Possible fix for GTX 970/980 Voltage Discrepancy & Driver Bug thread

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Lord_Exodia

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 29, 2005
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I'm going to list the current driver bugs in the importance to me. I'm affected by some but not all of these bugs.

1. Multi-Card Voltage Discrepancy.

In SLi 1 card will run about 50mv Lower than the other card. Even at stock volts leading to some extreme undervoltage affecting stability and overclocking potential. 1 of my cards runs at 1.162v whne my other card runs at 1.250v. At stock 1.215, that affected card runs at 1.153v. It's not easy overclocking to 1540 on a GTX 980 SLi setup when 1 card is running 1.153v Trust me :)

Possible fix posted yesterday on the Geforce Forums by forum member Tommytech

Possible Fix: "I'm the one who created the thread in EVGA's forums, though I do have sli gigabyte 970 G1's

I found a fix for it

Use NVINSPECTOR program to adjust cards individual. It will take some testing, but I can get my primary card to get over 1.175vcore, it now can hit 1.243vcore.

gpu-0 = +108mhz core, +320 mhz memory, MAX everything else
gpu-1 = +148mhz core, +320 mhz memory, MAX everything else

gets me 1.243vcore on gpu1 and 1.250vcore on gpu2 yielding a stable 1525mhz

Before using MSI afterburner at +130mhz and +max voltage I was only getting 1.175vcore from the primary card at 1505mhz and any bump of mhz was keeping it at 1.175vcore, causing lockups.

http://s29.postimg.org/warln705z/higher_vcore.jpg
Hope this helps!"

2. DSR + SLi + Surround + GSYNC
I can use Surround with DSR if SLI is DISABLED
I can use SLI + DSR if Surround is DISABLED

I want to use SLI + SURROUND + DSR :(

Many others can't get DSR to work with SLi at all

DSR doesn't work for Gsync

FIX: No fix that I know of

EVGA says that DSR not working in SLi is mainly (but not always) a windows 8 issue. Many on Windows 7 can use SLi + DSR

3. Gsync not turning OFF
Fix: None that I know of.

4. Random Blank screens on Displayport Displays

Some have reported displays blanking out intermittently

Fix: none that I know of

I have not experienced this one.

I'll close off this post by saying that I'm going to see if Nvidia Inspector can be leveraged to fix any of these other issues but I cannot test Gsync since I don't have a Gsync monitor. Can someone with Gsync test out if they can use DSR or disable gsync in the nvidia control panel and actually have it stay off. I'm stuck at work and JUST started my day so it will be about 7 hrs before I get home to test anything. Maybe others can contribute in the Interim. Also if you found a fix or work around please post it. ;)
 
unless im missing something the voltage fix isnt working for me?
 
C'mon NVIDIA, where the drivers at? Has anyone even seen any betas or leaks beyond 344.16 yet?
 
Hmmm ok correction it does work. For some odd reason you HAVE to have the top GPU lower then the bottom one.

wtf lol
 
update:

You can do this trick with MSI AB as well, you do not need to use Nvidia inspector.

Just tried it
 
DASHlT said:
Hmmm ok correction it does work. For some odd reason you HAVE to have the top GPU lower then the bottom one.

wtf lol
Click to expand...

WTF LOL I'm so excited to try this when I get home now. Thanks DASHIT you are truly DASHIT! :D
 
Lord_Exodia said:
WTF LOL I'm so excited to try this when I get home now. Thanks DASHIT you are truly DASHIT! :D
Click to expand...

The odd part is with MSI AB I can get the top card to 1.237v no problem, bottom is 1.25....its better

with Nvidia inspector I can get the top card to 1.267v and the bottom card to 1.25v.

Very interesting

edit: you HAVE to make sure the bottom cards gpu +mhz is at least 30 more then the top card. Sounds stupid, but it corrects the issue, and both GPU's show the same speed, with the top card having the normal voltage. IF you try to link them with the same +mhz on the GPU, the top card will revert back to undervolting.
 
That's messed up... I'm going to have to go back to AB since GPU Tweak won't let you overclock the cards individually. ~10mV difference is a lot better than 50mV.
 
This is an awesome fix until nvidia finally addresses it in their drivers.

Edit: It looks like those who said ASIC may play a role here were right and so were the many of us who said it's a driver issue.

It seems to be influenced by both.

My cards are both very different. for one +235 gets me to 1500mhz for the other + 200 does that. I think ASIC influences that discrepancy.

The nvidia driver is supposed to match like cards and fix that out on the software level when you SLi cards and it's not doing that job properly.

Now we need to figure out the other issues.

How funny would it be if I fix the voltage discrepancy if I will now be able to Run NV Surround, +SLi + DSR just by fixing this issue. Stay tuned.
 
