Unlocking EVGA GTX 970 Voltage?

[Vellinious]

The Perf Cap listed in GPU-Z is sometimes power target, but most often voltage quality. With KBoost on I'm at 1.212V.

If it's vrel, that's pretty normal.  PWR is power limit perf cap.  If you haven't already, increase the power limit slider all the way up.  If you have, then....you're stuck, unless you mod the bios to increase the power limit.  

EVGA really gimped the ACX 2.0 cards pretty hard right out of the box, with the power limits.  Then released the 2.0+ cards to fix it.  Should have just updated the bios file for everyone.....

[SteveGrabowski0]

If it's vrel, that's pretty normal.  PWR is power limit perf cap.  If you haven't already, increase the power limit slider all the way up.  If you have, then....you're stuck, unless you mod the bios to increase the power limit.  

EVGA really gimped the ACX 2.0 cards pretty hard right out of the box, with the power limits.  Then released the 2.0+ cards to fix it.  Should have just updated the bios file for everyone.....

 

Yeah, I put it at 110% power limit when testing to see how far I can push the card. It doesn't seem to make a bit of difference, I get the same core and memory clocks at 100% that I do at 110%.

[Vellinious]

Yeah, I put it at 110% power limit when testing to see how far I can push the card. It doesn't seem to make a bit of difference, I get the same core and memory clocks at 100% that I do at 110%.

Because it's probably trying to pull about 220 watts....170 to 187 isn't going to make a huge difference.  NVIDIA really did a number on the 970s.  You almost have to mod the bios file to get them to run decent.

[SteveGrabowski0]

Because it's probably trying to pull about 220 watts....170 to 187 isn't going to make a huge difference.  NVIDIA really did a number on the 970s.  You almost have to mod the bios file to get them to run decent.

 

Because they want you to buy the 980 where the power limit is much higher? I can't complain too much because even at 1418 MHz boost it's pretty awesome for gaming.

[SteveGrabowski0]

I also have a 2974. I can only hit 1430mhz boost or so but my memory ocs pretty well, can hit about +400mhz as well. 

 

Do you have a backplate? I don't. I couldn't even hit +100 MHz reliably on the vram in my Enthoo Pro with the drive cages removed, and that's not exactly a case with poor airflow. But as soon as I installed some 120mm fans on the drive cages so that there is a very close source of air blowing over the card the vram was stable at +400 MHz even though the core only dropped 2C. So that tells me I was likely being limited hugely by the four completely uncooled vram chips on the back of the pcb. I'm wondering if the backplate with thermal pads for the back mounted vram would help a lot here since it sounds like my memory overclock was getting killed by memory temps.

[Vellinious]

Do you have a backplate? I don't. I couldn't even hit +100 MHz reliably on the vram in my Enthoo Pro with the drive cages removed, and that's not exactly a case with poor airflow. But as soon as I installed some 120mm fans on the drive cages so that there is a very close source of air blowing over the card the vram was stable at +400 MHz even though the core only dropped 2C. So that tells me I was likely being limited hugely by the four completely uncooled vram chips on the back of the pcb. I'm wondering if the backplate with thermal pads for the back mounted vram would help a lot here since it sounds like my memory overclock was getting killed by memory temps.

Probably Elpida memory....around 1900 is pretty normal with air cooling.  2010 is the highest I can get it with water cooling, and that's on early runs when it's still nice and cool.  Once it starts to heat up, it doesn't perform very well.  Same with Hynix memory.  The Samsung overclocks like a beast.....

[Mew]

Do you have a backplate? I don't. I couldn't even hit +100 MHz reliably on the vram in my Enthoo Pro with the drive cages removed, and that's not exactly a case with poor airflow. But as soon as I installed some 120mm fans on the drive cages so that there is a very close source of air blowing over the card the vram was stable at +400 MHz even though the core only dropped 2C. So that tells me I was likely being limited hugely by the four completely uncooled vram chips on the back of the pcb. I'm wondering if the backplate with thermal pads for the back mounted vram would help a lot here since it sounds like my memory overclock was getting killed by memory temps.

