Overclocking Gigabyte G1 980 without increasing voltage

[johnnyTheMac]

Hello,

 

I am very new to overclocking and I was wondering if anyone could steer me in the right direction. I would like to overclock my G1 GTX980, but I would like to do it without touching the voltage. Essentaily, I am looking for an overclock to put me up with, let's say, the EVGA 980FTW. Is it possible on stock voltage and how would I go about doing it?

 

I know I can use Gigabyte's Guru, EVGA's Precision or MSI Afterburner. However, that is the extent of my overclocking knowledge lol.

 

Thank you in advance for any and all help, suggestion and advice.

 

 

[Enderman]

why do you not want to touch the voltage...

you wont get any good overclocks without touching it

 

you should put the power limit and core voltage at max, then push the core and mem clock as far as possible

[johnnyTheMac]

why do you not want to touch the voltage...

you wont get any good overclocks without touching it

 

you should put the power limit and core voltage at max, then push the core and mem clock as far as possible

Thank you for the response.

 

I have very little experience and I don't really mind not getting a gigantic overclock. I just want to achieve a slight overclock, like the speeds of the EVGA 980 FTW. I only game at 1080p @ 60, so I will not need a big overclock, if any at all. So, I just want to try it. Any pointers?

[Enderman]

Thank you for the response.

 

I have very little experience and I don't really mind not getting a gigantic overclock. I just want to achieve a slight overclock, like the speeds of the EVGA 980 FTW. I only game at 1080p @ 60, so I will not need a big overclock, if any at all. So, I just want to try it. Any pointers?

the easiest way is just to put the power limit and core voltage to max because then you dont need to continuously guess and tweak them

the 980 is an extremely efficient GPU so even with both the power limit and voltage at max it will still not use a lot of power and still run cool and quiet

 

after doing this you can just increase your clock speed by a few hundred MHz and it should be completely stable

run some games or stress tests to make sure its good and youre done

[No Nrg]

the easiest way is just to put the power limit and core voltage to max because then you dont need to continuously guess and tweak them

the 980 is an extremely efficient GPU so even with both the power limit and voltage at max it will still not use a lot of power and still run cool and quiet

 

after doing this you can just increase your clock speed by a few hundred MHz and it should be completely stable

run some games or stress tests to make sure its good and youre done

I've got a stable overclock of 1444Mhz core/7.52Ghz memory without ever touching voltage on my MSI 980 Gaming 4G. All I did was increase the power limit to 118% with an acceptable temp limit.

 

HardOCP did a comparison between raising and not raising voltage: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/10/08/nvidia_geforce_gtx_980_overclocking_video_card_review/4

[No Nrg]

Thank you for the response.

 

I have very little experience and I don't really mind not getting a gigantic overclock. I just want to achieve a slight overclock, like the speeds of the EVGA 980 FTW. I only game at 1080p @ 60, so I will not need a big overclock, if any at all. So, I just want to try it. Any pointers?

Here's my suggestion:

 

You will also want to increase the power limit in Afterburner up to 118% and don't bother touching the voltage. Voltage has little effect on the overclock with Maxwell cards and could actually lower the overclock you obtain before thermal throttle. I run a custom fan profile so it's not loud all the time. Simply have the full fan speed kick in at 65C and you'll be fine.

 

Also download GPUz from Techpowerup so you can see clock speeds and temps in real time in an easy to read format

 

Core Clock: Increase in 50Mz intervals as mentioned, test in Unigine Heaven or Valley Benchmark. 3Dmark Firestrike is nice too. I also like to play a game or two for ten minutes or so for real world stability test (benchmarks are artificial and may not give true stability picture). Go up another interval if stable, down if you crash or see graphical glitches.

 

Memory Clock: thing to remember with GDDR5 memory is the 7Ghz quoted as spec is 4 times what it is reporting in GPUz (7000MHz or 7GHz / 4 = 1750MHz). 7GHz is know as the effective clock speed. This link explains it pretty well http://www.enthusias...es/00001/3.aspx. Any change you make to the memory clock will be multiplied by 4 (change of 50MHz x 4 will boost you to 7.2GHz as example). I do this in +25MHz steps until crashes or glitches in benckmarks or games.

 

This is just me, but I have a overclock profile saved for my MSI GTX 980 (1444MHz core clock/7.52GHz memory clock) and only use it if I actually need the extra performance. No point in adding stress to your card if the performance isn't needed for the game you're playing. At 1080p i could smash most games maxed without overclocking.

