GTX 590 Quad Sli overclocking issue

L

lord infamous

n00b
Joined
May 15, 2011
Messages
29
Hey guys,

I recently upgraded to GTX 590 hydro copper water cooled cards in SLI (quad-sli). When I went to overclock them at stock voltage, It would be stable with only 650 core / 1765 mem.. thats only 20mhz on the core and like 35mhz on the mem... anything past this would cause a black screen in 3dmark11 and would cause an error (dx11 device removed) in heaven benchmark.

I decided to bump up the voltage with a BIOS flash to 1.03v from .965v stock, most people are able to hit 800mhz with this.. at LEAST 750mhz, but I cannot go over 700mhz core without black screening and errors in benchmarks.. the funny thing is if I turn off SLi, it seemed to be stable at 750 mhz in 3dmark11, thats the furthest i tired pushing it...

With SLi on, it wont overclock for sh*t... I googled the crap out of this and the only thing I saw was another dude with GTX 580s having a similar problem, but bumping up his IOH vcore fixed the issue.. This did NOT work for me at all, even with huge ioh vcore jumps (to the point that my machine would not boot)

Can someone pleasse help me figure this one out.. Thank you

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
EVGA X58 SLi w/ newest bios version
i7 920 c0 @4.1ghz w/ 1.3v 100% Stable/ Swiftech Apogee XT Rev2
OCZ Gold 6GB DDR3 Triple channel
2x EVGA GTX590 Hydro copper in parrallel@1.03v 46c load temp. Both in 16x 2.0 lanes
Crosiar AX1200 (on its own wall socket)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music
2x Swiftech 360 Rads
1x MCP 655 Pump
1/2" I.D tubing
Samsung BX2431 1920x1080 LED LCD
Logitech Z-5500 5.1 system

THANK YOU
 
Hmm, that's a noodle scratcher.
How much power does your rig pull just out of interest? I'm sure the AX1200 is more that up to it, but at some point i would try running one of the cards on a separate PSU if you have one, would only take a couple of minutes to connect.

Other than that, any BIOS updates you can do on the cards? Make sure they have the latest available. Also make sure you have the latest drivers for the 590 (275.33 i do believe).
 
sounds like you've got a GPU that's holding you back. Or... another possibility is that you need to go into Nvidia Control Panel and set your Global 3D Power settings to Maximum Performance from being Adaptive. This helped me reach a 100MHz core bump that's completely stable on my cards, but I did have to feed them considerably more voltage than stock (from 1.000v to 1.135v)
 
Rossi~ said:
Hmm, that's a noodle scratcher.
How much power does your rig pull just out of interest? I'm sure the AX1200 is more that up to it, but at some point i would try running one of the cards on a separate PSU if you have one, would only take a couple of minutes to connect.

Other than that, any BIOS updates you can do on the cards? Make sure they have the latest available. Also make sure you have the latest drivers for the 590 (275.33 i do believe).
Click to expand...

I tried the newest drivers AND the beta drivers. I might try the PSU thing when I get home, but im not sure if its the PSU because when i bumped up the 590 voltage, this gave me a bit more overclocking room, so more power made it more stable, not less stable.

sabregen said:
sounds like you've got a GPU that's holding you back. Or... another possibility is that you need to go into Nvidia Control Panel and set your Global 3D Power settings to Maximum Performance from being Adaptive. This helped me reach a 100MHz core bump that's completely stable on my cards, but I did have to feed them considerably more voltage than stock (from 1.000v to 1.135v)
Click to expand...

I will try the global power managment when I get home. I hope to GOD its not one crappy GPU holding me back because that would piss me off. I hope the power managment helps but it really seems like it was the .135v u added that gave u 100mhz, because thats a nice juicy voltage increase.
 
lord infamous said:
I will try the global power managment when I get home. I hope to GOD its not one crappy GPU holding me back because that would piss me off. I hope the power managment helps but it really seems like it was the .135v u added that gave u 100mhz, because thats a nice juicy voltage increase.
Click to expand...

With the voltage increase, I could not get it stable until I turned the power management feature to maximum performance.
 
waitwaitwait. your stock voltage was 0.965? is that what GPU-Z said too? what about MSI afterburner? I can tell you for sure that my ASUS 590 was at 1.000V stock
 
f that, if it blows ill get it replaced.. im not going over 1.05v, I would worry more about it blowing at 1.1-1.2v AND without drivers that support over current protection..
 
Just be careful overclocking these cards. There is a reason why nVidia locked in these cards.
 
ban916 said:
I would not overclock that card. Leave it stock. It will blow.
Click to expand...

+1 Those cards are badass stock and you have two of them. It's not like you're going to notice a differenence with the small oc you will get at stock voltage. I wouldn't overvolt those cards either. Sounds like the 6990 would of been more appropriate. For your needs.
 
This is [H] overclock them like any other card, so long as they stay cool and you use the correct drivers, they wont blow up.

