LC GTX 680 Overclock questions

[OwensJ480]

I've got my EVGA GTX 680 liquid cooled in a closed loop maintaining less than 50C at all times. This is my first computer build and I'm completely new to overclocking, but I'd like to think I've done enough research to grasp the idea (Maintaining 4.8GHz on me FX-8320 )

Anyways, I've started the overclocking process using precision X. I've got my card running stable with an offset of +147MHz in Heaven benchmark. Anything above this causes crashes. I've tweaked my Power Target in intervals all the way to the max of 132% as with the voltage and nothing seems to allow me to reach the next offset of +153. The highest Power % I reach is 90%, with completely straight lines for GPU Clock, Usage & Volts. Max temp of my last Heaven run was 48C

So my question is this.... Is that all I can do for an overclock on this damn thing? I was real excited to start learning and was expecting much more from a LC loop than just +147MHz. There has to be something I've missed from my research. Any suggestions? Or is this it?

I don't know if it matters, but FYI I turned switched to my stock setting profile in the BIOS since this was my first time overclocking. I did this just to make sure there would be nothing interfeering on the process. I couldn't find anything that touched on the subject, but I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to go to stock settings and integrate my CPU overclock with my GPU and monitor temps and what not. Lol I hope that makes sense. Any help would be much appreciated! Sorry for the novel

 

[ingtar33]

sadly kepler cards don't overclock great. you might be able to squeeze more out but i doubt it.

This is partly why the HD 7970 is such a dominant card this time around. stock i'm pretty sure both the 670 and 680 will slightly outperform it, but it overclocks like a monster.

 

[OwensJ480]

sadly kepler cards don't overclock great. you might be able to squeeze more out but i doubt it.

This is partly why the HD 7970 is such a dominant card this time around. stock i'm pretty sure both the 670 and 680 will slightly outperform it, but it overclocks like a monster.

That's what I keep seeing. I really should of done some reasearch on the keepler arcitecture before I got my part list together. Had no idea it had to be overclocked like this through programs like Precision X. The card is still beastly and I'm happy, but I was really looking forward to adding voltage like the processor and seeing how far I could take it with this liquid cooling loop. maintaining 49C should of given quite a bit of room for improvement. I think the next build I'll stay away from the 600 series cards.

I take it the 7970 is just like overclocking a processor? Clock Increase, crash, volts till stable, Clock increase. Rinse and repeat until max temps?

 

[ingtar33]

sadly kepler cards don't overclock great. you might be able to squeeze more out but i doubt it.

This is partly why the HD 7970 is such a dominant card this time around. stock i'm pretty sure both the 670 and 680 will slightly outperform it, but it overclocks like a monster.

That's what I keep seeing. I really should of done some reasearch on the keepler arcitecture before I got my part list together. Had no idea it had to be overclocked like this through programs like Precision X. The card is still beastly and I'm happy, but I was really looking forward to adding voltage like the processor and seeing how far I could take it with this liquid cooling loop. maintaining 49C should of given quite a bit of room for improvement. I think the next build I'll stay away from the 600 series cards.

I take it the 7970 is just like overclocking a processor? Clock Increase, crash, volts till stable, Clock increase. Rinse and repeat until max temps?

not really... it overclocks similar to the nvidia... just they overclock a bit more... and consistently. how much depends on how lucky you are with the silicon. certain manufacturers are known for more robust models... and some actually cap the overclock you can get (which is a shame). just think of it this way... there is physically no difference between a 7970 and a 7970 ghz edition. the ghz edition is just factory overclocked. which means the ghz edition top end speed and the base 7970 should be able the same.

 

[OwensJ480]

sadly kepler cards don't overclock great. you might be able to squeeze more out but i doubt it.

This is partly why the HD 7970 is such a dominant card this time around. stock i'm pretty sure both the 670 and 680 will slightly outperform it, but it overclocks like a monster.

That's what I keep seeing. I really should of done some reasearch on the keepler arcitecture before I got my part list together. Had no idea it had to be overclocked like this through programs like Precision X. The card is still beastly and I'm happy, but I was really looking forward to adding voltage like the processor and seeing how far I could take it with this liquid cooling loop. maintaining 49C should of given quite a bit of room for improvement. I think the next build I'll stay away from the 600 series cards.

I take it the 7970 is just like overclocking a processor? Clock Increase, crash, volts till stable, Clock increase. Rinse and repeat until max temps?

not really... it overclocks similar to the nvidia... just they overclock a bit more... and consistently. how much depends on how lucky you are with the silicon. certain manufacturers are known for more robust models... and some actually cap the overclock you can get (which is a shame). just think of it this way... there is physically no difference between a 7970 and a 7970 ghz edition. the ghz edition is just factory overclocked. which means the ghz edition top end speed and the base 7970 should be able the same.

I see. I've read alot about getting "lucky" chips which does make sense due to the complexity of producing processors. Lol why in hell would they limit us though! You'd think GPU manufactors would know that mostly enthusiasts are going to be buying the high end cards when they're at such a high price the first couple years upon release.

 

[ingtar33]

no clue. i know the whole series of 7790s were limited because AMD demanded it never match a 7850 when overclocked. i think some limit their overclocks to try to convince people to buy the GHz model.

 

[Cygnus x-1]

unfortunately the kepler cards are voltage locked. some people are using custom bios for high overclocks with high end cooling. maybe start researching in that direction if you're not happy with the overclock you have now.

 

[OwensJ480]

unfortunately the kepler cards are voltage locked. some people are using custom bios for high overclocks with high end cooling. maybe start researching in that direction if you're not happy with the overclock you have now.

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