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Temperatures & Clock Rates
Overclocking
Overclocking the ROG Poseidon GeForce GTX 1080 Ti under air cooling is pointless, for the most part. Asus tunes this board aggressively straight from the factory, leaving little headroom available for higher frequencies. Especially in a closed computer case, the card is already at its physical limits.
With sufficient water cooling, however, we were able to reach 2076 MHz. That's where our chip hit its ceiling, even after installing a high-end loop, increasing the power target, and applying a bit of extra voltage.
Temperatures & Clock Frequencies
The following table includes starting and end values for our temperature and GPU Boost clock rates.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Start Value | End Value |
|---|---|---|
| Open Test Bench | ||
| GPU Temperature (Air Cooling) | 40°C | 76°C |
| GPU Frequency (Open Bench) | 2012 MHz | 1924 MHz |
| Ambient Temperature | 22°C | 22°C |
| Closed Case | ||
| GPU Temperature (Air Cooling) | 42°C | 78°C |
| GPU Frequency (Closed Case) | 2000 MHz | 1898 MHz |
| Temperature Inside Case | 25°C | 38°C |
| Water Cooling | ||
| GPU Temperatures (Stock) | 22°C | 35°C |
| GPU Frequency (Stock) | 2025 MHz | 2000 MHz |
| GPU Temperatures (Maximum O/C) | 22°C | 37°C |
| GPU Frequency (Maximum O/C) | 2076 MHz | 2076 MHz |
| Water Temperature | 20°C | 20°C |
Temperatures vs. Frequency
Here's a closer look at the data over 15 minutes, during our sample's warm-up phase.
Infrared Temperature Analysis
Under the effects of air cooling, our measurements at the GPU package and the chip's own reported values appear identical, since thermal energy dissipates more slowly.
Using water cooling, however, reveals a minor weakness in Asus' solution. Whereas a full-coverage water block wouldn't allow a difference of more than 5 Kelvin between the liquid and GPU diode, this hybrid implementation shows a gap of up to 17 Kelvin in our overclocked scenario. Moreover, the board temperature below the GPU package is also significantly higher than what Nvidia's GP102 reports.
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