ramps up when needed.

 

[Surfer]

The first value is gpu usage. wait no EDIT ***** turns out that is gpu power.
The third value is gpu usage

I dont know why you say limited voltage is normal ? It shouldnt be happening at stock nevermind oced surely? I see a lot of the time gpu power varying wildy between 83 - 101%

I upped the power limit by +10 and the voltage by +10% but i still got the limit volt message. I ran another firestrike albeit with a little bit more oc. +129 on the core clock and cpu clocked to 4.1 (im not sure whats going on there because i tried to up it more like i had yesterday using the multipliers in the asus cpu utility and i got a bluescreen of death but it restarted ok) so anyway got a score of 15643 which i know is **** but i dont blame my gpu anymore because the graphics score was 23597 which is average for a gtx1080.

I have shadow of mordor, dying light and alien isolation i will try running them and see what i get (they are sometimes used for benching) But i've basically started to accept my kid...sorry i mean graphics card just isn't a world beater just around below average and i dont even mean silicon lottery as its ocing to decent level. Its just not as powerful as i thought. Its gonna have to impress me a lot in those games to make me change my mind.

 

[Surfer]

Dying Light Maxed 1440p 106 - 163 fps not too bad at all
Dying Light 4k 70 - 90 fps which i was surprised at.

But these are only 1440p/4k renders as i dont have a 1440p/4k monitor. Nice to know i can run it....however at 4k my gpu heat goes up to a scorching 90 degrees jeeezz. I thought i had the temp limiter on at 85 as well lol. But then i have fps headroom to play with there so could afford to reduce the power to reduce temps if i lose 10 fps then thats still 60 - 65 minimum at 4k maxed.


Will do shadow of mordor tomorrow as its a 42 gig install.

Looking back at the Deus Ex MD bench and reading about how notorious it is for low fps i think i did alright (everything maxed 1440p 60fps except msaa and CHS)

I think the thing holding back my pc is the cpu..and the i5 4690k was cutting edge when i bought it....not many games used all 4 cores back then.


edit: Alien Isolation runs easily on everything. 200 fps basically. Still scary as **** though

 

[Surfer]

hrmm looks like i was worrying over nothing. Back to being impressed again haha. Though my cpu is looking old in the tooth.

Shadow of Mordor on ULTRA (everything maxed)
1080p avg fps 148. max fps 241 min fps 54
2160p/4k avg fps 53 max fps 82 min fps 40