Why you should not use Afterburner/Precision to overclock Maxwell/Kepler

[Deders]

I've not figured out how to get GPU tweak to show the correct voltage, but you will still be able to ramp up the max voltage to 1.212v, but in reality it will rarely need to reach that voltage (as read by afterburner post mod) except for in the most extreme circumstances.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

This gpu tweak II tool isn't much different, still only has a minimum voltage, and that's 1.150. I guess it is an improvement over the 1.087 I find in the vbios.

 

[Deders]

You have to go into the options to unlock the max voltage slider.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Not found it yet, maybe it's not there with 670's?

 

[Deders]

It worked with my old asus 670, but that was the first version.

I've found the setting. In professional mode, there is a button at the top right right below the version number. You can add and remove sliders from there.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Yeah, found that button yesterday, but I can only select and unselect boost, memory, min voltage, fan speed, power target and fps target.

no max voltage.

 

[Deders]

Hmm, have you got overclock range enhancement ticked in the main options?

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Yes.

Maybe I need an older version? I've downloaded 1.1.8.3

But would it be much use to have max voltage? If I look at my bios with kepler bios tweak the max voltage of the boost is 1.215 for the last 10 boost clocks, which is supposed to be the maximum for kepler.

Too bad I can't set the minimum voltage to 1.19 or something.

 

[Deders]

I've got 1.1.6.9.

I'm pretty sure I got higher voltages with the max voltage raised, although they rarely reached 1.215 when read with the modded afterburner.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Installed that version, no difference. See if I can find a modded 670 bios to see what's different.

 

[Deders]

I had the DCUII non oc version of the 670. I did end up using a custom bios from the overclockers 670 owners club thread and I did get better results from that than with just normal overclocking mainly due to the unlocked power limit.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

I've got the DirectCU II TOP, factory overclock is unstable in unigine heaven extreme

 

[Deders]

Ahh that was it, I had the non top edition. Do the crashes happen when you turn tesselation down a notch or 2?

 

[Flapdrol1337]

50 MHz lower it doesn't crash, without extreme tessellation it doesn't crash either.

But it was also crashing in the division beta without the 50MHz downclock. I figured if I'd have full control of the voltage and clocks I could modify a bios that is stable and a bit faster. But I'm reluctant to modify the bios if I don't know what all those sliders do, most are unnamed, and when it comes to clocks and voltages the card has a mind of it's own.

 

[Deders]

Higher voltage should help keep the tesselation units stable.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Read some more topics, looks like the TOP has hot vrm's that cause instability, I'd be better off flashing the clock 50 MHz down.

Also explains why I get better results with the fan pegged at 100%

 

[Deders]

It may not be the only reason. Chips will leak more at higher temps.

I found putting a sidefan in my case dropped vrm temps by 10c - 20c. The non Asus/rog Gpuz can monitor vrm temps, although i can't remember if I ever saw the graph with my 670. This could be because it hadn't been implemented at that point. You'll have to scroll down or lengthen the window to see it.

 

[xorbe]

There are so many factory oc cards that crash in some random game. I wind up flashing most of my oc cards back to stock speeds.

 

[RampantAndroid]

There are so many factory oc cards that crash in some random game. I wind up flashing most of my oc cards back to stock speeds.

If it was a single card, I'd think it was just bad luck (but a warranty issue nonetheless) - if it happens to a lot of your cards, I think you might want to look at your power supply, cooling or even your OS install.

 

[Deders]

I had similar crashes when I clocked mine too high with extreme tesselation in heaven. It is def rma-able.