The Official GTX980/970 OC & Benchmark Perf. Thread

The GT @ 600 RPM is keeping the top cards VRM in the 90s like the stock cooler was during an overclocked load. (Also, yeah, yeah the unsleeved cable looks awful but the case window goes against the side of my desk. I'll fix it next tear-down.)

Xai8V1z.jpg


Crysis 3 crashed at 1550/8000 at the stock voltages. I'm going to see if it happens again at stock memory clocks before raising the voltage.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Here's my result so far (and temps that I end up at after over an hour of play in BF4 and around 90 minutes earlier in Archeage with maxed gpu usage throughout) with the aim being for silent operation & low heat output. This is on a 4.4ghz 2600k running both cards at PCI-E 2.0 x8, to boot...

]http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2187370/

This is on the MSI Gaming GTX 970 pair oc'd and just +12mv out of +87mv applied through afterburner :) . Haven't tried higher low-noise game-stable attempts but I can bench much higher if I raise the fans a little bit and up the volts (1540mhz+ even with the weird voltage quirk I've mentioned before) :D.

I also haven't tried higher for game-stable sessions yet so this probably isn't the max OC (I am guessing I could maintain about 1500mhz give or take at about this silent operation and maybe going to +25mv instead from my initial toying around). Might try that later, but given I didn't dip beneath 60fps for more than about 3 seconds out of 10 minutes recorded (which hilariously enough was literally when I opened the scoreboard... I could see the framerate drop each time :eek:) @ 4k nearly-Ultra settings (2x msaa) in the graph there for example (and never observed under 60fps when I looked), even 1500mhz should be plenty for now until BIOS mods get going (or nvidia fixes their driver :p https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/777448/ ).
Click to expand...

any chance i could get you to do the same thing with one card at 1440p, all low settings except textures, texture filtering, and ao set to max (hbao)? those are the settings i play with now and i'm usually never under 70 fps, average around 90 with frequent dips due to my cpu. i'm looking at getting a 970 and a 3770k or something and i'm shooting for 120 fps average at 1440p. if you do do it, i would suggest doing it on operation locker as that seems to be the worst performing map, oddly enough, out of the stock maps. at least in the actual prison anyway, outside performance is even with the other maps.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Here's my result so far (and temps that I end up at after over an hour of play in BF4 and around 90 minutes earlier in Archeage with maxed gpu usage throughout) with the aim being for silent operation & low heat output. This is on a 4.4ghz 2600k running both cards at PCI-E 2.0 x8, to boot...

This is on the MSI Gaming GTX 970 pair oc'd and just +12mv out of +87mv applied through afterburner :) . Haven't tried higher low-noise game-stable attempts but I can bench much higher if I raise the fans a little bit and up the volts (1540mhz+ even with the weird voltage quirk I've mentioned before) :D.

I also haven't tried higher for game-stable sessions yet so this probably isn't the max OC (I am guessing I could maintain about 1500mhz give or take at about this silent operation and maybe going to +25mv instead from my initial toying around). Might try that later, but given I didn't dip beneath 60fps for more than about 3 seconds out of 10 minutes recorded (which hilariously enough was literally when I opened the scoreboard... I could see the framerate drop each time :eek:) @ 4k nearly-Ultra settings (2x msaa) in the graph there for example (and never observed under 60fps when I looked), even 1500mhz should be plenty for now until BIOS mods get going (or nvidia fixes their driver :p https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/777448/ ).
Click to expand...

Nice Results. Mighty Maxwell!!

So I did everything; WHQL driver, Moving worse overclocking card to bottom, Precision X. Force Voltage to max. No dice. I'll update your thread at the Nvidia Forum. I know that the voltage is keeping my benchmark scores down because the secondary card simply cannot go to 1515+ without the extra voltage. Shame but that seems to be the case. Same card by itself with full voltage I got it to 1530 stable.

Anyway, hopefully they find out what's going on and fix it.

