Asus GTX 970 thermal throttle fix?

[Dcourtade]

This is the Asus Strix GTX 970 4Gb card.  I have been trying to push this card lately to experiment with over clocking.  I ran 15 instances of Valley increase the clock with a 105% power. I gained SOME fps but not enough to shock me then ot occurred to me that my temps cannot get over 60c.  I turned on GTA V,  Whitcher  3,  and Crysis  3,  all in vayne a temps to push the temp higher and the card won't do it.

Obviously I'm not trying to burn out my card so much as discover it's potential and weather it would benefit from me sticking a water block on it.

Any guidance the LMG community can give would be appreciated. 

Turnip for life! 

[Moonzy]

18 minutes ago, Dcourtade said:

 

what is the temp limit you set for your card in the overclocking utility?

[Dcourtade]

That's one of the things that maybe I am missing. I use MSi Afterburner and in this application I cannot find where to set a temp limit

[Razor512]

2 hours ago, Dcourtade said:

That's one of the things that maybe I am missing. I use MSi Afterburner and in this application I cannot find where to set a temp limit

 

Use the classic UI, it is much more streamlined.

[Vellinious]

If the temps peak at 60c, you're not getting near the point where the card would thermal throttle yet.  If there's anything that's holding your overclock back, at this point, would either be:

1.  The power limit
2.  Voltage

Get GPUz downloaded, and open it up to the sensors tab.  Watch the PerfCap Reason line, and it'll tell you what the current "performance cap" is.  If you see green in that line during your benchmark testing, that's the "Power Limit Perf Cap".  It means your card is hitting the assigned power limit, and is throttling due to that.

As for voltage....it's a STRIX, so it's locked to 1.212v at the VRM.  The Strix aren't great for overclocking because of this, and because they only have the one power connector.

[Midnitewarrior4]

Umm it staying below 60 Is a good thing. ... it means the cooler is doing its job.... it won't thermal throttle until close to 100 degrees, mine runs at 70 and I still get a great oc

[Dcourtade]

You guys have cured my ignorance but the cure is bitter sweet in some ways. I had a different MSI skin on to naturally go better with my background and did not see the down arrow to the right of the "power limit" button. However, now I am curious and wonder what you guys can tell me. If I click prioritize power limit will that force the gpu to draw more power in lieu of getting hotter? and does unlinking them truly cut the bond between the two options?