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Overclocking Guidance Please

C

captaindiptoad

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 22, 2014
Messages
373
Got ahold of the 1080 FE (EVGA brand) YAY!

Got a decent overclock
GPU 224 (2100)
MEM 545 (5544)

Slightly aggressive fan profile so as not to allow it to get much hotter than 60

Tried messing with the voltage meter. With the meter set to 0% I can get it up to 1.040v, at 100% i can get it up to 1.05v. It does not appear to be doing much. I continue to hit the "max Voltage" of 1.050v

I have read in a few places that this card should take up to 1.25v.

How do I go about locking the voltage at 1.24 (just under because I don't like maxing everything)
 
Thats a really good overclock if its stable. I can benchmark 3dmark all day at 250+ core, but if i go into the division, or farcry primal, it will freeze the game after about 2 minutes of running around. stability wise i was able to get +210 core to work with 0 voltage added. I tried +36, +74 + max and made no difference for stability. so i just run +210 and 0 extra voltage.
 
Well It appeared stable for about 3 hours. Turned it down a bit.
GPU 150 (2037)
MEM 475 (5481)
Chose these kind of randomly but w/e seems to be working.

Either way, still trying to figure out how to get the full 1.25v
 
I don't think getting 1.25v with air cooling will be possible. The pascal chip is very temp sensitive and will throttle volts when temps go up into normal air cool ranges 60c ~ 70c ~ 80c.

more info on this, I guess the FE's are locked to 1.061v ~ 1.080v in the bios. Some of the non reference designs with beefier power delivery can be volt modded in the bios. But I think WC is highly recommended in that scenario.
 
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Personally I have always found it better to push core clock. Memory brings slight returns and in general seems to have little headroom. Easily introduces artifacts and glitches, for almost no benefit. I leave my memory OC at zero and push the core as far as it will go after setting Afterburner power and voltage to max. This works out to a stable 1500 core on my 970.
 
revenant said:
I don't think getting 1.25v with air cooling will be possible. The pascal chip is very temp sensitive and will throttle volts when temps go up into normal air cool ranges 60c ~ 70c ~ 80c.
Click to expand...

It will start throttling at 60? that seems a bit aggressive doesn't it?

melk said:
Personally I have always found it better to push core clock. Memory brings slight returns and in general seems to have little headroom. Easily introduces artifacts and glitches, for almost no benefit. I leave my memory OC at zero and push the core as far as it will go after setting Afterburner power and voltage to max. This works out to a stable 1500 core on my 970.
Click to expand...

That's a hell of an overclock on a 970.
 
captaindiptoad said:
It will start throttling at 60? that seems a bit aggressive doesn't it?
[snip]
Click to expand...

Well, my 1080FE hits 2063 (and I am still testing, might go higher) for like the first 1 minute of TW3 gameplay @ 4k ultra/high mix - then when the GPU gets over 60c the clocks throttle back a bit. I am averaging around 2ghz in that game. I have my fan curve set to the card rare breaks 70c (I saw 71 and 72 yesterday - it was warm). Some other reviews say keeping it under 50c with with a closed loop cooler is ideal - then you have the best chance of breaking and holding clocks above the 2.1ghz barrier. Depending on the chip though. As far as voltage goes I am guessing at load with nice temps the card will be able to apply more V without that throttling either.
 
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I find it's entirely temperature-based. As soon as it hits about 72c it starts throttling. I run the fans manually at about 85% so that it does not keep changing the fan speed and it works out great.
 
Looks like ill have to change the thermal paste and then eventually put it under water. may take a few months but when I do ill post results.
 
I just launched TW3... I hold 2063 until the gpu hits 50c then it throttles to 2050, then at 60c 2025.. Then I get a mix of 2025 ~ 1974 while playing if I keep it under 70c. I am starting to think a full cover block and a custom loop for my cpu and 1080 might be fun.
 
ok so the OC is back up to the original, I have replaced the thermal paste with arctic silver.

GPU 224 (2100)
MEM 545 (5544)

The temps are about 4-5c cooler and I threw a very aggressive fan profile at it (it's already at 100% at 40c)
My firestrike scores have gone up a small amount and the clocks appear more stable, also I didn't get any screen tearing this time.

The part that gets me excited is the part about my original post. The voltage actually gets up to 1.063 without a voltage increase. I believe that the voltage applied is directly related to temperature.

Time for that waterblock.
 
