Question 3080 Ti power limitation ?

[thorv]

Hello. I have recently purchased ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Trinity OC. From my previous build, I have RMx White Series™ RM850x — 850 Watt 80 PLUS® Gold Certified Fully Modular PSU. I have tried plugging in the 2x 6+2 PCIe cables or 4x 6 PCIe cables through the provided adapter but in Afterburner using OC scanner it gives an error saying there is power limitation, also user benchmark gives the result of 28th percentile (below expectations). Also, when I'm running GPU demanding games at the highest settings the afterburner detects "power lim" when it gets to 310W, although the specified power consumption is 350W. I tried to increase power consumption to 110% in the afterburner. I have also tried to use all the different PSU slots for the PCIe cables.

Can anyone suggest any additional troubleshooting I should do? Is it possible that the GPU is just defective? Please help.

The rest of the build -
i9 11900k
x2 8gb 3200 mhz cl14 trident RAM
ASUS ROG Strix Gaming Motherboard Z590
802 silent base bequiet!
980 PRO SSD 1TB

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

When you say previous, how old is the PSU that you'd recycled? What was it powering prior to this system? A before specs list will be helpful. Please include any overclocks you might've done on the previous system to factor in the PSU's wear. You shouldn't use Userbenchmark to tell you what's right or wrong with your build. Are the connectors daisy chained or individually stemming from the PSU's end to your GPU?

 

[thorv]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

When you say previous, how old is the PSU that you'd recycled? What was it powering prior to this system? A before specs list will be helpful. Please include any overclocks you might've done on the previous system to factor in the PSU's wear. You shouldn't use Userbenchmark to tell you what's right or wrong with your build. Are the connectors daisy chained or individually stemming from the PSU's end to your GPU?

Hello, and thank you

Both of my last builds have the same PSU, so there was no recycling. All the RMX850 PCIe cables are indeed daisy chained (if I understood you correctly), but I use two separate daisy chained PCIe cables and I don't use only 1 daisy chained PCIe to power both GPU slots.

My previous build -

i7 9700k
RTX 2080
2x 8gb 2400 mhz hyperx ram
ASUS TUF Z390-Plus Gaming
SSD Samsung 970 PRO 1TB
Built it somewhere around December 2018

I have tried to overclock the GPU in the previous build but it got unstable in a year or year and a half so I dropped it to stock. The overclock was nothing special, I was just using the OC scanner to get some kind of a boost. I have started getting issues with the GPU later on, around the 3rd year of use - it started to get very hot and very noisy, working at 95-100% power with loss of performance even in conditions that it previously did not. Eventually, I put it to my work PC where I sometimes use Solidworks. Basically, my previous gaming build is now my work PC, I bought at the local shop a PSU that was available which is Chieftec 750W, A-80 Series, 12cm fan, Modular.

My first impression is that it is either the PSU is wearing or the GPU is defective. I think to order a 1000W platinum PSU so that it would also be future proof and maybe it could fix the power limitation issue of the GPU.

 

[thorv]

Sorry if you meant recycle as reused (I'm not native English speaker)

 

[hotaru.hino]

It sounds like the video card is defective, as I don't expect power supplies to limit power like this. If anything, overcurrent protection would kick in and shut the unit off.

 

[thorv]

It sounds like the video card is defective, as I don't expect power supplies to limit power like this. If anything, overcurrent protection would kick in and shut the unit off.

Thanks for your input. Just a moment ago I plugged into my new build the 750W Chieftec PSU and the result is the same. So unfortunate if it is actually a defective GPU. Anyhow, I have better fps but its not a big leap. I think it is already more than a month I have it and I bought it from caseking.de but I live in a different country, I have no idea if I can return it and what would be the policy.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Thanks for your input. Just a moment ago I plugged into my new build the 750W Chieftec PSU and the result is the same. So unfortunate if it is actually a defective GPU. Anyhow, I have better fps but its not a big leap. I think it is already more than a month I have it and I bought it from caseking.de but I live in a different country, I have no idea if I can return it and what would be the policy.

At the very least if you can't return it, you could try undervolting it by adjusting the VF curve in something like MSI Afterburner. You might even reclaim some performance lost because the stock profile is trying too hard.