[johnnyTheMac]

I've got a stable overclock of 1444Mhz core/7.52Ghz memory without ever touching voltage on my MSI 980 Gaming 4G. All I did was increase the power limit to 118% with an acceptable temp limit.

Cool! What program did you use and, perhaps, a little tutorial?

 

I would greatly appreciate it!

[No Nrg]

Cool! What program did you use and, perhaps, a little tutorial?

 

I would greatly appreciate it!

I use MSI Afterburner. Posted a tutorial of sorts above in the thread. Let me know if you have any questions.

[johnnyTheMac]

Here's my suggestion:

 

You will also want to increase the power limit in Afterburner up to 118% and don't bother touching the voltage. Voltage has little effect on the overclock with Maxwell cards and could actually lower the overclock you obtain before thermal throttle. I run a custom fan profile so it's not loud all the time. Simply have the full fan speed kick in at 65C and you'll be fine.

 

Also download GPUz from Techpowerup so you can see clock speeds and temps in real time in an easy to read format

 

Core Clock: Increase in 50Mz intervals as mentioned, test in Unigine Heaven or Valley Benchmark. 3Dmark Firestrike is nice too. I also like to play a game or two for ten minutes or so for real world stability test (benchmarks are artificial and may not give true stability picture). Go up another interval if stable, down if you crash or see graphical glitches.

 

Memory Clock: thing to remember with GDDR5 memory is the 7Ghz quoted as spec is 4 times what it is reporting in GPUz (7000MHz or 7GHz / 4 = 1750MHz). 7GHz is know as the effective clock speed. This link explains it pretty well http://www.enthusias...es/00001/3.aspx. Any change you make to the memory clock will be multiplied by 4 (change of 50MHz x 4 will boost you to 7.2GHz as example). I do this in +25MHz steps until crashes or glitches in benckmarks or games.

 

This is just me, but I have a overclock profile saved for my MSI GTX 980 (1444MHz core clock/7.52GHz memory clock) and only use it if I actually need the extra performance. No point in adding stress to your card if the performance isn't needed for the game you're playing. At 1080p i could smash most games maxed without overclocking.

Oops! You beat me to it. Thanks!

[Aretak]

why do you not want to touch the voltage...

you wont get any good overclocks without touching it

 

you should put the power limit and core voltage at max, then push the core and mem clock as far as possible

 

My Palit JetStream model is rock solid at 1501MHz core/7908MHz memory without touching the voltage at all, so it's definetly possible. Could probably get it higher than that if I did tweak the voltage a bit, but I don't really see the point.

[johnnyTheMac]

Okay, so all that I did was tick up the GPU Offset Clock to +63, which brought me to 1293 MHz and it boosted up to around 1455 MHz. I played a lot of Far Cry 4 and I had no crashing or artifacts. The card stayed below70 degrees and did not dip below 60 FPS, at all. In fact, I had really high FPS. Does this mean that I essentially have a Classified card? I mean, I set the clocks based on that card's specification.

 

I am going to run some more tests, but it seems to be working pretty great.

[johnnyTheMac]

I use MSI Afterburner. Posted a tutorial of sorts above in the thread. Let me know if you have any questions.

I used EVGA's PrecisionX. I have been gaming and temps and stability seem to be running pretty good. I just ran Unengine and that is what I scored (Ultra/2x AA/1080p):

Unigine Valley Benchmark 1.0

FPS:

101.2

Score:

4235

Min FPS:

33.3

Max FPS:

187.9

This is the first time I have ever tested or benchmarked. Is this a good score?

[R_Golden]

Okay, so all that I did was tick up the GPU Offset Clock to +63, which brought me to 1293 MHz and it boosted up to around 1455 MHz. I played a lot of Far Cry 4 and I had no crashing or artifacts. The card stayed below70 degrees and did not dip below 60 FPS, at all. In fact, I had really high FPS. Does this mean that I essentially have a Classified card? I mean, I set the clocks based on that card's specification.

I am going to run some more tests, but it seems to be working pretty great.

+63 isn't a lot, you should definitely try for higher.

[johnnyTheMac]

+63 isn't a lot, you should definitely try for higher.

How much higher?

[R_Golden]

How much higher?

That depends on your luck, not every card is the same. I would try increasing it to +70, if it's stable go to +75 so on so forth until its unstable. Then increase the voltage if you want to go higher if you don't just put it back to the last stable increment. If you want a point of reference on my 970 I have +160 on the clock but your card might not be able to go past 80 or it may go to 200. Note that I have max voltage.