 

I don't have a backplate but my case has really really good airflow. How is your 2974 card at 1.212v. Mine is stuck at 1.2v unless I change it in bios. It was the same for my previous 2974 that I rmaed. 

 

Probably Elpida memory....around 1900 is pretty normal with air cooling.  2010 is the highest I can get it with water cooling, and that's on early runs when it's still nice and cool.  Once it starts to heat up, it doesn't perform very well.  Same with Hynix memory.  The Samsung overclocks like a beast.....

 

I have samsung memory and they sure do oc well. I still think that they still fall victim to the silicon lottery though. My previous 970 also had samsung memory but couldn't oc past +200mhz. 

[Vellinious]

I don't have a backplate but my case has really really good airflow. How is your 2974 card at 1.212v. Mine is stuck at 1.2v unless I change it in bios. It was the same for my previous 2974 that I rmaed. 

 

 

I have samsung memory and they sure do oc well. I still think that they still fall victim to the silicon lottery though. My previous 970 also had samsung memory but couldn't oc past +200mhz. 

 

On the EVGA card?  Wow

[Mew]

 

On the EVGA card?  Wow

 

I can't really complain too much especially since I basically paid 960 FTW price for my 970 SC ACX2.0. 

[Vellinious]

That's like winning the lottery.....up until now, I thought EVGA reserved the Samsung memory for the Classys and KPEs.  I hadn't seen it on any other 970s.  I've seen the Samsung memory hit (2100) 8400 with water cooling....that's pretty impressive.

[SteveGrabowski0]

Probably Elpida memory....around 1900 is pretty normal with air cooling.  2010 is the highest I can get it with water cooling, and that's on early runs when it's still nice and cool.  Once it starts to heat up, it doesn't perform very well.  Same with Hynix memory.  The Samsung overclocks like a beast.....

 

I have Hynix.

[Vellinious]

I have Hynix.

I've heard it runs really hot.  If you can keep it cool, I hear it overclocks ok, but I don't really have any practical experience with it.

[Mew]

That's like winning the lottery.....up until now, I thought EVGA reserved the Samsung memory for the Classys and KPEs.  I hadn't seen it on any other 970s.  I've seen the Samsung memory hit (2100) 8400 with water cooling....that's pretty impressive.

 

mmmmmm the 970 sc regular acx also had Samsung memory. But I hear that, at least with my card, it's up in the air if you get hynix or samsung memory. 

[Vellinious]

Seems like all the FTWs I've seen are either hynix or elpida.  Too bad too, they overclock like mad.

[ekuhlmann23]

So after some testing I managed to get +120 Core, which is around 1500mhz. And memory is apparently stable at +400 which is like 3900mhz. I am satisfied with this results. The power limit is set to 110%

[ekuhlmann23]

Im kink of confused with the memory because I can bump it up to like +600 and it seems stable so I dont know if it is a really good overclocker or I am not testing it well.

[Vellinious]

edit

[Vellinious]

Im kink of confused with the memory because I can bump it up to like +600 and it seems stable so I dont know if it is a really good overclocker or I am not testing it well.

I use Firestrike Ultra for stress testing, looping graphics test 1 and 2.  +600 = what?  2100?  Has to be Samsung memory if it doesn't crash almost right away.  Screenshot the main page of GPUz, please.

[ekuhlmann23]

I use Firestrike Ultra for stress testing, looping graphics test 1 and 2.  +600 = what?  2100?  Has to be Samsung memory if it doesn't crash almost right away.  Screenshot the main page of GPUz, please.

It eventually crashed. It was stable at like +400 but then it crashes in game. Not even demanding ones. Even CS GO crashed but the benchmark is stable. I am really confused right now.

[Sh1ftY42x]

On 10/19/2015 at 8:11 PM, Vellinious said:

I have an ACX 2.0 card, and am running 1.275v.  I've created custom bios roms for guys with SC and SSC models, and they are also running 1.275v.  Not sure where you're getting that info, but....it's really not accurate.

Ive got an GTX 970 ACX 2.0 and i seem to be running at 1485mghz on the core and +400Mghz on the ram but im uneasy to bump up the Power at all.  Fairly new to over clocking