My review of MSI Power Edition gtx 670

[cmdrdredd]

I was under the impression that the MSI cards don't throttle at 70c. Is this incorrect information?

 

[DrBoss]

Very first pass with AB 2.2.3

+20 Core Voltage
+114 Power (+108 effective)
+135 Core (1350MHz effective)
+600 Vram (3602 MHz effective)

Max fanspeed 67%
Max temp 66C



not bad so far considering my previous (highest) stable core clock was 1316 Mhz

 

[blackened23]

I was under the impression that the MSI cards don't throttle at 70c. Is this incorrect information?

They lightning doesn't throttle with the LN2 BIOS. It is the only card that has such a feature.. The 670 probably throttles but only at 70C, which isn't likely with the TF4. It really is an awesome cooler.

 

[RussianSensation]

+135 Core (1350MHz effective)
+600 Vram (3602 MHz effective)
Max temp 66C

That's nice. That spanks the EVGA Classified without the $80 EVBot. MSI FTW!

 

[DrBoss]

Second run, only difference is higher Vram and the fact that i had the fan speed set at 100% (it didn't need to be that high)

+20 Core Voltage
+114 Power (+108 effective)
+135 Core (1350MHz effective)
+700 Vram (3703 MHz effective)

Max fanspeed 100%
Max temp 61C - substantially cooler due to 100% fan speed





i took a big step after this run and raised the core to +155 (1369 MHz effective) and got a driver failure on scene 4 of Unigine. So I doubt there is much more flex to get out of the GPU (no way i will hit 55fps or 1400score). Just some fine tuning.

 

[SirPauly]

It's nice to have the volt flexibility but had modest returns --- 1283 core. Satisfied with 1253 and 3251 with memory. In my example, the potential of added watts wasn't worth the performance gained.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

It's nice to have the volt flexibility but had modest returns --- 1283 core. Satisfied with 1253 and 3251 with memory. In my example, the potential of added watts wasn't worth the performance gained.

Only goes to show it's all about the sillicon lottery. My upper ASUS GTX 670 DC II can do over 1300MHz, whilst my lower one cannot even make it to 1200. Even 1184 was unstable in 3DMark11.

So your card actually overclocks lower then my best GTX 670, even if you have voltage adjustments.

 

[SirPauly]

Indeed!

 

[DrBoss]

The following applies to the benchmarking results in post #130.

I've applied +20mV to the core voltage (no increase in Vram or Aux voltage). The GPU core temperature during the test never exceeded 61C. Yet, during the benchmark, i could see (via MSI Afterburner OSD) that the core clock was fluctuating between 1350 MHz and 1290 MHz.

Any idea's why the core clock would fluctuate during benchmarking in Unigine? I was under the impression that Kepler throttling did not engage until the GPU core temp was in excess of 70C.

 

[SirPauly]

GPU Boost may down clock based on power/watt threshold?

 

[DrBoss]

GPU Boost may down clock based on power/watt threshold?

core temps are still acceptable with +20mV, perhaps adding more voltage will resolve the issue. I will test later today or tomorrow.

I've seen some people on other forums running +100mV.... seems excessive.

 

[SirPauly]

My stable clocks are 1283 and receive a nice steady 1283 through Heaven with +20 Voltage. However, when I use +50 voltage -- 1283 but with incremental drops -- and as low as 1230.

 

[DrBoss]

Another question.

Have any of you used GPU-Z to check ASIC%? When i click on 'Check ASIC' it says 100% which seems wrong/impossible. Does it need to run some kind of test to display the correct percentage?

 

[chimaxi83]

Another question.

Have any of you used GPU-Z to check ASIC%? When i click on 'Check ASIC' it says 100% which seems wrong/impossible. Does it need to run some kind of test to display the correct percentage?

ASIC reading doesn't work properly right now for Kepler. I think it says 100% for all of us.

My stable clocks are 1283 and receive a nice steady 1283 through Heaven with +20 Voltage. However, when I use +50 voltage -- 1283 but with incremental drops -- and as low as 1230.

That's your OCP or power limit kicking in.

 

[chimaxi83]

double

 

[DrBoss]

That's your OCP or power limit kicking in.

So, would it be safe to say that if the over current protection is kicking in the gpu has reached its limit...?

 

[chimaxi83]

If it's OCP, then probably. That can't be changed without hard mod or a card with that functionality built in, like the second BIOS of the Lightning. If it's power limit though, that can be raised in Afterburner of course.

 

[SirPauly]

ASIC reading doesn't work properly right now for Kepler. I think it says 100% for all of us.



That's your OCP or power limit kicking in.

Indeed!