Im using the Gigabyte rtx 2060 super OC gaming edition , for the unlock voltage option should i pick msi standard, reference, msi extended or 3rd party for best overclocking capability or it doesn't make a difference? Thanks in advance
I see no difference between the different options but then again i run my Msi 2080xc Ventus at stock, not everyone will realize that you are referring to settings in msi afterburner.
The mode depends on the PCB design that your card has. Since you don't have an MSI card, the "MSI" settings aren't for you. If your card uses a reference PCB from Nvidia (or AMD for that matter), you should pick "reference design". This is regardless of the cooling used - OEMs often slap on their own coolers on reference boards. If your card uses a custom PCB from a manufacturer other than MSI, you need to check whether that card has been added to the third party hardware database (the file MSIAfterburner.oem2 in the Afterburner install directory). If it has, you can just select "third party" and start using (but do check that it actually works¹). If your card isn't listed (or voltage control doesn't actually do anything¹), you may be able to find the settings for your card and add them to the MSIAfterburner.oem2 file. (Also: post the setting in the below thread after you've tested that they work.) The procedures and tools are detailed in the first two long posts in the thread Third party Graphics Card hardware database. I suggest reading them both to the end - I missed an important piece of information by skimming them when trying to add my card. ---- ¹) Select the voltage control mode ("reference design" or "third party"), run a consistent workload benchmark and see if performance and/or temps are affected by setting a different voltage or voltage offset. Note that many graphics cards' voltage controller will not have the capability to return the applied voltage, so any software voltage reading will only show the value you've set - not the one actually used. This means that software voltage reading can't reliably be used to check whether voltage adjustment works, unless you know your card has a more sophisticated (more expensive) voltage controller.
thats the board my card uses. i will select reference then apply a offset in the curve and see if the voltage and clock match the one i have set in the graph during a benchmark ? if it matches it means voltage control is working right? @gedo
Two times no. * That doesn't look like the reference PCB, which is about 1/4 shorter. Images of the Founders Edition/reference PCB can be seen here: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-2060-super/4.html (PCIe power connector will be attached in the upper right corner of the PCB in most cases, though). Plus the PCB says "GIGABYTE" right above the PCIe connector, which means it's designed by Gigabyte and not Nvidia... :-/ * Looking at the voltage reading isn't the way to go. There are two big gotchas that will lead you astray: 1. As I said above, I don't know whether your graphics card has a voltage controller that will give readings for the voltage the board uses; any readings may just be values returned by the driver, mimicking what you set. Then the exact same value just means that the driver is returning the exact value you set, without regard to what's actually being used second-to-second. 2. The value you set (as well as the frequency/voltage curve) is a mere "wish" by you, and the card BIOS and driver will adjust the actual voltage as needed. That means that fluctuations from your set voltage or voltage curve just mean that the card is working as intended. All together this means that you can't expect or assume software voltage readings to be "real" unless you've previously verified that assumption by other means. The most robust way (and least chance of false positives or negatives) is to benchmark and see if voltage adjustments affect your temperatures. No change to temperature means voltage adjustment doesn't work. Increased temperature from more voltage means that it did work. * If you read up on the capabilities of the voltage controller, see that it supports voltage readback, and can cross-check the voltage readings so they seem to be reflective of the actual used voltages, only then can you assume the voltage readings to be real readings (and not just a copy of the target value, potentially from the curve).
hi Gedo, any chance you would be able to help me figure this out? I can't figure out whether or not I should be using reference or third party of if I need to manually add my GPU to third party (if possible) here are PCB specs: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/evga-geforce-rtx-2070-super-ko/3.html Edit: so I cannot find my GPU within the text file so I'm just trying to understand if my card is supported and can be manually entered but I'm having trouble. Still trying though but any help would be appreciated
