- Joined
- May 11, 2017
- Messages
- 25 (0.01/day)
- Location
- Seattle, Wa
| System Name | Yesterday |
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel I-7 4790k |
| Motherboard | Asus Rog |
| Cooling | custom water |
| Memory | Corsair vengeance DDR3 2133mhz 11.11.11.27 @ 1.5 volt |
| Benchmark Scores | http://hwbot.org/user/boobteg4642/ |
I recently got tired of listening to the fans on my gpu's. Also, it was taxing my psu to have two of them. So I took out one of the two gtx 780's I had in sli and added the first graphics card to my water loop with a full cover waterblock. I also replaced the pump with a 25 watt Swiftech MCP50X and added an additional radiator.
With knowledge I've gathered through 100's of trial and errors making changes in the bios, I finally figured out how to make it stable. No one else's idea for a bios for the EVGA SC w/ ACX cooler could make my card fully controllable with msi afterburner or stable by any means. After doing what I describe below, the clock still drops down to 324mhz and 850mv in desktop mode.
It's all about the bios for your nvidia graphics card. If you want performance, first you have to learn the bios, how it works for your card. Don't change anything until your sure of what your doing. Also make sure you open gpu-z and make sure your working with the correct bios number for your card long before you try to flash anything. The bios version for your hardware should be on the back of the card. I suggest using that number and that number only especially if your doing any modifications to it. I use the Kepler Bios Tweaker for everything.
I don't like Nvidia's gpu boost 2.0 for the gtx 780. So I made the card think it has three solid clock states, instead of a varieting top frequency. A lot of this has to do with the voltage, or more so taking away the curve, and if you have the available power or wattage. I found the only way to get voltage stability was to set each power state to 996 watts and the last max to 997watts. Also, on the voltage table, my thoughts here are that it doesn't matter so much the voltage that you flash it at as it does the stability factor. Variating voltages equals changing clock speeds. CLK 35-52 on the voltage table should be taken into consideration, along with the first 7 power states under the voltage tab.
Under the basic clock settings, I used entry #0 for all three clocks states and set a very high boost limit. After flashing it, and without changing anything in msi afterburner, it ran solid at 1071 mhz and 1.212 volts. I unlocked voltage control and turned that down to 1100mv. I'm very familiar with what this card is stable at at what voltage. Max temp while benchmarking 39 degrees C, without the clock speed ever changing, CPU 55 degrees. From this point on, I have full control of my voltage and clock speed.
I started raising in 13 mhz increments until it needed more voltage, then I added voltage. Repeated until the mid 1400mhz's running unigine heaven extreme and decided not to push my luck. I've seen what most gtx 780's overclock to. I backed it down to 1389mhz. Even though my max GPU temp even in the 1400mhz's was 56 degrees while benchmarking, better safe then sorry.
Moral of the story, water is good. And a properly tuned and cooled graphics card can perform better than you think if your used to air cooling. My benchmark scores now are similar to when I was running SLI and choking the graphics cards of wattage. If you don't have the wattage, a single card is a much better choice than two poorly performing ones.
Also, I took a power reading with an amp meter for ac electricty from the wall. Maximum was 4.9 amps and if you know ohm's law, you'd know that is 588 total watts @ 120 volts.
Render Test. It will game like this solid too.
With knowledge I've gathered through 100's of trial and errors making changes in the bios, I finally figured out how to make it stable. No one else's idea for a bios for the EVGA SC w/ ACX cooler could make my card fully controllable with msi afterburner or stable by any means. After doing what I describe below, the clock still drops down to 324mhz and 850mv in desktop mode.
It's all about the bios for your nvidia graphics card. If you want performance, first you have to learn the bios, how it works for your card. Don't change anything until your sure of what your doing. Also make sure you open gpu-z and make sure your working with the correct bios number for your card long before you try to flash anything. The bios version for your hardware should be on the back of the card. I suggest using that number and that number only especially if your doing any modifications to it. I use the Kepler Bios Tweaker for everything.
I don't like Nvidia's gpu boost 2.0 for the gtx 780. So I made the card think it has three solid clock states, instead of a varieting top frequency. A lot of this has to do with the voltage, or more so taking away the curve, and if you have the available power or wattage. I found the only way to get voltage stability was to set each power state to 996 watts and the last max to 997watts. Also, on the voltage table, my thoughts here are that it doesn't matter so much the voltage that you flash it at as it does the stability factor. Variating voltages equals changing clock speeds. CLK 35-52 on the voltage table should be taken into consideration, along with the first 7 power states under the voltage tab.
Under the basic clock settings, I used entry #0 for all three clocks states and set a very high boost limit. After flashing it, and without changing anything in msi afterburner, it ran solid at 1071 mhz and 1.212 volts. I unlocked voltage control and turned that down to 1100mv. I'm very familiar with what this card is stable at at what voltage. Max temp while benchmarking 39 degrees C, without the clock speed ever changing, CPU 55 degrees. From this point on, I have full control of my voltage and clock speed.
I started raising in 13 mhz increments until it needed more voltage, then I added voltage. Repeated until the mid 1400mhz's running unigine heaven extreme and decided not to push my luck. I've seen what most gtx 780's overclock to. I backed it down to 1389mhz. Even though my max GPU temp even in the 1400mhz's was 56 degrees while benchmarking, better safe then sorry.
Moral of the story, water is good. And a properly tuned and cooled graphics card can perform better than you think if your used to air cooling. My benchmark scores now are similar to when I was running SLI and choking the graphics cards of wattage. If you don't have the wattage, a single card is a much better choice than two poorly performing ones.
Also, I took a power reading with an amp meter for ac electricty from the wall. Maximum was 4.9 amps and if you know ohm's law, you'd know that is 588 total watts @ 120 volts.
Render Test. It will game like this solid too.
Attachments
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GPUZ.PNG -
1540.PNG
Last edited:
We've had a few of those too!!
They use an obscene amount of wattage when turned up this high though! 
