Does ASIC quality matter?

[KickAssCop]

My two GTX 780s have had ASIC quality of about ~70% when they came in. Now I checked the other day and one card is at ~64% and other at 60%? Did the ASIC quality calculation change or what happened?

Does this matter at all since nothing has changed in terms of overclocking. Meanwhile I flashed my bios to skynet and moved back to stock bios. Can this cause wrong reporting of ASIC.

Thus far, I have noticed that ASIC has not worked well on nVidia cards. I had the GTX 670s in SLi, GTX 680s in SLi and now GTX 780s in SLi and nothing mattered in terms of overclocking ability of life of the card. Also, when I had the Sapphire 7970 vs. Diamond 7970, the ASIC quality did matter on how far I could push the card. Doesn't seem to make sense for nVidia cards.

So simple question, does ASIC matter? Should I be worried? Should I downclock my cards (presently runnings +100/+200 for daily use; translates to about 1084 core/6400 memory)? Should I sell them and get new GTX 780s?

 

[cortexodus]

So simple question, does ASIC matter? Should I be worried? Should I downclock my cards (presently runnings +100/+200 for daily use; translates to about 1084 core/6400 memory)? Should I sell them and get new GTX 780s?

I think us PC-type people just love stats and numbers, regardless of whether they actually mean anything. I don't think the ASIC numbers mean a damned thing...

 

[Liger88]

I think us PC-type people just love stats and numbers, regardless of whether they actually mean anything. I don't think the ASIC numbers mean a damned thing...

I think I fall into the category of: "Don't even understand the damn numbers so why should I care".


GTX 780 OC's incredible with 73% ASIC. To me it's just a useless piece of info that only a very small percentage in the community care about or want to have some sort of measurement.

OC'ing always has been and always will be a matter of each and every card being somewhat inconsistent in a good or bad way.

 

[xoleras]

I think ASIC is worthless. I haven't found a direct correlation between ASIC and OC ability, i've had high ASIC cards that couldn't OC for shit and low ASIC cards that could OC very well.

 

[mesyn191]

ASIC quality is a arbitrary black box rating by guy who makes GPU-Z. No one really knows exactly how the software determing its rating and it has little to do with determining a given GPU's actual ability to OC.

Ignore it and OC however you want. Generally getting a 10% OC on a modern GPU is considered pretty good since they tend to push the chip processes to the limit right out of the box. There are always a few outliers who manage to get "golden" chips that OC 20% or more or who use extreme cooling though.

 

[berserk_void]

Thus far, I have noticed that ASIC has not worked well on nVidia cards. I had the GTX 670s in SLi, GTX 680s in SLi and now GTX 780s in SLi and nothing mattered in terms of overclocking ability of life of the card. Also, when I had the Sapphire 7970 vs. Diamond 7970, the ASIC quality did matter on how far I could push the card. Doesn't seem to make sense for nVidia cards.

For the AMD 6990 (not to be confused with 6990m), GPU-Z's "ASIC quality" failed to give a score or anything. I haven't found a need to OC it either, it handles most of the stuff I throw at it. 6990s run terribly hot on stock clocks (certain games), OCing....I don't want to deal with that heat.

 

[SonDa5]

Yes. High ASIC score will give the GPU the best electrical voltage to perform. High ASIC score doesn't guarantee high GPU performance but its a great place to start and knowing the ASIC score is helpful.

 

[Brackle]

My two GTX 780s have had ASIC quality of about ~70% when they came in. Now I checked the other day and one card is at ~64% and other at 60%? Did the ASIC quality calculation change or what happened?

Does this matter at all since nothing has changed in terms of overclocking. Meanwhile I flashed my bios to skynet and moved back to stock bios. Can this cause wrong reporting of ASIC.

Thus far, I have noticed that ASIC has not worked well on nVidia cards. I had the GTX 670s in SLi, GTX 680s in SLi and now GTX 780s in SLi and nothing mattered in terms of overclocking ability of life of the card. Also, when I had the Sapphire 7970 vs. Diamond 7970, the ASIC quality did matter on how far I could push the card. Doesn't seem to make sense for nVidia cards.

So simple question, does ASIC matter? Should I be worried? Should I downclock my cards (presently runnings +100/+200 for daily use; translates to about 1084 core/6400 memory)? Should I sell them and get new GTX 780s?

Yes and No if you ask me. I have seen cards with 70ish overclock extremely well. Then I have seen 70ish overclock like shit.

My 780 lightning has 72.9% and I got 1410 on the core at 1.3v.

It really comes down to the silicon lottery.

 

[reaper12]

Yes. High ASIC score will give the GPU the best electrical voltage to perform. High ASIC score doesn't guarantee high GPU performance but its a great place to start and knowing the ASIC score is helpful.

NO, NO,NO,

You got ASIC scores all messed up in your head. You think it's important but it's not.

Both Nvidia and AMD use different methods to assign ASIC scores to their chips. It's not just a leakage number. It's based on many things, distance from the edge of the wafer, what batch of wafers it's from etc. etc. Leakage might be one value but since nobody knows how Nvidia and AMD combine those details to come up with an ASIC score it's kinda worthless knowing it.

 

[reaper12]

My two GTX 780s have had ASIC quality of about ~70% when they came in. Now I checked the other day and one card is at ~64% and other at 60%? Did the ASIC quality calculation change or what happened?

