Do I just have a crappy GTX460? OC results suck

[Idontcare]

OK, brief backstory - last fall I bought an MSI GTX460 Cyclone. 725MHz stock with 975mV stock voltage. My PSU is a Corsair 620HX.

That cyclone would only OC to about 830MHz when hit with the max 1087mV. After about 2wks of use the card wasn't even stable at stock clocks, massive artifacting in Kombustor. (I did not run it overclocked, just used Afterburner to checkout the OC'ing at the time, then ran it at stock thereafter)

I RMA'ed the card, MSI concluded it was a bad card not even fixable so they sent me a new retail (shrink wrapped and everything) Cyclone replacement.

This new cyclone runs at 1000mV stock. I bought an Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Plus to replace the cyclone HSF.

At stock (725MHz @ 1000mV) fully loaded with OCCT and fanspeed set to 80% my GTX460 runs 60°C (ambient is 19°C).

If I max the voltage (1087mV) the max overclock I can go to is ~830MHz (temps are ~65C with OCCT). If I go any higher my computer will actually reboot after running GPU OCCT for about 10minutes.

So I'm really scratching my head here. I couldn't have better cooling unless I went with water-cooled, my temps are good, but this is the second GTX460 for me that just seems to OC like crap.

Did I get a crappy GTX460 or is there something else limiting me here?

My PSU passes the OCCT PSU test. My cpu is a Q6600 @ stock.

One thing that may be making a difference is that I have two screens, maybe having two screens really takes a bite out of the stability of a GTX460 at any given OC?

 

[Termie]

I think your card is performing exactly up to expectations, based on Anandtech's reviews of GTX460 overclocking: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3810/nvidias-geforce-gtx-460-part-2-the-vendor-cards/7

The GTX460 was never temp-limited in its overclock, so putting on a new cooler (when you already had a very good cyclone cooler) wasn't going to buy you any higher OCing potential. You're getting great temps at full load, so obviously, your cooler is working.

I've seen a few people with higher overclocks, but not many.

Verdict: nothing wrong with your card...Enjoy the 830Mhz overclock!

 

[superccs]

Hmm... I am running a 42" HDTV and a 24" monitor with my GTX 460 cyclone and it pulls to at least 850Mhz on 1.01V (stock) very easily. At full load the temps are also in the high 50's - low 60's. I think you might have gotten a pair of shabby cards or possibly have a driver issue.

Not sure why you dumped the cyclone cooler, it is the business.

 

[Skurge]

Looks like pure bad luck I would say, but 850mhz is about average I guess.

 

[Elfear]

Might be that the people with higher overclocks than yours simply don't put their cards through the same battery of tests. Some people are satisfied if it plays Pac Man without crashing while others will test stability in OCCT, Kombustor, and a variety of games.

A stock 460 runs at 675Mhz so 830Mhz isn't bad at all.

 

[Rifter]

Both mine hit 900Mhz alone but i settled with 860Mhz as a goood combination of power/heat in SLI. Around 850Mhz seems like a normal overclock give or take 20Mhz. I have seen on a few forums that the newer Cyclones are not overclocking as well as the launch units, perhaps MSI is binning the good 460's for the Hawk cards now.

 

[Zap]

Looks like pure bad luck I would say, but 850mhz is about average I guess.

"Average" means there are bound to be some cards that are below that number.

 

[SunnyD]

"Overclocking. YMMV."

People need to understand that not everything will ever overclock to what other people are getting.

 

[Castiel]

OK, brief backstory - last fall I bought an MSI GTX460 Cyclone. 725MHz stock with 975mV stock voltage. My PSU is a Corsair 620HX.

That cyclone would only OC to about 830MHz when hit with the max 1087mV. After about 2wks of use the card wasn't even stable at stock clocks, massive artifacting in Kombustor. (I did not run it overclocked, just used Afterburner to checkout the OC'ing at the time, then ran it at stock thereafter)

I RMA'ed the card, MSI concluded it was a bad card not even fixable so they sent me a new retail (shrink wrapped and everything) Cyclone replacement.

This new cyclone runs at 1000mV stock. I bought an Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Plus to replace the cyclone HSF.

At stock (725MHz @ 1000mV) fully loaded with OCCT and fanspeed set to 80% my GTX460 runs 60°C (ambient is 19°C).

If I max the voltage (1087mV) the max overclock I can go to is ~830MHz (temps are ~65C with OCCT). If I go any higher my computer will actually reboot after running GPU OCCT for about 10minutes.

So I'm really scratching my head here. I couldn't have better cooling unless I went with water-cooled, my temps are good, but this is the second GTX460 for me that just seems to OC like crap.

Did I get a crappy GTX460 or is there something else limiting me here?

My PSU passes the OCCT PSU test. My cpu is a Q6600 @ stock.

One thing that may be making a difference is that I have two screens, maybe having two screens really takes a bite out of the stability of a GTX460 at any given OC?

IDC.. It's a bad card. I've seen Asus DirectCU 460's over 900c at 1.087v. It's time for a flash to unlock 1.2v

Bios

http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/781924-gtx460-1-087v-voltage-cap-unlock.html

 

[ZipSpeed]

Both MSI 460 Cyclones I have in my Folding rig is running 850 MHz without any voltage adjustments. The first card I got back in September last year. The second just last week. I did notice my new card runs about 7C hotter than the older one.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Both MSI 460 Cyclones I have in my Folding rig is running 850 MHz without any voltage adjustments. The first card I got back in September last year. The second just last week. I did notice my new card runs about 7C hotter than the older one.

And what is your stock voltage? It differs from chip to chip.

