What should I do about my Titan X (Maxwell 2015)?

[webdj777]

Hi guys,

I have a Titan X (Maxwell 2015) that I've used for the last 5 years. I'm looking to get some extra life out of it, and haven't overclocked it or anything before.

I installed HWMonitor, GPU-Z, and MSI Afterburner and took a look at things BEFORE overclocking

• Temp reaches 87C while gaming or running FuMark
• The clocks fluctuate all over the place, from 900Mhz-1100Mhz
• It says it's limited by power

Things I've tried

• I changed the fans to Auto in MSI Afterburner and despite it sounding like a jet engine, it's not seemingly any cooler
• I tried increasing the power/temp limit in MSI Afterburner (only goes up to 110%), but no real difference
• After increasing power/temp limit, I gave the clock +100Mhz just to see what would happen and it crashed.

Question: Why is it running so slow and hot, and what can I do about it? What would you do in my shoes (maybe just accept that the card is old and dying)?

Thanks! <3


Screenshot while running FuMark:

 

[EarthDog]

1. Stop using Furmark. That is why your clocks are dropping so low. During gaming, I'd imagine the clocks are quite a bit higher.
2. You're likely not going to get more out of it, honestly. Raise the power limit as far as you can go, run the scanner tool and see what it says for you core overclock.

The idea with modern cards, NV in particular, is to balance between clocks, hitting the power limit, and temperatures.

I don't think the card is dieing at all. I just think its furmark running and the card throttling back to protect itself. Both NV and AMD called Furmark a power virus and suggested not to use it.

 

[webdj777]

That's actually very useful thank you!

1. Stop using Furmark. That is why your clocks are dropping so low. During gaming, I'd imagine the clocks are quite a bit higher.
I don't think the card is dieing at all. I just think its furmark running and the card throttling back to protect itself. Both NV and AMD called Furmark a power virus and suggested not to use it.

I only used Furmark because it was mentioned in an article someone wrote about this card. What's the good benchmark/stress test to use these days?

2. You're likely not going to get more out of it, honestly.

Why am I likely not going to get more out of it? Silicon lottery? Age of chip? The videos from 2015 of people overclocking this card (like Jayztwocents) were doing 200+Mhz overclocks with cooler temps than I have.

Thanks again!

 

[webdj777]

Follow-up -- "run the scanner tool". It looks like this isn't available for Maxwell cards, at least in Afterburner. Is there an alternative?

 

[EarthDog]

You may be at the point where you need to take it apart to clean off the old thermal paste and reapply. That can help. But you're temperature limited I'd imagine.

I forgot that was for Turing cards (scanner) my fault...

I run 3DMark (Fire Strike/Time Spy) Unigine Superposition... just loop them.

You'll have to see how far it goes without throttling (hitting the power limit) and keeping temps where they are at.

 

[webdj777]

You may be at the point where you need to take it apart to clean off the old thermal paste and reapply. That can help. But you're temperature limited I'd imagine.

I forgot that was for Turing cards (scanner) my fault...

I run 3DMark (Fire Strike/Time Spy) Unigine Superposition... just loop them.

You'll have to see how far it goes without throttling (hitting the power limit) and keeping temps where they are at.

Thanks for your advice! After a few hours of tinkering, here's my Fire Strike results

Baseline: 13,516 | 87.5/65.5fps

+ Fans = auto
Result: 13,694 | 86/69fps

+ Power Limit/Temp Limit maxed (110%/91C)
Result: 13,509 | 85.5/68.5fps

+ Core clock +50mhz
Result: 14,172 | 89/72.5fps

+ Memory +350mhz
Result: 14, 293 | 91.5/73.5fps

+ Voltage maxed (+112v), Custom aggressive fan curve maxing out to 100% at 85C
Result: 14,447 | 92/75.5

During the Fire Strike tests, at least, it's still RelPwr limited, not thermal, so I guess this is the best I can do.

I'm not sure what the impact of running the fans at 100% is. Maybe the voltage+aggressive fan curve isn't worthwhile for the 1-2fps.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[EarthDog]

Running the fans at 100% counts against your power limit too IIRC. With these cards you DON"T want to crank the voltage or you will hit the power limit earlier. Leave voltage at stock, see how far you can push. Does it throttle? No... raise voltage a bit, push on... yes? You're at the limit.

 

[maxfly]

What kind of case cooling are you running? You may need to crank up your case fans or add one or two to improve your overall cooling. A quick way to find out is to take your side panel off and see if your temps improve. If they do you know your case cooling is the cause.

 

[webdj777]

What kind of case cooling are you running? You may need to crank up your case fans or add one or two to improve your overall cooling. A quick way to find out is to take your side panel off and see if your temps improve. If they do you know your case cooling is the cause.

I actually just bought a new case -- Fractal Meshify C. So it has brand new case fans. Whether the side panel is on or not doesn't seem to make a difference.

 

[caddi daddi]

titan maxwell was made for water cooling!!!!
stock they are bears to cool.
I have one with an LN2 bios, and no air cooler will work for it.
Look for A full coverage water block or re-tim it and hope for the best.

 

[SPL Tech]

Superposition is the bench GPU benchmark on the net. Use that instead.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

Change the fan profile if you can to something like in this pic:

 

[webdj777]

Thanks guys. Are there any tutorials on disassembling the fan/radiator thingy on this card to clean it out? I apparently don't have the right hex wrench I think.

 

[EarthDog]

The right hex wrench is a start.

I would just use canned air or an air compressor.

 

[webdj777]

Yeah I just need to figure it what size the hex wrench is.

 

[Haider]

Yeah I just need to figure it what size the hex wrench is.

Look for some guides on watercooling the card. Those will show you how to take the current heatsink/fans off. I would get some Thermal Grizzly TIM . Clean the old stuff with isopropyl alcohol. I did this recently to my child's Sapphire Radeon 7970 Vapor-X GHz Edition. She only plays Roblox & Minecraft...

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

If it gives reason of power limit in Heaven 4.0 and the GPU core frequency is yo-yo'ing when in Heaven 4.0, then that's a known symptom of wrong/corrupted VBIOS. Otherwise, turn the fan up, suspect Maxwells of having the fan RPM ridiculously low!