Awesome info, works for me now :eek: .I am able to keep the voltages within 7-12mv of eachother instead of ~62mv or more apart! Thanks so much for posting this up here. I am using Afterburner by unsynching the GPU's in the settings and setting each individually.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Awesome info, works for me now :eek: .I am able to keep the voltages within 7-12mv of eachother instead of ~62mv or more apart! Thanks so much for posting this up here. I am using Afterburner by unsynching the GPU's in the settings and setting each individually.
Click to expand...

I'm glad this helped. Helping is what I'm all about. Question though my brother in arms.

Where have you been hiding? :)
 
Lord_Exodia said:
This is an awesome fix until nvidia finally addresses it in their drivers.

Edit: It looks like those who said ASIC may play a role here were right and so were the many of us who said it's a driver issue.

It seems to be influenced by both.

My cards are both very different. for one +235 gets me to 1500mhz for the other + 200 does that. I think ASIC influences that discrepancy.

The nvidia driver is supposed to match like cards and fix that out on the software level when you SLi cards and it's not doing that job properly.

Now we need to figure out the other issues.

How funny would it be if I fix the voltage discrepancy if I will now be able to Run NV Surround, +SLi + DSR just by fixing this issue. Stay tuned.
Click to expand...
But the ASIC shouldn't affect the voltages you're getting, should it? Individually both of my cards go up to and stay at 1.200v at default clocks despite a ~5% difference in ASIC quality. It has to be a software issue with Maxwell because my 780s had an even larger discrepancy in ASIC quality, yet both hit their full voltage on the core under load with SLI.
 
don't you need a higher power allowance to get the clock rates higher with out throttling?

I've seen many people just use the stock voltage and get 1400+ mhz overclocks. Only thing holding people back is the power target needs to be set higher.

I'm sure someone will mod a bios to do just that.
 
Armenius said:
But the ASIC shouldn't affect the voltages you're getting, should it? Individually both of my cards go up to and stay at 1.200v at default clocks despite a ~5% difference in ASIC quality. It has to be a software issue with Maxwell because my 780s had an even larger discrepancy in ASIC quality, yet both hit their full voltage on the core under load with SLI.
Click to expand...

TBH I'm not sure. I don't think ASIC and how the card performs based on ASIC is all of what's going on here but I think it's involved in some way. I would say mostly the software issue (driver) is to blame.
 
After some fuckin around, looks like I can get 1530 on each card stable. Played only 1 map of BF4, but thats a pretty good test.

So for me to able to get these settings (with sync turned off):

MV PWL GPU Memory
GPU1 +50 +112 +110 +300

GPU2 +50 +112 +140 +300

Now the ONLY way to get identical clocks is to make the 2nd card in SLI have +30more mhz on the core. Not sure why? But it works

For Voltages. Since the GPU's arent linked. the ONLY way to increase voltage was to keep each cards MV value the same. For some odd reason, +30, and +87 crash the drivers.

While playing BF4, Top card was 1.262v, but the bottom card was 1.25v. After about 15 minutes the top card volts went down to 1.237v (But still stayed at 1530mhz?).

Anyway this is my findings so far.
 
After working thru my Cards with Lord we got them withing .06 from each other
To do this we just ran the top Card GPU1 Core Clock +15 over the GPU2, Voltages,Memory,Fan speed nothing else effected it. Bad thing is after a few minutes of running it like this the MHZ difference can create Artifacting or crashing. I did manage to complete a 3dmark but it didn't change my scores. At this point I am waiting for a NVidia Driver Fix.
 
Marcdaddy said:
After working thru my Cards with Lord we got them withing .06 from each other
To do this we just ran the top Card GPU1 Core Clock +15 over the GPU2, Voltages,Memory,Fan speed nothing else effected it. Bad thing is after a few minutes of running it like this the MHZ difference can create Artifacting or crashing. I did manage to complete a 3dmark but it didn't change my scores. At this point I am waiting for a NVidia Driver Fix.
Click to expand...

I would think it would be soon since Borderlands just got released, and its a TWIMTBP title...

Usually drivers follow big game releases.
 
DASHlT said:
I would think it would be soon since Borderlands just got released, and its a TWIMTBP title...

Usually drivers follow big game releases.
Click to expand...
344.11 WHQL was the game-ready driver for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel...
http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/geforce-344-11-whql-driver-released
GeForce.com Announcement said:
The new GeForce 344.11 WHQL drivers are now available to download automatically through GeForce Experience, and from GeForce.com. These new drivers give GeForce GTX owners the ultimate gaming experience in the latest blockbuster titles, including Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, The Evil Within, F1 2014 and Alien: Isolation, and add support for the brand new, Maxwell-powered GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce GTX 970, the world's most advanced graphics cards.
Click to expand...
 
