MSI afterburner undervolting

[DevonNelson]

I have a machine running in a closed case with (currently) 5 GTX 970's installed. (Once I get temps under control I plan on putting in my other 3) 

 

Im mining Equihash and am running into thermal throttling. I have 5x 120mm intake fans and 2x 80mm exhaust fans. The GPU fans are running at 100% as well. 

 

A lot of the tutorials online say to unlock voltage control, and then hit CTRL + F. When I do this nothing happens. I am able to adjust voltage in the main page, but I cannot decrement it.

 

Theoretically an alternative would be to overclock the cards, and leave voltage alone, then decrease the throttling threshold. Then at a given voltage it drops down to due to throttling, its running closer to stock frequency. But that is assuming that the temperature limit is manipulating voltage first, not frequency.

 

Any tips? Should I switch to Sapphire Trixx?

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

In the settings menu, you indeed need to check the box next to "unlock voltage control" before you can get to the graph.  If you did unlock it, it really should work.  Weird.

[Darkseth]

Why so much Intake, and almost no exhaust?

The warm air needs to go out.

 

Convert 1-2 120mm fans into an exhaust fan.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

3 minutes ago, Darkseth said:

Why so much Intake, and almost no exhaust?

The warm air needs to go out.

I thought the same, but get the impression that the OP is using reference cards which exhaust at the back.  In that scenario the extra intake makes sense.

[Darkseth]

True ^^ didn't consider that.

[DevonNelson]

I have all aftermarket cards. Mostly EVGA. I am using 2 80mm in rear because thats all that fits. 

 

I have the voltage control unlocked, but I can only increase it.

[Frankenburger]

5 hours ago, DevonNelson said:

I have the voltage control unlocked, but I can only increase it.

What does your voltage/clock curve look like?

[xAcid9]

11 hours ago, DevonNelson said:

A lot of the tutorials online say to unlock voltage control, and then hit CTRL + F. When I do this nothing happens. I am able to adjust voltage in the main page, but I cannot decrement it.

That's only for Pascal card, not for Maxwell and older. 

 

There is no way to undervolt Maxwell with MSI Afterburner unless you reduce the power limit IIRC, which will also make the clock speed drop.

[Frankenburger]

23 minutes ago, xAcid9 said:

There is no way to undervolt Maxwell with MSI Afterburner unless you reduce the power limit IIRC

Power limit just caps the amount of power the card is allowed to draw. Undervolting is generally done via voltage/clock curve edits.

 

Edit - NVM, just realized you said Maxwell. With Maxwell, a BIOS edit is needed to undervolt.

[xAcid9]

22 minutes ago, Frankenburger said:

Power limit just caps the amount of power the card is allowed to draw. Undervolting is generally done via voltage/clock curve edits.

Yes, lower power limit, lower voltage. I think you can edit the BIOS voltage curve but that's not practical imo. 

 

 

[Frankenburger]

9 minutes ago, xAcid9 said:

Yes, lower power limit, lower voltage. I think you can edit the BIOS voltage curve but that's not practical imo. 

It's definitely not practical. If lowering power limit and upping the core clock to offset the TDP cap yields desirable results, then there's no need to BIOS edit. However, a BIOS edit will certainly give the most control if someone is looking to min max their voltage curve.

[DevonNelson]

I designed a 3D printed guide for a drill bit and I am going to drill perforations into the top of the case for proper ventilation. Maybe I will accidentally be able to overclock again when I am finished? I also plan on finding 120mm fans that are better than Rosewill's.