As an anecdote, I undervolted my 2070 Super and I have little performance loss over the stock profile, and yet it consumes around 75%-80% of the original TBP.

 

[thorv]

At the very least if you can't return it, you could try undervolting it by adjusting the VF curve in something like MSI Afterburner. You might even reclaim some performance lost because the stock profile is trying too hard.

As an anecdote, I undervolted my 2070 Super and I have little performance loss over the stock profile, and yet it consumes around 75%-80% of the original TBP.

That is an interesting approach, I read about it a little now, seems very logical . The last thing before I want to try something new is a clean install of Windows 10 because I haven't really done it, so I changed CPU, GPU, MOBO, RAM but used SSD with Windows 10 installed already on it with drivers from different hardware. Although I did erase all GPU drivers through 3rd party software and made a clean install as a troubleshoot already, also just installed on top all other MOBO drivers. What do you think about this attempt? Or it sounds bleak?

 

[hotaru.hino]

That is an interesting approach, I read about it a little now, seems very logical . The last thing before I want to try something new is a clean install of Windows 10 because I haven't really done it, so I changed CPU, GPU, MOBO, RAM but used SSD with Windows 10 installed already on it with drivers from different hardware. Although I did erase all GPU drivers through 3rd party software and made a clean install as a troubleshoot already, also just installed on top all other MOBO drivers. What do you think about this attempt? Or it sounds bleak?

I think it's worthwhile, provided that:

• The ISO from Microsoft is used since there's no customizations
• It's installed without an internet connection to prevent Windows Update from trying to grab things before you're ready. Though this requires the drivers be saved to another drive. Once you install the drivers, you can reconnect the computer back to the internet.
• No system changes are made. i.e., only modify settings in the Settings app. Doing things like modifying the registry or services without knowing exactly what it's doing may cause unexpected behavior.
• The bare minimum is installed (drivers only, if the driver installer tries to install other software)

Then we can rule out software being a problem if we still have a problem.

 

[Zerk2012]

Sorry if you meant recycle as reused (I'm not native English speaker)

The 310 watt power limit could be in the cards BIOS version.
This guy says his is 320 watts.

Help me find BIOS with increased power limit on zotac...

www.overclock.net

 

[Phaaze88]

Oh, this reminds me of that Gamers' Nexus video on used gpu warning signs - but this isn't a 2nd hand gpu.
Anyway, one of the things that came up that sound related to this is a crimped power connector on the gpu.

 

[thorv]

I think it's worthwhile, provided that:

• The ISO from Microsoft is used since there's no customizations
• It's installed without an internet connection to prevent Windows Update from trying to grab things before you're ready. Though this requires the drivers be saved to another drive. Once you install the drivers, you can reconnect the computer back to the internet.
• No system changes are made. i.e., only modify settings in the Settings app. Doing things like modifying the registry or services without knowing exactly what it's doing may cause unexpected behavior.
• The bare minimum is installed (drivers only, if the driver installer tries to install other software)

Then we can rule out software being a problem if we still have a problem.

Not sure if I understand you for all the conditions you mentioned in terms of just reinstalling windows. My idea was to just rule out the possibility of drivers conflict resulting in GPU working incorrectly. But I think we are talking about the same thing.

Interestingly, yesterday I unlocked voltage limiter in MSI afterburner to, maybe, try to undervlot the GPU, but, firstly, I increased the voltage knob to +100% which resulted in my GPU now limiting max. power at 320-325W, the boost clock is at 1990-2000 Mhz measured by Afterburner, although in specification its written Engine Clock Boost: 1695 MHz. - Not too experienced in studying GPU specifications but are these parameters the same thing?

 

[thorv]

Oh, this reminds me of that Gamers' Nexus video on used gpu warning signs - but this isn't a 2nd hand gpu.
Anyway, one of the things that came up that sound related to this is a crimped power connector on the gpu.

By crimped you mean that it is badly crimped, hence the underperformance?

 

[thorv]

The 310 watt power limit could be in the cards BIOS version.
This guy says his is 320 watts.

Help me find BIOS with increased power limit on zotac...

www.overclock.net

This guy has 3080 RTX mine is 3080 Ti. I'm very new with BIOS and GPU and their relation. How does that work? You can download bios settings from other same model GPUs to try it for overclocking etc.?

