Nvidia - Running dual displays with 2d clockspeed mode?

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daws0n

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Feb 26, 2005
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I've been tinkering with my new rig today and I've come across a strange bug.... The 2D clock speed mode on my GTX260 does not work, so it is constantly running at 625/1000 MHz. After looking at possible bios updates (which turns out are not needed on mine) I've narrowed the problem down to my 2nd display...!

I've been running "dualview" with 2 monitors and as soon as I unplug the secondary screen the clocks lower :confused: There's no mention on this in the control panel (I'm using the latest drivers), can anyone suggest a workaround for this? I'd like to keep running two displays, but I don't want to card cooking 24/7....

Thanks,
Dawson
 
Same thing happens for me. The first monitor is always running full speed, second monitor drops down to 2d clocks. I think its an Nvidia drivers thing.
 
I thought so... What a dumb-ass thing to do! I wonder if switching the display outputs around will effect it? I don't use the 2nd display much, but it's useful to have.

*contemplates going back to HD4850 512mb*
 
sounds like a driver issue, indeed
maybe try 3rd party drivers (if such a thing even still exists), or just wait for an update from nVidia (does the card you have offer 3rd party drivers through its vendor? sometimes these are better)
 
Barrok said:
Same thing happens for me. The first monitor is always running full speed, second monitor drops down to 2d clocks. I think its an Nvidia drivers thing.
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What happens with your system exactly? 2 displays = full speed, 1 = downclock?
 
This issue has been around for many sets of drivers now, don't expect it to be fixed anytime soon. I just use RT profiles to change clocks manually, it's not really that annoying.
 
I had the same problem. I wrote to Palit when I got my GTX 260 Sonic earlier this year, they said no 2D mode with dual monitors was a driver setting. I read on another forum that nVidia said they do it on because they say you might not get enough performance when running 2 or more monitors at 2D clocks....anyway, I just use MSI Afterburner to create a 2D/3D profile and set the clocks as low as they will go in idle (around 425 MHz), it's better than nothing!
 
It could be because the card cannot driver 2 monitors at higher resolutions at the downclocked speed.
 
jeremyshaw said:
It could be because the card cannot driver 2 monitors at higher resolutions at the downclocked speed.
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impossible
it doesn't need all of that shader power to handle basic desktop display, especially if we're talking about a modern graphics processor
this notion that you need "64 cores" or whatever other marketing fluff just to handle a basic UI desktop is quite absurd

and if nVidia is claiming anything to the contrary, I'm not buying it
 
obobski said:
impossible
it doesn't need all of that shader power to handle basic desktop display, especially if we're talking about a modern graphics processor
this notion that you need "64 cores" or whatever other marketing fluff just to handle a basic UI desktop is quite absurd

and if nVidia is claiming anything to the contrary, I'm not buying it
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Absolutely. I have no issues running 2 monitors on my GTX260 at 145/310/105 - heck, it runs a lot of older games at these speeds (HL2 is almost playable at 1680x1050 with 4xTRSSAA)
 
According to the latest nvidia driver release notes its working as designed. At first they admitted it was a bug and now they changed their story and said its necessary to efficiently run multiple displays. I think its a bunch of crap myself.
 
really wish I could downclock my GTX285 more than 490/1116/935 in dual monitor mode but I can't. I know my computer would function just fine at 200/400/300.
 
Renesis13B said:
According to the latest nvidia driver release notes its working as designed. At first they admitted it was a bug and now they changed their story and said its necessary to efficiently run multiple displays. I think its a bunch of crap myself.
Click to expand...

unless they're forcing it to ensure that if you did something ridiculous like ran multiple HD streams on your multiple displays, that the performance would still be good, I really don't see a justification, and this is the first nVidia card I've ever heard of running at full clock for multi-head, which is mostly why I'm saying something is wonky
 
Glad to hear I'm not the only one at least... Ive gone through a myriad of software to fix this manually (rivatuner, evga precision, ntune) and have settled on gainward's own expertool. It's not the prettiest or the most powerful of the lot, but it allows me to downclock further down than any of the others.

I've also got word back from gainward's tech support guys stating the same thing as nvidia, 3d mode is needed for dual monitors?! A load of rubbish IMO, I've had no problems running at 300/250MHz.

Also, the driver level fan control on this thing is joke.... It stays at 40% RPM while the card cooks at 70c+. Easy to fix with manual fan control set to 55-60 instead, but still there's probably a lot of people out there who wouldn't know how to do that. Very lazy on nvidia's part, it wouldn't hurt to make the fan control a bit more incremental with higher temps...

After being a long term ATI user, this is not a good start! Still, great card when it's going :cool:
 
Sojuuk said:
really wish I could downclock my GTX285 more than 490/1116/935 in dual monitor mode but I can't. I know my computer would function just fine at 200/400/300.
Click to expand...

Tried RivaTuner? To get the seriously low clocks in '3D' you need to edit the database from the power user tab and set RivaTuner\Overclocking\Global\MinClockLimit to 0. Power savings aren't that huge unless you undervolt as well (I use 750mv for 2D and even my maximum game-stable OC uses less voltage than the stock 1125mv)
 
Undervoltage? That's a new one to me.... Is it safe? Anything to save on the electricity bill while surfing/dling (anything but non-gaming ) is good with me. Care to explain a bit mate?
 
daws0n said:
Undervoltage? That's a new one to me.... Is it safe? Anything to save on the electricity bill while surfing/dling (anything but non-gaming ) is good with me. Care to explain a bit mate?
Click to expand...

he's basically talking about dropping the voltage going to the GPU
the tolerance will vary chip to chip, as some chips are going to be "better" than others (you understand OC'ing right?)

honestly I wouldn't suggest it, because it isn't gonna drop that much power consumption, if you're really on about "save my power bill", the ~.7 kWh (at most) that your system is gonna be pulling down isn't really that much of a deal, and shutting the thing down at night (so you're cutting consumption by half or more, thats a lot bigger than 10% savings while running)

and the temps aren't all bad, 70*C is within the acceptable thermal envelope for the chip, and most average-joe users don't understand or even care what temperature is, they just want it hear it
 
Is anyone still interested in a solution for the clocking problem? i solved it, 2d clocks when u want, 3d clocks when you want etc.....this works for 32bit and 64bit windows. I figured out a way to have it forced to watever you want....and i have 2 monitors. Been forcing 2d mode when i want it for the last 4 months, keeps things quiet and cool
 
This works for me so let me know if it works for you, I got a GTX 280 used the method on 32bit and 64bit vista........I have no idea on any negative effects so dont blame me!

Step 1 Rivatuner
1. Install Rivatuner, under power user tab>Rivatuner\NVIDIA\Overclocking - EnablePerfLevelForcing (select the tick then right click and click the bulb)

2. Overclocking tab - Set force constant to whatever you want 2d, 3d etc

3. click apply it will ask for restart but *DONT*, say no

Step 2 Restart Nvidia Drivers
4.Goto device manager right click your GTX and select DISABLE, the screen will go into low res, straight away right click the disabled GTX and ENABLE

5. Power mode should be activated, repeat to change your mode

Let me know if it works for you
 
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