Question about overclocking
Question about overclocking
Uadggghhh *rage screams*.... There seems to be some issue with my 970 refusing to accept overclocking. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't, and I'm puzzled as to why I can't extract maximum performance from the card. Even when others with identical cards (970 G1 Gaming) succeed, I keep hearing "Uh, their luck." What's going on? Why can't I reach +150 clock speed and +500 memory consistently?
I'm using a PCIe 3.0 card in a 2.0 slot. The heat from the power connector gets intense when it comes out of the card, and after some time it becomes noticeably hot (the cable). My PSU can't handle it. Or maybe I just got one unit out of a thousand that has a connector placed extremely close—just a tiny bit—causing the overclock to be rejected?
If you could clarify this, I'd really appreciate it.
I know what you're going through xD I have a GTX 950 and I see others adjusting the core clock and memory timings, but for me it's hard to even add 70 MHz. I have to settle for 55 MHz, but I can get my memory to an offset of +694 MHz! All the guides I've seen say they max out at 3771 MHz, but I have 4000 MHz. You'll need to keep increasing your core clock by 10 each time and test it. If it improves, go back up to 10 again! Keep trying until you notice visual issues like black lines or blocks on the screen. Once that happens, look for a stable overclock. If you manage +150 MHz without artifacts but it's unstable, you've lost the silicon lottery—just like with CPUs when overclocking. Increasing voltage might help, but...
I know what you're feeling, xD I have a GTX 950 and I notice others adjusting the core clock and memory timings, but for me it's hard to even add 70 MHz. I have to settle for 55 MHz, but I can get my memory to an offset of +694 MHz! All the guides I've seen mention a maximum of 3771 MHz memory, but I have 4000 MHz. You'll need to keep increasing the core clock by 10 each time and test it. If it improves, repeat the process again. Keep going until you notice visual issues like black lines or blocks on the screen. Once that happens, look for a stable overclock and try +150 for your core clock—if it works without artifacts, great! But if not, consider raising your voltage slightly (though I don’t have a GTX 970, so I’m unsure what’s safe). Be careful, increasing voltage raises temperature too—if it goes above 86°C, lower the voltage to avoid damage. Don’t want a burnt card! Also, use MSI AFTERBURNER or EVGA’s OC tool; they handle unlocked voltage bars better. Regarding your memory, if you see pinl or purple dots or white dots, go up by 20 and then down by 10 until they disappear. This should help (sorry for the poor grammar—I hate correcting myself).
With Nvidia, in terms of overclocking, you're basically playing the silicon lottery... What I mean by that is that the factories spit those cards out so quickly that not all of them have the same quality silicon within the GPU itself, when even a 1/10 of a nanometer can disrupt the ability to overclock to the full potential of the GPU if it had perfect silicon in it. Nothing you can do about it.
with nvidia, overclocking feels like a lottery game... I mean, the production lines release chips so fast that not every single one has identical quality inside the GPU. Even a tiny difference of a nanometer can stop you from reaching the full potential if the silicon were perfect. You can't change that.
Erwin06 :
weberdarren97 :
With Nvidia, overclocking feels like playing the silicon lottery... My point is that the production lines release chips so fast that not every single one has identical quality inside the GPU. Even a tiny difference of 1/10 nanometer can stop full potential overclocking if perfect silicon existed. You can't do anything about it.
true
but he could try my approach, which is setting a stable voltage and increasing it by 10s.
It's fine with your method, but I just wanted to highlight what I thought was the cause—his card failing to OC like others.
weberdarren97 :
Erwin06 :
With Nvidia, overclocking feels like playing the silicon lottery... I mean, the factories produce these chips so fast that not every single one has identical quality inside the GPU. Even a tiny difference of 1/10 nanometer can stop you from reaching the full potential if the silicon were perfect. You can't do anything about it.
true
but he could try my approach which is setting a stable voltage and increasing it by 10s
That's fine with your method, just wanted to highlight what I thought was the cause for his card not being able to overclock as well.
Yeah np
😛
Yes, I tried overclocking to 10 by 10. I achieved +150 clock at 1542 mhz with +0 mem and +0,045v. The issue is that sometimes higher overclocks like +150 clock and +500 mem work well, while others don't. I gave up on that after two weeks of attempts to make it stable... Damn NVIDIA sucks...
I really don't want to disappoint you, but even with the AMD Radeon R9 300 line offering reliable overclocks, you won't achieve extremely high core clocks without making major changes.