Geforce GTX 660 "underclocking" itself

[Valos]

Hi there,

i've recently overclocked my Asus Geforce GTX 660 DirectCU II to a GPU Boost Clock of 1228 Mhz with a power target of 110%. It runs stable in any benchmarks and games i've tested so far.

However, there are games (e.g. Alice: Madness returns) in which my card only runs at 1015 Mhz, which is even less than stock speed. As far as i can tell this is not due to the fact that the card doesnt 't need to perform any faster in those games, because i don't even hit the fps cap.
Alice only runs at 30 fps (which i think is weird enough) and still the card cant be convinced to run any faster. Why is that?

 

[Shou Miko]

what about the temps? many cards underclock themself if they get to hot...

 

[Valos]

The temps are fine. They don't go past 56° - 58° in any game or benchmark.

 

[Shou Miko]

The temps are fine. They don't go past 56° - 58° in any game or benchmark.

hmm, that shouldn't be a problem no, but what program r u using to check temperature with?

and fill out ur System Specs many ppl look there.

 

[Valos]

I overclocked with EVGA Precision-X 4.1 and thats also the tool i use to check the temperature. Thank you, i will do that.

 

[Ronnyv1]

The problem is the powertarget, please see this for the explanation and reason http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/09/19/asus_geforce_gtx_660_directcu_ii_overclocking_review/

 

[Valos]

The problem is the powertarget, please see this for the explanation and reason http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/09/19/asus_geforce_gtx_660_directcu_ii_overclocking_review/

Interesting article, thanks for the link. What i don't get though, is that when my geforce underclocks in certain games, my power target is only at about 50%. So it doesn't seem to be the phenomenon the guy in the article describes.
I'm gonna try to lower the gpu clock a bit and see if this makes any difference, but i doubt it.

 

[v12dock]

I had a similar issue with the 320.00 Beta driver. I changed the power management mode setting and that seemed to correct the issue. Also of the overclock is unstable and the driver resets sometimes it will become stuck at idle clock speeds.

 

[Ed_1]

You have to look at few things with AB/Precession graphs when it low on clock .
Look at power TDP% is it near 100% (even though some cards will still throttle around 100% with slider higher) .
If the GPU usage is low it is normal for it to lower clocks, the driver feels it doesn't need higher as card is not being pushed (read above post on power management can help).

Temp some card will only give the max clocks within a temp range , like 60-70c . If you go much above 70c it down clocks 13mhz, if its to cold it lower by 13mhz .

So you have to see what is happening at the time clocks are low .

 

[YahooElite]

I'm guessing some of you don't actually know how the 600 series cards work when overclocking is concerned.

With the 600 series just because you overclock it doesn't mean those clocks are the ones you'll be using while gaming. The clocks you get depend on Load and the Power Target being used, if a game doesn't challenge the GPU chances are the boost clocks will not be used.

EVGA Precision X has a nice lil feature called K-Boost which makes the GPU run at maximum clocks all the time, Meaning your Overclock/Boost clocks will be used in games no matter the GPU Load and no matter if its a 2D or 3D game.

I use this myself on my EVGA 660 Ti to obtain an overclock of Power Target 120%(just incase), GPU Clock +105 Mem Clock +200 for a constant boost of GPU Clock 1201 and Memory 6412.

Now because K Boost is always running max clocks that means idle temps will be higher than normal. EVGA themselves have stated that running K Boost all the time will not damage the GPU.

Also, with the latest Precision X a reboot to enable or disable K Boost is no longer required.

So with that, if any of you are wanting to get maximum performance from your 600 series card, Precision X and K Boost is for you.

Hope this helps.

PS: 1 more thing, if any of you have problems with the Graphic Driver crashing and in turn having very Low FPS in games, running EVGA Precision or MSI Afterburner will return the clocks to normal fixing the low FPS issue.

 

[Ed_1]

I don't use Precession but thing I don't like with Kboost as you mentioned it is always on .
Not just temps go up but your using higher voltage table all the time .

I use AB on MSI 660ti PE/OC and set 2 profiles, one stock and one with OC . In AB I then set to sotck profile to all 2d app and the OC one to 3d app .
This way card runs stock, it ilds as stock and when going into game or any 3d app it runs with higher clocks .

As for games that you get low GPU usage and a lot of clock changing, set up power-management to max performance and also if you can run extra load like FSAA 4x+ as long as performance is ok .

That will give you much higher steadier clocks, if might not give max clock but should run smooth .

 

[YahooElite]

I don't use Precession but thing I don't like with Kboost as you mentioned it is always on .
Not just temps go up but your using higher voltage table all the time .

I use AB on MSI 660ti PE/OC and set 2 profiles, one stock and one with OC . In AB I then set to sotck profile to all 2d app and the OC one to 3d app .
This way card runs stock, it ilds as stock and when going into game or any 3d app it runs with higher clocks .

As for games that you get low GPU usage and a lot of clock changing, set up power-management to max performance and also if you can run extra load like FSAA 4x+ as long as performance is ok .

That will give you much higher steadier clocks, if might not give max clock but should run smooth .

With the latest Precision you can turn K Boost on or off at will without having to reboot, so that's really not a problem anymore. I prefer to have it on tbh