GTX680 HydroCopper KGB BIOS vOltate mod & fine tunning

[dtrunk]

my card, which they dont make anymore and will NEVER make again (per evga). The newer models are down clocked further. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130772

I was @ the fact that i can finally get more performance out of the GTX680 HC. Sure it's a beast and runs all my games at stupid good fps on 1 monitor @1080p; but, for $700 i was quite bummed that I haven't been able to OC it to the moon; of course unless i want to do some crazy modding. @ stock the core was at 1150/1215 and boosted to 1241, memory was @3150. with evga precision X i was able to OC the core +10 and the memory +200; any further and I wasn't gaming stable. Best score in unigine was ~1270; pushing any further caused drivers/directX components to crash. voltage was stuck at 1.17.

a few days ago i noticed this http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7333351&postcount=1669 ; a gtx670 that was SPANKing my 680; i wanted to cry. I messaged Jason and he turned me on to http://www.overclock.net/t/1289489/gtx-680-670-unlocked-voltage-bios. after a few hours of reading i found Kepler Golden Bios voltage mod http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?284014-KGB-Kepler-BIOS-Editor-Unlocker. Several more hours of reading and I was ready to start

***WARNING*** This is what I did, this is what worked for me. there is a chance to BRICK (completely ruin) your video card. Do this AT YOUR OWN RISK.

1) download/install apps, current version of gpuz, nvflash, hp USB Storage Tool, win98boot, and kgb v0.5 ((Would also suggest latest nvidia drivers, i used beta drivers; and evga precision X (or some sort of GPU overclocking tool)
2) use gpuz to save current bios off of the gtx680
3) find the saved bios, right click and copy
4) navigate to KGB folder (*which i placed in the root of c:/ for easy access) and paste copy of GPU bios. renamed bios for ease g.rom
***I did not modify the .cfg at all. I opened it to check the settings, but didn't change a thing.**
5) open command prompt with admin rights (via right click); navigate to kgb folder, run the command to unlock the bios
6) use HP USB Tool and Win98boot to create a bootable USB drive
*** I orignally used a Win7boot (which was really ME) file that wasn't working for me, so then went to win98boot. Issue was: it would boot to the usb drive, be able to see the files, but couldn't run the nvflash command***
7) copied nvflash and cwsdpmi file to the usb; copied the "unlokced" g.rom bios file to the usb
8) Uninstalled video card drivers **Not sure this is necessary but saw something about it in another forum**
9) restarted to the usb drive; checked files on drive (all there); ran nvflash --list to assure gpu was recognized; ran nvflash g.rom and got SUCCESS
10) restarted in to windows, reinstalled video card drivers 310.70 for me; restart
11) open up precision X, double click monitor section to open big screen monitor graph, hit TEST in precision X and QUICKLY close out the FuzzyE test screen, switch back to the graph to see speed/voltages; noticed core @ 1358, memory @ 3150, volts @ 1.212, power @ 222%; cleared history of the graph and ran unigine at MAX; crashed to desktop; checked precisoon X graph, which had the same #s
***i knew from before that when my card was pushed too far it reported odd power settings; assumed card was OC'd too far***
12) in precision x turned GPU Clock Offset to -100, TDP to 150%, apply; checked voltage and turned it to max anyways 1.212; ran unigine @ max; roughly same score ~1270; checked graph GPU Clock @1258, Mem @ 3150, volts @ 1.212, TPD stayed around 60-70%
13) fine tuned OC to find MAX combo of Memory and GPU clock that was stable in unigine; which was a score of 1410 @ -58 GPU Clock +450 Memory 80-83% TDP.

My max OC 1293 GPU Clock and 3600 Memory (7200)



Here is the Unigine Score / GPU Offset / Memort Offset that I ran through
1410 -58 450
1409 -58 460
1409 -56 450
1409 -58 450
1408 -58 455
1408 -57 450
1408 -58 451
1408 -58 450
1407 -60 450
1407 -62 450
1407 -58 452
1407 -59 450
1407 -58 449
1404 -62 440
860 -60 470
806 -55 500
792 -56 450

Notice how when the OC starts to fail the Unigine Score #s drop significantly. I noticed max OC wasn't gaming stable, so i played around some more finding these settings -64 +430 (gpu/memory) to be most stable gaming. this was after several hours of gaming, in which i finally crashed in bf3.



**Other Observations**
When power jumps to an insane number, 223% for me, the OC is failing and usually crashes.
max OC registers about 80-82% tdp in precision X, gaming or unigine, but when i launch TEST feature in precision X, the FuzzyE takes power up to 89-94% tdp.
When unigine fails, TPD in EVGA NV-Z sets back to 100%; must restart or OC to reset in PrecisionX and show right in NV-Z



**might b helpful**
http://www.overclock.net/t/892009/nvflash-flash-command

Supposedly max power is limited to 1.212 voltage unless you hardware mod, meaning i've achieved my max volts for software mod; which manufatures/nvidia said wasn't possible to go past 1.17v anyways. VERY pissed at nvidia/partners for limiting these cards so much; i never hit 100% power or can i go over 100% as other 6** series cards can; and my heat never goes above 37c; extremely underutilized. TY to Jason for turning me on to this.

Love any feedback offered.

 

[jason4207]

Good work man!

I was thinking about your power usage. I know that cooler temps will lower power percentage usage, but I also think the 680 (and certain 670's using 680 PCBs) have a higher absolute power limit, so you can't directly compare 100% Power Target Usage on a 670 vs 100% on a 680.

Don't get too mad at nVidia. It wasn't that long ago that you had to hard mod to get any voltage control at all.

