GTX 970 Owners Club

[Benji_w]

I keep hitting a power limit on my OC in GPU-Z so I'm unsure where to go from here.

[Vellinious]

I keep hitting a power limit on my OC in GPU-Z so I'm unsure where to go from here.

That's also limited in the bios.  To get around the power limit, you'd need to mod the bios.  Is the "power limit slider" all the way up?  If it's not, that'll give you some more room to play.

[Benji_w]

That's also limited in the bios.  To get around the power limit, you'd need to mod the bios.  Is the "power limit slider" all the way up?  If it's not, that'll give you some more room to play.

 

Power slider as in power limit set to 110% max? yes it is.

[Vellinious]

Power slider as in power limit set to 110% max? yes it is.

 

Then you're limited by your bios.  Not much you can do about that, unless you decide to use a modded bios.  Putting them under water can free up a little bit more room, because the fans aren't adding to the power limit.  But the gain there is pretty small.  Really, with the "PWR" limit, the only real way to get around that is to mod the bios....or live with it.

NVIDIA gimped the s**t out of the Maxwell architecture with the low power limits...it's almost criminal.

[Benji_w]

Then you're limited by your bios.  Not much you can do about that, unless you decide to use a modded bios.  Putting them under water can free up a little bit more room, because the fans aren't adding to the power limit.  But the gain there is pretty small.  Really, with the "PWR" limit, the only real way to get around that is to mod the bios....or live with it.

NVIDIA gimped the s**t out of the Maxwell architecture with the low power limits...it's almost criminal.

 

Ok well I've never actually flashed a bios before for a GPU, I've googled it but either I'm looking in the wrong place or I'm retarded and don't understand what I need to do. I figured out how to OC this card on my own as the last time I asked for help and a bit of explanation I was told to "just google it" but the problem with that is it assumes you know what you're doing.  :lol:

[Vellinious]

Ok well I've never actually flashed a bios before for a GPU, I've googled it but either I'm looking in the wrong place or I'm retarded and don't understand what I need to do. I figured out how to OC this card on my own as the last time I asked for help and a bit of explanation I was told to "just google it" but the problem with that is it assumes you know what you're doing.  :lol:

Here ya go.  It's actually pretty easy.  I would be very careful with a card that only has one bios, because if the flash goes wrong, it can brick your card....paper weight style.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1517316/extract-and-flash-gtx-970-and-980-firmware-zosons-h2o-and-air-custom-bios

[Benji_w]

Here ya go.  It's actually pretty easy.  I would be very careful with a card that only has one bios, because if the flash goes wrong, it can brick your card....paper weight style.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1517316/extract-and-flash-gtx-970-and-980-firmware-zosons-h2o-and-air-custom-bios

 

When a bios flash goes wrong is it 100% irreversible?

[Vellinious]

It can be reversed, yes.  Is it 100%?  I can't answer that...I don't know for sure.  To reverse a bad flash, you'd need to install another card to run the graphics from (or run them off the integrated CPU graphics...if your processor has it), put the bricked card in the 2nd or 3rd slot, boot up the computer, disable it in the device manger, and try to reflash it with another bios file.  I've heard people say this works..../shrug

[Benji_w]

It can be reversed, yes.  Is it 100%?  I can't answer that...I don't know for sure.  To reverse a bad flash, you'd need to install another card to run the graphics from (or run them off the integrated CPU graphics...if your processor has it), put the bricked card in the 2nd or 3rd slot, boot up the computer, disable it in the device manger, and try to reflash it with another bios file.  I've heard people say this works..../shrug

 

Okay, sorry for all the questions, I just like to do my research first and prefer to talk to someone who has knowledge. Last question, not sure if you can help or not but what causes a bad bios flash to happen?

[Vellinious]

User error, usually.  Bad file...a number of things.  You can also get a bios file with the settings too aggressive for your card, and it won't run it...won't even boot up.  That's a problem...

[Benji_w]

User error, usually.  Bad file...a number of things.  You can also get a bios file with the settings too aggressive for your card, and it won't run it...won't even boot up.  That's a problem...

 

Ah okay well that last bit is a bit worrying lmao how aggressive of settings do you mean? 

[Vellinious]

Ah okay well that last bit is a bit worrying lmao how aggressive of settings do you mean? 

lol, well....I have my base clock at 1531, voltage at 1.275 and the TDP and power limits are set at 380 watts.  