Did you upgrade GPU-Z?

And no I wouldn't change the cards, As Mesyn191 said, it doesn't make a bit of difference to how good or bad your GPU's are.

 

[JedixJarf]

Not really, Out of 3 7970's the one with the worst ASIC overclocked the best.

 

[SonDa5]

NO, NO,NO,

You got ASIC scores all messed up in your head. You think it's important but it's not.

Both Nvidia and AMD use different methods to assign ASIC scores to their chips. It's not just a leakage number. It's based on many things, distance from the edge of the wafer, what batch of wafers it's from etc. etc. Leakage might be one value but since nobody knows how Nvidia and AMD combine those details to come up with an ASIC score it's kinda worthless knowing it.

I had 4 7950s and kept the 2 best with higher ASIC scores that over clocked better. Based on my experience the ASIC score does help with over clocking.

But I understand that not all GPUs with high ASIC scores will perform the same.

ASIC score is important though. IMO.

 

[Brackle]

I had 4 7950s and kept the 2 best with higher ASIC scores that over clocked better. Based on my experience the ASIC score does help with over clocking.

But I understand that not all GPUs with high ASIC scores will perform the same.

ASIC score is important though. IMO.

From what I understand, All ASIC does is let you use less volts to achieve a higher clock. That doesn't mean you will overclock higher though.

You can get a 99.9% ASIC 7950, but might be only able to hit 1150 on the GPU. Sure the volts might be real low, but your still only able to clock it at 1150.

 

[SonDa5]

From what I understand, All ASIC does is let you use less volts to achieve a higher clock. That doesn't mean you will overclock higher though.

You can get a 99.9% ASIC 7950, but might be only able to hit 1150 on the GPU. Sure the volts might be real low, but your still only able to clock it at 1150.

ASIC score is more related to the electrical conductivity quality of the complete circuit design of a GPU.

AMD does work with W1zzard to enable GPU-Z to do this. It isn't guess work as some people think.


Dave Bauman from AMD:

Originally Posted by ToTTenTranz:

Moreover, w1zzard usually gets colaboration directly from AMD in order to update GPU-Z.

Dave responds:

We do work with him and give him the relevant register spec to read in order to determine the SIMD/CU counts etc.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1620529&postcount=2802

Just because the complete circuit is electrically sound doen't mean that parts of the GPU are not as good performers as other GPUS. The important part of a good ASIC is knowing the GPU is electrically sound and the GPU will have its best chance at performing.

 

[Brackle]

ASIC score is more related to the electrical conductivity quality of the complete circuit design of a GPU.

AMD does work with W1zzard to enable GPU-Z to do this. It isn't guess work as some people think.


Dave Bauman from AMD:




http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1620529&postcount=2802

Just because the complete circuit is electrically sound doen't mean that parts of the GPU are not as good performers as other GPUS. The important part of a good ASIC is knowing the GPU is electrically sound and the GPU will have its best chance at performing.

That still wont increase the overclocking headroom if the GPU will only hit a certain clock.

say you need 1.2v to hit 1150. You can give it 1.3-1.4v and it still wont budge over 1150. ASIC isn't going to fix that issue.

A higher ASIC lets you achieve a higher clock rate at lower volts.

 

[LordEC911]

ASIC score is more related to the electrical conductivity quality of the complete circuit design of a GPU.

AMD does work with W1zzard to enable GPU-Z to do this. It isn't guess work as some people think.


Dave Bauman from AMD:




http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1620529&postcount=2802

Just because the complete circuit is electrically sound doen't mean that parts of the GPU are not as good performers as other GPUS. The important part of a good ASIC is knowing the GPU is electrically sound and the GPU will have its best chance at performing.

Nothing like completely misrepresenting what Dave was trying to say.
If you are going to quote him at least spell his name correctly...

ASIC "quality" is a misnomer propobated by GPU-z reading a register and not really knowing what it results in.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1808073&postcount=2130

 

[KickAssCop]

Thanks for the discussion. It seems I don't have to give a shit about ASIC quality. Also, looks like it only works maybe well for AMD cards. For nVidia it is worthless.

 

[SonDa5]

Looks like Mr. Dave Baumann has changed his tune about ASIC score relevance. I don't blame him since so many people with HD79xx series complained of poor over clocking with lower ASIC scores.

I still think the ASIC score is important but if AMD is no longer supporting W1zard on it then it wont make much sense.

Perhaps that lack of support from AMD is part of the reason stable voltage control is taking so long for W1zard to get down. STill waiting for Sapphir TRIXX for my Sapphire 290x.

 

[LordEC911]

Looks like Mr. Dave Baumann has changed his tune about ASIC score relevance. I don't blame him since so many people with HD79xx series complained of poor over clocking with lower ASIC scores.

I still think the ASIC score is important but if AMD is no longer supporting W1zard on it then it wont make much sense.

Perhaps that lack of support from AMD is part of the reason stable voltage control is taking so long for W1zard to get down. STill waiting for Sapphir TRIXX for my Sapphire 290x.

AMD supports W1zzard with specific registers for things relevant to the performance specifications of the GPU. An ASIC score would not be relevant and would also show too much insight into their binning process and potentially yields.

Wavey never specifically mentioned ASIC score relevance in your quote...