AMD Fury X Voltage Scaling [updated]

[zMeul]

source: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_Fury_X_Overvoltage/
 
they finally cracked it, and the results?
 

First I tested stock, to get a baseline reading, and undervoltage to provide additional data points. Next, I increased voltage in steps of 24 mV (the voltage controller's minimum step-size is 6 mV). For each setting I determined maximum BF3-stable clocks and recorded the performance once stable.

As you can see, Fiji scales nearly linearly with voltage, and performance follows, at roughly half the clock increase rate.

Near +96 mV, the power limiter will start to kick in from time to time during games, when set to default, which is why we set it to +50% for all this testing.

Once we reach +144 mV, which results in a scorching 1.35 V on the GPU, the maximum stable frequency reaches its peak. At this point the VRMs are running temperatures above 95°C, even though they are cooled by the watercooling loop via a nearby copper pipe. That much heat on the VRMs is definitely not good for long-term use. I would say a safe permanent voltage increase on an unmodded card is around 40 mV or so.

Going beyond 144 mV, to 168 mV, just causes the card to get massively unstable, with maximum stable clocks nearly down to stock voltage levels.

update - they added VRAM overclocking, here are the results:

Overclocking memory from 500 MHz to 560 MHz adds 1.6 FPS to performance, a constant increase, no matter the GPU clock, as expected.

 

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update2 - W1zzard posted some GTA5 benches:

 

So I've spent the last 4 hours running GTA V....

It takes about 3 minutes to load, another 4 minutes to run. I need to do one warmup run and then the real testing run.

If the card is overclocked too high it will either bluescreen or black screen. So no recovery which means reset/power on-off, start Windows, set clock and voltages, start GTA V and hope it works this time.

Why didn't I just reply "too much trouble, sorry" .. t.t

Edit: Finally got results

GTA V 4K

1050 / 500: 32.1 FPS

1195 / 500: 32.3 FPS

1194 / 560: 33.0 FPS

 

 

 

 

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during AMD's E3 conference, Joe Macri said (@1h28min):

We built these for the overclockers, for the gamers. We've got a 6 bays 400 amps of power.. I mean, it's amazing, you're going to be able to overclock this thing like no tomorrow with the cooling solution. It's an overclockers dream

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the results are pathetic! this should've already been expected since the Fury X was able to achieve 100Mhz, sometimes less, OC out of the box

you might recall me saying that AMD locked voltage control for a good reason, that reason was because Fiji XT was already pumped to the limit

AMD marketed the Fury X as an the overcloker's dream .. they lied

[Lays]

More than likely that drop off is related to the GPU getting hotter.

I think maybe if they put a custom block with a bigger rad for the GPU, it'd probably continue to scale.

[Sauron]

May I remind you this is just one card? It's possible other, luckier samples will get better results. Not that I expect that to be the case, but this sample size is way too small to be conclusive.

[mr moose]

Not that I dispute techpowerup, but I'd like to see a few others just in case it was their sample that doesn't overclock well for whatever reason.  Although given the VRM gets too hot for long term use it may be moot anyway.

[Guest]

Other cards have performed slightly better than that

This one small sample out of many cards

Don't judge a herd based on a sheep

[zMeul]

Don't judge a herd based on a sheep

yes I will, because if you read the article, the power delivery system can't reliably handle anything beyond +96 millivolts

one other thing: the Fiji XT GPUs that went into producing the Fury X card are already binned - there is no great white whale

[Sauron]

Although given the VRM gets too hot for long term use it may be moot anyway.

 

That may depend on voltage, if other cards can get better overclocks at lower voltages temperature may not be a problem.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Wait only BF3? Can't we see other results?

And a whopping 600W  :lol:

[samuel]

So....back to waiting for a new generation? Nope, I'm sick of it.

[ICantThinkOfAnyGoodName]

Wait only BF3? Can't we see other results?

And a whopping 600W  :lol:

Keep in mind that that is the power draw of the full system, not just the GPU.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Keep in mind that that is the power draw of the full system, not just the GPU.

 

Still pretty much for a single GPU. My Golden Green HX ain't gonna cut it  :lol:

[zMeul]

Keep in mind that that is the power draw of the full system, not just the GPU.

what you need to consider is the system power difference from no over-voltage to max

and the card will draw 150W (!!!!) for just 2 FPS increase - that's beyond fckd up

[samuel]

Keep in mind that that is the power draw of the full system, not just the GPU.

~150W OC + 250W TDP=400W at least for a mild overclock.