Nice cooling gain from replacing the paste.. hmmm... maybe I should swap mine out for some GC xtreme I got... probably should do the CPU also. I got my core to 2101 but it throttles back at 50c - still while at that speed I have no artifacts or anything weird.
 
Man I can't get my founders edition 1070 to over clock memory for shit!

I have settled at +170 on the core I think. It benches higher but man the memory is piece of shit on mine. Almost everyone's been saying you can pull another 1000mhz but I have only been able to get 300mhz. Lol pretty pathetic. I have 4K tv. I wanted to get some more memory bandwidth but not happening I guess.
 
Well, some people are keeping their mem overclocks down to allow more power for the core overclock. That's much more where it counts. :)
 
What are you guys running to keep the 1080 FE under 70C? Meanwhile, what games are you running to get said temps and clock speed? At what fan speed?

My 1080 FE is overclocked 142 on the core and 400 on the memory with a 120% power target and temp threshold of 83C using a custom fan profile (no voltage adjustments). With those settings in extended gameplay in GTAV at 4K with pretty much maxed settings, I am hitting the 80-83C barrier with fan speeds ramping up to about 75-80% at that temperature. Clock speed at that temp starts around the 2020-2030 MHz mark settles in around 1925 MHz. In Furmark, temps will hover in the mid to upper 70s C and clock speed will spike to around 2030 MHz and then settle in around 1974 MHz after running for extended periods.

While I expect to have slightly higher temps running in a mITX case (Corsair Obsidian 250D), I am still curious as to what's missing. My CPU is watercooled via a H100i V2 AIO and I replaced the case's stock 140mm intake for a 200mm Bitfenix Spectre Pro (using the 7v low noise adapter). The video card is right next to the side panel intake and I've created an enclosure between the side panel and the GPU's fan so that it is pulling majority of its air from the outside instead of from within the case.

I've got some GC extreme left over from when I used it on my CPU, I wonder if it will be worth it for me to apply it to the GPU. How difficult is it to remove the heatsink on the 1080? Anything I need to keep an eye out for? Do the thermal pads stay intact or do they stick/rip, requiring replacement?

If I had room to add a AIO cooler to the GPU, I would. But I haven't a clue where I would mount the sucker in the case, let alone the clearance for the tubing next to the GPU.
 
Man I can't get my founders edition 1070 to over clock memory for shit!

I have settled at +170 on the core I think. It benches higher but man the memory is piece of shit on mine. Almost everyone's been saying you can pull another 1000mhz but I have only been able to get 300mhz. Lol pretty pathetic. I have 4K tv. I wanted to get some more memory bandwidth but not happening I guess.
Click to expand...

Sounds like your memory is all fucked up. You should easily be able to throw a +400 on that guy, maybe RMA it?

Well, some people are keeping their mem overclocks down to allow more power for the core overclock. That's much more where it counts.
Click to expand...

I lowered my mem clocks but completely forgot to try and raise my core. I'll try this tonight when I get home (approx 6 hours from this post)

What are you guys running to keep the 1080 FE under 70C? Meanwhile, what games are you running to get said temps and clock speed? At what fan speed?

My 1080 FE is overclocked 142 on the core and 400 on the memory with a 120% power target and temp threshold of 83C using a custom fan profile (no voltage adjustments). With those settings in extended gameplay in GTAV at 4K with pretty much maxed settings, I am hitting the 80-83C barrier with fan speeds ramping up to about 75-80% at that temperature. Clock speed at that temp starts around the 2020-2030 MHz mark settles in around 1925 MHz. In Furmark, temps will hover in the mid to upper 70s C and clock speed will spike to around 2030 MHz and then settle in around 1974 MHz after running for extended periods.

While I expect to have slightly higher temps running in a mITX case (Corsair Obsidian 250D), I am still curious as to what's missing. My CPU is watercooled via a H100i V2 AIO and I replaced the case's stock 140mm intake for a 200mm Bitfenix Spectre Pro (using the 7v low noise adapter). The video card is right next to the side panel intake and I've created an enclosure between the side panel and the GPU's fan so that it is pulling majority of its air from the outside instead of from within the case.

I've got some GC extreme left over from when I used it on my CPU, I wonder if it will be worth it for me to apply it to the GPU. How difficult is it to remove the heatsink on the 1080? Anything I need to keep an eye out for? Do the thermal pads stay intact or do they stick/rip, requiring replacement?

