GTX680 Overclocking

[jay2tall]

As I do not see any threads for GTX680 overclocking, I thought I would take it upon myself to make one to generate some conversation for those of you toying with this new "offset" overclocking since it utilized Dynamic boost to OC the GPU depending on power usage.

I an using an ASUS GTX680 card, but using the beta version of the MSI Afterburner utility. ASUS has their GPU Tweak utility, which I found to be nice, except that it is lacking the OSD that displays my FPS, temps, or whatever else I want in game. Afterburner has this, I like this, so I am using this.

I am currently running a GPU offset of +100 which gives me a base clock of 1106MHZ and will boost to about 1227MHZ at peak. I gave it a +400MHz offset to the Memory which with DDR gives me an effective clock of 6808MHz.

I also had to change the power limit in Afterburner to 120% to keep the boost form bouncing around so much. And I also changed the fan profile to be slightly more aggressive.

Here are a few articles that I found helpful so far.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-680-overclock-guide/1
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/4623/nvidia_geforce_gtx_680_kepler_2gb_reference_video_card_overclocked/index1.html


I was curious what the other GTX680 owners were finding with their ventures.

 

[PMentior]

I have the MSI gtx680

I set the power limit to 132%
Core offset to +150
Mem offset to +500

I haven't played around with it too much yet but I have had no problems with these values. I will probably work on it this weekend just to see what I can get this thing up to, not that I really need anymore power above this things stock speed.

 

[jay2tall]

not that I really need anymore power above this things stock speed.

Yeah I hear you on that one. I've just been toying around. I had it up to +150 on the GPU last night with no issues. I might toy around with it just to see what 3Dmark 11 score I can get out of it. I can save those stable settings for a reserve later. +400 seems to be perfectly stable, but I see others are getting much higher numbers. I am not one for pushing the envelope to the limit, but I do like a good overclock that runs stable for the time I own the card.

 

[4Ryan6]

Will you guys be posting some benches stock vs OC of what gains these overclocks deliver for you?

I know I would be interested in learning that information!

 

[jay2tall]

^ I can do that later tonight. What benchmarks are you looking for?

 

[geekapproved]

The 7970 hits 1300mhz and outpaces the GTX680. I haven't seen any GTX680 overclocking benchmarks yet though.

 

[PMentior]

The 7970 hits 1300mhz and outpaces the GTX680. I haven't seen any GTX680 overclocking benchmarks yet though.

You know that just comparing clock speed between different architectures means nothing right? Just look at intel vs AMD, at the same clock speeds intel still is better.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/x86-core-performance-comparison/All-time-based-values-added,2779.html

That is a comparison of a bunch os different cpus running only 1 core and at 3GHz. As you can see they all preform differently. This hold true for gpus as well.

That said, if you haven't seen any gtx680 overclocked benches how can you say that the 7970 outpaces it? Have you gotten a 7970 to 1300MHz? My gtx680 is running at 1280MHz

Final note -- This thread is about people sharing their overclocking experiences with a GTX680 not to start a pissing match over nvidia or AMD!

 

[jay2tall]

Ok here are some general benchmarks with 3Dmark11. This is with the below system.

i7 920 @ 4Ghz
Asus P6T x58
3x2GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 8-8-8-21
ASUS GTX 680
2x250GB Seagate ES.2 in RAID0
PC Power & Cooling 750w PSU
Vista Ultimate 64-bit

STOCK: p9295
+100gpu/+400Mem: p9652
+150gpu/+400Mem: p9892
+200gpu/+400Mem: p10208
+200gpu/+500Mem: p10247

I usually use OCCT to do stability testing, but it seem not to like the GTX680. It hits a certain threshold and then underclocks the card. However, 3dmark runs just fine. I am planning to run BF3 for a little while at the highest clock, but apparently there is a 1.5GB patch, blah. I am probably planning to run a moderate overclock, +100gpu/+200mem. I don't think I'll really need much more than that for anything I'm playing. The +200gpu/+500mem hits about 1337MHz at full boost.

 

[PMentior]

I assume that you are using the Performance preset for your scores?

