GPU not running at max clock speed

cobalt77

Honorable
May 14, 2013
27
0
10,530
When I play certain games, my video cards (2 GTX 670 FTWs in SLI) won't run at their max clock speed. I have them overclocked to run at 1267mhz at max, yet they only run at 1005mhz all the time. It doesn't change, even when I am on the desktop and not using any 3D applications. The only time it changes is when I play a game like Battlefield 3 or Arma 3, then it goes up to 1267. I am concerned because in some games which aren't as graphically demanding as BF3 or Arma 3, I get framerates of 40-50 which causes bad lag. I assume this is because of the clock speed of my video cards. Does anyone have any tips on how to fix this?

Note: They started locking at 1005mhz once I installed the second card. When I had 1, the clock speed would go down when I was on the desktop. It still wouldnt go above 1005mhz in certain games.
 

Drew010

Honorable
May 11, 2013
1,150
0
11,660
What are your temps like? It sounds like they are throttling because of temperatures. Dual GPU setups will tend to do that if they aren't the blower kind and/or your case isn't ventilated very well around the GPU zone.