Help with my overclocks

[_Grid21]

Hey fellow overclockers! I need some help with my overclock.  I have a EVGA GTX 980 Ti  FTW 6 GB video card. (See my MSI overclock.) At first this overclock seemed really stable and was working perfect, a little while later, the overclock crashed my whole system. So what am I doing wrong that I can't get it stable every time? What in the world is wrong? Are my settings all wrong? Do I not have enough power? Is windows just being a jerk to me or GPU boost 2.0? Please help.

 

Fire Strike basic test. 

My MSI Afterburner settings.

 

[Aytex]

what is your whole specs

[VoyexTech]

Try a very minimal OC of like +25 on both and then test it if it is stable you may have a bad card for over clocking

[_Grid21]

2 hours ago, VoyexTech said:

Try a very minimal OC of like +25 on both and then test it if it is stable you may have a bad card for over clocking

But it's a Ti FTW, shouldn't be a great card for OC?

 

EDIT: Also this card is a dual Bios card and I switched it to the slave bios thinking it was the higher clock speed.

 

EDIT EDIT: I went back and retried my clock settings and this is what it came too. Under full load, I got 1480Mhz on the GPU and 1782Mhz on the memory. That's not much of a overclock is it?

2 hours ago, Aytex said:

what is your whole specs

See image My system specs

Edited May 16, 2016 by Josh_Grid21

[_Grid21]

Does anyone know if my FTW card is designed for overclocking? Or do I overclock as far as I can?

[Imakuni]

2 hours ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

But it's a Ti FTW, shouldn't be a great card for OC?

Not really. These cards with high factory clocks don't OC as much - the little they do is already considered a great OC by simpler model's standards.

 

2 hours ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

EDIT: Also this card is a dual Bios card and I switched it to the slave bios thinking it was the higher clock speed.

Go back to the main Bios, please.

 

6 minutes ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

Does anyone know if my FTW card is designed for overclocking? Or do I overclock as far as I can?

Just like any other card in the market: you OC as far as you can / want.

[_Grid21]

11 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

Not really. These cards with high factory clocks don't OC as much - the little they do is already considered a great OC by simpler model's standards.

 

Go back to the main Bios, please.

 

Just like any other card in the market: you OC as far as you can / want.

Why the main Bios of the card?

[Imakuni]

1 minute ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

Why the main Bios of the card?

2nd Bios is meant for people to modify it when used with custom cooling solutions (water or LN2).

[_Grid21]

9 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

2nd Bios is meant for people to modify it when used with custom cooling solutions (water or LN2).

But what about this? I always thought it was for higher clocks? EVGA FTW Dual Bios

[Imakuni]

The second bios just puts a more agressive OC profile, which you can do yourself while using the main.

[_Grid21]

1 minute ago, Imakuni said:

The second bios just puts a more agressive OC profile, which you can do yourself while using the main.

I wonder if it'd be more stable too on the main bios too?

[Imakuni]

1 minute ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

I wonder if it'd be more stable too on the main bios too?

Not really...

[_Grid21]

Just now, Imakuni said:

Not really...

Well, if "not really" then doesn't it make more sense to just leave it on the second Bios? I'm confused a little, which bios is more suited for manual overclock?

[LooneyJuice]

Cannot stress how much overclockability is luck of the draw.

41 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

Not really. These cards with high factory clocks don't OC as much - the little they do is already considered a great OC by simpler model's standards.

Also, this. There's only so far you can go. EVGA advertises their binning like Gigabyte for example, but higher up, it basically means just this. It's already factory overclocked and basically guarantees the factory overclock. But because of it, there's not much more after that.

 

4 hours ago, VoyexTech said:

Try a very minimal OC of like +25 on both and then test it if it is stable you may have a bad card for over clocking

Also, similar to this. Either try minimal OC or stock clocks to guarantee the stability issue has nothing to do with the OC.