 

[Phaaze88]

By crimped you mean that it is badly crimped, hence the underperformance?

Dunno. All I saw was that if the connector is crimped, then power can't go through it.
That, to me, means you got a faulty gpu from the start, and I would try to send it back - IF at all possible.

TechPowerUp

Extensive repository of graphics card BIOS image files. Our database covers submissions categorized by GPU vendor, type, and board partner variant.

www.techpowerup.com

That's a link to Zotac 3080Ti bios files that have currently been provided by users. Only 1 at the time of this post, unfortunately - but it's much higher than 310w.

TechPowerUp

Extensive repository of graphics card BIOS image files. Our database covers submissions categorized by GPU vendor, type, and board partner variant.

www.techpowerup.com

That's a list of Zotac 3080s.

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/233939/nvidia-rtx3080ti-12288-210326
That's the FE 3080Ti.

The reason I linked all that: Your gpu is currently maxing out on power lower than the FE 3080Ti - which is unusual - and matching up with a 3080's power limits... something's off.

 

[thorv]

Dunno. All I saw was that if the connector is crimped, then power can't go through it.
That, to me, means you got a faulty gpu from the start, and I would try to send it back - IF at all possible.

TechPowerUp

Extensive repository of graphics card BIOS image files. Our database covers submissions categorized by GPU vendor, type, and board partner variant.

www.techpowerup.com

That's a link to Zotac 3080Ti bios files that have currently been provided by users. Only 1 at the time of this post, unfortunately - but it's much higher than 310w.

TechPowerUp

Extensive repository of graphics card BIOS image files. Our database covers submissions categorized by GPU vendor, type, and board partner variant.

www.techpowerup.com

That's a list of Zotac 3080s.

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/233939/nvidia-rtx3080ti-12288-210326
That's the FE 3080Ti.

The reason I linked all that: Your gpu is currently maxing out on power lower than the FE 3080Ti - which is unusual - and matching up with a 3080's power limits... something's off.

Yes, it is underperforming by a lot in terms of power consumption, but my boost clock is 1990-2000 Mhz, yet all these cards from the links are in the range of 1650-1750 Mhz?

 

[Phaaze88]

my boost clock is 1990-2000 Mhz, yet all these cards from the links are in the range of 1650-1750 Mhz?

Those advertised clocks are guaranteed for worst case scenarios.
If the Gpu Boost algorithm is ok with the gpu's parameters, it will easily boost higher than those numbers.

 

[thorv]

Just some updates. I'm still trying to install fresh windows 10, both my 8 GB flash drives failed to upload the installation, the error code is 0x80070057 - 0xA001B, which seems to mean that it is not enough memory, so I'm going to use 16gb flash drive today.

Also. I have borrowed a perfectly working 2080 Ti FTW3 from a friend for a few hours. This GPU can easily also get to 350W consumption. I wanted just to try whether it would also have limit on my system at 300W and it did (reinstalled drivers through DDU) . So I now have 2 GPUs that limit themselves out at 300W even though their power consumption is higher. Funny thing is that you can up the power to 120% in Afterburner for 2080 Ti FTW3 and the consumption increases up to ~335W but still hits the ceiling and "power lim" error can be observed. So I'm kind of lost here tbh, issue can be because of PSU, PSU cables or/and Windows 10 which I did not reinstall for a few years and it had many hardware changes with minimal driver uninstallation. On the other hand, I tried my other PSU and had the same issue with power limitation on the same card, although this PSU is of worse quality, but it is kind of strange...

Regarding GPU bios, there is an issue. ZOTAC has really bad support in terms of bios for their cards, on their website there's quite a lot of bad feedback regarding support for 3080 and 3090 cards where clients requested bios update while all other manufacturers already had presented one. Here's the link - https://www.zotac.com/us/faq/how-get-updated-vbios-my-graphics-card . So, currently, there is no BIOS download available for the 3080 ti ZOTAC OC Trinity and who knows when it will be available. Maybe it is possible to download some kind of a tool and change current bios settings yourself?

 

[thorv]

Another update. I have reinstalled windows and all the drivers. The OC scanner still says that the dominant limiter is power, results considered unstable, so its probably the PSU.