GPU clocking higher than advertised boost?

[da na]

I'm experienced with GPUs and have never seen this before. I know it's not a bad thing, I just need help understanding why it's happening. 

I bought a GTX 980 Superclocked recently (This one). Its advertised boost is 1342 mhz, but mine clocks frequently to 1379 in games but usually at 1366. When rendering 3D it hits 1366 and stays there the whole render. Rendering video it stays at base since it uses NVENC not 3D. Anyway, why is it clocking 37 mhz higher than advertised? I have a custom fan profile in Afterburner so it doesn't drown in a pool of its own solder but no OC settings changed, could that be why - clocking higher because it's at 65c under load? These clocks don't happen with memory.

Thanks!

[Kaaverik]

Interesting... I can only think of 2 things:

-Flashed BIOS

-Power States

 

I can't think of any other reasons, but why would the seller/previous owner flash the card BIOS? I dunno. That doesn't make much sense.

 

It is as if you are getting a nice boost speed at lower temperatures which is good... I would take it and not ask any more questions but I will look into this a little deeper.

[Kaaverik]

I think I have actually figured it out. The power state principle is the same as how a fuel-injected engine works: it only delivers fuel if certain conditions are present, and in the same way, the GPU will deliver performance when certain conditions are present... too. Maybe?

 

I believe the technology is called Nvidia Boost on newer cards. It is just a small performance buff for certain conditions based on a chart, but I do not see any reference to any other card except for one reddit post for the RTX 2080. I do not know if Nvidia even had this technology back then. I will look into it a little more....

 

My final theory is that different OEMs released cards with varying clock speeds, as I am sure you are aware of. It semi-explain why the GPU is clocking high in games and normal at video rendering, where the performance buff is only recognized, or for games. Again, I am not sure.

 

 

 

[da na]

6 minutes ago, Kaaverik said:

Interesting... I can only think of 2 things:

-Flashed BIOS

-Power States

 

I can't think of any other reasons, but why would the seller/previous owner flash the card BIOS? I dunno. That doesn't make much sense.

 

It is as if you are getting a nice boost speed at lower temperatures which is good... I would take it and not ask any more questions but I will look into this a little deeper.

The guy had 3 of these in SLI in a dual socket board (in a normal ATX case) from what he had on the ebay pic. 8 sticks of ram, 2 probably Xeons, a heck ton of HDDs and 3 GTX 980s? probably a video editor or CAD guy. I requested the card on the bottom of the 3 thinking it would've gotten the best airflow as it wasn't squeezed against its brethren. The color of its light is strange too. it is more teal than the regular GTX logo green color. Wonder if he modified it or something. 

[da na]

1 minute ago, Kaaverik said:

I think I have actually figured it out. The power state principle is the same as how a fuel-injected engine works: it only delivers fuel if certain conditions are present, and in the same way, the GPU will deliver performance when certain conditions are present... too. Maybe?

 

I believe the technology is called Nvidia Boost on newer cards. It is just a small performance buff for certain conditions based on a chart, but I do not see any reference to any other card except for one reddit post for the RTX 2080. I do not know if Nvidia even had this technology back then. I will look into it a little more....

 

My final theory is that different OEMs released cards with varying clock speeds, as I am sure you are aware of. It semi-explain why the GPU is clocking high in games and normal at video rendering, where the performance buff is only recognized, or for games. Again, I am not sure.

 

 

 

Weird AF. Thank you though! Glad I finally know why... 

[LIGISTX]

22 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

I'm experienced with GPUs and have never seen this before. I know it's not a bad thing, I just need help understanding why it's happening. 

I bought a GTX 980 Superclocked recently (This one). Its advertised boost is 1342 mhz, but mine clocks frequently to 1379 in games but usually at 1366. When rendering 3D it hits 1366 and stays there the whole render. Rendering video it stays at base since it uses NVENC not 3D. Anyway, why is it clocking 37 mhz higher than advertised? I have a custom fan profile in Afterburner so it doesn't drown in a pool of its own solder but no OC settings changed, could that be why - clocking higher because it's at 65c under load? These clocks don't happen with memory.

Thanks!

Did the 9 series use GPU boost? I don’t remember… 

 

10 series on and I know for a fact will boost higher if they have temp headroom. If 9 series has GPU boost, that’s your answer. If not, likely modes BIOS. 

[Bitter]

Were all 3 cards the same brand? If not he probably flashed all 3 to the fastest card's specs. BTW I've seen that teal logo backlight talked about before, it was an EVGA problem with some of their cards I guess.

[da na]

8 hours ago, Bitter said:

Were all 3 cards the same brand? If not he probably flashed all 3 to the fastest card's specs. BTW I've seen that teal logo backlight talked about before, it was an EVGA problem with some of their cards I guess.

He said they were founders editions. I see why he would think so since they are all reference coolers, imagine my surprise weeks later when I found out I got one of the best factory overclocked cards. Not sure what the rest were but judging just by the light color that was different, probably not this same card?