How to disable boost and manually set clocks on 1050Ti

[cmi86]

I am trying to OC my new EVGA 1050 Ti SC in the living room box and I can not stop the clocks from fluctuating after applying OC settings.I have tried Precision and Afterburner with the same results. It appears that no matter what I do the card is still trying to hit an optimal thermal/power boost clock, despite setting favor max performance in NV control panel. I want to set a manual clock speed and have it maintain those settings, is this just not how modern GPU's function anymore ? Is there any way to disable this power targeting ?

 

[Jay Santos]

Why would you want to do that?
Think of a gpu as a wood chipper. It would be nice to over clock it to get work done. But why would you want it to be running at uber high speeds when there's no load? You'll just be wasting power.

Most modern gpus have all the thermal protection enabled in the bios. Sure you can overclock it to your liking. But big brother bios will crash the party if he feels you're about to destroy things.

 

[cmi86]

Well no I am not talking about finding the absolute bleeding edge speed and running it there all the time regardless of load. I still want it to downclock when not under load, I just want to OC it a few hundred Mhz to like 1.7Ghz and have it stay there, like cards used to do. As it is now my clock speed under load is technically set at +306 Mhz (1.7Ghz) but it still fluctuates all over the place higher and lower depending on temp and power. Every card I have owned in the past I have been able to set a 3D clock speed in my OC utility and it stays there when under load. Take for instance the 380X in my main rig is set at 1,150Mhz. When I game that card stays at 1,150Mhz regardless of power draw and temp. When I am done gaming the clocks drop down in to the 300Mhz range in 2D mode. Do modern Nvidia GPU's not work this way anymore ?

 

[Jay Santos]

From my experience they no longer are "like that".
I have a 970 that I set an OC ceiling at 1,550mhz and occasionally hits it but hovers around 1,200mhz. I have MSI AB set it to that clock speed and it still fluctuates. I set my entire PC's power to performance.

I did the same with my 1070. Set OC to 2.15ghz and it too occasionally hits it but usually stays around 1.8ghz.

I could be wrong. Anyone set the core to stay at a fixed frequency?

 

[cmi86]

So, say there is no longer "fixed clocks" is there really no point in overclocking a GPU anymore as the firmware is always trying to hit the highest possible clocks speed given the thermal scenario ?

 

[Jay Santos]

From my experience over clocking only gave me about 8% boost in performance at most.

Would I like the extra 5fps, sure. Is the difference night and day? No.

 

[cmi86]

So I guess what I am describing is called GPU Boost 3.0 and this is just how nvidia GPU's work now a days and have for some time. This is my first nvidia GPU since 560Ti so apparently a lot has changed. I am not just saying this because I am mostly an AMD GPU guy but this is honestly really disappointing. Nvidia basically has their GPU's doing whatever the card wants to do regardless of user input. Sure a guy can still "technically" OC the GPU by setting the upper limit of the clock speed range but the GPU is still going to do what it wants to do spending 99.999% of its time at clock speed other than the one set by the user. These cards are in all practicality "locked" No wonder everyone wants to find a way to disable this forced boost state garbage..The feature its self is fine as some have no desire to OC but to not allow end users to disable this feature and have full control of their components is lame, really lame.

 

[Jay Santos]

You're disappointed at Nvidia about not letting you keep the throttle up at your whim. Yet you say you're an AMD guy and talking about overclocking. Something is not right. If there's anyone that's terrible at overclocking it's AMD. You're lucky to get 150mhz boost out of them.

The base clock of the 1050ti is about 1,290 mhz. Benchmarks have shown that some have pushed them to 1,900mhz. That's 48% increase in clock speed. However that doesn't equate to 48% increase in over all performance. That only yields about 5-7fps boost over base.

While is sounds great to overclock things, in the end the performance gained isn't really worth stressing out your hardware. GPU manufacturers aren't hiding performance for the user to unlock. They make these things as cheap as possible and to be able to perform at their base claim. The fact their clocks can run at a higher frequency is a bonus that doesn't yield worthwhile gains.

