GTX 480 Overclocking Woes

[Bryf50]

In the interest of stretching out the lifespan on my GTX 480 by overclocking it I bought this ARCTIC COOLING Accelero XTREME Plus II. The temps and noise are insanely better than stock. 60C vs 90C Load at the OC in my Sig!

I used EVGAs OC scanner to check stability. The first thing I did was bump the voltage up to a modest 1.1v. At that voltage every time I started OC Scanner, regardless of clock speed, my computer would reset. But what I found odd was no blue screen or kernel driver crash that I usually get when pushing it too far. I'm wondering if it could be my PSU holding back. It's a several year old Zalman ZM600-HP. While I know 600w should be plenty, I'm thinking maybe the 8 pin connector is drawing too much from one of the fairly low 16A split rails. Any thoughts?

 

[96Firebird]

So the computer just shuts off? Sure does sound like a PSU issue, I never liked split-rail PSUs.

 

[Bryf50]

So the computer just shuts off? Sure does sound like a PSU issue, I never liked split-rail PSUs.

Yup after a few seconds of running it would shut off without warning.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I did the same thing a couple months ago. Accelero xtreme to keep my 480 longer. Great minds think alike. I'm at 1.075v and 861 core. I'm gonna need a good reason to upgrade.

Did you install the memory and vrm sinks? Does it only do this when you up the voltage? I wouldn't think that just bumping up the voltage without even gaming would trip the psu unless it was in really bad shape. I have a 2600k @ 4.3 ghz so we almost have identical systems. I haven't seen my system pull much over 400w and that's testing at the wall with a kill a watt so I don't see any reason your Psu couldn't handle that.

 

[96Firebird]

It depends on if he is overloading one of the +12V rails, not really dependent upon the whole system wattage.

In this case, he has 4 separate 12V rails, rated at 16A each. That is 192W max for one rail, have you tried switching to other connectors?

 

[Bryf50]

I did the same thing a couple months ago. Accelero xtreme to keep my 480 longer. Great minds think alike. I'm at 1.075v and 861 core. I'm gonna need a good reason to upgrade.

Did you install the memory and vrm sinks? Does it only do this when you up the voltage? I wouldn't think that just bumping up the voltage without even gaming would trip the psu unless it was in really bad shape. I have a 2600k @ 4.3 ghz so we almost have identical systems. I haven't seen my system pull much over 400w and that's testing at the wall with a kill a watt so I don't see any reason your Psu couldn't handle that.

My thoughts exactly. The 480 can still max out almost any game at my resolution(1920x1080).

Yup I installed the memory and vrm heatsinks. They seem to be on pretty solid. If the vrm temps were holding me back, I was thinking about getting the Thermalright vrm cooler and hacking up the accelero a bit to get it on. But I really don't think it's necessary.

It's fine just bumping up the voltage. It goes bad when I start running this.

 

[notty22]

It probably is your psu. The rails and current draw of the gtx 480 sparked articles stating that this gpu would shred older 600 watt (especially multi-rail models) psu's.
If you check the sticker that model states a total of 504 watts on the 12V rails.
Take the data point of 400 watts from the above poster and your putting a good strain on that older unit. Feedback at the newegg link has owners reporting troubles after a few years.
So, trust your instincts. Get a new 650 psu imho.

 

[blackened23]

Sounds like you need to talk to Ballathefeared aka the master of overclocking gtx 480s to a million mhz

 

[Judgement]

I have a 480 that I bought months ago when a deal came along that I couldn't pass up, and just got around to installing in a new rig.

This thing is so loud and makes my room feel like a sauna. I was looking into removing the HSF and replacing the stock thermal compound, but the video I watched made it kind of look like a pain in the ass. I know afterwards I might be able to set up custom fan profiles to help with the noise, but for all that effort I would almost rather put on an aftermarket cooler.

This Accelero seems excessively expensive to me though - it wouldn't be worth saving the $85 to put towards a different card sometime this summer? Not trying to diminish your purchase, but should I consider anything lighter on the wallet? I'm more concerned with keeping my temps and the sound minimal than overclocking at the moment. Would replacing the TC and setting up fan profiles be enough for the time being?

I don't normally have problems with fan noise, but this thing is beyond anything I've had to deal with in the last 12 years or so I've been buliding PCs. Not intending to hijack btw, just thought it would be better than starting a new thread.

