GTX 970 Power Usage % never goes over 84%

[ChiefGunny]

I have a Zotac AMP! Omega GTX 970 w/AMP! Extreme HSF and I can't get my OC over 1450Mhz and I see a lot of ppl getting 1600Mhz but the thing that I can't figure out it why the power Usage% never goes over 84% usage Most of the time stays at 75% shouldn't it be getting to 100% at least with a 1450Mhz OC maxed out at 100% GPU usage? My OC power Limit is set at 106% that's the max MSI afterburner will let me set it to. I may not really understand how the power % and usages work. Maybe staying at that power usage % is a good thing maybe it means i have a lot more to work with IDK. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Specs. Gigabyte Z97x Gaming 3 Mobo

i7-4790k

Corsair H100i GTX

16gb G.Skill Ripjaws X Ram

Zotac AMP! Omega GTX 970 w/AMP! Extreme HSF

120gb Kingston V300 SSD

2tb HDD

Corsair HX750 Pro PSU

[YubinTheBunny]

What games are you playing?

[ChiefGunny]

Just now, YubinTheBunny said:

What games are you playing?

All of them lol

[ChiefGunny]

Just now, ChiefGunny said:

All of them lol

Even in Stress tests

[YubinTheBunny]

That's incredibly weird, do you clean install your drivers? If you don't you could try using DDU and reinstalling and see if that helps.

[ChiefGunny]

Just now, YubinTheBunny said:

That's incredibly weird, do you clean install your drivers? If you don't you could try using DDU and reinstalling and see if that helps.

I always do clean installs. I can't figure it out.

[YubinTheBunny]

Just now, ChiefGunny said:

I always do clean installs. I can't figure it out.

Mind posting your full system specs, I'm curious.

[ChiefGunny]

3 minutes ago, YubinTheBunny said:

Mind posting your full system specs, I'm curious.

NP posted

[Curufinwe_wins]

That is completely normal for a custom solution.

 

The 84% power usage is based on the significantly increased stock TDP of the custom 970.

 

You will probably need to ACTUALLY overclock to get higher than 1400-1450.

 

Power usage is a function of the bios tdp. Think that the reference TDP is 135W, now consider a custom chip says they will have a 200W TDP. Obviously the custom 970 doesn't use 200W, it just allows that much more when overclocking.

 

Thus even if the custom 970 is using 30W more than the 135W base, it will show up as a power usage of 165/200=82.5%.

 

@Lays Feel free to explain it more.

[ChiefGunny]

9 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

That is completely normal for a custom solution.

 

The 84% power usage is based on the significantly increased stock TDP of the custom 970.

 

You will probably need to ACTUALLY overclock to get higher than 1400-1450.

 

Power usage is a function of the bios tdp. Think that the reference TDP is 135W, now consider a custom chip says they will have a 200W TDP. Obviously the custom 970 doesn't use 200W, it just allows that much more when overclocking.

 

@Lays Feel free to explain it more.

 

 

Ok ty. The 1400 to 1450 is a Overclock the stock speed is 1152MHz with a boost of 1304 MHz and I can only OC 196 + Mhz after that I get artifacts and driver crashes. my mem OC is 4000. I know crappy Overclocker or whatever but its what I have. I was wrong tho i can get up to 1534 before driver crashes

 

[Curufinwe_wins]

5 minutes ago, ChiefGunny said:

Ok ty. The 1400 to 1450 is a Overclock the stock speed is 1152MHz with a boost of 1304 MHz and I can only OC 196 + Mhz after that I get artifacts and driver crashes. my mem OC is 4000. I know crappy Overclocker or whatever but its what I have.

EDIT:: Nevermind (I thought the 970 had a more aggressive boost table).

 

1450 isn't bad, but not great. Unfortunately 970 overclocking is very very hit or miss (in fact lower quality versions from EVGA are known to basically never exceed 1434 or so).

 

Also mem speed of 4000 (8000 Effective) is quite decent for all but the best samsung memory models (the AMP does not use samsung memory). 3800 (7600) - 4000 (8000) is what would be considered the normal range.

 

Pascal memory chips based on newer technology and more mature nodes do overclock better, but 8k on maxwell isn't bad one bit. 

 

[ChiefGunny]

Just now, Curufinwe_wins said:

uhh +196 Mhz over stock should be well over 1550 Mhz in games (please look at boost clocks with like msi afterburner while under load.)

 

Also mem speed of 4000 (8000 Effective) is quite decent for all but the best samsung memory models (the AMP does not use samsung memory). 3800 (7600) - 4000 (8000) is what would be considered the normal range.

 

Pascal memory chips based on newer technology and more mature nodes do overclock better, but 8k on maxwell isn't bad one bit. 

 

Yea i meant to put 1534 Mhz but i was doing something and was distracted.

[Enderman]

Power usage will depend on the core voltage and load.

If it's running at 100% load and has as much voltage as you can give it, that means your GPU is running pretty efficient and power limit isn't throttling you.

So it's good.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Just now, ChiefGunny said:

Yea i meant to put 1534 Mhz but i was doing something and was distracted.

Ahh, 1534 isn't that bad.

[ChiefGunny]

Just now, Curufinwe_wins said:

Ahh, 1534 isn't that bad.

I hope to upgrade soon to the GTX 1070