GTX 1060: Unable to unlock Core Voltage in any software, is the voltage really hard limited?

[ajthemacboy]

I've been completely unable to unlock Core Voltage control in any programs, including MSI Afterburner Beta, EVGA Precision XOC, or Gigabyte Xtreme Engine, even with the "unlock voltage control" options enabled and manual changes in the Afterburner config.

I've read that no one except gold medal overclockers have any real reason to unlock this voltage, but I've only been able to overclock +125 MHz and I'd like to see if I can go further with more control than the power limit sliders.

Is there anything I can do, or is this a hard limit that can't be changed?

Motherboard: Asus Z170-A
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1060 G1 Gaming 6G

 

[photonboy]

It appears to be locked.

When the GTX750Ti launched it had a locked voltage too, then later on after they could test a large sample of GPU's to see how well they overclocked the voltage was raised (probably in a driver update).

I do NOT know if that is the case now however it would not surprise me.

 

[azzazel_99]

Could always look for a custom bios one day. That's what I did with my 780ti classifieds.

 

[ajthemacboy]

I really hope they don't decide to limit it forever in some marketing strategy, my temps are phenomenal and there's plenty of headroom for overclocking with 8 pins on my third-party design and extra power phases.

Thanks for your input.

 

[azzazel_99]

They locked it because it would put it to close to performance of the 1070/1080 if they let you go wild with it and it being $250 no one would buy a 1070. They would just buy a 1060 and overclock it.

 

[photonboy]

They locked it because it would put it to close to performance of the 1070/1080 if they let you go wild with it and it being $250 no one would buy a 1070. They would just buy a 1060 and overclock it.

I doubt that is the reason. Remember it is in competition with the RX-480 and the difference in performance to the GTX1070 is large enough this should not matter.

No. IMO it's a reliability concern since we're switching to a new process node with pretty high clocks.

Either way we'll get the truth eventually.

There's no proof yet that we'll see a significant benefit to raising the voltage. The TEMPERATURE is just on aspect. Stable power is another.

I believe the main issue will be that the frequency already is pretty close to the maximum of what the design can support.

*For comparison, the RX-480 has much lower frequencies. The REASON for that is the GPU was originally meant as a lower frequency part for MOBILE. They had to switch due to a few reasons and make it a desktop part. The PROBLEM however is that the design, tape-out and fabrication plant creation are not things you can easily change. The design process started about THREE YEARS AGO.

I should also mention that modern GPU firmware and software (i.e. GPU BOOST, and AMD's Wattman) are getting better at squeezing all the performance it can out of a GPU.

The voltage, frequency and temperature are monitored so that the GPU speed can change on-the-fly to get the best performance.

(I brought up the RX-480 in part to demonstrate that AMD also seems to be much closer to their limit out-of-the-box compared to cards a few years ago)

*****Manually messing with the settings can sometimes make performance WORSE.

I'm not saying you shouldn't mess around with it, but you should educate yourself and if in doubt, back off and let the software handle things. Maybe a light overclock, and run an extended benchmark in a loop (to heat up PC) then TEST to provide a BASELINE for performance.

Of course FAN NOISE may or may not be an issue with overclocking though for most cards now it's not much of an issue.

FINAL NOTE:
Many people overclock, but do not effectively TWEAK the game settings. You can usually gain far more with a few tweaks then what you can with overclocking. You should know what the FPS goal is and aim for that. Without discussing it, one option is to use Adaptive VSYNC then tweak so you rarely drop below the synch rate (i.e. 60FPS for 60Hz monitor). Adjust AA, Shadows or whatever for the best visual that lets you meet your FPS/synch goal.

(and of course adjust for how SMOOTH the game runs, or if screen tear is bad so VSYNC is a must etc)

Eventually maybe a 1440p, IPS, GSYNC monitor when prices drop.

Summary:
- wait for info on voltage
- may not see much benefit to overclocking
- educate yourself
- Tweaky (beebabeebabeeba)

 

[azzazel_99]

I'm still betting on limiting its performance. They did the same thing with the 780ti's. Had they put more vram or out of the box unlocked the voltage it would have smoked the titan (which it did anyway once you did a custom bios).

 

[ajthemacboy]

Where can I find a custom BIOS if/when one is released? Is there a forum or somewhere else I can watch?

 

[azzazel_99]

Just have to check forums. Skyn3t does/did some good ones for the 700/900 series but there are other people. Just check overclockers.net and whatever manufacturers website forums you decide to buy from.

 

[dididan2000]

This works. I tried it when I first got my 1060 to test if it works, and it did. http://www.voltground.com/haven/threads/20/

 

[ajthemacboy]

This works. I tried it when I first got my 1060 to test if it works, and it did. http://www.voltground.com/haven/threads/20/

This unlocks the slider, but it doesn't actually do anything. I just tested; when the core frequency is +200 MHz and the core voltage slider is 0, it's unstable. When the core voltage slider is +100, it's still unstable. Note that +175 MHz is stable.

Oh: and the core voltage on the graph doesn't change either.

 

[dididan2000]

This works. I tried it when I first got my 1060 to test if it works, and it did. http://www.voltground.com/haven/threads/20/

This unlocks the slider, but it doesn't actually do anything. I just tested; when the core frequency is +200 MHz and the core voltage slider is 0, it's unstable. When the core voltage slider is +100, it's still unstable. Note that +175 MHz is stable.

Oh: and the core voltage on the graph doesn't change either.

Oh, wow that sucks. Yes, I had mine +175, but I got a 1440p monitor yesterday. I had to dial it to +150, and it's stable. I just want to let you know, so just in case if you ever get a 1440p monitor +150 is stable.

 

[tsagouras]

try the beta afterburner 4.3.0 beta 14 it unlocks the +100mv but not much gains..

 

[azzazel_99]

afterburners voltage thing does not unlock the cards voltage. That can only be done through the video cards vbios. Unless nvidia releases a driver that enables or unlocks it somehow we wont get any voltage control without flashing bios's