 

[Grooveriding]

I'll go with PSU as well. If there is something else you can do to add some load on it, besides increasing your overclock, see if that will cause the same crash.

I'll have to look for it, but there are some graphs that show how the 480 increases power usage insanely once you start overclocking it with voltage.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I have a 480 that I bought months ago when a deal came along that I couldn't pass up, and just got around to installing in a new rig.

This thing is so loud and makes my room feel like a sauna. I was looking into removing the HSF and replacing the stock thermal compound, but the video I watched made it kind of look like a pain in the ass. I know afterwards I might be able to set up custom fan profiles to help with the noise, but for all that effort I would almost rather put on an aftermarket cooler.

This Accelero seems excessively expensive to me though - it wouldn't be worth saving the $85 to put towards a different card sometime this summer? Not trying to diminish your purchase, but should I consider anything lighter on the wallet? I'm more concerned with keeping my temps and the sound minimal than overclocking at the moment. Would replacing the TC and setting up fan profiles be enough for the time being?

I don't normally have problems with fan noise, but this thing is beyond anything I've had to deal with in the last 12 years or so I've been buliding PCs. Not intending to hijack btw, just thought it would be better than starting a new thread.

I found mine used for $40. Seller didn't like that it covered his sata ports up so he uninstalled it and sold it to me.

As far as being worth $85 I'm not sure. My load temps are 52c max and idles at low 30's. This is overclocked and a little more aggressive fan profile. Even with the more aggressive fan profile I still don't notice the sound. At stock I doubt you could even hear it. It's up to you whether or not it's worth it to you but it totally transformed the fire breathing 480 to a super quiet 480 that never gets above 52c max and is overclocked to boot.

 

[Judgement]

I found mine used for $40. Seller didn't like that it covered his sata ports up so he uninstalled it and sold it to me.

As far as being worth $85 I'm not sure. My load temps are 52c max and idles at low 30's. This is overclocked and a little more aggressive fan profile. Even with the more aggressive fan profile I still don't notice the sound. At stock I doubt you could even hear it. It's up to you whether or not it's worth it to you but it totally transformed the fire breathing 480 to a super quiet 480 that never gets above 52c max and is overclocked to boot.

Thanks for the reply... I would love to get my heat and noise dealt with. Unfortunately, according to http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/271881-29-arctic-cooling-accelero-xtreme-antec-case it wouldn't fit in my Antec 300 case anyway

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Sounds like you need to talk to Ballathefeared aka the master of overclocking gtx 480s to a million mhz

Bah curse you (I have 470's though)! I have some 975MHz core/2250mem runs I did this morning on my HDD, sadly something is wrong because my HDD and SSD are now dead

Using a laptop HDD right now D:



OP it sounds like OvP is kicking in, and if that's the case prepare to flash!

http://www.overclock.net/t/749696/nvidia-reference-geforce-gtx-480-mods

 

[Elfear]

It probably is your psu. The rails and current draw of the gtx 480 sparked articles stating that this gpu would shred older 600 watt (especially multi-rail models) psu's.
If you check the sticker that model states a total of 504 watts on the 12V rails.
Take the data point of 400 watts from the above poster and your putting a good strain on that older unit. Feedback at the newegg link has owners reporting troubles after a few years.
So, trust your instincts. Get a new 650 psu imho.

+1

The computer suddenly shutting off is exactly what my computer did when my PSU wasn't up to the task. A new PSU solved the issue.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

My first 470 did that, I even with just a 1090T and single 470 on a HX850 the problem was the ovp.


OP kinda like this? This is stock clocks with 1087mv, lock up in OCCT just like you're describing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3qsVIyFVws


I would flash the ovp bypass before buying a new psu.

 

[Bryf50]

My first 470 did that, I even with just a 1090T and single 470 on a HX850 the problem was the ovp.


OP kinda like this? This is stock clocks with 1087mv, lock up in OCCT just like you're describing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3qsVIyFVws


I would flash the ovp bypass before buying a new psu.

Yea that's pretty much it. I'm a little nervous about the whole flashing thing. I'll look into it more

For now I think I found a decent overclock that seems perfectly stable so far. I'm at 860/2100 @ 1.088volts. I can't complain about a 160mhz oc even though I was hoping for a bit more. From what I can tell, the second I bump voltage to 1.1 things go to shit.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I wouldn't worry too much about flashing, I've never bricked anything doing it

860 isn't too bad though, good luck!