I added post 13 to that thread on the Nvidia Forums https://forums.geforce.com/default/...n-the-other-driver-bug-/post/4320036/#4320036 , also I suggest anyone that hasn't please post in that thread. A mod named Manuel is looking into it but the stronger those reporting the problem the quicker it'll get resolved.
 
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Lord_Exodia said:
Nice Results. Mighty Maxwell!!

So I did everything; WHQL driver, Moving worse overclocking card to bottom, Precision X. Force Voltage to max. No dice. I'll update your thread at the Nvidia Forum. I know that the voltage is keeping my benchmark scores down because the secondary card simply cannot go to 1515+ without the extra voltage. Shame but that seems to be the case. Same card by itself with full voltage I got it to 1530 stable.

Anyway, hopefully they find out what's going on and fix it.

I added post 13 to that thread on the Nvidia Forums https://forums.geforce.com/default/...n-the-other-driver-bug-/post/4320036/#4320036 , also I suggest anyone that hasn't please post in that thread. A mod named Manuel is looking into it but the stronger those reporting the problem the quicker it'll get resolved.
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks!!

Odellus said:
any chance i could get you to do the same thing with one card at 1440p, all low settings except textures, texture filtering, and ao set to max (hbao)? those are the settings i play with now and i'm usually never under 70 fps, average around 90 with frequent dips due to my cpu. i'm looking at getting a 970 and a 3770k or something and i'm shooting for 120 fps average at 1440p. if you do do it, i would suggest doing it on operation locker as that seems to be the worst performing map, oddly enough, out of the stock maps. at least in the actual prison anyway, outside performance is even with the other maps.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd be willing to do a run of that sometime tonight or in the morning. I actually noticed Locker is pretty demanding too, :D. I'll make a graph of it like I did for that run before and PM you once I'm ready to post it up.


______________
Just spent an hour gaming of BF4 @ 1504mhz core/8020mhz mem in SLI so far stable (and four loops of Tomb Raider's bench since that often has showed artifacts for me on prior cards)... average readout looked like this:

4Ms4cDD.png


Interestingly I am getting better SLI results by using +12mv on my afterburner slider than I was with +87mv set so far tonight :eek:. Still nice and quiet with those RPM's (100mm fan on the MSI Gaming 970's).
 
Clocks for me seem to be all over the place even under full load. Its not because of hitting the power target or anything else but they just are not consistent the whole time where as my 780 stayed at full boost during full load.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Awesome, thanks!!



Yeah, I'd be willing to do a run of that sometime tonight or in the morning. I actually noticed Locker is pretty demanding too, :D. I'll make a graph of it like I did for that run before and PM you once I'm ready to post it up.


______________
Just spent an hour gaming of BF4 @ 1504mhz core/8020mhz mem in SLI so far stable (and four loops of Tomb Raider's bench since that often has showed artifacts for me on prior cards)... average readout looked like this:

http://i.imgur.com/4Ms4cDD.png

Interestingly I am getting better SLI results by using +12mv on my afterburner slider than I was with +87mv set so far tonight :eek:. Still nice and quiet with those RPM's (100mm fan on the MSI Gaming 970's).
Click to expand...

sweet, thanks.
 
Anyone bothering with taking off their stock cooler and applying their own thermal paste? Wondering if its necessary or makes any diff these days. The factory thermal paste always looks haphazardly slopped on doesnt it.
 
So, manage +195 on memory and +101 on the GPU clock on my EVGA 980SC stable, never gets over 70 degrees C. I'm guessing my 3dmark fire strike scores are sup 10000 due to my AMD 8350...

Do you guys think this is why also?
 
samborarocks said:
So, manage +195 on memory and +101 on the GPU clock on my EVGA 980SC stable, never gets over 70 degrees C. I'm guessing my 3dmark fire strike scores are sup 10000 due to my AMD 8350...