[VagabondWraith]

And people thought AMD got better at efficiency. :lol: That thing alone is near 295x2 levels just by itself. :lol:

[samuel]

And people thought AMD got better at efficiency. :lol: That thing alone is near 295x2 levels just by itself. :lol:

It's all about overclocking here. AMD failed to deliver efficiency at high voltage, like first gen  GCN did. 

It did do a remarcable job at making this card, but god rekt by nVidia when it killed TitanX by launching 980ti. That's what titans are for if you think about it.

[Humbug]

More than likely that drop off is related to the GPU getting hotter.

I think maybe if they put a custom block with a bigger rad for the GPU, it'd probably continue to scale.

Bigger rad isn't needed. Probably better contact with the VRMs is needed.

[Doobeedoo]

Well tbh I expected somewhat higher clock on core for this GPU and I wonder if someone else is going to get it higher but yeah it looks a limited possibility.

[Humbug]

AMD marketed the Fury X as an the overcloker's dream .. they lied

The worst part was that Lisa Su herself said that. Somebody should bring that up in an interview... why would she shoot herself in the foot like that?

Maybe they planned to release it with lower stock clocks in order to beat the 980 which is not difficult and so it was supposed to have OC headroom. But then with the 980ti coming out they were forced to push the stock clocks right up leaving little OC headroom..

 

you might recall me saying that AMD locked voltage control for a good reason, that reason was because Fiji XT was already pumped to the limit

Was the voltage locked by AMD?

Or was simply a matter of the 3rd party utilities learning how to apply voltage adjustments for a new architecture? Because even for my R9 290 I cannot increase voltage without 3rd party tools.

[Lays]

Bigger rad isn't needed. Probably better contact with the VRMs is needed.

Liquid temps are apparently hitting over 40c according to thermal images i saw a while back, a bigger rad would keep those colder. In my experience with all of my past gpus, colder temps allow for more clock speed with the same voltages.

[zMeul]

Was the voltage locked by AMD?

Or was simply a matter of the 3rd party utilities learning how to apply voltage adjustments for a new architecture? Because even for my R9 290 I cannot increase voltage without 3rd party tools.

they could've simply put the documentation needed by themselves, they didn't

I had video cards, GigaByte R9 280X s with V Core locked out, no utility could read it, not even GigaByte's one

[zMeul]

OP updated with VRAM overclocking:

Overclocking memory from 500 MHz to 560 MHz adds 1.6 FPS to performance, a constant increase, no matter the GPU clock, as expected.

[WereCat]

Still pretty much for a single GPU. My Golden Green HX ain't gonna cut it :lol:

I am sure it would handle it just fine.

Have in mind that this is power consumption measured from wall so if worst efficiency in your PSU is 85% then 600W - 15% = 510W power draw while your PSU is 600W.

I would be very confident to run this on my 550W Golden Green.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

I am sure it would handle it just fine.

Have in mind that this is power consumption measured from wall so if worst efficiency in your PSU is 85% then 600W - 15% = 510W power draw while your PSU is 600W.

I would be very confident to run this on my 550W Golden Green.

 

Oh right, hadn't thought that this was measured from the wall.... Now to see how much power I can draw from my socket before it burns  :huh:

[Agosto]

Oh right, hadn't thought that this was measured from the wall.... Now to see how much power I can draw from my socket before it burns  :huh:

 

It depends on your location

20A if 110V, 15-16A if 220V 

[dalekphalm]

they could've simply put the documentation needed by themselves, they didn't

I had video cards, GigaByte R9 280X s with V Core locked out, no utility could read it, not even GigaByte's one

Keep in mind that, especially for previous generation GPU's, it's 100% entirely up to the AIB partner whether they lock or unlock voltages. That is done via how the AIB partner codes the BIOS.

 

You've never been able to adjust voltage using AMD Catalyst, and you've only been able to do it via third party tools when the AIB decides to unlock voltage control. Some Gigabyte SKU's have voltages locked, others don't. You also sometimes see the AIB revise the card, midway through production, and the revision version locks voltage on an otherwise unlocked SKU (This happened specifically with Gigabyte HD 7950 WF3 edition cards - the first run had unlocked voltages, the next batch had voltages locked - but at higher than stock (1.25v), meaning it still OC'd well but not as good as the first batch - I have one of the revision cards in my PC).

 

There are a lot of different pieces to this, and it's not just AMD who decides what is locked vs unlocked.

 

However, given that Fiji is a totally new architecture, AMD likely has more control over what happens - but that's pure speculation on my part.

 

I find this quite disappointing, but I will reserve judgement until we see a well rounded selection of Fiji XT cards being overvolted by a number of reviewers. One card doesn't mean a damn thing in the end. Only the other all pattern matters.