STRIX 980 Ti shipped with strange BIOS

Discussion in 'Videocards - NVIDIA GeForce' started by Velxerz, Oct 21, 2015.

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  1. Velxerz

    Velxerz Guest

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    So, here I am. Long time lurker, first time poster. Well, let's jump straight to what made me post for the first time and bother you guys: I've just bought an Asus STRIX GTX 980 Ti, beautiful and gigantic card. First thing I do after installing drivers obviously is starting Afterburner to monitor temperature, frequencies and voltage under load. I then proceed to do a full 18 scenes round of Valley benchmark and I notice the voltage jumps to 1.200v and sticks there. Frequencies are ok, Asus guarantees a factory overclock of 1216/1317/1418 (max real boost) and that's exactly what I've got. I unlock voltage control and immediately notice something really strange: cap is at +50mV instead of +87mV. "Ok, no problem, that'll be more than enough for the 1.5kMHz I'm aiming for", and raise the power limit to 110% (max available for this card) and voltage to +50mV. I raise GPU clock by 50MHz, run another Valley and almost instantly everything crashes. Here is the breaking news: the voltage didnt move from 1.200v. It was 1.200v before I raised the limit, it was 1.200v after. After that, I've made a ton of attempts to force raise the volts and flashing a new BIOS (or editing mine with MBT) seemed like a great idea to me. I go to GPU-Z to extract my actual BIOS and the BIOS version simply is not right. It is not a "normal" STRIX bios, its version is wrong and it has a lot less active states in the "Boost Table" tab, compared to another STRIX bios I've downloaded. Trying to flash the "right" STRIX bios results in instant crashes everytime I use a 3d rendering app. Yes, I made sure I didnt mix up STRIX 980 and STRIX 980 Ti, I've double checked everything. Please help:bang:

    EDIT: Forgot the wrong bios version, here it is: 84.00.36.00.81.
    Every other STRIX 980 Ti online shipped with: 84.00.36.00.2B
     
  2. mahanddeem

    mahanddeem Master Guru

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    Hopefully you backed up the original bios or you're really screwed
     
  3. Velxerz

    Velxerz Guest

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    Sure, I backed up the original BIOS and that's the one giving me problems. Since the first time I've monitored voltages I noticed this absurd behavior and that's why I've flashed another BIOS to begin with. Now I have flashed the original one back, but as I said, it is impossible to change voltage even if I try from afterburner. If I flash another card's BIOS (including another STRIX's) I can mod the voltage but as soon as the card starts rendering everything crashes.
     
  4. Vellinious

    Vellinious Guest

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    Every single Maxwell GPU STRIX I've seen is voltage locked at the VRM to 1.212, and no matter what they did in the bios, the voltage wouldn't change. From what I understand, there are ways around it with hardware mods. Not that kinda thing I'd play with though, considering the options out there with other cards without those restrictions.
     

  5. Velxerz

    Velxerz Guest

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    Well, that's a big delusion for me. This card looks (and is presented) as if it was made for overclock. By the way, even getting those .012 volts would be great for me. This card is stuck at 1.200 even if I set it to +50mv (1.212) from asus gpu tweak... :confused:
     
  6. Vellinious

    Vellinious Guest

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    If you can't bump the voltage slider up in AB or PCX, and get it to run at 1.212v, then it's most likely also set in the bios at 1.2v.
     
