r9 380 throttling at stock with +20watt limit???

[Smalls1369]

I've searched around and have not found any useful information... perhaps this is common knowledge. I have limited experience with amd cards and gpu overclocking.

I got a powercolor r9 380 a few months back from a buddy for pretty cheap to replace my gtx570. This card does everything i need it to do at stock speeds 1080p gaming is just fine.

I ventured to start overclocking it because I play some newer titles and thought.. what the hell.. May as well get a few extra frames so long as i can keep temps sub 80s. I bumped the core to 1040 or so and its still at stock voltage however I never seemed to notice an increase in frames but just assumed it was in my head for a while. I got curious today and started watching my temps as i just redid the thermal paste and cleaned the heat sink.. i realized that my core was at 850 to 900. I start messing around with the overclock settings and never got it to stay higher than low 900s even though stock it at 980 and I set it to 1040 and I had increased the power limit to +20!

This card is constantly throttling to a lower than stock clock no matter what settings i put it on. Is there a work around to bump this power limit up? I know it is not my temps as no matter what i cannot get it to rise about mid 70s and usually when I play csgo with the frame limiter on it stays in the mid 60s.

 

[Nebulous]

If you're using AMD's Crimson software to overclock, don't. Use MSI's AfterBurner. Revert back to stock/defaults with Crimson and leave it alone, then use MSI AB to overclock it. I had the same card and mine clocked pretty decent until it would start blacking out. RMA'ed it and got a Red Devil RX480. AMD's are nortorious with heat so use a fan curve in AB to correlate with the temps. Don't expect much clocking out of the 380 tho.


Try using this guide to help you out:
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/powercolor_devil_radeon_r9_390x_review,26.html


Again don't expect much as the heat will make it throttle. They respond better when watercooled tho.

 

[Smalls1369]

If you're using AMD's Crimson software to overclock, don't. Use MSI's AfterBurner. Revert back to stock/defaults with Crimson and leave it alone, then use MSI AB to overclock it. I had the same card and mine clocked pretty decent until it would start blacking out. RMA'ed it and got a Red Devil RX480. AMD's are nortorious with heat so use a fan curve in AB to correlate with the temps. Don't expect much clocking out of the 380 tho.


Try using this guide to help you out:
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/powercolor_devil_radeon_r9_390x_review,26.html


Again don't expect much as the heat will make it throttle. They respond better when watercooled tho.

So here is the thing... its not heat. My temps are actually very good. I use msi afterburner and have a custom fan setup where 75c is 100% fan. Usually only reaches 70-80% fan though.

on msi I found that by undervolting it and overclocking it i can reach a stable and cool 1020mhz that does not throttle. Any more volts it throttles because volts=power.. so 20% power limit is met(im guessing.. so frustrating)

My temps rarely pass 70c with this setup. Even if i change the fan curve and let it hit 85c it still doesnt throttle until I raise the voltage. It all comes down to this hard 20% power limit(that seems pretty inaccurate as it doesn't even allow the gpu to run at stock with good temps so how is that passing the power limit??)

Anyway to force a higher limit?

 

[Nebulous]

Sry, but that's a no. Noway of bypassing it to go any higher short of either a volt mod or a bios mod. You're at the mercy of AMD. Best bet is to sell that R9 380 and if you still want to stay with AMD, go with an RX480/RX580 or an Nvidia 1060/1070.

I sold the RX480 and picked up the 1070 (sig). Haven't looked back.