Had any luck yet or still stuck? Do they both overclock fine when not in SLi mode?
 
Rossi~ said:
This is [H] overclock them like any other card, so long as they stay cool and you use the correct drivers, they wont blow up.
Click to expand...

Not true. The 590 have some really lackluster VRM design, so Nvidia did put some nasty surprises in the drivers to thottle the card and lock the voltage no matter what he will do. Nvidia don't want people to OC those cards, because they can blow up.

You can't get pass those nasty Nvidia's limiters for the 590 for now. Nothing he can do. It's in the drivers. Hard-lock voltages and limiters even in some games.
 
I still cant get them to OC reasonably in SLi.. by without SLi they O.C fine. I am testing different things at the moment... I had quadfire HD 5970's before this that OC'd fine in CFX..

I did not go AMD 6990 for a reason..

#1 is that single GPU, either Nvidia or AMD is just as good. But in CFX or SLi or in my case quadfire compared to quad sli, Nvidia has had better driver support for games.

Most of the games I like to play, BFBC2, Crysis, Crysis 2 are Nvidia sponsored games. Nvidia has better sponsorship which leads to better driver support.

When I had HD5970's in CF AMD took over 3 months to solve Crysis 2 issues that were already solved for the most part by Nvidia.

I came to the conclusion that RIGHT NOW amd focuses on fixing graphical issues in their drivers while Nvidia also focuses on fixing issues but is much better in getting more FPS out of hardware with their driver releases.

I dont give a sh*t about Nvidia or AMD, I will by whatever suites my needs better, but for multiple GPU's I think Nvidia is better RIGHT NOW.
 
and yes there is a reason to OC. I have seen below 60 fps in crysis and crysis 2 with DX11 patch and high resolution textures enabled... in my book anytime there is a dip below 60fps is reason enough to OC more
 
More voltage on gpus and you will be fine. No voltage, no gain...as simple as that.

Nice set up there:D
 
You're doing it wrong. Should have got tri-SLI 3GB 580s instead of dual 590s, esp if you want to OC them. They already match or outperform a SLI 590 setup when both are stock.

Also, throw a 990X in there for good measure ;).
 
T4rd said:
You're doing it wrong. Should have got tri-SLI 3GB 580s instead of dual 590s, esp if you want to OC them. They already match or outperform a SLI 590 setup when both are stock.

Also, throw a 990X in there for good measure ;).
Click to expand...

I would have considered that more if not for the fact that I have 2 PCIE 16x 2.0 lanes and a third 8x lane if I put three gtx 580's I would have 1 in 16x mode and the other 2 in 8x mode, also 3 cards would mean an additional water block to restrict my water flow
 
lord infamous said:
I would have considered that more if not for the fact that I have 2 PCIE 16x 2.0 lanes and a third 8x lane if I put three gtx 580's I would have 1 in 16x mode and the other 2 in 8x mode, also 3 cards would mean an additional water block to restrict my water flow
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly, Kyle did an article not too long ago comparing high end cards (in SLI/CF) running in 16x and 8x and there was no difference even at the highest resolutions. I'm sure it would be fine and have no bottleneck. And even with the additional water block, it would prolly still OC better and have comparable (if not better) temps.
 
There's no appreciable difference with the PCI-E 2.0 (or 2.1) spec, on current gen GPUs between x8 and x16 mode. Average is 1.5% performance difference between x8 and x16.
 
well, I'm pretty sure its not a one weak gpu issue holding it back because I tried overclocking each GPU one at a time to see if there is headroom on other GPU's and just a single weak gpu holding it back, but it wont OC higher on ANY gpu.

Maybe my motherboard cannot take 4 power hungry GPU's. Its a regular older EVGA x58 board. Not one of the high end fancy ones.

I guess im more happy with the thought that i've maxed out my systems capabilities as far as it will go on the hardware it has as opposed to having a weak under performing gpu holding the rest back
 
lord infamous said:
well, I'm pretty sure its not a one weak gpu issue holding it back because I tried overclocking each GPU one at a time to see if there is headroom on other GPU's and just a single weak gpu holding it back, but it wont OC higher on ANY gpu.

Maybe my motherboard cannot take 4 power hungry GPU's. Its a regular older EVGA x58 board. Not one of the high end fancy ones.

I guess im more happy with the thought that i've maxed out my systems capabilities as far as it will go on the hardware it has as opposed to having a weak under performing gpu holding the rest back
Click to expand...

It's the Nvidia drivers limiting the 590. You can't do anything for that. :(

Even if you push your 590s, the drivers will hard-lock the voltage and throttle your cards no matter what you will do, even in games!

The BIOS for the 590 is also a mess right now, and they are trying to fix it.

So you are loosing all this precious time for nothing. Nvidia are controlling your cards, not you. For now, they don't want any 590 owner to OC those 590s out there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top