MSI GTX 1080 Armor OC overvolt?

[AtomKanister]

Can the voltage be adjusted on the GTX 1080 Armor OC or does it have a locked voltage? Voltage bar in Afterburner is greyed out even with voltage control enabled in the settings. In EVGA Precision I can adjust it (form standard 93% to 100%) but it doesn't seem to have any effects.

 

[Blaylock]

MSI is pretty notorious for locked voltages in their GPU's. I would not be surprised if it was, but you will need to find someone else with the Armor OC version to verify. IIRC the Lightning edition is generally their unlocked version.

 

[EarthDog]

MSI cards are typically not locked (in my experience)... that is, until Pascal... where most of these are locked/neutered at this time. That said, I did have the appearance of voltage control with both the 1070 and 1080 Gaming lines, but, when I moved the slider, I only saw a maximum change of around .03V or so.... almost within a margin of error to me. I have a 1060 in hand of MSI and so far MSI AB cannot even read the clocks or overclock on it. But I think that is more a function of AB not reading the VR than it is anything. I have an email out to MSI on the 1060 and AB. I can report back.

I haven't had a 1080 armor, so I cannot speak to that card specifically. But if its unlocked in one software, it can be unlocked in another (with an update).

 

[Blaylock]

MSI cards are typically not locked (in my experience)...

I stand corrected. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Jeff G]

when I moved the slider, I only saw a maximum change of around .03V or so

That was my exact experience with the Gigabyte cards, and from reading online it seems to be the same with all of them.

 

[Woomack]

In probably all available GTX1070/80 you can set 1.08V max while stock voltage in 3D is 1.05V. So as EarthDog said you can add "all" 0.03V and it barely affects max overclocking. There are no fully unlocked cards on the market yet. Maybe will be something soon or we will see any soft to edit BIOS.

MSI is not locking their cards. Simply most their cards have standard max voltage limits and low OCP/OVP, the same as reference cards. The same is for Gigabyte, EVGA ( non-Classified series ), ASUS ( non-Matrix or anything on special BIOS ), MSI, Palit, Zotac and everything else. It's because all have agreement with nvidia and have to set the same limits or they lose support. I have no idea how are they agreeing about these fully unlocked cards like Classified or Matrix.
MSI Afterburner has sometimes added lock for some graphics series. For some cards you just need newer version or special OC version ( which is not officially available ). If it's not working then you can use other soft.

 

[EarthDog]

They aren't the same limits...at least, not on the surface.

Each card has a different power limit. I have dinged/applauded AIBs for having low/higher power limits on their cards. Some go to 107% others 110%, some 126% with some in between. That said, I don't know if their BIOS is still setting a limit at the same wattages but where the slider goes, its different for sure.

 

[Woomack]

Power limits are different but I meant voltage limits. In most cases in GTX1000 series it doesn't matter how high is power limit as without higher voltages cards are not passing ~110% and all cards have the same max voltage. It could matter if voltage controllers were different and some cards would overvolt vcore. It was happening in older MSI cards but I don't know if any new cards have the same.

On my card I've noticed that even if power spikes above power limit then card is not throttling or at least GPU-Z is not showing it. I mean something like when I set 110% and max power is 112% or 115%. For most of the time my card is near 100% even after overvoltage ( "even" as it's all 0.03V ).

 

[JrClocker]

I have the power limit on my GTX 1080 FTW turned up to 120%.

The card usually stays under 100% TDP (with occasional spikes over 100%) while folding...The GPU stays boost 2075 to 2125 MHz.

The only thing that causes my GPU to downclock is temperature.

It doesn't look like Pascal cards are using all of the power limit.

 

[EarthDog]

It doesn't look like Pascal cards are using all of the power limit.

Most cards prior to Pascal didn't hit the limit until you overclocked AND added voltage. The problem here is that you cannot seem to add a worthwhile amount of voltage to push the overclock for whatever reason.

 

[Jeff G]

The problem here is that you cannot seem to add a worthwhile amount of voltage to push the overclock for whatever reason.

This is pretty much exactly what I'm seeing too. My card doesn't seem to be anywhere near the limit, but I can't go higher due to lack of voltage.

 

[`sbr`]

so MSI GTX 1080 ARMOR OC cards are not good for OC? is Voltage adjustment needed for OC further?

 

[Blaylock]

My understanding is most Pascal cards are voltage locked. It's not so much MSI that's causing the issue. This is the norm for this generation of nVidia GPU.

 

[Jeff G]

My understanding is most Pascal cards are voltage locked. It's not so much MSI that's causing the issue. This is the norm for this generation of nVidia GPU.

I don't know how legitimate THIS article is, but it claims just setting sliders to max and nothing else will effectively bring the lifespan of a Pascal card to 1 year. Going higher, they say it would bring it to 30 days. I don't know if I believe that, since most cards come with several years of warranty, but it's an interesting read.

 

[SPL Tech]

I don't know how legitimate THIS article is,

Not at all. Any source that says that overclocking your card is automatically going to reduce the warranty to x number of days or years has no idea what they are talking about and no idea how consumer protection laws in the United States work. It is illegal for any vendor, retailer, wholesaler, manufacturer or anyone else in any industry to reduce, void, strike or otherwise modify the warranty of any product solely because you modified that product, that is unless the modification directly caused the warranty claim. Those "warranty void if removed" stickers you see on computers and such are illegal and if a company refused to warranty your computer solely because one of those stickers were broken, you could bring them to court and likely win. Basically the short is that unless the modification you did caused the product to fail, no one can void your warranty. If overclocking the card results in it's failure, the manufacturer can strike the warranty. However, if you say overclock the memory and the fan fails, it would be a federal offense for the manufacturer to refuse to fix the fan because you overclocked the memory which clearly has nothing to do with the fan.

Read and learn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson–Moss_Warranty_Act

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gv5ddm/warranty-void-if-removed-stickers-are-illegal

https://www.eteknix.com/tamper-proofing-stickers-cant-void-your-warranty/

 

[EarthDog]

There are a lot of companies breaking the law then...

That isnt as all encompasing as you make it out to be.

 

[Jeff G]

Not at all. Any source that says that overclocking your card is automatically going to reduce the warranty to x number of days or years has no idea what they are talking about]

I don't think the article mentioned anything about warranty. They simply stated the lifespan of the GPU is shortened. If my 1080 ti dies within my 5 year warranty, you better believe I will be making sure I get a warranty replacement. I'm using the bundled software that came with my card, making no adjustments outside of the Zotac pre-defined limits set by them.
I can understand a company denying warranty based off a card whose bios has been flashed to another card, or in the case of someone physically modifying the card, but if it fails within 5 years simply because the slider is at 100% then I'd expect them to honor the warranty.

I really can't see a card die after a year of usage just because the voltage slider is at 100%, but what they're claiming is that setting it to 100% means the card runs full out even when idle. I will have to verify, but I'm pretty sure that is not the case. With voltage at 100%, power limit at 120%, and temp at 90c (all sliders maxed), I'm pretty sure my card sits at .8v when idle.
And I'm sure the Nvidia limit of 1.093v is their max voltage to not have cards burning up within the first few years. With the sliders maxed, I'm not seeing anything near that, so again I can't see the sliders causing premature death.