GTX 780 SC woes...

This is by far the toughest GPU to OC I've ever had.
It's very finicky, sometimes it'll pass Heaven with +40 core sometimes it won't, even with temps in check and +37Mv.


Here's what I've come up with:
2 full passes of Heaven, DX11 with AAx8 and Anisotropyx16, Tessalation Normal. This is what I'm using to test the stability.
I use Nvidia Inspector to overclock.

+20 core no extra voltage passed Heaven once.
+40 Core and no extra voltage failed Heaven.
+40 core and +12.5Mv failed Heaven.
+40 core and max volts (1.2) passes 2 runs but fails just after starting the 3rd run.
+50 core and giving it the most voltage (1.2Volts) passes 2 run of Heaven and passed further than the settings above during the 3rd run of Heaven.
+60 core and +70 mem and max volts (1.2) was enough for an all day Borderlands Pre-Sequel session, for the most part. (Crashed twice. I also saw artifacts with +70 core)

I don't understand what the deal is. I don't think I should need +37.5Mv just to get +50 on the core let alone tweaking the memory...
I have the card plugged into the bottom PCIe slot, which means it only gets PCIe 2 @x4 bandwidth..... (The res is too close to fit the card in the top slot)'

Should I flash a BIOS to this card?
Any voltage unlocks out there? I tried the Afterburner 1.3Volt trick and AB reports 1.3 volts but Nvidia Inspector said otherwise..

The card in question is this one from our review on it. As you see, Matt go up to 1241core, where I at best muster 1189 or so.
Could it be my PSU is overloaded?

Psu isn't close to being overloaded.

You are raising the power limit to the max, rigbt?

EarthDog said:

Psu isn't close to being overloaded.

You are raising the power limit to the max, rigbt?

Click to expand...

106% and temp target set to 90C, prioritizing power target. Yup

Totally stumped on this. Either Firestrike is not nearly as stressful as Heaven or I'm doing something really wrong lol

What are your temps at?

Have you tried other benchmarks?

You should definitely be able to get higher than +40 on the core.

Maybe a software issue with your install of Heaven? Or your OS? Might be worth reinstalling if you want to eliminate software as the issue.

Silver_Pharaoh said:

106% and temp target set to 90C, prioritizing power target. Yup

Totally stumped on this. Either Firestrike is not nearly as stressful as Heaven or I'm doing something really wrong lol

Click to expand...

FS is not as stressful as heaven, that is correct. But not to the tune that you are seeing.

Card sounds like it is a dud

you can try a better BIOS, higher power target and OCP disabled

The odd part is that it wasn't a dud in the review... so what happened?

^^ that's why I was thinking maybe software/driver issue. I'd try to eliminate that first (and try running firestrike)

ninjacore said:

What are your temps at?

Have you tried other benchmarks?

You should definitely be able to get higher than +40 on the core.

Maybe a software issue with your install of Heaven? Or your OS? Might be worth reinstalling if you want to eliminate software as the issue.

Click to expand...

I also run Skyrim with all my eyecandy mods. What I do is tp to Riften, run out into the dense forest and spin around and move fanatically to see if the GPU craps out. But other benchmarks, no...

I'm on a tight monthly bandwidth cap so that's why I only have Heaven.... Unless Firestrike is small to download?

As for the OS, it's a fresh install, only 4 months old.

Witchdoctor said:

Card sounds like it is a dud

you can try a better BIOS, higher power target and OCP disabled

Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking, flash a new BIOS. Not sure on how to disable OCP, I was also looking around for a way to overvolt it in hopes more voltage would help, but no luck.

Perhaps I have a bad driver version? 353.30 is what I have.
I'm new to Nvidia drivers again, so I don't know what the best driver is like 14.9 or 13.12 was for AMD...

It's not the bios though.. same one in the review... drivers shouldn't hold back the card that much either. Try updating to the latest for giggles.

EarthDog said:

It's not the bios though.. same one in the review... drivers shouldn't hold back the card that much either. Try updating to the latest for giggles.

Click to expand...

I'm going to try the one Matt had install for the review first - 320.18.

Yeah BIOS is the same too. Could a bad slot hold a card back like this? Or even the lower bandwidth that I'm feeding it? Shots in the dark

Umm.. that review was years ago... so really old driver... but ok.

Not sure if a slot can hold it back.. doubtful. What speed is it in? I know it works fine at 8x.

EarthDog said:

Umm.. that review was years ago... so really old driver... but ok.

Not sure if a slot can hold it back.. doubtful. What speed is it in? I know it works fine at 8x.

Click to expand...

PCIe 2.0 ...... 4x

I'm on to something here.
Progress is being made

EDIT:
GOT IT!
(I never did install the 320.18 drivers btw)

Turns out EVGA Precision has some sort of overvolting option, "Overboost" which allows up to 1.3 Volts. An extra 100Mv I can give the GPU, and with it, I was able to OC up to 1241Mhz just like Matt did in the review.
It took +140 Core to do it though, but I was playing with the "KBoost" option in Precision so maybe that's why.

So I was dong something wrong - I was using the wrong OC tool it seems...
I jacked the core up to 1275Mv to make sure it's 100% stable for Heaven and folding tonight, so I should have some more room to OC, if I can stop this throttling... Not sure it's its because of the heat or hitting 106 power target..?

Nice

Glad you got it figured out

I guess that's how Matt was able to get it up to 1241Mhz then... Maybe precision X automatically overvolted it while he was overclocking it?
I don't know. Never would have guessed it was the software that I was using to overclock being the culprit...

The card and overclock held up overnight, still folding along nicely

Tinkering with this new found overclocking shows that I might be able to hit 1260+ Mhz core.
However, running Heaven hits the 106% power target within seconds and the card throttles down between 1175 and 1215Mhz core.

I found this mod but I don't know about it. I'd rather attempt a software or BIOS mod first.
So is there a way to increase the power limit at all? I hear Skyn3t's BIOS's for other cards have a 200% limit?