Do you guys think this is why also?
Click to expand...
Yeah probably CPU there. I get 1100 even with my oced 970 and oced 4770k. I sure hope you will get a cpu upgrade before the next gpu upgrade as you are already holding that 980 back and noticeably so in some games.
 
misterbobby said:
Yeah probably CPU there. I get 1100 even with my oced 970 and oced 4770k. I sure hope you will get a cpu upgrade before the next gpu upgrade as you are already holding that 980 back and noticeably so in some games.
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That's what I thought, thanks for the info. Yeah, I was being 'cheap' and trying to get all I could outta this Crosshair V and 8350 (it is at an end now).... Next upgrade will be CPU and MB..... As much as I want to continue to support AMD and their processors, I'm gonna have to go Intel this time.....
 
Upgrading from overclocked 290X Direct CU IIs

The GTX 980s run at a smooth 1450 Mhz / 7.4 Ghz on air @ stock voltage.

Great overclock. Becomes 25% faster than my crossfire setup which I thought was already so fast.
 
21522 GPU score so far... can't complain much. Core clocks are only 20mhz above what I have confirmed as game stable at otherwise identical settings (1531mhz was stable for 45mins of BF4 + several loops through Tomb Raider's benchmark so far.)

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4162076
4h0QAkG.png


Will play more in the morning (and do the test for Odellus!). :)
 
Fire Strike:

SCORE
9545 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970(1x) and Intel Core i5-2500K Processor
Graphics Score 11862
Physics Score 7928
Combined Score 4422

MSI Gaming 970 @ Defaults
2500K @ 4.4 GHz
 
I'm having the same issue...one of my MSI 970s is significantly undervolted compared to the other.
 
GoldenTiger said:
21522 GPU score so far... can't complain much. Core clocks are only 20mhz above what I have confirmed as game stable at otherwise identical settings (1531mhz was stable for 45mins of BF4 + several loops through Tomb Raider's benchmark so far.)

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4162076
4h0QAkG.png


Will play more in the morning (and do the test for Odellus!). :)
Click to expand...

Hey GoldenTiger, im waiting on my 980Gtxs still and was thinking of Canceling and going with 970s, Just out of Boredom I disabled my 3rd 780 GTX and ran a Firestrike with the 780 GTXs ( NON TI ) cards at 1150 Core and only 100Mhz+ on the Memory, 2600K @ 4700 Mhz, and im getting 14158 3dmark firestrike with the Graphics score of 17789 compared to yours the 970s are performing great!! Maybe ill save myself some money and switch too 3 970s!!!

My 3dmark.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4165585
 
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DPI said:
Anyone bothering with taking off their stock cooler and applying their own thermal paste? Wondering if its necessary or makes any diff these days. The factory thermal paste always looks haphazardly slopped on doesnt it.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's worth the time, temps aren't a limiting factor for overclocking from what I've seen.

samborarocks said:
So, manage +195 on memory and +101 on the GPU clock on my EVGA 980SC stable, never gets over 70 degrees C. I'm guessing my 3dmark fire strike scores are sup 10000 due to my AMD 8350...

Do you guys think this is why also?
Click to expand...

Probably. Look at the graphics sub-score.
 
Marcdaddy said:
Hey GoldenTiger, im waiting on my 980Gtxs still and was thinking of Canceling and going with 970s, Just out of Boredom I disabled my 3rd 780 GTX and ran a Firestrike with the 780 GTXs ( NON TI ) cards at 1150 Core and only 100Mhz+ on the Memory, 2600K @ 4700 Mhz, and im getting 14158 3dmark firestrike with the Graphics score of 17789 compared to yours the 970s are performing great!! Maybe ill save myself some money and switch too 3 970s!!!

My 3dmark.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4165585
Click to expand...

Nice :), yeah these cards are ridiculously good in absolute terms but particularly on a price/perf basis, even moreso when taking into account the heat/noise/power factors :).


PM'd this to Odellus before but not sure if it went through since the forum was erroring when I tried posting it, so here it is in the thread :) :

f6d24031_cGtmL3o.png


As mentioned on the graph, I was actually cpu-bottlenecked somewhat, but it gives the idea juuuuust fine :D.
 
gigatexal said:
> 80 fps at 1440p with dual 970s wow
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One, actually :). SLI was disabled (second GPU was idling properly, as you can see in the afterburner snippet on the chart) as requested. And it barely dipped below 100 the whole time with the pictured settings :eek:. (Total of about 8-10 seconds below 100 fps in a 20 minute run there).

