gtx680 overclocking

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Momo

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Mar 3, 2005
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So i'v got an "old" evga gtx680. Figured i'd finally try and OC it.
It's got a custom AIO mounted to it, so temps are not an issue. (don't go above 70c full load)
I maxe'd the core voltage and power limit sliders in MSI afterburner.

However, not even +100mhz is proving stable in games. Rather dissapointing.

at +0 in MSI afterburner the card runs at ~1097 / ~1124 boost.

.... I haven't tried +50mhz yet, figured it wasn't really worth it.

This normal, or is my card just not a great overclocker?
 
ha! oh I see...

GTX 680 GPU Engine Specs:
1536CUDA Cores
1006Base Clock (MHz)
1058Boost Clock (MHz)
128.8Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec)


Looks like my card is factory overclocked in the BIOS. I suppose I shouldn't expect that much more.
 
It's not stellar, but it's not below average. All the Kepler cards I've tried tended to hit 1150-1190 except for a very flukey 1280 660ti. Review sites always got ridiculous 1300 clocks I've never seen myself.

Voltage is also locked at 1.175 no matter what you do.
 
Momo said:
So i'v got an "old" evga gtx680. Figured i'd finally try and OC it.
It's got a custom AIO mounted to it, so temps are not an issue. (don't go above 70c full load)
I maxe'd the core voltage and power limit sliders in MSI afterburner.

However, not even +100mhz is proving stable in games. Rather dissapointing.

at +0 in MSI afterburner the card runs at ~1097 / ~1124 boost.

.... I haven't tried +50mhz yet, figured it wasn't really worth it.

This normal, or is my card just not a great overclocker?
Click to expand...

OP you aren't taking REAL ingame boost clock. you need to check what's the real ingame clock and not what's reported in GPU Z, as you are using Afterburner, enable the OSD and check ingame the clocks that's the only way to see how much headroom you have to overclock. Also I think there's a problem with your AIO, never go above 70C? you shouldn't be going even over 50s.. with GPU boost, nvidia cards tend to boost way above the advertised clocks, specially under water.

noobthegreat said:
It's not stellar, but it's not below average. All the Kepler cards I've tried tended to hit 1150-1190 except for a very flukey 1280 660ti. Review sites always got ridiculous 1300 clocks I've never seen myself.
Click to expand...

:p one of my 660TIs can do 1254mhz out of the box, the other 1267 and ~1400mhz overclocked, both EVGA FTW Signature 2.
 
i don't think there's a problem with the AIO.
I'm not in an air conditioned room.
I'm also using a very quiet case, with quiet fans...
and... well, it's in a very non-optimal setup... the aio 120mm rad is at the front of the case (push/pull noctuas, with some empty fan housings as shrouds, and a third noctua helping air out of said tunnel), intaking fresh air - blowing towards the video card, being sucked out of the rear of the case through the CPU's AIO (again push/pull, this time cougar fans) ... it actually works quite well, at least for keeping noise down. Heat is still not even close to being an issue.
edit: while i'm at it, the video card has a 92mm fan blowing directly onto the ram etc. as part of the gpu aio mounting solution by Dwood.

The above setup is only being used because i really did not want a radiator at the top of my case, for acoustic purposes.

Regardless, i'll have a look in-game and see what the clock boosts to.
I'll then try +50 in MSI afterburner, see if that's stable.
 
regarding in-game vs furmark boost clocks... is it basically the issue being that games actually load all of the cuda cores etc, where furmark just doesnt do that, so you actually see more complete gpu stress/more boost in games?
 
one more thing: when i said 'not even hitting 70c' that was with the +150 attempts at overclocking... which i guess would be +150 on top of the +96 factory = +246 and the cranked voltage/etc. With everything set to zeros in afterburner, it's a good 10c cooler under load if i'm not mistaken.
 
furmark isn't any more than a GPU cooler test, it will stress unrealistic all the power circuitry and it will throttle by the power limit even if the temps are under control, furmark can make actually throttle any card. so test it while you are in real world gaming, i wouldn't be surprised if you are above 1200mhz in real games.
 
