• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Hitting walls when OC'ing GTX 470s

xbonez

New Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2010
Messages
1,182 (0.24/day)
Location
Philly, PA (US)
System Name Winter
Processor AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE @ 4.0Ghz
Motherboard MSI 790FX-GD70
Cooling Corsair H50 Liquid Cooling
Memory 2 x 2Gb Gskill Ripjaws 1600Mhz (7-7-7-24@1.6V)
Video Card(s) Asus GTX 470 @ Stock (Zalman VF3000 cooler)
Storage 2 x Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB (RAID 0)
Display(s) Hanns G 28" @ 1920x1200
Case Antec 1200
Audio Device(s) Onboard -- TosLink --> Z5500
Power Supply Corsair 850TX 850W PSU
Software Win 7 64-bit Ultimate
I have an ASUS GTX 470 (stock cooler), and a EVGA GTX 470 with a Zalman V3000f cooler.
Both cards have been flashed with a custom BIOS to permit higher voltages than the standard 1087mV limit.

Asus GTX 470:

Runs furmark stable at Core: 770Mhz, Memory: 1700 Mhz @ 1070 mV.
Furmark cannot push temps above 82 degrees.
Folding overnight keeps temp at about 70 degrees.

From this point on, any increase in clocks causes me to lose display within 3min of Furmark. I've tried pushing more voltage (upto 1200 mV). Temps are well within the threshold of 105 degrees (though I would not run it at anymore than 90-92 degrees)

EVGA GTX 470 with Zalman Cooler

Furmark stable at Core: 825, Memory 1800 Mhz @ 1100 mV.
Furmark cannot push temps above 75 degrees.
Folding overnight keeps temps at late 50s.

Any further OC either causes me to lose display during furmark, or the card crashes during 3D Mark vantage, or return errors during folding (UNSTABLE_MACHINE).
Tried pushing more voltage, but to no avail. Temps are well within control.

With both cards, I'm hitting a wall I cannot explain. The cards are not limited by temperature, nor voltage. How can I push the clocks further?
If there is nothing I can do, I don't get the point why people water cool GPUs when in all cases I'm not being limited by temps. Do I need to OC something else for stability? maybe northbridge, or something?

I'm running a Phenom II x4 965 on a MSI 790FX-GD70, everything at stock.
2x2Gb GSkill Ripjaws 7-7-7-24 @ 1333Mhz.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2009
Messages
2,644 (0.48/day)
Location
...
System Name MRCOMP!
Processor 5800X3D
Motherboard MSI Gaming Plus
Cooling Corsair 280 AIO
Memory 64GB 3600mhz
Video Card(s) GTX3060
Storage 1TB SSD
Display(s) Samsung Neo
Case No Case... just sitting on cardboard :D
Power Supply Antec 650w
chances are if you drop the temp even further you will be able to overclock higher... hence where water cooling comes in.
 

xbonez

New Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2010
Messages
1,182 (0.24/day)
Location
Philly, PA (US)
System Name Winter
Processor AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE @ 4.0Ghz
Motherboard MSI 790FX-GD70
Cooling Corsair H50 Liquid Cooling
Memory 2 x 2Gb Gskill Ripjaws 1600Mhz (7-7-7-24@1.6V)
Video Card(s) Asus GTX 470 @ Stock (Zalman VF3000 cooler)
Storage 2 x Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB (RAID 0)
Display(s) Hanns G 28" @ 1920x1200
Case Antec 1200
Audio Device(s) Onboard -- TosLink --> Z5500
Power Supply Corsair 850TX 850W PSU
Software Win 7 64-bit Ultimate
But nvidia rates these cards to have a threshold of 105 degrees. I'm a good 30 degrees less than that. I don't understand why temps would be a problem at this point?
Also, if you not above, my EVGA is running cooler than my ASUS, which is stable at 80+ degrees, while my EVGA is unstable at 75.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2009
Messages
2,644 (0.48/day)
Location
...
System Name MRCOMP!
Processor 5800X3D
Motherboard MSI Gaming Plus
Cooling Corsair 280 AIO
Memory 64GB 3600mhz
Video Card(s) GTX3060
Storage 1TB SSD
Display(s) Samsung Neo
Case No Case... just sitting on cardboard :D
Power Supply Antec 650w
the nvidia threashold is for standard clocks, not overclocks.

also not every GPU overclocks the same, as such both of yours overclock different amounts at different temps.



as i said before, if you find a way to drop the temp a further 10c or more you should be able to clock even higher.
 

DOM

Joined
May 30, 2006
Messages
7,628 (1.17/day)
Location
TX, USA
Processor Intel i7 4770K
Motherboard Asrock
Cooling Water
Memory Team Xtreem LV 16GB (2x8GB)
Video Card(s) EK Full WB HD7970
Display(s) CROSSOVER 27Q LED-P 27"
Case Danger Den Torture Rack
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX1200
Software W 10 Pro
i think its NvidiaInspector that shows the vid volt for the cards but since you modded the bios idk if its still the same

but the ones that had a lower vis oced better with less volts

have you tryed putting new tim on the asus cards ?

also the gpu isnt the only thing that gets hot on a card that can limet the oc ;)
 

xbonez

New Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2010
Messages
1,182 (0.24/day)
Location
Philly, PA (US)
System Name Winter
Processor AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE @ 4.0Ghz
Motherboard MSI 790FX-GD70
Cooling Corsair H50 Liquid Cooling
Memory 2 x 2Gb Gskill Ripjaws 1600Mhz (7-7-7-24@1.6V)
Video Card(s) Asus GTX 470 @ Stock (Zalman VF3000 cooler)
Storage 2 x Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB (RAID 0)
Display(s) Hanns G 28" @ 1920x1200
Case Antec 1200
Audio Device(s) Onboard -- TosLink --> Z5500
Power Supply Corsair 850TX 850W PSU
Software Win 7 64-bit Ultimate
i think its NvidiaInspector that shows the vid volt for the cards but since you modded the bios idk if its still the same

but the ones that had a lower vis oced better with less volts

have you tryed putting new tim on the asus cards ?

also the gpu isnt the only thing that gets hot on a card that can limet the oc ;)

Yeah, thats what I've been thinking. Maybe its the VRM modules that are over-heating. Any utility to monitor VRM temps?
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2009
Messages
2,644 (0.48/day)
Location
...
System Name MRCOMP!
Processor 5800X3D
Motherboard MSI Gaming Plus
Cooling Corsair 280 AIO
Memory 64GB 3600mhz
Video Card(s) GTX3060
Storage 1TB SSD
Display(s) Samsung Neo
Case No Case... just sitting on cardboard :D
Power Supply Antec 650w
use GPU-Z, if that dosnt show the temps then its likely theres no sensor on them.
 
Top