If I had room to add a AIO cooler to the GPU, I would. But I haven't a clue where I would mount the sucker in the case, let alone the clearance for the tubing next to the GPU.
Click to expand...

Well I went all out with my stuff. Most of my PCs description is in my sig but i'll tell you anyways.

Ive got the 750D wich is a massive case, there is plenty of room for anything I need to do.

I used to have the H100i, but I noticed that with my 4790K at 4.5Ghz the temps were getting up to 120c and that was WAY higher than i liked. This was probably in part due to the fact that my fan setup was all kinds of fucked up. I didnt use the fans that were sent with it, I purchased 2 LED AF120s because they "looked cool" but had no idea what static pressure and CFM was. Turns out they had absolutely terrible stats. I quickly upgraded to the H115i and purchased 2 Noctua industrial fans. Its also now in a push/pull configuration. Using Prime95 at full load for 1 hour the temps haven't even hit 95c. For those of you who want to know, the push must have high static pressure and the pull must have high CFM.

For the rest of the case i threw in 2 more Noctuas on the front and the rest are the LEDs. The flow pattern is the normal configuration (pull front bottom, push top back) and because of the change in the front fans I have positive pressure in the case.

Obviously the PSU is mounted upside down to keep it isolated.

And now the new blower style of the FE helps keep the warm air flowing right out the back instead of floundering around a bit in the case.

The ambient temperature in the case running prime 95 and heaven continuously does not get over 28c.
 
I totally forgot to tell you about what i'm running

So I have not been able to test to many games as I am very busy but so far everything has been awesome. (All games played at 4K)

WOW - Every setting maxed out except MSAAX8 not MSAAx4 & SOAA.

CS:GO - Every setting maxed

I average about 55FPS for both, temps usually level around 65c and the clock seems to throttle to about 2064.
 
My fan probably gets to 80% but I am literally attacking my card with air in a large Core X5 case with nothing else around the card. It's pretty much like being on an open bench almost. I am using TW3 @ 4k with mostly ultra settings as my game torture test.. I need to reinstall GTA V. It's the one game I have that didn't like being moved from one PC to another - so much that it needs a full reinstall.

I have 2x 140mm riing fans in the front of the case, then 2x 120mm on the cross member right in front of the card, then 2x more 120mm riing fans below pushing air up from the side then the whole top is one giant vent with 2x 140 and 4x 120 for the rad (push pull).. they are running at a low rpm but it drenches the card in air.

crapp cell phone pic but gets the idea across
IMG_6714_zps5zzxqpyz.jpg
 
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Man I've never seen my 4790k crack 50c while gaming under a H105. I'm not overclocked though. Runs stock turbo 4.4ghz just fine. Don't really feel the need to feed it more volts to try and squeeze out at best 200mhz. lol.

All this talk has got me thinking about redoing the paste on my 970 tho, haha :D
 
Sounds like your temps are mainly attributed to insane airflow. The blower running at 100% certainly helps, but that is too noise for me. My fan profile is configured to be roughly at a 1:1 ratio of temp in C to fan speed %. So at 75C the fan will be at 75%, 80C at 80%, etc., except I have it hold closer to 80% even at 83C. 75-80% and lower the noise seems to be tolerable. But once it starts creeping above that the noise profile changes and becomes more annoying to me.

I had a nice large, cool, and quiet case (Fractal Design Define XL) but opted to downsize back in April. But it ate up way too much real estate in my office. Of course, with the downsize came fewer fans and the potential for more noise (my last case had sound dampening in it, 6x140mm fans, 1x280mm fan). Since I leave my PC on 24/7, I try to find the balance between performance and noise. Lucky for me, the H100i V2 is doing a pretty good job with my overclocked i7 6700K. At 4.5 GHz the CPU idles in the mid to upper 20s C and in games it may get up to the mid to upper 40s or low 50s C at worst. Prolonged bench runs (1+ hours to as long as a little over 8 hours) in Intel XTU or Prime95 can push the CPU to the upper 60s to low 70s C, but I have never seen get any hotter than that. Motherboard temps at idle sit in the 30s and will obviously raise up under extended load, into the 40s to low 50s C if I recall correctly). Everything cools down pretty quickly once the load drops.