  7. Velxerz

    Velxerz Guest

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    Yeah, that's what it looks like. It's just REALLY strange, cause even in the software they gave me with the card the max setting for voltage is +50mV (1.212v), but it just ignores itself and stops at 1.200. Plus I've read reviews and seen overclocking video guides on youtube for this card and everyone had the slider unlocked up to +87mV, wich obviously had an effect on the actual voltage when maxed. The card's default clock is 1317 boost and I can't get it past 1340 cause of this. It coil whines heavily as soon as I give it +10MHz, wich makes me think even a little bit of overvoltage could help greatly in overclocking. Techpowerup's BIOS database includes 2 BIOS roms for the strix card, both of wich are labeled "84.00.36.00.2B" and have unlocked voltage up to +87mV, but if I flash them my card just keeps crashing without even trying to render anything. Only BIOS that works is the original one, the misteryous "84.00.36.00.81", that locks the card to 1.200V. Oh, it may be useful for anyone trying to help me to know this new detail too: Gpu Tweak 2 had a BIOS update feature and it states "VBIOS: 84.00.36.00.AS10", wich is again different from what gpu-z and MBT say. This card is driving me crazy.
     
  8. Vellinious

    Vellinious Guest

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    You can ask here at this link, they can make a custom bios file for your card, but.....I don't think it's going to do you any good.

    http://www.overclock.net/t/1573308/nvidia-gtx-900-cards-custom-bios-upon-request/840
     
  9. Velxerz

    Velxerz Guest

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    Yeah I'm actually quite good with modding VBIOSes, I've already tried and made a custom one starting from this damn base locked one, but even getting min voltage for every single state of the gpu to 1.250v gets me 1.200v in every scenario. Only time I've seen the voltage get up to 1.243 was with a Zotac AMP! Extreme BIOS, but it lasted for a fraction of a second before an hard crash and I could realize the voltage went up only thanks to afterburner's logs.

    Edit for typos
    EDIT 2: I've just discovered something useful, maybe. There are 2 models of STRIX 980 Ti OC (3 if you count the "not OC" one) wich look identical, have identical specs but have slightly different part ID:

    Strix-gtx980ti-dc3oc-6gd5-g - 90YV08J0-M0NM00 is the one I have, but there is another one with part number 90YV08J0-M0NA00. I can confirm the vast majority (meaning I'm the only one with this problem for now) of STRIX 980 Ti has the ability to push the voltage to +87mV wich translates to a monitored 1.220+ voltage under heavy load.
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2015
  10. CalculuS

    CalculuS Ancient Guru

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    I'd try contacting Asus about this, if anyone they'd knew whats going on.
     

  11. fantaskarsef

    fantaskarsef Ancient Guru

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    The problem you've encountered I believe is Asus's crappy DigiVRM power delivery chip. It's on the Strix 980 cards and probably the same on your TIs... I fell for it too, unfortunately.

    So Vellinious is kind of right, you can't really push that ****ing DigiVRM past 1.21 on the 980s too, and while you might still get other readouts from Afterburner, checking with a multimeter often shows that it's not really 1.28v (read out by the software), but only 1.21 actually reach the chip.

    As for the different models, and multiple actual hardware IDs, that pretty common, and makes clear you should mod your own card's bios, because taking a 'random' one from any database might refer to the wrong hardware, and might not work as if you modded your own bios with the same settings and exact same tweaks.

    Back to Asus and overvolting: it needs a hard mod, and only can be worked around on a OS session basis. I'm not sure if anybody bothered for the Ti, but for Strix 980s there's been a program that actually was able to push beyond the voltage limit, of course it doesn't always help or work, it's experimental and actually was made for LN2 overclocking, where you can pump in hillarious amounts of voltage (with the tool you can technically go way beyond 1.5v), if you've got the right ASIC card (which still isn't really 100% sure of how it influences your overclocking), and temps are not your problem.


    All in all, I can understand why you're somewhat disillusioned, I was too. I'm still somewhat regretting buying Asus cards, and I won't make that mistake again, as I personally don't need them to cripple my overclocking with their stupid chip. I've got coil whine on at least one of my two cards, and I'm very disappointed. They do their stock boost normally, but it's certainly not what I expected as I put them under water. I've been told multiple times I should just put the cards under water and watch them fly... well, no.