 

[EarthDog]

I cant break 100% either (power limit at 133%) even at 1.175 1302(boost)/1700(+.05v).

Im wondering if I should bother seeing as how I get 1302 anyway at 1.175.

 

[Malice652]

I can get the kgb.exe to display my extracted gk104.rom. But I can't get it to apply the modified voltages as per the .cfg even if I type "gk104.rom unlock". How do you do this?

 

[dtrunk]

so you've launched command prompt with administrative privileges? You should be in the kgb folder and the command should be:

kgb.exe gk104.rom unlock

(assuming the rom file is named gk104.rom) and i don't recall if i got a success message or what, but pretty sure i had.

 

[Boulard83]

Im also usgin KGB but mostly to allow 100% fanspeed on my ref GTX670 with an Accelero TTII on it. I was stuck at 30-80% fan. I can now run my card near 1300mhz benching with OK temp.

 

[Malice652]

so you've launched command prompt with administrative privileges? You should be in the kgb folder and the command should be:

kgb.exe gk104.rom unlock

(assuming the rom file is named gk104.rom) and i don't recall if i got a success message or what, but pretty sure i had.

Yes, I'm launching the cmd prompt with admin privilages... still no go. I'm thinking my EVGA gtx 690s may be hardware locked.

 

[Boulard83]

Its supposed to work on GTX690s, on the original thread from XS.com ive seen a few GTX690s that KGB unlocked.

 

[dtrunk]

@malice: what happens when you run the command? you have all the bits of kgb in a folder named kgb in the root of c:? (the exe and the cfg file...AND the gk104.rom?) I renamed the rom file to simply g.rom, not sure it that would make a difference.

maybe try another version of gpuz to save the bios file? i read something about people having issues with different versions. i used v0.6.4.

I guess you could always email me your rom file and i can try unlocking it? PM if you want to try this.

 

[Malice652]

I'm running the kgb.exe from a folder with the GK104.rom and the (unaltered) .cfg.
I've tried GPU-Z v0.6.4 and v0.6.6 with the same result.

I had a thought earlier... because I'm running quad sli do I need to flash each card individually?
Not to meantion the 690 has a slave BIOS and a master one. Do I need to unlock both?

 

[dtrunk]

@malice; my email addy is my username here @gmail.com... haha. I can try unlocking it and let you know.

However, i'd HIGHLY suggest you at least read up on KGB and 690's; either on kgb's forums or on he XS forums, where this topic is much more active. You have a really nice system and I'd hate to give u bad advice. what in the WORLD you want to run with OC'd 690s, i have no idea... but it will be beautiful to say the least.

 

[jason4207]

I'd definitely try using 1 card at a time.

 

[Malice652]

@malice; my email addy is my username here @gmail.com... haha. I can try unlocking it and let you know.

However, i'd HIGHLY suggest you at least read up on KGB and 690's; either on kgb's forums or on he XS forums, where this topic is much more active. You have a really nice system and I'd hate to give u bad advice. what in the WORLD you want to run with OC'd 690s, i have no idea... but it will be beautiful to say the least.

KGB has its own forum... I was unaware. Can you pass me a link?

 

[Boulard83]

Google is your best friend

3rd result with : KGB bios

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?284014-KGB-Kepler-BIOS-Editor-Unlocker

 

[Malice652]

Is the 690 even flashable considering it has a BIOS for each GPU? I mean... how do you denote which BIOS is flashed?

 

[dtrunk]

malice, read up on the nvflash link i provided at the end of my original post. there are several command in nvlfash that you'll need to use in order to flash the 690. You'll need to use the command to signify which part of the card (bios) to flash to, and then i have named the files gk1.rom and gk2.rom so you will have to specify 1 for the first bios and 2 for the second bios. read up bro, you dont want to make a mistke here. i would suggest doing one card at a time, from unlock to finding the max OC. then once you have the max oc for both cards... decide on a 24/7 overclock, say 10%-15% less then the max OC... hook them up in sli and set your 24/7, make sure sync is set, benchmark them in unigine and work out stability issues. (if any)

ps: emailed those back to you; gk1.rom is the "first" one you sent me and gk2.rom is the "second" file.

pss: dont forget, for me, when i restarted, installed the drivers, restarted, the card was already OC'd to 1358 core / stock for the memory. so you might have to use a negative number to underclock the card closer to stock for testing reasons. (dont forget to click apply)

 

[Boulard83]

+1 for the clock, if i leave my GTX670 at 0% core clock and a ligth 110% PT, i end up running ~1100mhz while gaming but my card is supposed to be a 945mhz GTX670. Its a 150mhz OC that the card do alone with boost clocks. My temp are really low with tha accelero TTII, this help since the card look at the temp (and other parameter) to clock itself.

 

[dtrunk]

Any luck Malice?

 

[Malice652]

I flashed all four GPUs and got the 150% power target and about a 50 to 60mhz higher oc. Which is great considering all programs still read the voltage at 1.175 even though I tried the .rom files unlocked to 2.000 and 2.120. The 2.000 would crash on any overclock and the 2.120 would'nt let me install any drivers. At this point I'm fairly certain these cards are hardware locked.

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3960X @4.5Ghz Prime stable w/ XSPC waterblock + EVGA X79 Classified + EVGA GTX 690 Quad-SLI w/ XSPC waterblocks + 16GB Corsair Dominator GT + ASUS Xonar Essence STX + Koolance ERM-3K3U + OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 Max IOPS 240GB + Intel 320 SSD 120GB + EVGA SuperNOVA NEX1500 PSU