GTX 680 Overclocking

Discussion in 'Videocards - NVIDIA GeForce' started by qwwwizx, Apr 21, 2012.

  1. qwwwizx

    qwwwizx Member Guru

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    GPU:
    Gigabyte GTX 680SO
    Hi all,

    I got myself a Gainward GTX 680 reference card and it works fine in all games etc. My goal was to put on watercooling, but I always test stuff a week or two before I break warranty to put on the watercooling.

    Before I start watercooling I want to be sure that I got something that will overclock, and by testing with default settings (stock cooler etc., in my living room 23c) using MSI AB, I get driver crashes running 3dmark11 with an increase of only 50MHz on the GPU?

    Is that normal, or do I have a really bad card, when it comes to OC? or will it help when I cool it further down and keep the VRM chips down?

    Anything worth trying for improved oc?

    I have tryed the 2 latest drivers from guru3d, but ofc. with default settings.
     
  2. swecarl

    swecarl Master Guru

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    GPU:
    Evga 780ti Sli
    Some cards are like that, my friend got one of them. He can oc it too +100 after that 3d mark crashes no matter if the power is set too 100% or 132% :(
     
  3. qwwwizx

    qwwwizx Member Guru

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    GPU:
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    +100, but I am on +47 for a 3dmark11. Will I benefit from cooling it hard?
     
  4. cowie

    cowie Ancient Guru

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    not if it runs cool already
    try 78mv 132 power +100 if that dont work thats a very slow card
    does it come with a oc already?
     

  5. qwwwizx

    qwwwizx Member Guru

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    GPU:
    Gigabyte GTX 680SO
    I gave it a try.

    [​IMG]

    Lots of artifacting and it make driver crash after 10 seconds in 3dmark11 GT1.

    Its a cheap Gainward, that has no OC from factory, but since its reference, I wont blaim Gainward. It works very well in games, its just the OC capability that sucks.
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2012
  6. swecarl

    swecarl Master Guru

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    GPU:
    Evga 780ti Sli
    I think its just random, my Gigabyte was the cheapest card out on the market, it can do +200 on gpu and +500 on the mem, the msi card i got after was abit more expencive it can do +150 on gpu and +400 on the mem it crashes.

    Altho in sli i run them at default speed :)
     
  7. Scerate

    Scerate Guest

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    same here as swecarl have a Gigabyte too can do +200gpu and +500mem (let it settle @ +100/+400 atm) without a hassle.

    Did you try the older WHQL Drivers, i know most of the time it doesn't do anything but it may be worth trying, and instead of MSI AB or PrecisionX try some OC with nvidia Inspector, if those things don't help you probably got a pretty bad OCer, putting Watercooling on it CAN bring something but not always and most of the time not much and like cowie said if it already runs cool there will be not much of an improvement in OC capabilities.
     
  8. qwwwizx

    qwwwizx Member Guru

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    GPU:
    Gigabyte GTX 680SO
    I didnt try older drivers, but will try it later.

    The GPU seems to be cool (like 70-80C worst case), but I have no idea about the VRM part. I start seeing these artifacts at 60mhz+ so I guess my GPU is somehow limited and it could be relating to the power.
     
  9. Weecka

    Weecka Master Guru

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    GPU:
    Zotac RTX4080 OC
    overclocking on some 680's is like oc with sandybridge cpus, it just has its limits and u can't push it any further, and sometimes it's a matter of luck with the chip. i can do +185 core, +550 mem easily with +120% power target. but i don't even see the need to oc the card as it plays all games on max setting anyways and for surround you should either get 4 GB version or sli 2x cards.
     
  10. Xtreme1979

    Xtreme1979 Guest

    Sounds like it's just a bad clocker. Probably not worth water cooling unless your happy with just cooler temps. Guess I am lucky I did +100 GPU +250 MEM without a single hiccup and I am sure I could go higher haven't tried. 1228mhz boosted is fast enough for me.
     

  11. qwwwizx

    qwwwizx Member Guru

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    GPU:
    Gigabyte GTX 680SO
    I gave it another try with just 70Mhz on top of reference specs, and it crashed. Maximum temp reached was 58C. It works really well in games, but I like to play around overclocking with my computer. Furthermore I am working on a a waterchiller so this is really bothering me. I think I will sell it, and try another.
     
