Overclocking Graphics Card?

Voltage is locked via software because reference cards will probably burn up/explode if they are overvolted. When voltage tweaks are locked, it's usually for a reason. Don't think there's any way around this as of yet.

Overclocking typically voids the warranty, but usually the company can't tell that you overclocked (unless you flash the BIOS), so it's not a huge risk warranty-wise, especially if you deal with a good company like EVGA for example.

Also, we don't really "know" what the 680 would be capable of with voltage tweaks... wait and see.

Depends on the VRMs they used. As I understand it some are hardwired and some are programmable. If it's hardwired then there's nothing you can do (this is where pencil mods started).

If it is programmable, you can try downloading your BIOS from GPUZ, and then editing it. I don't know the name of the Nvidia BIOS editor program but it's probably available from techpowerup.com or maybe guru3d.com

From there you should be able to adjust the voltage and clocks of different settings (2d/3d/idle/etc).

Otherwise you'll have to wait for Afterburner and other software to crack it, if it's possible.

So for now you'll just have to set that TDP power slider thingy to the max setting and do what you can.

The in house OC guy at EVGA modded his ref 680 and set the OCing world record for a GPU. I think he added more VRMs and the card was unlocked. I understand a ref 680 is limited by not as many VRMs though.

Are you talking about something like this?

Because things like that have no relevance to end users.

Some of the mods he made to the card are WAY WAY WAY out there. But some can be implemented by manufacturers in non ref models. Also he is using a card with 0nly dual 6 pin connectors, an 8+8 has more power with out having to add an e power board.

I hope EVGA does some good stuff with a classified 4GB 680. Also I hope MSI does something amazing with a lightning 680. How do people like the lightning 79070s?

Right well some aftermarket cards have military grade components too.

But if you have reference, you are at the mercy of Nvidia's specs.

Yeah I knew this when I bought a ref knew that it was new tech, dont regret it.

Lightning 7970s are nice but don't appear to be binned - at least not for air (perhaps they are binned for LN2?). They overclock to 1200 MHz fairly reliably but not too far beyond that if reviews are to be believed (and my card is right in line with that... 1225 is stable, 1250 seems doable but some artifacting occurs over long usage).

We don't know yet where the 680's limitations lie on air cooling. Sure voltmodding is needed for a big LN2 overclock, but there's no guarantee that, on air, better VRMs/voltmodding will help anything. We just don't know yet. If the GPUs themselves aren't binned by the manufacturer, overclocking on air will probably depend more on luck of the draw (as with the 7970) than better VRM design. Time will tell.

The key is to increase the power limiter up to its maximum.

Get yourself a copy of the just-released Afterburner 2.2 Final:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Afterburner-2.2.0-download-...
Which adds: "voltage offset support for dynamic overclocking on Kepler"

Follow these instructions:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-680-overclock...

Quote: "Again Voltage tweaking was at the time of writing not yet available. EVGA's precision does support it upto 1.15V but it really didn't make a difference."

So, if you want to try, here is the latest EVGA Precision X software:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/PrecisionX-download-2889.ht...

Keep in mind, that the GPU dyanamically adjusts the voltage on its own with Turbo Boost, so it probably doesn't matter if you tweak the voltage on the standard clocks. Those probably have no bearing on the self-selected Turbo Boost voltages.