980 clock questions

[EMENCII]

Hello everyone,

I am trying to OC my 980 SC, and I noticed how the clock fluctuates. It wouldn't be strange, if it wasn't for the fact that I have disabled gpu boost by flashing a BIOS with same base and boost clocks. This means that everytime I start a firestrike stresstest the GPU should remain at 1367MHz, while it actually goes down to 1300 after just one second.

Basically, the problem is that the clock is lower than it should be, and fluctuates a lot, which makes it difficult to determine a stable OC.

What did I try?

Prefer maximum performance in the nvidia control panel

BIOS modding the card disabling the boost clocks

It did this also before flashing the new BIOS, so it's not like it's specifically my fault.

How does Maxwell's clock behave? What's the logic behind this underclock?

WAT.

Thank you for your help,

EMENCII

[Vellinious]

What's the ASIC quality?  Have you tried an overclock, with KBoost enabled?

[EMENCII]

On 1/10/2017 at 7:35 PM, Vellinious said:

What's the ASIC quality?  Have you tried an overclock, with KBoost enabled?

The asic quality shouldn't matter (69%), and I'm using AB, so no KBoost. Nvidia's "prefer maximum performance" doesn't change anything either

[Mick Naughty]

What are they hard clocked to? 

[Vellinious]

14 minutes ago, EMENCII said:

The asic quality shouldn't matter (69%), and I'm using AB, so no KBoost. Nvidia's "prefer maximum performance" doesn't change anything either

Yeah...it kinda does.

Mind if I take a peak at the bios you're using?

[EMENCII]

21 hours ago, Mick Naughty said:

What are they hard clocked to? 

I set the clock in the BIOS to 1367

 

21 hours ago, Vellinious said:

Yeah...it kinda does.

In what way?

 

21 hours ago, Vellinious said:

Mind if I take a peak at the bios you're using?

Here you go

x.rom

[Mick Naughty]

3 minutes ago, EMENCII said:

I set the clock in the BIOS to 1367

But the base clock of the card isn't anywhere near that is it?

[Mick Naughty]

You don't hard clock it at the speed you want unless you want it there all the time. You do it to the base then oc where you want it. 

 

Are you hitting power or voltage limits?

[EMENCII]

1 hour ago, Mick Naughty said:

But the base clock of the card isn't anywhere near that is it?

It is. I have disabled the boost...

 

1 hour ago, Mick Naughty said:

You don't hard clock it at the speed you want unless you want it there all the time. You do it to the base then oc where you want it. 

 

Are you hitting power or voltage limits?

There is no such thing as hardware locking the clock, but it's not what you mean, right? And boost is different from the P states. It does not run at that speed all the time unless you set it in the control panel or enable Kboost.

Hitting voltage limits, but I can OC it more than it already is before the driver crashes. The problem here is that:

1. the clock is unstable

2. it underclocks below the base clock.

[Mick Naughty]

I could have done that when I made the bios but my card run a max of 1006 as that is the base clock for the cards I have. Then I over clock them. I don't have boost either. 

 

But if youre saying 1367 is your base for the card and it won't run at that speed then you have other issues 

14 minutes ago, EMENCII said:

It is. I have disabled the boost...

 

There is no such thing as hardware locking the clock, but it's not what you mean, right? And boost is different from the P states. It does not run at that speed all the time unless you set it in the control panel or enable Kboost.

Hitting voltage limits, but I can OC it more than it already is before the driver crashes. The problem here is that:

1. the clock is unstable

2. it underclocks below the base clock.

 

[EMENCII]

15 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

I could have done that when I made the bios but my card run a max of 1006 as that is the base clock for the cards I have. Then I over clock them. I don't have boost either. 

 

But if youre saying 1367 is your base for the card and it won't run at that speed then you have other issues 

 

After a more thorough investigation it might actually be the voltage limit. I thought it wouldn't go below the base clock but apparently it does.

[Mick Naughty]

3 minutes ago, EMENCII said:

After a more thorough investigation it might actually be the voltage limit. I thought it wouldn't go below the base clock but apparently it does.

At stock voltage the card should always hit its base clock. 

 

I used the heaven benchmarks marks before moving to 3dmark for this exact reason. 

[Vellinious]

4 hours ago, EMENCII said:

I set the clock in the BIOS to 1367

 

In what way?

 

Here you go

x.rom

I'll take a look at it this weekend.

Did you do anything with the voltage table?  It could be just as simple as tightening the gap on the voltage for that particular boost clock lvl with it's corresponding CLK in the voltage table.  1300 is probably down around CLK 50 to 55 or something.

[i_build_nanosuits]

On 2017-01-10 at 11:48 AM, EMENCII said:

Hello everyone,

I am trying to OC my 980 SC, and I noticed how the clock fluctuates. It wouldn't be strange, if it wasn't for the fact that I have disabled gpu boost by flashing a BIOS with same base and boost clocks. This means that everytime I start a firestrike stresstest the GPU should remain at 1367MHz, while it actually goes down to 1300 after just one second.

Basically, the problem is that the clock is lower than it should be, and fluctuates a lot, which makes it difficult to determine a stable OC.

What did I try?