Odellus said:
one, not two, and look at the settings :)

thanks again golden. those graphs are so interesting to look at.
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No problem...!
 
Was going to wait for more reviews but Golden has me pulling the trigger from the airport no less. ;)
 
Yknow I have a quick question. It never occurred to me to try seeing how high I can push my card at stock voltages. Now I'm starting to hear people getting better results. Can anyone speak on this. I've not once tried to overclock without +87mv.

Anyone on 1 or 2 GTX 980s overclocking at stock or less than +87MV with good results?
 
I'm personally hitting over 1600mhz and 4000 memory at stock voltage. It was quite surprising.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Yknow I have a quick question. It never occurred to me to try seeing how high I can push my card at stock voltages. Now I'm starting to hear people getting better results. Can anyone speak on this. I've not once tried to overclock without +87mv.

Anyone on 1 or 2 GTX 980s overclocking at stock or less than +87MV with good results?
Click to expand...

Also remember each card is TDP locked. and each card will reach the max TDP differently. So one of you cards might need more volts to run at stock then the other one, which would cause different results.

When I tried to run 2 780 lightnings in SLI, I would getting fucked by 1 cards overclock then the other.

Have you tried overclocking 1 card, then the other to see what results you get?
 
gigatexal said:
you must have gotten an amazing chip
Click to expand...

My cards will both do 1600+ individually, but due to the SLI volt/power issue will not do above ~1540 in SLI mode :(.

DASHlT said:
Also remember each card is TDP locked. and each card will reach the max TDP differently. So one of you cards might need more volts to run at stock then the other one, which would cause different results.

When I tried to run 2 780 lightnings in SLI, I would getting fucked by 1 cards overclock then the other.

Have you tried overclocking 1 card, then the other to see what results you get?
Click to expand...

See above. Both cards individually will go over 1600, but due to the driver voltage always lowering GPU1 in SLI mode (if I disable SLI it allows the same card to go back up as though it were installed alone.... :eek:) I can't run beyond ~1540 in SLI. It's not an issue of one card being better than the other as I've tried them individually. Definitely seems to be some driver weirdness with the whole thing.
 
GoldenTiger said:
My cards will both do 1600+ individually, but due to the SLI volt/power issue will not do above ~1540 in SLI mode :(.



See above. Both cards individually will go over 1600, but due to the driver voltage always lowering GPU1 in SLI mode (if I disable SLI it allows the same card to go back up as though it were installed alone.... :eek:) I can't run beyond ~1540 in SLI. It's not an issue of one card being better than the other as I've tried them individually. Definitely seems to be some driver weirdness with the whole thing.
Click to expand...

Interesting... Just curious, does the Nvidia bios inspecter show TDP limits on each card?

We know the Gigabyte G1's are 200w TDP. And the EVGA 970 FTW is around 145w TDP.

But yea does sound like a driver issue.

edit: Just wanted to add the reason I think you are having issues is because I think the 970/980 power saving features are software based, and not hardware. it could explain why you are having odd volts/overclocks in SLI (since SLI is software related).
 
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Makes me wonder what kind of clocks the 980 classified will be able to hit. 1600 on air is impressive, considering the lack of proper voltage control and tdp throttling bioses.
 
tonyftw said:
Makes me wonder what kind of clocks the 980 classified will be able to hit. 1600 on air is impressive, considering the lack of proper voltage control and tdp throttling bioses.
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Sounds like Goldentiger could hit 1600mhz on his 2 on air, but the SLI issues is holding him back.

I think the classy is coming in at 1467 base clocks? I could be wrong though.
 
Well it's official, I just sold my 3 Evga Sc 780s and got $900 from my neighbor ( I have to build his PC for him too which is fun anyway ) and got these. I will add a third after my new mobo/CPU get thrown in when I can get time. Then it will be on like Donkey Kong!