Good luck!

[Critizin]

 

Thats my overclock atm.

 

I should note that this is on a MSI GTX 980 and i can go higher.  ive upped it to +200 Core and +520 Memory Clock and am still running 65-75 Degree temps at full load.

[No Nrg]

 

Okay, so all that I did was tick up the GPU Offset Clock to +63, which brought me to 1293 MHz and it boosted up to around 1455 MHz. I played a lot of Far Cry 4 and I had no crashing or artifacts. The card stayed below70 degrees and did not dip below 60 FPS, at all. In fact, I had really high FPS. Does this mean that I essentially have a Classified card? I mean, I set the clocks based on that card's specification.

 

I am going to run some more tests, but it seems to be working pretty great.

 

Just a point of reference, with factory overclocked cards you don't need to make adjustments to meet what is stated in the specs, that should work as advertised.

 

And don't worry too much about damaging your card if you go a bit higher than it can handle. It will throttle itself before any damage is caused.

 

I'd say you could go higher, but if your gameplay is over 60fps and you are using V-sync there is really no point. in Unless you have some settings you've yet to turn on/max out. The card should be able to handle Far Cry 4 maxed at 1080p.

 

As reference I run Far Cry 4 at 1440p with 1444Mhz core/7.52Ghz memory averaging 50fps with:

• Quality: Ultra
• Shadows: Ultra (soft shadows give too much of a hit)
• AO: HBAO+
• Godrays: Enhanced
• Fur: Simulated

[johnnyTheMac]

 

Thats my overclock atm.

 

I should note that this is on a MSI GTX 980 and i can go higher.  ive upped it to +200 Core and +520 Memory Clock and am still running 65-75 Degree temps at full load.

 

 

 

Just a point of reference, with factory overclocked cards you don't need to make adjustments to meet what is stated in the specs, that should work as advertised.

 

And don't worry too much about damaging your card if you go a bit higher than it can handle. It will throttle itself before any damage is caused.

 

I'd say you could go higher, but if your gameplay is over 60fps and you are using V-sync there is really no point. in Unless you have some settings you've yet to turn on/max out. The card should be able to handle Far Cry 4 maxed at 1080p.

 

As reference I run Far Cry 4 at 1440p with 1444Mhz core/7.52Ghz memory averaging 50fps with:

• Quality: Ultra
• Shadows: Ultra (soft shadows give too much of a hit)
• AO: HBAO+
• Godrays: Enhanced
• Fur: Simulated

 

Alrighty, here is what I have. I switched to 3DMark, and here are my scores. I think they  are pretty good, right? And, here is the highest overclock that I could get with stock voltage:

 

 

What do you think?

[Critizin]

 

Alrighty, here is what I have. I switched to 3DMark, and here are my scores. I think they  are pretty good, right? And, here is the highest overclock that I could get with stock voltage:

 

 

What do you think?

 

 

I think you can go alot higher tbh.

Here is mine now.

under full load i rarely see it go over 70 degrees.  so i can go even higher yet but i think im good with this.

[johnnyTheMac]

I think you can go alot higher tbh.

Here is mine now.

under full load i rarely see it go over 70 degrees.  so i can go even higher yet but i think im good with this.

 

If I up the voltage, I could probably go higher. I don't want to mess with the voltage. I think I am good with this. I tried with the offset +170, but it crashed, so I think this is it.

 

This is not under load. I am actually at 1393 MHz, with a 1561 MHz boost. I saw the temp get up to 71, but nothing above that temperature. This is a pretty good overclock for stock voltage, right? 

[Critizin]

If I up the voltage, I could probably go higher. I don't want to mess with the voltage. I think I am good with this. I tried with the offset +170, but it crashed, so I think this is it.

 

This is not under load. I am actually at 1393 MHz, with a 1561 MHz boost. I saw the temp get up to 71, but nothing above that temperature. This is a pretty good overclock for stock voltage, right? 

 

 

Have you done a furmark burn test to see if its stable?

[johnnyTheMac]

Have you done a furmark burn test to see if its stable?

 

I ran 3DMark a bunch of times and this one seems to work. Any higher and I crash.

[No Nrg]

I ran 3DMark a bunch of times and this one seems to work. Any higher and I crash.

If temps are within reason under load and your system seems stable while gaming and such then you should be at a good overclock.

 

Have you tried tweaking the memory clock yet? You can usually squeeze a little more out there as well.