 

Additionally, I don't know how you go about doing things, but core alone may have limit A and memory alone may have limit B, doesn't mean you can necessarily use both max values while maintaining stability, you have to start backing down.

 

Edit: Additionally, stating this for clarity, different applications will stress your card differently, typical example being Valley may not crash an OC that runs on Heaven and takes a dive within 5 scenes. I aim for stability under every single scenario, otherwise, in my opinion, you don't have a stable OC.

[Imakuni]

6 minutes ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

Well, if "not really" then doesn't it make more sense to just leave it on the second Bios? I'm confused a little, which bios is more suited for manual overclock?

For average Joe OCing, either Bios will perform the same. Which is your case. But you give up a few power / noise saving features by using the slave Bios. So use the main one.

 

Only use the slave if: A- You don't want to try and OC yourself; B- You are doing Bios mods.

[_Grid21]

8 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

For average Joe OCing, either Bios will perform the same. Which is your case. But you give up a few power / noise saving features by using the slave Bios. So use the main one.

 

Only use the slave if: A- You don't want to try and OC yourself; B- You are doing Bios mods.

Alright, I will give it a try.

9 minutes ago, LooneyJuice said:

Cannot stress how much overclockability is luck of the draw.

Also, this. There's only so far you can go. EVGA advertises their binning like Gigabyte for example, but higher up, it basically means just this. It's already factory overclocked and basically guarantees the factory overclock. But because of it, there's not much more after that.

 

Also, similar to this. Either try minimal OC or stock clocks to guarantee the stability issue has nothing to do with the OC.

 

Additionally, I don't know how you go about doing things, but core alone may have limit A and memory alone may have limit B, doesn't mean you can necessarily use both max values while maintaining stability, you have to start backing down.

 

Edit: Additionally, stating this for clarity, different applications will stress your card differently, typical example being Valley may not crash an OC that runs on Heaven and takes a dive within 5 scenes. I aim for stability under every single scenario, otherwise, in my opinion, you don't have a stable OC.

Yeah I knew that about the different benchmarks and how they react to stress test. I understand that mem and core can react and have limits. Makes sense. 

[LooneyJuice]

Also, regarding your settings. Occasionally, GPU boost can cause instability even when not at max boost clock due to marginal voltage, momentary droop and all that. I'm not quite sure what the voltage limit on that specific card is, but the +87mV voltage offset limit is essentially never +87mV, at best, it's your max voltage allowed by the bios. In my case (G1 970) it just goes to the max of 1.250, a mere +25mV from max observed voltage under load (1.225V). Same applies to say, the MSI 980, and most 900 series cards I've had to deal with, +/- a few mV depending on the chip. Additionally, they may only go up in increments too. Mine was either 1.225V or 1.250, nothing in between. The only way you get to overvolt it past limits is by using a custom bios like Imakuni mentioned. So lack of voltage (your offset not registering) may be the culprit you may wish to investigate after of course you've checked everything else.

 

Edit: Reminder, MSI AB monitors voltage as well.

[_Grid21]

2 hours ago, Imakuni said:

For average Joe OCing, either Bios will perform the same. Which is your case. But you give up a few power / noise saving features by using the slave Bios. So use the main one.

 

Only use the slave if: A- You don't want to try and OC yourself; B- You are doing Bios mods.

I honest hate the power save modes, I want full power on my GPU, I paid for it, I want it's power. And the noise is something that doesn't bother me. So that's why I switched it to the second Bios thinking it would be better clock speeds and for allowing over volting. 

[Imakuni]

1 minute ago, Josh_Grid21 said:

I honest hate the power save modes, I want full power on my GPU, I paid for it, I want it's power. And the noise is something that doesn't bother me. So that's why I switched it to the second Bios thinking it would be better clock speeds and for allowing over volting. 

If your card is working, it'll always give you full power when you fire a game. And both allow for overvoltage anyways.

 

But suit yourself. Neither Bios will limit your OC nor help you get it higher.