Need info on Reference 970

[Dunkan77]

Hello guys,

I was wondering what the actual observed clocks for the core were on a reference gtx 970 after thermals plateau. I'm looking for this information because I want to know how much more performance I'm getting over reference design as I have the EVGA ACX 2.0 version of it. The reason why I'm asking this is GPU boost pushes the card past what the advertised boost clocks are, those are minimums in fact I think. For example mine has a boost of 1317 in GPU-Z but reaches and stays at 1366 in real applications. Now this is a 50 MHz offset which I could assume is what reference cards do but I may be wrong since those hit 80+ C whereas mine never exceeds that.

If anyone has the card I'm talking about can you please tell me what your clocks stabilize at/ what range you observe in-game? Thanks

[8-Bit Ninja]

No one can really tell you, due to the silicon lottery each card will boost differently, so asking other people isn't going to help that much 

[Ordinarily_Greater]

In my opinion keep the EVGA and do not get reference because the ACX is better in cooling than reference

[Dunkan77]

14 minutes ago, 8-Bit Ninja said:

No one can really tell you, due to the silicon lottery each card will boost differently, so asking other people isn't going to help that much 

Really? So someone else with the same card as me would see something other than 1366? 

[Dunkan77]

6 minutes ago, Ordinarily_Greater said:

In my opinion keep the EVGA and do not get reference because the ACX is better in cooling than reference

I'm not looking to change out my card dude I'm just looking for reference cards boost clocks x) If I did I'd be upgrading and not getting a hotter 970 

 

[Daniel Z.]

4 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

Really? So someone else with the same card as me would see something other than 1366? 

Yeah, silicon lottery and cooler design are the main variables on how high your card boosts. My GTX 960 G1 Gaming goes to 1404 mhz with no overclock and I can overclock so it gets to 1500+ with a bit of voltage

[Dunkan77]

Oh okay then. I'm just going to take the clocks nvidia provided on their website then. Thanks for your help guys  

[Ordinarily_Greater]

3 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

Oh okay then. I'm just going to take the clocks nvidia provided on their website then. Thanks for your help guys  

Sorry for the mistake i thought you were changing the card

 

but the cooler information does that help you?

[SteveGrabowski0]

20 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

I'm not looking to change out my card dude I'm just looking for reference cards boost clocks x) If I did I'd be upgrading and not getting a hotter 970 

 

I have a similar card (EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0) and 1367 MHz is the default boost clock that it goes to. The card is a dog for overclocking, the VRM is total crap. Even if I give a lousy +51MHz to the core clock to get a 1418 MHz boost I still get a driver crash every couple of hours. It doesn't matter where I set the voltage or the power limit. It doesn't matter if I ramp up my case fans (I have a 120mm blowing directly on the card from about 2 inches away) and the gpu fans and get the core to run in the 50s Celsius under load. It still crashes in an hour or two when I give it that 51 Mhz core bump.

 

Which model is your card? Mine is 2974-KR, which are known to be complete crap overclockers on the EVGA forums. So I just run mine at stock and it boosts to 1367 MHz ingame. Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome card I have enjoyed for 2.5 years now, but it's not the typical GTX 970 that everyone else got and were hitting 1500 MHz easy.

[Dunkan77]

Well Steve, I do have the 2974-KR but my fans need to be at around 40-50% for it to stay under 74C and that's really loud.. I BIOS modded my card and managed to give it 12mV more but that brought the max stable clock to 1480-1468. So yes this card is a piece of crap for overclocking regardless of the temperature it's running at

And thanks for confirming that your 970 boosts up to the same clock as mine. By the way you can check your ASIC quality in the new versions of GPU-Z, mine is 70.5 can you tell me yours?

[Ordinarily_Greater]

3 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

Well Steve, I do have the 2974-KR but my fans need to be at around 40-50% for it to stay under 74C and that's really loud.. I BIOS modded my card and managed to give it 12mV more but that brought the max stable clock to 1480-1468. So yes this card is a piece of crap for overclocking regardless of the temperature it's running at

And thanks for confirming that your 970 boosts up to the same clock as mine. By the way you can check your ASIC quality in the new versions of GPU-Z, mine is 70.5 can you tell me yours?

Now i know that ACX 2.0 is not really good but then i will have to find datas on Gaming X GTX 970 users

[Dunkan77]

2 minutes ago, Ordinarily_Greater said:

Now i know that ACX 2.0 is not really good but then i will have to find datas on Gaming X GTX 970 users

My friend has one.. He doesn't really exceed 60C ever. I don't know how that's possible but I've seen it, I didn't believe it either. Jealousy 

[Ordinarily_Greater]

20 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

My friend has one.. He doesn't really exceed 60C ever. I don't know how that's possible but I've seen it, I didn't believe it either. Jealousy 

Well i guess before ACX 3.0 Gaming X and Strix coolers is the best thing