With the video card not necessarily being in any direct airflow (maybe the backside gets some air from the 200mm intake fan), I may need to find a way to add some forced airflow to the front of the card (the side with the blower fan) if I want to try and get my temps down while not trying to run the blower at too high of a speed. Maybe a 120mm fan affixed to the side panel somehow blowing air directing onto the blower's intake?
 
VirtualMirage

i took a look at the case you said you have, it seems to me like your card should be pulling all its air from the outside (unless you got one without a vent? but your other posts suggest otherwise?)

I think it might be your fan speed honestly if this is the case. Try upping it and run a few tests first, see what happens. might just be that, i mean you can set the settings back afterwords.

If this is the case i don't think there is much you could do, unless you mount a fan on the outside of the case?
 
captaindiptoad said:
VirtualMirage

i took a look at the case you said you have, it seems to me like your card should be pulling all its air from the outside (unless you got one without a vent? but your other posts suggest otherwise?)

I think it might be your fan speed honestly if this is the case. Try upping it and run a few tests first, see what happens. might just be that, i mean you can set the settings back afterwords.

If this is the case i don't think there is much you could do, unless you mount a fan on the outside of the case?
Click to expand...
There is ventilation with a magnetic filter on both sides of the case. On one side is where my radiator is at and air is being pulled in via two 120mm high static pressure fans. On the other is where the 1080 sits. There is a gap between the panel and the video card, roughly around 5/8"-3/4". The GPU's fan will pull in air from the path with least resistance. My theory is that since the air surrounding the video card in the case has less resistance than trying to pull air in through the fine mesh filter, in its stock state more inside air will be pulled in from inside the case than through the ventilation. So what I did was use some 5/8" round polyfoam that is usually used to insulate doors and windows and adhered it in a box format to the side panel. When the panel is on the case the polyfoam "box" surrounds video card's fan and lightly presses up against the video card (air can still seep by). My thought on this is that it would force the video card to pull in more air from the outside than from inside the case. I think it has helped a little, but not a whole bunch. I wonder if the filter is being a bit restrictive, and again it can still pull in some air from within the case.
 
So I ran Furmark (2560x1440 with 8x MSAA, which loads the GPU to 100%) with the fan at 100% and with the fan using my fan profile (the near 1:1 ratio), both using the same overclock values I mentioned earlier. Both start at around 2,038 MHz then begin to settle down. At 100% fan, the GPU clock settled in at 1,987 MHz and the temp stayed around 68C. With my fan profile, the GPU clock settled in at 1,967 MHz and the temp stayed around 78C (which the fan was running around 75%).
 
Sooo.... I WAS going to get my info from GTA5.... but...... apparently i need to download 61 FREAKING GB OF CORRUPTED FILES!!!!
 
Ok so update,

GTA5 stable enough

GPU 224 (2100)
MEM 545 (5544)

4K res, All setting maxed except for MSAAx4 and reflection MSAAx4

Granted my FPS is about 25-45 wich isnt terrible, its fairly smooth.

The clock has not throttled below 2050

No artifacts, screen-tearing maybe once every few minutes.
 
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Turn off AA altogether and that should bump up fps a good bit. AA is the #1 killer of frame rates. Especially at 4K, where it's hardly even needed.
 
captaindiptoad said:
Got ahold of the 1080 FE (EVGA brand) YAY!

Got a decent overclock
GPU 224 (2100)
MEM 545 (5544)

Slightly aggressive fan profile so as not to allow it to get much hotter than 60

Tried messing with the voltage meter. With the meter set to 0% I can get it up to 1.040v, at 100% i can get it up to 1.05v. It does not appear to be doing much. I continue to hit the "max Voltage" of 1.050v

I have read in a few places that this card should take up to 1.25v.

How do I go about locking the voltage at 1.24 (just under because I don't like maxing everything)
Click to expand...

That's a great OC.

As others have said we really need a BIOs mod to unlock powerlimit. As the FE currently is you'll just throttle more if you upped voltage. I ping PL all the time as it is at 2 Ghz and no memory over clock.

If we get BIOs modding capability, then you'll need a better cooler. :). I like to throw the G10 Kraken (or custom loops) on everything but that's not for everyone.

So as it stands now, I think that's about as good as you'll get. Go enjoy it!
 
melk said:
Man I've never seen my 4790k crack 50c while gaming under a H105. I'm not overclocked though. Runs stock turbo 4.4ghz just fine. Don't really feel the need to feed it more volts to try and squeeze out at best 200mhz. lol.

