OC for GTX 970 Asus Strix

[ninj0e]

I'm new to the overclocking field and want to know if it's relatively safe to OC this GPU with the following settings (Using MSI Afterburner):
Power Limit = 110
Core Clock = +160
Memory Clock = +480
Fan Speed = Auto
Core Voltage = Stock (no changes)

I have run Unigine Valley and it was stable with those settings. Then tested some Fallout 4 for about 1 hour, then Battlefield 4 for another hour. Never had a crash, and temps didn't go over 65°C. So I do think it's stable, but I am asking just to make sure. Note that I do have a rather decent PSU (EVGA Supernova G2 750W), but any suggestions are welcome.

 

[ninj0e]

bump

 

[ninj0e]

wow this community is dead af

 

[Vellinious]

It's a 970 STRIX. They're pretty limited in their overclocking potential, so...yeah, that's pretty decent.

 

[Victorion]

I think Asus Strix 970 is generally a good card to overclock.

Try with:

Power Limit = 120%
Core Clock = +160
Memory Clock = +480
Fan Speed = Auto
Core Voltage = + 37 Mv

I

 

[Vellinious]

They're limited in that they only have 1 x 8 pin for power, and the voltage is locked to 1.212v at the VRM.

 

[Victorion]

They're limited in that they only have 1 x 8 pin for power, and the voltage is locked to 1.212v at the VRM.

There´s a box to check if you want to change voltage, however you may have to plug Mini USB to internal USB header cable into the gpu and from that into the motherboard´s USB port to get advanced voltage control. It should be included. However it may the driver that locked the cards voltage, in that case you´ll need an unlock software or an older driver

The strix version has 30 percent higher voltage threshold than standard, so it may be enough with 1 x 6+2/8 pin connector for power, but the asus strix doesn´t hold the oc records.

However there´s been plenty of reports of people getting stable +1500mhz oc with ram at +7000mhz.
Each card is different though, otherwise it´d be an easy and tedious thing to oc

 

[Vellinious]

They're limited in that they only have 1 x 8 pin for power, and the voltage is locked to 1.212v at the VRM.

There´s a box to check if you want to change voltage, however you may have to plug Mini USB to internal USB header cable into the gpu and from that into the motherboard´s USB port to get advanced voltage control. It should be included. However it may the driver that locked the cards voltage, in that case you´ll need an unlock software or an older driver

The strix version has 30 percent higher voltage threshold than standard, so it may be enough with 1 x 6+2/8 pin connector for power, but the asus strix doesn´t hold the oc records.

However there´s been plenty of reports of people getting stable +1500mhz oc with ram at +7000mhz.
Each card is different though, otherwise it´d be an easy and tedious thing to oc

Tell me more about this voltage tool. I've tried editing the bios for people so many times, but never could get anywhere with them because even modding the bios doesn't do any good.

I saw that there was a voltage software around, but last I heard, it wasn't working with any of the drivers past 347...which is OLD. lol

The real problem is the 1 x 8 pin power, if there's a way around the voltage restriction. It'll start hitting power limits pretty quick. Anything above 1.262 or 1.268 on nearly every 970 out there requires a bios mod to increase the power limit, or they start hitting the power limit perf cap and throttling the card. 1 x 8 pin and the power coming from the PCIe lane will be lucky to get it covered. Max would be 307 watts (225 from the 8 pin and 82 from the PCIe lane)....that's not going to cut it for a lot of cards.

 

[Victorion]

You´d have to google around for the software, as I don´t have it on my harddrive. There´s another way to unlocking the power restriction, which is normally only for extreme overclockers. The idea is basically to solder the shunt resistors on the video card to unlock the power limit. I don´t know if you´re comfortable with that.

 

[Vellinious]

You're still limited by the power limitations of the connections. I honestly don't know why anyone would ever do that, because a bios mod fixes the power limit issues on most cards...but most cards have more than 1 x 8 pin power connector. No matter what you do to the shunt resistors, you're still only going to get 225 watts from the 8 pin and 82 watts max from the PCIe slot.

As for the voltage...I was more interested in hearing about this USB / mini USB connector that plugs into the GPU?

I don't even own a STRIX, I just have tried to help a few guys with them by modding their bios file. No matter what I do there, it won't raise the voltage above 1.212v. Most of the other cards, minus a few of the cheap GALAX and INNO3D cards will allow voltage up to 1.32v with a bios mod. Though, most opt for 1.275v.

 

[Victorion]

You're still limited by the power limitations of the connections. I honestly don't know why anyone would ever do that, because a bios mod fixes the power limit issues on most cards...but most cards have more than 1 x 8 pin power connector. No matter what you do to the shunt resistors, you're still only going to get 225 watts from the 8 pin and 82 watts max from the PCIe slot.

Soldering across a resistor (with a conductive element), will lower the resistance. Meaning more volts will pass by unresisted. On the 970 Strix it looks like this:

Even though monitoring software may not pick up the added volts, the power limit will increase and you should see a boost in core clock.

 

[Vellinious]

You're still limited by the power limitations of the connections. I honestly don't know why anyone would ever do that, because a bios mod fixes the power limit issues on most cards...but most cards have more than 1 x 8 pin power connector. No matter what you do to the shunt resistors, you're still only going to get 225 watts from the 8 pin and 82 watts max from the PCIe slot.

Soldering across a resistor (with a conductive element), will lower the resistance. Meaning more volts will pass by unresisted. On the 970 Strix it looks like this:

Even though monitoring software may not pick up the added volts, the power limit will increase and you should see a boost in core clock.

You keep saying volts....that's not power limit. That's core. Soldering over those doesn't do anything for voltage, it's supposed to raise the wattage for the power limit. But again, why hard mod a card, when you can flash to a custom bios to increase the power limit. Doesn't make any sense....unless the card has some cap that hard limits the power limit, which....if there is one, I sure haven't found it yet. I've seen STRIX pulling over 300 watts on the power limit, which, with 225 watts coming from the 8 pin and 82 watts from the PCIe slot, pretty much means to me, that doing that hard mod is pointless.

I'm asking about core voltage....that mod does nothing for core voltage.

What's the USB / mini USB thing that's supposed to plug into the card to unlock the core voltage? I haven't been able to find anything about it.

This is that mod you're talking about.....that's not voltage....

http://overclocking.guide/increase-the-nvidia-power-limit-all-cards/