Here is my system:

i7-970 @4.2GHz
Asus P6X58D Premium
18GB G.Skill RAW @1600MHz 8-9-9-24
MSI GTX680
2x 120GB intel 320 ssd RAID0
Corsair 750w PSU
win7 Pro x64

STOCK: p9354
+150gpu/+500mem : p10651
+165gpu/+500mem : p10855
+175gpu/+400mem : p10885
+175gpu/+450mem : p10904
+180gpu/+500mem : p11043
+185gpu/+500mem : p11066

 

[jay2tall]

Yeah the Basic version.

 

[PMentior]

Does you card limit the fan speed to 85% too? Mine is limited but
i wish it weren't so I could turn it up. It is quiet enough at 85% that I don't mind it.

 

[jay2tall]

Yes there is a fan governor on most coolers.

I just played BF3 for 2 hours and it was running 75C with my fan at 65-68%. That was with a +100GPU and +200Mem. It was doing a constant 1228Mhz on the GPU that whole time. It never flinched from 60 FPS.

 

[geekapproved]

You know that just comparing clock speed between different architectures means nothing right? Just look at intel vs AMD, at the same clock speeds intel still is better.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/x86-core-performance-comparison/All-time-based-values-added,2779.html

That is a comparison of a bunch os different cpus running only 1 core and at 3GHz. As you can see they all preform differently. This hold true for gpus as well.

That said, if you haven't seen any gtx680 overclocked benches how can you say that the 7970 outpaces it? Have you gotten a 7970 to 1300MHz? My gtx680 is running at 1280MHz

Final note -- This thread is about people sharing their overclocking experiences with a GTX680 not to start a pissing match over nvidia or AMD!

Because I read the Tom's Hardware Review duh.

Where did I say they were the same architecture??? I think your reading comprehension needs improvement.

I was quoting Tom's Hardware, so you can take your fanboy rant to them bud, sorry I got your panties in a wad. I'm also glad you were able to get in on the paper launch.

Great! So, give me two then. Er, we’re sorry. GeForce GTX 680s are no longer available. Although there were plenty of entries for them at launch, they sold out within just a couple of hours. That probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise, given Nvidia’s competitive position against Radeon HD 7970. Nevertheless, we’re sticklers about availability, and the fact that you can’t buy a GTX 680 means that folks who simply cannot wait might want to consider a Radeon HD 7970 in the meantime. After all, there are plenty of them, and they generally seem to have quite a bit of built-in headroom.

Ah, overclocking. Don’t the Radeon HD 7970s retake significant ground in the hands of enthusiasts? They certainly can, yes. In some cases, a Radeon that would have trailed a GeForce, unmodified, may be able to outpace the Nvidia card after an overclock. When you take into account the fact that we hit Overdrive’s core ceiling of 1125 MHz and that folks have seen more than 1300 MHz from Tahiti, the potential performance gains are substantial. We’d really like to see AMD provide access to more aggressive settings. When its PowerTune technology is doing its job, settings that push higher than the board’s TDP should be dealt with elegantly anyway.

 

[4Ryan6]

^ I can do that later tonight. What benchmarks are you looking for?

Performance scores in 3DM11 and 3DMvantage if you have them, sorry I didn't respond sooner went out last night, I see some are already posted Nice!

Please use the prefix so we know what test was run, because those prefixes assure the tests were equally run you know P for performance etc.

And nothing is as solid confirmation as the actual futuremark linked results, but you may want to wait for that until your overclocks are fine tuned, and that's just a suggestion.

 

[4Ryan6]

The title of this thread is GTX680 Overclocking so lets keep the arguments out of it Please, I'm personally interested in these results and don't want to close it or ban anyone so you guys govern yourselves and leave the arguing out of it.

 

[jay2tall]

I added a P to my results.

I had played some BF3 with the +200GPU/+500MEM setting for maybe 20-30 minutes and it seemed fine. It almost felt pointless as well because it also runs at the +100gpu/+200GPU setting. Heck it probably runs it stock.

I had downloaded that Unigine Heaven Demo, so maybe I can run a benchmark in that as well. I am starting to think that I may not even give much of an OC to this card at least until it is needed. The numbers look good though.

 

[geekapproved]

Argument?

I quoted a Tom's Hardware article and the guy apparently took issue with what Tom's said. Not my bad.

 

[4Ryan6]

Argument?