Trying to set one to run a base clock of 1580 at 1.256v would in most cases, be too aggressive.  Honestly, as long as you have someone that knows what they're doing help you out, that shouldn't be a problem.  Get them the information they need to make a good bios for ya, and you should only need to flash once.  Like.... Card model number, a screen shot of GPUz (main screen and sensors screen) with PCX running with KBoost enabled and the power limit slider all the way to the right.  ASIC quality wouldn't be a bad idea either.  

[Purplehazeffc]

My card has a ASIC Quality of 67%

Highest clock I can get is 1642 Mhz boost clock on Gofspar's 1.3v bios

 

 

This is how I run it 24/7   Boosts to 1604 Mhz

 

[Tom970]

Hi all,

 

I'm an overclocking gamer and I was wondering which of the 3 gtx 970 bios's I should try. At the moment I got a stable clock at stock voltage, 1430 core and 7800 mem speeds. I want to try and push it harder. Now I want to know if it's smart to start at 1.262v or just install one of the higher ones. You can always choose your voltages in afterburner/guru right? And what steps in voltage & mem/core speeds are safe? Thanks!

[Animosity07]

Is this results ok?

Ungine Heaven 4 1567

Msi 970 4g running at 1518mhz 4001mhz at 1218 mv temp is 72 max

 

note: this is on a elpida memory

 

[Vellinious]

1624 on the core and 2005 *4010* on the memory (Eplipda..yeah...).  Did several runs at these settings...within .1 fps of each other.  Valley eats it alive at these settings though....eh.  Still fun to see a 1624 clock run.  = )



 

[arniks8]

1624 on the core and 2005 *4010* on the memory (Eplipda..yeah...). Did several runs at these settings...within .1 fps of each other. Valley eats it alive at these settings though....eh. Still fun to see a 1624 clock run. = )

Nice! I whish I wasn't restricted by my overheating Hynix IC's .

[Vellinious]

Nice! I whish I wasn't restricted by my overheating Hynix IC's .

lol, I wish I had Samsung....

[rjfaber91]

lol, I wish I had Samsung....

 

Is Elpida really that much worse than Samsung if you can still hit 8GHz on the VRAM?

[d3smondlow]

Hi all, I'm running GTX970 2ways SLI on my windows 8.1, just wondering will Windows 10 improve the gaming performance?

[arniks8]

Hi all, I'm running GTX970 2ways SLI on my windows 8.1, just wondering will Windows 10 improve the gaming performance?

Nope.

[DaltonM]

I'm going to get one of those smaller 970s coming up here soon  

 

It's the smallest one about 205mm with 2 fans. 

[dbG33K]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23449584/Untitled.png <--- Screenshot

 

Not sure if I'm getting the performance I should be... Before coming to this thread, I had compared my Unigine Valley "Custom" preset (1080p, no AA, Ultra quality) to a review of the 970 model I have, which is the EVGA 970 SSC ACX 2.0+. That review was scoring 4655, while I only got around 3700.

 

My only guess is that my CPU might be the bottleneck, as I'm running an i3 3250. However I didn't think a GPU benchmarking tool like Unigine Valley would affect a CPU, and as you can see in my screenshot, the CPU utilization only rarely went over 50%. I would think if the CPU was the bottleneck, it would have worked a little harder, but I don't know. That's why I'm here.

 

I'm hoping you guys can help me out!

[arniks8]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23449584/Untitled.png <--- Screenshot

 

Not sure if I'm getting the performance I should be... Before coming to this thread, I had compared my Unigine Valley "Custom" preset (1080p, no AA, Ultra quality) to a review of the 970 model I have, which is the EVGA 970 SSC ACX 2.0+. That review was scoring 4655, while I only got around 3700.

 

My only guess is that my CPU might be the bottleneck, as I'm running an i3 3250. However I didn't think a GPU benchmarking tool like Unigine Valley would affect a CPU, and as you can see in my screenshot, the CPU utilization only rarely went over 50%. I would think if the CPU was the bottleneck, it would have worked a little harder, but I don't know. That's why I'm here.

 

I'm hoping you guys can help me out!

If CPU would be the problem, then you wouldn`t see your card maxed out at 99%. A high memory OC can make a big difference with high core clocks.

[buddy_boyo]

Have had Gigabyte 970 G1 Gaming for couple of days now, man that thing overclocks like a beast, almost gets to same performance as stock 980 but at much less price.