 

[Idontcare]

I think your card is performing exactly up to expectations, based on Anandtech's reviews of GTX460 overclocking: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3810/nvidias-geforce-gtx-460-part-2-the-vendor-cards/7

The GTX460 was never temp-limited in its overclock, so putting on a new cooler (when you already had a very good cyclone cooler) wasn't going to buy you any higher OCing potential. You're getting great temps at full load, so obviously, your cooler is working.

I've seen a few people with higher overclocks, but not many.

Verdict: nothing wrong with your card...Enjoy the 830Mhz overclock!

True, true.

Not sure why you dumped the cyclone cooler, it is the business.

For no other reason than I was curious to see what stepping up to this new HSF would be like. Same reason I went VapoLS on my CPU only to step back to tuniq tower air cooling, just effing around, its cheap fun.

Might be that the people with higher overclocks than yours simply don't put their cards through the same battery of tests. Some people are satisfied if it plays Pac Man without crashing while others will test stability in OCCT, Kombustor, and a variety of games.

A stock 460 runs at 675Mhz so 830Mhz isn't bad at all.

This is what I am wondering...I use OCCT because I like the analytical finality that comes with error checking.

Kombustor is nice and all but I'd rather not merely rely on the method of my eyes teasing out artifacts being the stamp of stability.

"Overclocking. YMMV."

People need to understand that not everything will ever overclock to what other people are getting.

Really!? I had no idea, thanks for cluing me in :thumbsup:

IDC.. It's a bad card. I've seen Asus DirectCU 460's over 900c at 1.087v. It's time for a flash to unlock 1.2v

Bios

http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/781924-gtx460-1-087v-voltage-cap-unlock.html

That was my plan when I bought the cooler, but take a look at the shmoo plot for my specific 460:

Look at how quickly that voltage curve is ramping! (the light blue circles)

It fits as a ramp-rate to the power of 3.6 (!) which means even at 1.2V the best I could expect is stable clockspeed of only 870MHz.

I have no qualms over throwing the volts at the gpu, if it burns up I just buy another one, but I'd want to see 1GHz out of it to make the effort pay dividends when it comes to the enjoyment factor.

Oh well. Not going to worry about it, it is what it is.

 

[happy medium]

have you tried it on one screen yet? two screens could be a problem.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Personally, I believe that the variances reported by the community who overclock are all using a different standard for stability. I have no doubt that if Idontcare gave his card to a random 5 members here who overclock, they would all end up with a different 'stable' overclock. Some people having a higher tolerance for voltage, temps, artifacts, etc... I firmly believe this applies to CPUs as well.

 

[Castiel]

With that AC cooler i would throw as much voltage as i can through it.

 

[busydude]

That was my plan when I bought the cooler, but take a look at the shmoo plot for my specific 460:

Did you use some kind of program to plot it? I mean, did you input those values manually or use some kind of program?

 

[Idontcare]

Did you use some kind of program to plot it? I mean, did you input those values manually or use some kind of program?

Manually.

I use MSI Afterburner to set the voltage (min granularity is 12.5mV steps) and I use OCCT to tune for the maximum stable clockspeed at each given voltage setting.

Fanspeed was fixed at a constant 80% for all tests, ambient temperature was held constant at 18.9°C.

Your basic Shmoo sweep, albeit the poor-man's style.

 

[bryanW1995]

that OC is weak, but I'd say that it's not more than one standard deviation below the mean. I had an e6750 a few years ago like that, I thought I would get monster OC's on it from reading the forums, and it ended up being very weak. Fortunately, my current i7 is happy to go to 4.2+, and my gtx 460 goes over 900 at 1.087.

 

[Termie]

that OC is weak, but I'd say that it's not more than one standard deviation below the mean. I had an e6750 a few years ago like that, I thought I would get monster OC's on it from reading the forums, and it ended up being very weak. Fortunately, my current i7 is happy to go to 4.2+, and my gtx 460 goes over 900 at 1.087.

The 768MB models overclock more easily, so that's not quite apples-to-apples. I also think the OP is putting his cards through a pretty tough test, which others have pointed out.

Overall, yes, the OC is a little low, but it's reasonable.

 

[bryanW1995]

it's not reasonable to use a single card as a comparison, anyway, but generally the gtx 460 OC's (vast majority have been 1gb) that I've seen/heard about here would put his card below the 50% mark.

 

[happy medium]

I think its very wierd that he recieved 2 cards and the overclocking potential is 830 core, something just dosen't sound right.

 

[WelshBloke]

I think its very wierd that he recieved 2 cards and the overclocking potential is 830 core, something just dosen't sound right.

Why?

Your always going to hear more noise from the people that get the epic overclocks. People dont tend to post alot (or get their posts reposted) all over the internet when they get average results.

Theres a reason why cards are released at the speeds they are, if every card was able to clock to the skys don't you think they'd be released with that performance (and cost)?

Spoiler

Odd card (9500, hd6950, etc) unlocks not included.

 

[bryanW1995]

well, gtx 460 was artificially limited b/c 1. they didn't want it to be too close to gtx 470 performance, and 2. they wanted to sell it for ~ $200 to really make a splash in the market. they accomplished both of those goals. 775-800 would have been a more "natural" clock speed, hence the enormous overclocking room.

 

[WelshBloke]

well, gtx 460 was artificially limited b/c 1. they didn't want it to be too close to gtx 470 performance, and 2. they wanted to sell it for ~ $200 to really make a splash in the market. they accomplished both of those goals. 775-800 would have been a more "natural" clock speed, hence the enormous overclocking room.

I'm never convinced by those arguments.

The 460 is (I assume) cheaper for NV to make. If they could get consistent 470 performance with the same rate of failure why wouldn't they just release a higher clocked 460 as the 470?

 

[Serradifalco]

My results are in my sig. I think for stock voltage, you have done fine.