980ti classified custom BIOS?

[Infinite66]

Bought a 980ti Classy to replace a problem riddent sapphire Fury tri-X. Stock voltageand ppwer target I managed to get +75mhz core and +350mhz memory. 3dmark and valley stable for multiple runs.

Problem is that as soon as I even touch the power target % or voltage slider a little, the driver crashes in any benchmark. This is both with the 112% powertarget/ +50mv of the one BIOS and the 142% powertarget/ +1.3v of the OC BIOS.

Now is there some type of overclocking finesse needed that Im missing for this card? Or is there a custom BIOS to bypass this problem? Really want to squeeze this card for what I can. Being stuck at stock voltage is kind of a slap in the face for a classified edition card.

Maybe I'm just not doing something that Nvidia cards need that AMD didnt?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

What is it boosting to during usage?
What are the temps when at full boost?

 

[Infinite66]

What is it boosting to during usage?
What are the temps when at full boost?

1480mhz during boost. Hits max of 65C after repated 3dmark extreme runs. 60-70% fans.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Sounds like you need to cool it down some. The higher voltage is most likely causing you to drop boost clock.
1480MHz boost on a 980Ti is solid though, for sure.

Did you try overclocking just the core?

 

[Infinite66]

Sounds like you need to cool it down some. The higher voltage is most likely causing you to drop boost clock.
1480MHz boost on a 980Ti is solid though, for sure.

Did you try overclocking just the core?

Really? Mid y0s is considered too hot? I heard maxwell was finnicky with temperature but wow.

And yea. Ive tried every variant of OC. On both the BIOSs. With the card on OC BIOS, 142% Pt and +1.3v, the card stays stable in bemching but the boost drops to 1200mhz-ish. Is that the thermal throttle?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Yeah, you're either hitting the power limit or thermally throttling.
What's your power usage percentage?

When you hit 70°C you'll drop your first level of boost.

 

[Infinite66]

Yeah, you're either hitting the power limit or thermally throttling.
What's your power usage percentage?

When you hit 70°C you'll drop your first level of boost.

Highest PT % I saw was around 119% but then the card would be also hitting 72C at this point. (at +1.3v mind you). Boost would come back down to 1200ish mhz at this point as well.

Is there nothing I can do to reduce/remove the throttle?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

You can try changing the temp target, but I don't believe so other than cooling it down.

 

[Infinite66]

You can try changing the temp target, but I don't believe so other than cooling it down.

Hmm. Ill try some stuff when I get home. Manually crank the fans to 100%. See what I can get stable then. If the card manages higher speed, might consider goong under water with it. The 980ti classy uses the same block/backplate as the 780ti classy right? EK block at least.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Same block as the 780 Classy, IIRC.

 

[Infinite66]

Same block as the 780 Classy, IIRC.

Ok thanks for all the help. Ill take a look at it all when I get home. Youd think cards like the classified/kingpin edition carda would just have all safeties removed from the factory. I mean you're paying extra for the card. Thermal throttling at 70C is a bit over-protective of the card.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Ok thanks for all the help. Ill take a look at it all when I get home. Youd think cards like the classified/kingpin edition carda would just have all safeties removed from the factory. I mean you're paying extra for the card. Thermal throttling at 70C is a bit over-protective of the card.

They have to abide by rules set by nVidia just like all manufacturers.

 

[Infinite66]

They have to abide by rules set by nVidia just like all manufacturers.

Oh I meant more like company wide. Bot just evga stuff. Msi lightning, galaxy HOF, asus matrix platinum etc. Suprised nvidia doesn't give them special allowance for their "big boy" line of cards.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Oh I meant more like company wide. Bot just evga stuff. Msi lightning, galaxy HOF, asus matrix platinum etc. Suprised nvidia doesn't give them special allowance for their "big boy" line of cards.

The "special" stuff lays in the hands of sponsored benchers and people doing hard mods.

 

[Infinite66]

The "special" stuff lays in the hands of sponsored benchers and people doing hard mods.

True. There is that. Oh well. One can dream.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Agreed with Atminside here, I have a Classy 980 Kingpin and it's a beast but only if you can keep it cool. On air it's tough to get any big time Oc's out of it. Though you may want to try dropping the voltage down a bit and see what it will do. It's not going to scale very well with voltage if you can't tame the heat.

 

[Infinite66]

Agreed with Atminside here, I have a Classy 980 Kingpin and it's a beast but only if you can keep it cool. On air it's tough to get any big time Oc's out of it. Though you may want to try dropping the voltage down a bit and see what it will do. It's not going to scale very well with voltage if you can't tame the heat.

That seems to be the general concencus on the 980ti. Great clockers if you can keep them tame.

That said I'm going to ramp fans to 100% and keep them there for benching. See what it gives me and see if the card warrants a water block. Assuming does, would a single alphacool UT60 240mm and UT60 360mm rad with push/pull be enough to keep the card sub 70s? It would be sharing the loop with an i5 4690k. 4.6ghz @ 1.3v.

Both gpu and cpu are on air right now but I fogure If I'm going to spend the money to put the gpu on water, whats an extra $80 for a good intel block? I already have the rads.

 

[Infinite66]

Okay, so oddly enough, here are my results after playing with the card in it's OC BIOS switch position. As I said earlier, the core would go to +75mhz and the memory +350mhz.

The core is sticking to its guns and doesn't go past +75mhz. I enabled K-boost, over-voltage, set power target to 142%, and set voltage to 1.3v. Keeping memory at stock I went for +100mhz on the core. Artifacts on 3dmark, Same with +95, +90, +85mhz on the core with same power target and voltage. It seems the card just does NOT want to go higher than +75mhz.

So I started playing with the memory at what I can get at 1.3v and 142% power target while keeping the core at +75mhz. Managed to get +625mhz on the memory!

Lastly I started turning down the voltage while keeping the core at +75mhz and the memory at +625mhz. I was actually able to disable over-voltage and just use the standard voltage slider! At 142% power target, 91C as temp target, +50mv I was able to do multiple runs of 3dmark and Valley. The card is hitting 69C at a max now after setting a manual fan curve.

Can't say my card is a dud, but it just doesn't like the juice unless I cool it WAY down. I don't even need the super high power target honestly. The card peaked at 114% in 3dmark. Oh and now for some reason, the card's sustained boost state is 1493mhz on the core rather than the previous 1480mhz. Only 13mhz but hey, I'll take it!

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Lots of Maxwell are hitting a "wall" until they're taken cold, some loosen up on water.

With the radiators you listed you could run your whole system on water.
I would just get some of the iPPC PWM fans, you won't need push/pull.

 

[Witchdoctor]

Not as nice as the iPPC's but very similar to AP15's

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...Swiftech-Helix-PMW-Fans?p=7909090#post7909090