Prefer maximum performance in the nvidia control panel

BIOS modding the card disabling the boost clocks

It did this also before flashing the new BIOS, so it's not like it's specifically my fault.

How does Maxwell's clock behave? What's the logic behind this underclock?

WAT.

Thank you for your help,

EMENCII

69% Asic GTX 980 third party cooling

install MSI afterburner and then:

1- Increase power limit to max

2- increase core voltage +5mv

3- test if stable

4- increase core clock +50mhz, can then try +75mhz, +80mhz untril it crash (mine is already 1380mhz on default..+52 makes it run 1444mhz)

5- test again if stable

6- increase memory clock +200mhz (yours probably can't take +450mhz...you can try +350mhz or +400mhz)

7- test again if stable

8- save to profile 1, apply

9- Apply overclocking on start up

10- done enjoy

 

 

 

[Mick Naughty]

Just looked up the cards again, so you set the new base clock to the boost clock of a stock bios card?

No 980 has a base clock that high.

 

I oc mine +377 over the base but not in the bios.

[EMENCII]

1 hour ago, Vellinious said:

I'll take a look at it this weekend.

Did you do anything with the voltage table?  It could be just as simple as tightening the gap on the voltage for that particular boost clock lvl with it's corresponding CLK in the voltage table.  1300 is probably down around CLK 50 to 55 or something.

Thank you, but I really just changed the clocks, the fan curve and the power limits...

 

22 minutes ago, i_build_nanosuits said:

- snip -

I wouldn't have written this if that worked...

14 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

Just looked up the cards again, so you set the new base clock to the boost clock of a stock bios card?

No 980 has a base clock that high.

 

I oc mine +377 over the base but not in the bios.

Yes, I did set my base clock as the 980SC's boost. I did that to prevent the card from boosting by itself, which is kinda annoying for me, since I think it's simpler if it runs at the clock I set it to run at. Boost is going to be useless anyway, since OC does the exact same thing but as I want it done, and I'm just going to modify the BIOS to act like that by itself, without the need for other applications.

[i_build_nanosuits]

1 minute ago, EMENCII said:

I wouldn't have written this if that worked...

then just increase power limit and your clocks will hold much better already.

[EMENCII]

Just now, i_build_nanosuits said:

then just increase power limit and your clocks will hold much better already.

Not the point of OCing and BIOS modding... My question could also be phrased as: can a card underclock below its base clock? Is it normal on Maxwell to have this much fluctuation in the core clock's value?

After seeing Pascal, I wouldn't be surprised to see that Maxwell does the same. The fact is that I'm coming from Kepler, which didn't.

[i_build_nanosuits]

8 minutes ago, EMENCII said:

Not the point of OCing and BIOS modding... My question could also be phrased as: can a card underclock below its base clock? Is it normal on Maxwell to have this much fluctuation in the core clock's value?

After seeing Pascal, I wouldn't be surprised to see that Maxwell does the same. The fact is that I'm coming from Kepler, which didn't.

the base clock of your GPU is 1126mhz and 1216mhz boost

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980/specifications

 

1367mhz is still significantly above nvidia specifications and depending on the model you have they apply a factory overclock, but usually these numbers might require a bit more power than stock and sometimes the user has to push more power through the card to get more stable clocks and stay at the top of the factory OC range. it's how GPU boost 3.0 work.

 

You can prioritize temps or power limit...set power limit higher and prioritize power limit, keep temps in check...add more fan RPMs if needed. (will increase noise)

[EMENCII]

5 minutes ago, i_build_nanosuits said:

usually these numbers might require a bit more power than stock and sometimes the user has to push more power through the card to get more stable clocks and stay at the top of the factory OC range. it's how GPU boost 3.0 work.

You can prioritize temps or power target...set power limit higher and prioritize power target, keep temps in check...add more fan RPMs if needed.

GPU boost 3.0 is Pascal's technology, Maxwell uses 2.0...

I'm not going to say that it's wrong when you say that "sometimes the user has to push more power through the card to get more stable clocks and stay at the top of the factory OC range", but the base clock should act like a base clock, no matter if it's higher or lower than nVidia's specs, because of its definition. At least that's what I think.

The power limit was never reached. Neither the temp limit.

I'll flash another BIOS and conduce more thorough testing, will report.

[Mick Naughty]

Every card under clocks. Unless you ruined the bios somehow. Are you trying to have it run at a certain lower clock or just let the gpu do it what it's supposed to do based off use?

[EMENCII]

On 1/13/2017 at 10:31 PM, Mick Naughty said:

Every card under clocks. Unless you ruined the bios somehow. Are you trying to have it run at a certain lower clock or just let the gpu do it what it's supposed to do based off use?

I am letting it do its thing, but it does not reach the maximum clock as it should. Basically your second one. But it still doesn't go all the way up.

[Mick Naughty]

5 minutes ago, EMENCII said:

I am letting it do its thing, but it does not reach the maximum clock as it should. Basically your second one. But it still doesn't go all the way up.

Ok so what is the problem with the under clock? Why is that being brought up? What did you set the base clock to in the bios? Because it sounds like you are trying to have your cake and eat it too. Is it hitting a limit? Power, voltage, thermal?