So I can confirm that this seems to be a preliminary fix until the drivers fix the issue.

This is likely to work for everyone.

To sum up what your doing for anyone reading that may be confused. You need to find a delta between the cards.

Card 2 needs to run at a higher core frequency than card 1 in the software your using to overclock. For my setup I found 35mhz is that spot. I can get the cards within 8mv of eachother.

card 1 now runs 1.233v and card 2 runs at 1.225v.

Step 1. To get this all set up I opened Heaven.

Step 2. I opened afterburner.

Step 3. I set the profiles to not sync identical cards.

Step 4. I set card 2 to +10 and left card 1 at stock

I kept running heaven and observing my voltage on card one and going up on card 2's core in increments of 10 on card 2 until I fond a point where the voltages get super close. I then increase in 1mv increments until I found that sweet spot. In my case when I got to + 40 I had to go down because the voltages for card 2 started decreasing.

+35 on card 2 did it for me. Your delta may be different.

Same goes if I'm at +200 and +235. As long as there is that 35mhz delta the voltages stay very close and consistent..

I hope this explanation helps someone.
 
Last edited:
Interesting and thanks for sharing. I'm curious what would happen to mine since both of my Gigabyte 970s are already within 12mV of each other without additional tinkering.
 
n=1 said:
Interesting and thanks for sharing. I'm curious what would happen to mine since both of my Gigabyte 970s are already within 12mV of each other without additional tinkering.
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly your on 3x GTX 970 SLi. I think for you only the second gpu is slightly under volted. Your process may be slightly different. Normally being so close I may not even recommend tinkering until the driver comes to fix it. It's up to you if you want to try but I'm assuming you'll need to boost card 3 but you'll only know if you try. :D
 
Nah that's not me, only 2 way SLI for now (and likely for the foreseeable future). Once I get my cards back from RMA I'll give it a shot.
 
deasnutz said:
So what issues will I have if I leave the voltage unbalanced, bad oc?
Click to expand...

From what I've read and seen from others;

1. Bad OC
2. Instability & Stuttering in games
3. Games Crashing (I'm not sure this was related 100% but the person posting did)

On # 3 I found that on screen display is the main cause of games crashing and that makes sense since Most have that enabled when they are testing new hardware.
 
Did anyone try g-sync + DSR yet to see if it works? I'm thinking about getting the 27" Acer w/ g-sync, but it is only 1080p. Having DSR would be nice to pair with that monitor.
 
phillyboy said:
Did anyone try g-sync + DSR yet to see if it works? I'm thinking about getting the 27" Acer w/ g-sync, but it is only 1080p. Having DSR would be nice to pair with that monitor.
Click to expand...

I did get it working and it's really nice! I cannot get it working in Sli yet. I have the Rog Swift.
 
Marcdaddy said:
I did get it working and it's really nice! I cannot get it working in Sli yet. I have the Rog Swift.
Click to expand...


Excellent! Thanks for the feedback.

It sucks about SLI though, you are into the "need" category with what you are trying to do unless you keep the details down.
 
IT WORKS!!!

This has been bugging me forever. I'm running two MSI Gaming 970's in SLI and now I can finally get both cards to run at 1500 boost clock. (1300/1900 base)

All I did was sent my 2nd card to +0.25mv and left the voltage on the first card alone. Under full load GPU 1 runs at 1.1680v and GPU 2 runs at 1.2430v, according to GPU-Z.

Whatever, I don't care. As long as both cards are running at the same 1500 boost. :D
 
Lord_Exodia said:
I'm glad this helped. Helping is what I'm all about. Question though my brother in arms.

Where have you been hiding? :)
Click to expand...

Hehe, been having some health issues so have been online a lot less... Reading but not spending a lot of time especially writing replies :). Thanks for asking by the way....!
 
Darksword said:
IT WORKS!!!

This has been bugging me forever. I'm running two MSI Gaming 970's in SLI and now I can finally get both cards to run at 1500 boost clock. (1300/1900 base)

All I did was sent my 2nd card to +0.25mv and left the voltage on the first card alone. Under full load GPU 1 runs at 1.1680v and GPU 2 runs at 1.2430v, according to GPU-Z.

Whatever, I don't care. As long as both cards are running at the same 1500 boost. :D
Click to expand...

That's not the real fix. If you can get a matching boost that's cool and all. But matching those voltages or getting them closer may help even more. Boots Card 2's core clock +30mhz and leave card one 30 mhz less than card 2 and you may see those voltages both around 1.2v. My dilemma was getting card 1 above 1.1v I couldn't get a stable overclock because I needed more voltage on card 1. FYI I ended up having to boost card 2 +35 mhz more than card 1.

GoldenTiger said:
Hehe, been having some health issues so have been online a lot less... Reading but not spending a lot of time especially writing replies :). Thanks for asking by the way....!
Click to expand...

