help overclocking gtx 980

[Arkimedes]

For the most part I can pick up on how to do almost anything. I even managed to overclock my i5-4690k. Now on to my issue, I have no earthly idea how to go about overclocking the gpu. I have watch tons of videos but nothing that just puts things plain and simple. So I just took from a couple of videos that you just slowly bump up the core and memory till you crash and or see artifacts then pull back. There are other things that I know that you can mess with like temp limit which I gather you just max out but what does it really do. Another thing is core voltage what does it do and can you bump it up or just leave it.

 

Well so I spent last night going on what I think is right and use Furmark which I Found issues with, MSI Kombustor and Unigine Valley benchmark to see how high it could get thing with the following method

 

Benchmark Score

 

Run  Score  Power  Core      Memory 

                    Limit    Clock      Clock

#1    3405

#2    3550   +122

#3    3578   +122    +13  

#4    3540   +122    +26  

#5    3567   +122    +39  

#6    3589   +122    +39     +39  

#7    3565   +122    +60     +39  

#8    3636   +122    +39     +39  

#9    3649   +122    +50     +100

#10  3566  +122     +75     +100

#11  3679  +122     +125   +100

#12  3727  +122     +125   +150

#13  3726  +122     +150   +150

#14  3773  +122     +150   +200

#15  3794  +122     +175   +200

#16  3963  +122     +175   +200 after restart and two runs to double check

#17  3988  +122     +200   +250

#18  3854  +122     +175   +250 

 

Ok now these results score were from MSI Kombustor 3 with GPU core burner v2 (Furry PQTorus) at 1280x1024 with 8xmsaa.  Also I am using MSI afterburner to as my overclocking tool.

 

When it comes right down to it, I have been having issues from the beginning with different thing with trying to overclock my 980 and want some yall with more experience to fill in some of the things I'm missing and if I'm doing things in the right order. I also have my Valley benchmark score if it is necessary. 

[Sorfex0]

Set power limit to max, temps limit that u want i use 80C, then start increasing core and mem speeds. I dont like playing with voltage so i left it default and increased my core clock to +150 at +160 it started crashing fire mark benchmark and +400 mem same as core speed at +500 started crashing benchmark. With voltage increase you may be able OC more, look for artifacts when you will see them lower your OC a little to get it stable. Mine looks like this

[MrBucket101]

I always find a custom bios to be the best kept secret when it comes to gpu overclocking

 

they really open the card up, if you've got the cooling for it

[Arkimedes]

Set power limit to max, temps limit that u want i use 80C, then start increasing core and mem speeds. I dont like playing with voltage so i left it default and increased my core clock to +150 at +160 it started crashing fire mark benchmark and +400 mem same as core speed at +500 started crashing benchmark. With voltage increase you may be able OC more, look for artifacts when you will see them lower your OC a little to get it stable. Mine looks like this

So is it good for my car to be able to do +200 on the core and should I go higher on the memory?

 

I always find a custom bios to be the best kept secret when it comes to gpu overclocking

 

they really open the card up, if you've got the cooling for it

Unfortunately I have no earthly idea what you are talking about, and I think I have awesome air cooling.

[Sorfex0]

So is it good for my car to be able to do +200 on the core and should I go higher on the memory?

I believe its great. If its stable then stay with it.

[Arkimedes]

I believe its great. If its stable then stay with it.

The one thing that I find extremely hard to believe is that if the Unigine Valley Benchmark Scores Thread is up to date then my score of 4643 is the fastest single gpu one the list. Now I would like to think that but there is now way my card beat a titan, so I have to be doing something wrong?

[Sorfex0]

The one thing that I find extremely hard to believe is that if the Unigine Valley Benchmark Scores Thread is up to date then my score of 4643 is the fastest single gpu one the list. Now I would like to think that but there is now way my card beat a titan, so I have to be doing something wrong?

Are you running benchmark at Extreme HD preset?

[MrBucket101]

So is it good for my car to be able to do +200 on the core and should I go higher on the memory?

 

Unfortunately I have no earthly idea what you are talking about, and I think I have awesome air cooling.

Go as high as you can

 

You can search around and see if you can find someone else's bios for your card, or you can do it yourself. The safest way would be to open two instances of maxwell bios tweaker. Someone else's bios, and then your bios. Then just copy over all the settings from their bios to yours. This way you won't re-flash the wrong, or incompatible bios to your card, you'll just be modding your own bios. Flashing the wrong bios to your card can brick it. I messed up and flashed the wrong 780 bios to my card and I was able to recover from it though. I had to enable the iGPU, and then boot to DOS and run some recovery utilities to flash the correct bios back to the card.

 

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

 

anyways, they remove most if not all of the software restrictions placed on the card by the mfg. You can enable the 0% fan mode to enable fanless mode on non STRIX cards, you can raise the voltage limits in software, you can even shift the clocks to overclock the card by default. For example, if you find that your card is 100% rock solid stable 24/7 in everything @ +100/+50, you can shift the core/memory clock and now +0/+0 refers to the previous +100/+50 settings.

 

You can also disable the gpu boost for even more overclocking potential. My GPU overclocks MUCH MUCH MUCH higher when GPU boost is disabled, the dynamic clock changing can cause some instability issues. My card has dual bios, so I have identical bios on each side, one with boost enabled, and one with boost disabled. I'll switch back and forth depending on my needs, but normally out of sheer laziness I'll leave boost enabled.

Sky's the limit, I ended up putting skyn3t's bios on my card.

[Arkimedes]

Are you running benchmark at Extreme HD preset?

 

On the preset I choose Extreme HD but when it shows the results it always says custom

[Sorfex0]

On the preset I choose Extreme HD but when it shows the results it always says custom

Something is definely wrong with it. Its also lowers resolution for you. Have u tried other benchmarks like fire strike? If not then try it.

[Arkimedes]

On the preset I choose Extreme HD but when it shows the results it always says custom

Ok I think I see what is happening, I'm pretty sure that it is my monitor - http://www.cnet.com/products/dell-e197fp-lcd-monitor-19-series/specs/so I need a better monitor to be able to test it on full hd.

[Sorfex0]

Ok I think I see what is happening, I'm pretty sure that it is my monitor - http://www.cnet.com/products/dell-e197fp-lcd-monitor-19-series/specs/so I need a better monitor to be able to test it on full hd.

Yep. U need monitor that supports bigger resolutions