Thanks Araxie. I'll do that tonight and report back.

The MSI Afterburner OSD is reliable and stable / isnt buggy or anything, eh? never used it.
 
What is your TDP set to?

Unlike overclocking older cards, the card will limit itself if you hit the TDP limit. Make sure you max it out.

The card doesn't care that your temperatures are low and the watercooler can handle more, it will still throttle when it hits the built-in power limit.

So the best practices with Kepler and onward is to increase frequency FIRST as high as it will go before you crash, and only increase voltage in small increments. This is because voltage will increase power consumption much higher than just bumping the frequency alone.

A tool like Afterburner should be able to tell you if you're hitting the TDP wall.

See here for [H] overclocking the GTX 980 if my description wasn't clear enough for you:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/10/08/nvidia_geforce_gtx_980_overclocking_video_card_review/4
 
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will do!

reporting back later tonight.

when i tried, i made the mistake of cranking the power limit (TDP?) and voltage sliders.

... to simplify, find instability increasing clock ONLY, with power limit set to zero? or with power limit cranked... then add tiny voltage increments until stable and/or back off clocks?
 
start just increasing the power limit and some gaming to see how if the clocks increase itself, if not then start increasing the core clock offset until find the instability point, at that point you can start increasing voltage slowly, never max out the voltage slider as it make the card to reach the power limit faster.
 
ooooh, i gotcha. Thanks. Will do! the power limit in and of itself gives the built in boost more headroom. Roger!
 
increasing power limit to 110 did nothing, same with 115. clock stayed at 1189mhz in game.

So i started increasing clock rate, testing +75 now with +105 TDP. (seeing 1254mhz in game)
 
sooo.... in theory, if i raise TDP, the boost clock should raise above 1254 in games?
 
Momo said:
sooo.... in theory, if i raise TDP, the boost clock should raise above 1254 in games?
Click to expand...

You seem to be confused.

Let me try to give you a quick rundown on how a graphics card works:


BUT BEFORE WE DO THIS, DO ME ONE FAVOR: , go ahead and max-out the TDP limit. Unlike messing with the voltage, this will have no detrimental effect. It just opens-up the full potential of your card that was constrained by the board maker. Do this before you follow increasing the boost clock as I detail below.

A GPU can be:

1. TDP limited. If this happens, the actual in game clocks will not rise even if you increase the boost clocks.

2. Frequency limited. If you increased the TDP and the boost clock did not go up, then your settings are not as high as the power allows for.


If you are frequency-limited, then YOU HAVE TO RAISE THE BOOST CLOCK MANUALLY. It will not just raise itself. Increase the boost clock of core in 25 MHz increments until your GPU crashes when running a game, or you hit the TDP limit. That is the maximum stable core boost clock without adjusting voltage. Then do the same for memory clock if you have not hit the TDP limit.

You have to worry about TDP when you are increasing the boost frequency because increasing the frequency makes the card consume more power. TDP is the MAXIMUM POWER the card can use, so it's important that you max it out before attempting to overclock.
 
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Okay well, TDP is slid all the way to the right, and i'm rolling with +75 core clock without any instability issues as of yet.

Strange, X:COM enemy unknown doesn't even trigger the GPU boost, lol. Another game goes, and it's hitting the same 1254 as noted earlier. I'll likely try increasing it to 100 tonight.

What kind of voltage increments do you recommend, once the first instability point is found?
 
Update time:

+100 is not stable. i can game, but the display driver will die.
+75 is stable.

How much should i increase voltage to try and stabilize +100? (1280 in game).
+25mv?
 
Again, if I'm not mistaken, voltage cannot be adjusted on the regular 680s without changing the BIOS. Increasing it in a utility would make no difference to the fixed and constant 1.175v.
 
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