    I can only say all of this as I think it's the same underlying problem as with the 980s, and I've spent weeks reasearching, reading, looking for intel, and getting advice from fellow gurus and on overclock.net. I can not guarantee this is your problem, it's just some kind of educated guess I'd say.
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2015
  12. Velxerz

    Velxerz Guest

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    Thanks a lot for the very useful answer! My case is a little bit different since the voltage reading from software is actually lower than what I setup in said software (I set 1.21 in afterburner and it keeps reading 1.20 no matter what), but aside from this detail it is VERY probable that the limit is an hardware one. It sucks to buy a 740€ card and having to use it at stock clocks (even if they're already a good overclock of like 20% over reference design)... I think I'll do another try with stock BIOS, complete restore of the system, drivers and software and if that still does not work I'll send it back to Amazon. Thanks a lot again for helping me :)
     
  13. Mugen74

    Mugen74 Guest

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    hi,
    i have a SLI of Asus Strix and I modified the bios with unlocked voltage to 1.26V
    if you send a message with your e-mail I send you the bios ;)

    EDIT:
    i post the link here (add a "W" to Web address, because I have not permission to post links)

    ww.dropbox.com/s/2n2ifn04gxyxc7x/STRIX%20unlock%201.26v.rom?dl=0
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2015
  14. fantaskarsef

    fantaskarsef Ancient Guru

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    Don't mention it, it's a very niche problem, and I feel sympathetic... I hope you can set your card up nicely (probably Mugen's bios helps), I'm just now trying to overclock my GPUs since I kind of lost any interested / drive to do so when I learned I bought 'the wrong' cards (or at least not those for a reasonable easy overclock).
    Maybe it's wholly different with the TIs and it just looks similar, but on some screens I just googled for the 'naked' Strix 980Ti, and it does have a similar power delivery chip as it seems.

    Long story short, I hope you can get it sorted out.


    Just be sure to mod your own bios with Mugen's settings, said hardwareID problem. Not wanting to make anybody work more, I'd just do that to be safe.
     
  15. Mugen74

    Mugen74 Guest

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    My bios Version is 84.00.36.00.2B for 980ti. what have you? 980 (GM204) or 980ti (GM200)?
     

  16. Velxerz

    Velxerz Guest

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    Hi, thanks a lot for the link! As I see this ROM is a 84.00.36.00.2B version, while my stock BIOS is a 84.00.36.00.81. For some reason, those are not compatible. If I flash a .2B bios I instantly crash anytime I open a 3d software, if I flash a .81 it works ok at stock clocks and voltage but there is no way to get the voltage higher. I tried to mod the .81 bios to get the minimum voltage to 1.25 and the card completely ignored it, still 1.200 always. I can't sort it out, 99% I'll get a refund from amazon and aim for another brand.
     
  17. Mugen74

    Mugen74 Guest

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    if you want to unlock your bios, you must first modify it with a program HexEditor to have access to 2 slider hidden in the voltage table of MaxwellBiosTweaker (you can see here ww.overclock.net/t/1560073/mbt-1-36-and-gm200-bios-voltage-sliders-missing/10). If you look in my visible. After that copy the minimum and maximum values of the three sliders and you're done

    sorry for my bad english
     
  18. fantaskarsef

    fantaskarsef Ancient Guru

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    Oh I've got 980 SLI, so I can't really supply a bios myself ;)
     
  19. Deathchild

    Deathchild Ancient Guru

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    Did you monitor power limit? ..... It may be the reason for voltage not increasing. Look at the stats and monitor.

    There's no "hex voltage unlock" or whatever you have to do.

    Only thing you need to do is raise power limit, because there cards are limited by it obviously. I had 110 pt like you in the beginning, now it's at 130, and it benefits from it greatly.

    Witcher 3 @ 4k sticks at 115-130% pt constantly.

    If you wanna raise power limit I'll tell you how to do it.
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2015
  20. Velxerz

    Velxerz Guest

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    Hi deathchild! Sadly, I've already tried that. I modded my vbios to 130% power limit and still the max voltage I've seen was 1.200v (still less than the 1.212 I've setup in afterburner).
     

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