NP, we've been posting side by side for 9 years and I think this is the longest you've been away that I can recall. I hope you feel better bro.
 
Just bumping this thread to add my experience.

I decided to do some overclocking on my cards (ASUS STRIX 970, for those who don't know) after the new drivers hit, and was dismayed that the voltage issue had not been fixed. After playing around with the clock speed on GPU1, I started to notice that the Perf Cap for voltage reliability started switching between cards at a certain point.

In my case, +26 on GPU1 gives a solid 1.200v on both cards under load. At this point the Perf Cap disappeared on GPU1, but appeared on GPU2. Anything above +26 on GPU1 made the Perf Cap switch to GPU1. I was trying to see if there was a balance that could be reached, but settled on keeping the Perf Cap popping up on GPU2 instead of GPU1.

Knowing the spread, I got a nice stable overclock of +187 on GPU1 and +161 on GPU2. That equates to a constant Boost of 1473 MHz. The memory would not clock any higher than +300 without artifacts (7603 MHz actual).

Again, both cards are even at 1.200v with this spread in my system (+26 on GPU1). In my case, GPU2 was the one being undervolted in SLI instead of GPU1 like Lord_Exodia.

Hopefully the official fix will come with the next driver release, as I know they're (NVIDIA) still working on it.
 
@Lord_Exodia: How did you get DSR + Surround working simultaneously?

As soon as I enable a Surround display mode, DSR vanishes from the options menu. And this is with single-card, not SLI... :(
 
Unknown-One said:
@Lord_Exodia: How did you get DSR + Surround working simultaneously?

As soon as I enable a Surround display mode, DSR vanishes from the options menu. And this is with single-card, not SLI... :(
Click to expand...

Funny thing is for me to get surround and DSR working all I need to do is Disable SLi. To get SLi with DSR all I need to do is disable Surround and go down to one monitor. I haven't tested it with the newest drivers since I ran out of time doing things I wanted to do yesterday with bios tweaking on the cards and motherboard overclocking trouble I've been having etc..

Are you running Gsync? What refresh rate are you running on your monitors in surround. I can do surround + DSR without SLi at 120hz and below.
 
I'm using three Dell U2412M monitors: 24", 1920x1200, 60Hz, IPS, no G-Sync. Pretty standard.

Left monitor is connected with DisplayPort, middle and right monitors are DVI.

When I enable Surround, all DSR resolutions vanish and I'm left with only 5760x1200 and 6016x1200.
 
Unknown-One said:
I'm using three Dell U2412M monitors: 24", 1920x1200, 60Hz, IPS, no G-Sync. Pretty standard.

Left monitor is connected with DisplayPort, middle and right monitors are DVI.

When I enable Surround, all DSR resolutions vanish and I'm left with only 5760x1200 and 6016x1200.
Click to expand...

Only different with my setup is that 2 of my monitors are connected via displayport and 1 is DVI. I dunno if you have a way to try that? They are all hooked into the top card. If you can hook a second one up via displayport try rebooting and seeing if the DSR Ratios option appears. Good luck bro.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Only different with my setup is that 2 of my monitors are connected via displayport and 1 is DVI. I dunno if you have a way to try that? They are all hooked into the top card. If you can hook a second one up via displayport try rebooting and seeing if the DSR Ratios option appears. Good luck bro.
Click to expand...
Well, I gave the system a reboot and fiddled with a few combinations of settings. No dice...

I'll have to buy another DisplayPort cable and see if that helps. I did notice that my Surround setup identifies as a giant DVI (not DisplayPort) monitor. Wonder if that might be the cause.

AZn8LI6.jpg


Does yours say DVI or DisplayPort when Surround is active?
 
Unknown-One said:
Well, I gave the system a reboot and fiddled with a few combinations of settings. No dice...

I'll have to buy another DisplayPort cable and see if that helps. I did notice that my Surround setup identifies as a giant DVI (not DisplayPort) monitor. Wonder if that might be the cause.

AZn8LI6.jpg


Does yours say DVI or DisplayPort when Surround is active?
Click to expand...

I'll check when I get home in under 2 hours and report back.
 
Unknown-One said:
Well, I gave the system a reboot and fiddled with a few combinations of settings. No dice...

I'll have to buy another DisplayPort cable and see if that helps. I did notice that my Surround setup identifies as a giant DVI (not DisplayPort) monitor. Wonder if that might be the cause.

Does yours say DVI or DisplayPort when Surround is active?
Click to expand...

Mine also reports DVI. Sorry for the delay. Had some issues where my system wasn't detecting my 2nd card for SLi. It ended up happening when I moved my components over to a new case. Anyhow, checking on the new drivers and I'll edit this post for you.
 
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