 

[cmi86]

Sorry if I broke your poor little heart by criticizing your beloved multi billion dollar corporation... I have no preference or brand loyalty. I simply buy the fastest card for my application within my budget. I can't help it if that happens to be an AMD card more often than not.

I am not trying to get in to some red vs. green pissing match with you. All I am saying is that I do not appreciate Nvidia forcing it's will on to me and my components. I do not like not having full control over my components. I like to be able to set my clock speeds to specific ranges and tightly optimize temps and fan speeds.

Say what you will but this is no longer possible on Nvidia GPU's, you at the will of the firmware and that is that. You can set limits on temp and fan speed but you will pay a price for it.

BTW, This card crashes the driver anywhere past 1710 Mhz, nowhere near 1900+. And what does it matter anyways ? The card is still going to totally ignore my OC number and do what it wants anyways.

 

[Jay Santos]

It seems like you have a bias from the beginning so I wonder why you bothered to ask in the first place. By stating that AMDs are poor overclockers isn't bashing them. It's stating a fact. I never once said they're garbage. You took offense because you heard, or read, something you didn't like.

Nvidia hardware can achieve high clock speeds because they sip very little power and generate little heat compared to AMDs. <--- Stating a fact, not bashing.
60 degrees at 46% fan speed while mustering 1,911mhz on the clock for a $140 gpu is quite impressive.

It's ridiculous to say that it's evil to put limits on hardware that would prevent damage. If they didn't, everyone who ever overclocked something would have fried their gpu or cpu. Even "unlocked" cpus have their own ceiling that says "No way Jose."

 

[cmi86]

Dude you are taking one benchmark review where they got this card up to 1900+ (as a magical number that the card never really runs at anyways) and acting like all cards will do that, ever heard not all silicone is created equal ? Well my magical number is 1,710 and anything past that causes my driver to crash. Even though I "supposedly" have my GPU "overclocked" +300 Mhz, the card still runs around 1,500 Mhz most of the time due to the firmware trying to micro manage the TDP envelope.

So by your logic these limitations are a good thing and without them us clueless buffoons would burn up every piece of silicon unfortunate enough to land in our rigs? I got news for ya buddy, I have been doing this for nearly 2 decades and have overclocked probably hundreds GPU's & CPU's and never burnt up a single one. All that without big brother telling me what I can and can't do, Imagine that ??

Please stop trying to justify your accusations that I am somehow biased towards one company over another. I clearly stated I purchase the highest performing card that fits my application and budget which is usually $200 +/- $50. I can not help the fact that AMD is historically more competitive in these price ranges. On the rare occasions that they are not I have no problem buying an Nvidia card (I am typing this on one, yet somehow I am biased... yeah nice logic) like my old 560 Ti and now this 1050 Ti fit my criteria better than any available AMD card.

What I am upset about, and many others around the web, Is that Nvidia has basically done away with user clock controls. Overclocking as it has been safely done for decades (if you are not dumb) is gone. Big brother has stepped in and said he knows what is best for me and my PC. Fine tuning my GPU to operate within very specific performance/thermal/noise envelops is gone. Sure you can set some imaginary number to make yourself feel cool for "overclocking" your card, but at the end of the day that number is worthless and the card is going to ignore anything you tell it to do and do what it wants. No end user control is what I am upset about, please try and listen to peoaple instead of assuming everyone that doesn't agree with you is biased against your beloved corporation.

 

[Jay Santos]

You're actually quite ignorant about gpu boost 3 to think it's so horrible.
There's really hardly any need to manually over clock a gpu since gpub 3 does a good job of considering voltage control, heat and core/ram stability.
The ONLY thing you are guaranteed is BASE clock by ANY manufacturer. Boost clock is a bonus.

There's no conspiracy by Nvidia to prevent a highly intelligent person like you from having your way with your gpu. There's no untapped performance Nvidia is selfishly hiding from you. The GTX 1060 you bought isn't a Titan X in disguise waiting for you to unlock. What you bought is what the box says. If it says you're guaranteed to get 1,500mhz and you actually get 1,700mhz, be thankful. Don't expect to get something you did not pay for.