Sales Order Date: 9/26/2014 7:14:33 PM
Shipping Method: Newegg 2Day

2 x ($629.99) GIGABYTE GV-N980G1 GAMING-4GD GTX 980 4GB 256-Bit $1,259.98
1 x (($2.99)) DISCOUNT FOR PREFERRED ACCOUNT($2.99)
Subtotal: $1,256.99
Tax: $0.00
Shipping and Handling: $24.36
Rush Order: $2.99
Total Amount: $1,284.34
 
Welcome to the club Marcdaddy.

I'm going to try seeing how far my cards will go on stock voltage and also halfway to +89 just for shits and giggles. Maybe they'll overclock better.

Also

I just went to Microcenter today and picked up some more toys

16GB Corsair Vengeance PC 2400 DDR 3
Asus Z97-AR Motherboard
Core i7 4790K Devils Canyon

Planning on building this rig this weekend.

Had some time to actually game on my GTX 980s. I played Titanfall and thanks to the new drivers new SLi profile and the latest patches in the game My rig was Owning that game at 3240x1920. My GTX 680s struggled :D Mighty Maxwell!!
 
Asus-X99 deluxe , 5930k, 16 gigs Corsair 2800mhz, and was up in the air about the cooling. Using my recycled Corsair 1200 watt Psu. Video cards will be here Monday the rest will be here weds/thurs. I'm going to throw the cards in my 2600k and bench and game and most likely build my new system next Friday night. What Micro center lord? Titanfall Sli is finally working? Haven't played that game in months. I went with those Gigabyte cards after seeing the 2 8 pin power plugs, thinking might help Overclocking ( I hope )
 
DASHlT said:
Interesting... Just curious, does the Nvidia bios inspecter show TDP limits on each card?

We know the Gigabyte G1's are 200w TDP. And the EVGA 970 FTW is around 145w TDP.

But yea does sound like a driver issue.

edit: Just wanted to add the reason I think you are having issues is because I think the 970/980 power saving features are software based, and not hardware. it could explain why you are having odd volts/overclocks in SLI (since SLI is software related).
Click to expand...

Heya.... yep, the MSI GTX 970's show 100% TDP as 170w and 110% as 187w in their power table. And yeah, it's definitely a driver issue on the voltage, as far as downclocking that's just me running into the power target when that part happens. Hopefully fixes come soon on the drivers for the voltage part and a tweaked or new nvflash on the BIOS end of things :D.

Both cards have an identical BIOS files right down to the CRC32.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Heya.... yep, the MSI GTX 970's show 100% TDP as 170w and 110% as 187w in their power table. And yeah, it's definitely a driver issue on the voltage, as far as downclocking that's just me running into the power target when that part happens. Hopefully fixes come soon on the drivers for the voltage part and a tweaked or new nvflash on the BIOS end of things :D.

Both cards have an identical BIOS files right down to the CRC32.
Click to expand...

Yea I am sure OCN have people working on the Bios's as we speak. If we can unlock the TDP on these cards it would be amazing.
 
Marcdaddy said:
Asus-X99 deluxe , 5930k, 16 gigs Corsair 2800mhz, and was up in the air about the cooling. Using my recycled Corsair 1200 watt Psu. Video cards will be here Monday the rest will be here weds/thurs. I'm going to throw the cards in my 2600k and bench and game and most likely build my new system next Friday night. What Micro center lord? Titanfall Sli is finally working? Haven't played that game in months. I went with those Gigabyte cards after seeing the 2 8 pin power plugs, thinking might help Overclocking ( I hope )
Click to expand...

I went to Microcener in Paterson, NJ.

SLi got fixed in Titanfall about 2 months ago in update 5, update 6 just came out about 2 weeks ago but in the new WHQL driver nvidia released an updated SLi profile for the game and it's running even better now. Also the new expansion pack just came out too so I've been playing more lately. Fire it up again when you get a chance Marcdaddy. It should run much better than you remember it running before SLi worked.

Those 2 8 pin connectors may help when custom bios flashing is available. We'll know soon.
 
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