Overclocking a GTX 1080

[Ilan Yakov]

I started researching about the 1080's limits and from what I can understand, the card is limited to about 1.09V. With this voltage I can reach a stable (though not fixed because it goes down after a while) 2.15GHz.

I have found a special BIOS which will actually allow the card using more than 1.09V.

 

So, If I try to flash an Asus' STRIX OC BIOS (which is the modded BIOS) to my GIGABYTE card, is there a possibility of 'bricking' the GPU? I understand that with more voltage (like about 1.2) I will be able to reach higher core clock speeds and more stably.

I currently have the GTX 1080 WATERFORCE but I see that most of the people which actually use this BIOS are cooling their cards with these insane methods (because ambient temps are not enough or something like that) so will I actually benefit from it? and if I will then will it be worth it?

[PrashMotion]

I wouldn't change the voltage settings on your graphics card. I just increased the clocks on mine. I got to +180MHz on the core and +625MHz on the memory withtout it being unstable.

[Ilan Yakov]

1 minute ago, PrashMotion said:

I wouldn't change the voltage settings on your graphics card. I just increased the clocks on mine. I got to +180MHz on the core and +625MHz on the memory withtout it being unstable.

I got mine to +100/+450 and I reach 2114~2152MHz/5562MHz but if my GPU is cool enough then why not?

[bellabichon]

1 minute ago, Ilan Yakov said:

I got mine to +100/+450 and I reach 2114~2152MHz/5562MHz but if my GPU is cool enough then why not?

Voltage is always the biggest killer when overclocking. It's fine to increase it in small amounts to keep your cards stable, but try not to go too high, or you could fry your card. 

[PrashMotion]

Just now, Ilan Yakov said:

I got mine to +100/+450 and I reach 2114~2152MHz/5562MHz but if my GPU is cool enough then why not?

Giving it more voltage can make it more unstable in come cases, and maybe doesn't let it last so long. Aren't you happy with it's performance? The 2.1GHz is at the very top of the cards capabilities.

[Crunchy Dragon]

There's always a risk of bricking a card while flashing the BIOS. 2.1Ghz is pretty fast, I personally don't really know why you would want to go much farther than that.

[PrashMotion]

To sum up this topic, don't do it. You can enjoy your card more at 2.1GHz, than broken.

[Ilan Yakov]

I agree, it is pretty fast but it's just interesting to me how far I can get even beyond.

Since not a lot of people actually tried a more 'extreme' OC on their 1080, there's not much info about it, and info about OCing a 1080 is exactly what I'm trying to get. I really would like to know how much better will it be running on 2.2GHz rather than 2.1.

Not necessarily to try by myself but just to learn.

[Ilan Yakov]

Also, I didn't get a full answer for this question. Will flashing an Asus' 1080 BIOS on a GIGABYTE 1080 necessarily brick the GPU?

[Mick Naughty]

Why not just adjust the stock bios. No reason to use another vendors. Or just shut the power delivery. Like stated, more power won’t always be better. 

[Mick Naughty]

Mine did about average. One is an evga sc, the other is a referbed NVidia/dell.

[Vellinious]

The trick to overclocking pascal, is core temps.  The colder you keep the core, the higher it'll boost, and the longer it will maintain that clock without boost 3.0 throttling the GPU down.

Adding voltage without first dropping core temps, a LOT, is effectually useless.

This card on air would barely reach 2150.  On water with 20c ambients, it'd hit 2200.  With coolant temps at -6c, it hits 2278.  All with stock voltage.

 

[Ilan Yakov]

3 hours ago, Vellinious said:

The trick to overclocking pascal, is core temps.  The colder you keep the core, the higher it'll boost, and the longer it will maintain that clock without boost 3.0 throttling the GPU down.

Adding voltage without first dropping core temps, a LOT, is effectually useless.

This card on air would barely reach 2150.  On water with 20c ambients, it'd hit 2200.  With coolant temps at -6c, it hits 2278.  All with stock voltage.

 

That's sweet but how stable is it? The core clock is not going down?

Unfortunately, with my WATERFORCE on sock voltage I can't get any higher than 2152 without stabilization issues so how actually low I need to get my 1080 to run at? less than 50 during load? 40? that's crazy.

 

One more thing, just something I read in a thread I found on Google.. Is that true that if I set the fan to 100% it will help somehow with keeping a stable higher clock speed?

[Mick Naughty]

Keep the card cool will help. Thus max fan speed would be better then anything less but that also draws more power. But if you’re isn’t using reference pcb, power shouldn’t be an issue. 

[Vellinious]

5 hours ago, Ilan Yakov said:

That's sweet but how stable is it? The core clock is not going down?

Unfortunately, with my WATERFORCE on sock voltage I can't get any higher than 2152 without stabilization issues so how actually low I need to get my 1080 to run at? less than 50 during load? 40? that's crazy.

 

One more thing, just something I read in a thread I found on Google.. Is that true that if I set the fan to 100% it will help somehow with keeping a stable higher clock speed?

At normal ambient temps, about 20c, I can run mine at 2150 game stable, and it stays there.  Those clocks I referred to before are benchmark stable.

Core temps are everything...the lower the better.  I would shoot for no higher than 40c on the core to be able to retain a decent clock without having to touch the voltage.  I can maintain that 2150 for gaming, without adding any additional voltage (it runs 1.043v at that clock / temp), without ever going above 40c (ambient temp of around 18-20c)....and, as I said before, this card isn't a great overclocker.