I quoted a Tom's Hardware article and the guy apparently took issue with what Tom's said. Not my bad.

My reading comprehension is just fine, of his post and yours, I don't need a play by play, now as far as thread disruption, lets let it voluntarily or involuntarily end here.

 

[PMentior]

Ok here are some general benchmarks with 3Dmark11. This is with the below system.

i7 920 @ 4Ghz
Asus P6T x58
3x2GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 8-8-8-21
ASUS GTX 680
2x250GB Seagate ES.2 in RAID0
PC Power & Cooling 750w PSU
Vista Ultimate 64-bit

STOCK: p9295
+100gpu/+400Mem: p9652
+150gpu/+400Mem: p9892
+200gpu/+400Mem: p10208
+200gpu/+500Mem: p10247

I usually use OCCT to do stability testing, but it seem not to like the GTX680. It hits a certain threshold and then underclocks the card. However, 3dmark runs just fine. I am planning to run BF3 for a little while at the highest clock, but apparently there is a 1.5GB patch, blah. I am probably planning to run a moderate overclock, +100gpu/+200mem. I don't think I'll really need much more than that for anything I'm playing. The +200gpu/+500mem hits about 1337MHz at full boost.

I wish I had your 680. I can't get mine to go over +175 even with +0mem. Oh well, luck of the draw i guess. Mine still works plenty well enough.

Anybody know if the core voltage offset does anything in afterburner yet? I have tried moving it but I don't see any difference.

 

[4Ryan6]

I wish I had your 680. I can't get mine to go over +175 even with +0mem. Oh well, luck of the draw i guess. Mine still works plenty well enough.

Anybody know if the core voltage offset does anything in afterburner yet? I have tried moving it but I don't see any difference.

Just a suggestion:

I had to supply some fresh air directly into my 580GTX air intake, did that with a side panel case mod and added a fan blowing fresh air directly into the 580s air intake, it made a difference in my situation, and may be a possibility for you.

You could have comparable cards but case airflow better in one case over another.

 

[PMentior]

Just a suggestion:

I had to supply some fresh air directly into my 580GTX air intake, did that with a side panel case mod and added a fan blowing fresh air directly into the 580s air intake, it made a difference in my situation, and may be a possibility for you.

I already set that up when I had 2 gtx560ti in sli. My temps are fine, never seen it go above 69-70. Its weird though, it always fails at the same spot in the 3rd test of 3dmark.

 

[jay2tall]

So I ran the Heaven demo benchmark and the +200gpu/+500mem OC failed and crashed. The +150gpu/+400mem runs just fine over and over. I have some more testing and tweaking to do. I want to test the +150gpu/+500mem to see if the mem works fine at that clock. Will report back.

 

[aRodr1guez]

I own a EVGA GTX 680 and know NOTHING about overclocking think you guys can put me in the right direction. Also can you guys link me to some stress test bench marking tools so I can be sure that my 680 is running as it should. Thanks.

 

[jay2tall]

^
The GTX680 is a little different to overclock. It is the same principles though, however you have to take into account that it has a dynamic boost to the GPU now. Just do some reading. Maybe the articles I posted originally to get you started just to understand how the 680 is setup.

Evga has their own Overclocking software that you could download and try. I like the MSI afterburner tool. It works for non MSI cards to. I like it because it has an On Screen Display in games for FPS and temps. The offset we are talking about is basically the increase to the base clock. For example the +100GPU offset I mentioned is a 100 MHz OC to the GPU. This means instead of 1006MHz it will run 1106Mhz. However, because of the boost it can jump higher. You just creep up the clocks until you get artifacts in a benchmark or it crashes. Then turn back the clock maybe 25-50MHz or so to make sure its stable. That is just some general information.

Here is a good app I started to use with the GTX680.
Unigine Heaven DX11 Benchmark http://unigine.com/

I used to use the OCCT GPU test, but it seems to be a little off with how this card works. It likes to down clock to a very low clock if it reaches a certain power draw. I think I just have to play with it a big. However, for years OCCT was my go to test for a video card. http://www.ocbase.com/

Also, 3Dmark11 is a good benchmark to run. While it is not that great to test stability, it gives you a basis for how it is performing as you OC. http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/

 

[PMentior]

^jay2tall beat me too it