  12. Comrade_Jerkov

    Comrade_Jerkov Guest

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    Probably just the luck of the draw. If you had received a different one from Gainward it may have been better, or it may have not. Although you definitely should be able to push it more than +50
    I've had success with overclocking my 7970 on stock voltage, but I recall my last two cards 5870 (Sapphire) and 8800GTX (EVGA) did not . Meanwhile, my old 7900GT(EVGA) seemed to defy logic with it's overclocking.
     
  13. Darren Hodgson

    Darren Hodgson Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
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    I have a Point of View GTX 680 and mine would overclock to 1,137 MHz on the stock clocks using the default fan profile.

    I've been using mine at +150 MHz on the GPU clock offset (which runs up to 1,287 MHz in games) and +400 MHz on the memory clock offset (6.8 GHz effectively) since I bought mine a month ago with no problems at all. I use a custom fan profile that keeps the temps below 75 C in all games (most don't exceed 70 C). I guess I got lucky but I'm really surprised that some cards won't even overclock by 50 Hz on the GPU clock as the reviews I've read pretty much seemed unanimous in agreeing that these cards overclock well.

    I do have v-sync enabled in my games though and the Power Boost set to 132%. I have not touched the voltages at all either, I'm running on stock voltages and my system has been 100% stable. I know my memory cannot handle +500 MHz (7 GHz) though and I get driver not responding errors when I set the GPU offset to +200 MHz (which is basically 1,300+ MHz in games which my card clearly struggles with on default voltages).
     
  14. juke

    juke Maha Guru

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    GPU:
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    Guys, what drivers are you using when you overclock your GTX 680s? What's the best driver out for our card?

    I use the WHWL 301.10 and PrecisionX 3.0.1 and 3.0.2, but the clocks and voltage reset when I try to benchmark. It seems the driver crashes.
     
  15. Shadowdane

    Shadowdane Maha Guru

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    GPU:
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    I have my two cards clocked at +103Mhz GPU and +500Mhz on the Memory. Power Limit set to 110%. I found having a higher power limit just made my GPUs get hotter and downclock more frequently.

    My two cards definitely have different limits on overclocking. Before I got my 2nd GTX680 my first card could take up to +180Mhz offset no problem. The 2nd card though crashes if I take it above about +120Mhz. So had to settle for clocking at +103Mhz offset, that gets me maximum boost clock of 1200Mhz so I'm fine with that. The memory on the other hand both handled the +500Mhz offset for 7Ghz effective! :)
     

  16. Xtreme1979

    Xtreme1979 Guest

    I have successfully overclocked with 301.10, 301.32, and 301.24. What clocks are you trying to push? Also as far as I know the voltage is locked on all 680's.
     
  17. juke

    juke Maha Guru

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    Maybe it's just the throttling of the clocks. I'll try to fix the power limit to just 100% and see what will happen.

    @Xtreme1979
    Just 100MHz.
     
  18. Xtreme1979

    Xtreme1979 Guest

    Just 100mhz on the core and 250mhz on the memory. With the +100 offset on the core that puts me at 1228mhz which is more than enough for me. The first thing you need to do is set the power limit to max, not 100%. Also don't go too crazy with the memory frequency since that will limit your GPU overclock potential. The Power Limit basically controls TDP which is affected by memory power draw.
     
  19. juke

    juke Maha Guru

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    Nadah! Not even +50 on the core, I didn't bother testing +25. I did test a quick +250 to the mems and it ran fine. I'm not really sure if the OC-ability is really temperature-related as mentioned by the others, but it must be true somehow since my room temp at night is already 34.5C. Good thing the card is pre-OCed for extra boost. I felt the back of the card while benching Unigine and they are really hot!


    I already did those and no good. I'm just finding another way if there is any.

    And for the record, I use the standard good practice in OCing.
    1) find max core
    2) find max mem
    3) combine max core + mem, if not, then -20 to -50 more on clocks. +v if needed
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2012
  20. juke

    juke Maha Guru

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    Guys, can you share your Afterburner? I am having trouble with mine because it cannot connect to the update server to download the other necessary data.

    I just need the full zipped v2.2 Afterburner folder with all the necessary updates, I'll overwrite my installed directory. TIA.
     

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