All this talk has got me thinking about redoing the paste on my 970 tho, haha :D
Click to expand...

Repasting helped my 970G1 a bit, well worth it. Repasting my 1070 G1 however was pointless... they did that card up perfectly and used good paste too.
 
captaindiptoad said:
Ok so update,

GTA5 stable enough

GPU 224 (2100)
MEM 545 (5544)

4K res, All setting maxed except for MSAAx4 and reflection MSAAx4

Granted my FPS is about 25-45 wich isnt terrible, its fairly smooth.

The clock has not throttled below 2050

No artifacts, screen-tearing maybe once every few minutes.
Click to expand...

As someone said. I won't even touch AA at 4k. I really don't believe it will noticeable at that high of a resolution.
 
meh, i might just turn it down a tiny bit more to reduce the screen tearing, but i like my AA

Also CS:GO Update, played a few matched at 240 FPS... that was fucking amazing.
 
I tried the AA in my GTA V at 4K and the difference wasn't very remarkable at that resolution. It had a much bigger impact at 2K and 1080P. I run with that turned off and everything else at max settings except for the grass setting. For some reason the performance hit between Very High and Ultra is huge while the visual difference, to me at least, is small. I swear my framerate jumped 5-10fps just from that one setting and gameplay is much smoother with fewer framerate dips (even in the city where I would think the grass setting would have much impact). I see my game staying a lot closer to the 60fps mark throughout my gameplay (I have G-sync enabled, so framerate will never exceed my refresh rate). Maybe it is an optimization issue, I don't know.
 
VirtualMirage said:
I tried the AA in my GTA V at 4K and the difference wasn't very remarkable at that resolution. It had a much bigger impact at 2K and 1080P. I run with that turned off and everything else at max settings except for the grass setting. For some reason the performance hit between Very High and Ultra is huge while the visual difference, to me at least, is small. I swear my framerate jumped 5-10fps just from that one setting and gameplay is much smoother with fewer framerate dips (even in the city where I would think the grass setting would have much impact). I see my game staying a lot closer to the 60fps mark throughout my gameplay (I have G-sync enabled, so framerate will never exceed my refresh rate). Maybe it is an optimization issue, I don't know.
Click to expand...
Which my claim now makes much more sense comparing it to HardOCP's features performance write up of GTA V. They, too, saw a huge difference in performance between Very High and Ultra.
 
Yeah AA at 4k no way. The dot pitch is tiny - the jaggies are so hard to see. I have to laugh when that little window pops up telling me a steam friend is playing a game.. it's like the size two postage stamps side by side on my 40" display. ;)
 
Just careful guys when replacing thermal paste, some card designs have poor/cheap thermal pads i.e. for VRAM. My buddy did his Zotac GTX970 and in the process damaged thermal pads (he wasn't gentle) during dissembling process. This caused VRAM factory speeds issues. He had to order similar thermal pads and reapplied them. Also if I'm not mistaken some manufacturers do not allow re-pasting GPU and it might void the warranty, please someone correct me if I'm wrong.

If the design and warranty allows I will still try to replace paste on my future GTX1070. Is MX-4 still decent paste to use?

Did anyone try 'lapping' their heatsink?
 
amd7674 the process on the stock shroud is very very easy, i was actually quite surprised. You do not need to take the entire shroud and heatsink off therefore no thermal pad problems. Just unscrew the 4 screws on the bottom of the GPU, then do the ones holding on the large silver portion on the top, it slides right out.

I'm not sure how well MX-4 is as i have never used it.

I was very tempted to with this one, idk wtf Nvidia was thinking but it looked like someone took the roughest sand paper they could find and used it. I decided against it though as i will probably be liquid cooling it soon.
 
captaindiptoad said:
amd7674 the process on the stock shroud is very very easy, i was actually quite surprised. You do not need to take the entire shroud and heatsink off therefore no thermal pad problems. Just unscrew the 4 screws on the bottom of the GPU, then do the ones holding on the large silver portion on the top, it slides right out.

I'm not sure how well MX-4 is as i have never used it.

I was very tempted to with this one, idk wtf Nvidia was thinking but it looked like someone took the roughest sand paper they could find and used it. I decided against it though as i will probably be liquid cooling it soon.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your feedback. I might do it when I get my hands on 1070 in September. Only air for me, I cannot go too crazy with my CEO of finances at home monitoring all bank accounts :whistle:
 
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