Overclocking GTX 970 power question

[Arlen10]

Hey guys,
I got a MSI GTX 970 4G here and I want to overclock it, issue is, the GPU uses a 8 pin power connector and a 6 pin power connector. As I understand it, 6 pin go up to 75W while 8 pin may go up to 150 W. According to Nvidia this GPU only pulls 145W. Now considering I only want to overclock without messing with voltages, I should be good to go right? Or is there something I'm missing?

PSU is an ultra LSP650.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

You will be fine with your setup.

 

[Suztera]

It doesn't draw 145W, it is around the 160W out of the box. Overclocking will increase the power consumption further.
You can overclock without increasing the voltage but you won't go that far as the settings in reviews.
You will need to test the stability of your overclock but running unigine Valley/Heaven for a while and check if there isn't any artifacts occurring.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I went + 140 on the core clock and + 500 memory.

 

[Arlen10]

It doesn't draw 145W, it is around the 160W out of the box. Overclocking will increase the power consumption further.
You can overclock without increasing the voltage but you won't go that far.
You will need to test the stability of your overclock but running unigine Valley/Heaven for a while and check if there isn't any artifacts occurring.

Yeah ok, so I was thinking this MSI version might be different because on the Nvidia website it states that it uses x2 6 pin power connections when this one has one 8 and one 6 pin.

Do you have any recommended settings for this setup? I'm not trying to push the limit just trying to get a little more performance.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I have the MSI Gaming 970 , great card overclocks well on stock voltage.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_970_gaming_review,26.html

With AfterBurner we applied:

Temp Target 80 Degrees C
GPU clock +185 MHz
Power limiter 110%
Mem clock +500 MHz
Volatge + 87Mv
FAN RPM 70% (remains silent)

Core Clock 1325 MHz
Boost Clock: ~1501 MHz
Memory Clock: 8002 MHz

It can go a lot further.....most reviews getting 1550+ boosts.

As for the voltage of 0.087 volts .... it's so tiny I wouldn't even think about it. NVidia, both legally and construction wise has locked down what you can voltage wise to protect the cards and w/o an actual physical modification tot he card, it would be an extreme challenge to actually damage the card with Afterburner.

 

[Arlen10]

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_970_gaming_review,26.html

With AfterBurner we applied:

Temp Target 80 Degrees C
GPU clock +185 MHz
Power limiter 110%
Mem clock +500 MHz
Volatge + 87Mv
FAN RPM 70% (remains silent)

Core Clock 1325 MHz
Boost Clock: ~1501 MHz
Memory Clock: 8002 MHz

It can go a lot further.....most reviews getting 1550+ boosts.

As for the voltage of 0.087 volts .... it's so tiny I wouldn't even think about it. NVidia, both legally and construction wise has locked down what you can voltage wise to protect the cards and w/o an actual physical modification tot he card, it would be an extreme challenge to actually damage the card with Afterburner.

Considering I cant utilize more than 150W to the GPU, wouldn't upping the power limiter cause issues? I'm thinking I'll stay at 100% and start at +100mhz gpu, 400mhz mem, stock voltage.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Considering I cant utilize more than 150W to the GPU, wouldn't upping the power limiter cause issues? I'm thinking I'll stay at 100% and start at +100mhz gpu, 400mhz mem, stock voltage.

Huh ? 1. ya got way more than that and 2. the card at stock pulls 168

-Socket provides 75 watts
-8-pin provides 150 watts
-6-pin provides 75 watts

You got pathways for 300 watts

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_970_gaming_review,7.html

Measured power consumption [MSI] GTX 970

System in IDLE = 120 Watts
System Wattage with GPU in FULL Stress = 278 Watts
Difference (GPU load) = 158 Watts
Add average IDLE wattage ~10 Watts
Subjective obtained GPU power consumption = ~ 168 Watts

 

[Arlen10]

Considering I cant utilize more than 150W to the GPU, wouldn't upping the power limiter cause issues? I'm thinking I'll stay at 100% and start at +100mhz gpu, 400mhz mem, stock voltage.

Huh ? 1. ya got way more than that and 2. the card at stock pulls 168

-Socket provides 75 watts
-8-pin provides 150 watts
-6-pin provides 75 watts

You got pathways for 300 watts

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_970_gaming_review,7.html

Measured power consumption [MSI] GTX 970

System in IDLE = 120 Watts
System Wattage with GPU in FULL Stress = 278 Watts
Difference (GPU load) = 158 Watts
Add average IDLE wattage ~10 Watts
Subjective obtained GPU power consumption = ~ 168 Watts

If you read the original post, I said I can only use 150W as I am using a 6 to 8 pin connector. The GPU uses one 8 pin and one 6 pin. I will have about 150W to use on the GPU. So i'm saying, isn't it not good to push it above the power limit when it doesnt even have enough power to begin with? I plan on upgrade PSU soon, but I want to OC in the mean time.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I read the original post 4 times before responding. It said nothing about using any 6 to 8 pin kludges. I thought perhaps you had a UPS or something that you were worried about.....UPS will beep but won't damage anything if you exceed their capacity a bit.

I gave you the link to the test site. At stock the MSI card consumes 168 actual watts .... real watts measured in a test lab.... Forget overclocking, you can't handle the card at stock settings. If your PSU doesn't have the necessary cables, you should get one that does. To do otherwise risks overloading the cable and what is much more of a concern to me, if the PSU does not have the requisite cables, I seriously doubt it's ability to supply sufficient and stable power. Invest $40 in a PSU that will handle 2 970s rather than risking damage to your components. If the PSU is same manufacturer as the case, or some inexpensive equivalent, I wouldn't risk my components to it.

$40 EVGA SuperNOVA 750 B2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438028

 

[Arlen10]

I read the original post 4 times before responding. It said nothing about using any 6 to 8 pin kludges. I thought perhaps you had a UPS or something that you were worried about.....UPS will beep but won't damage anything if you exceed their capacity a bit.

I gave you the link to the test site. At stock the MSI card consumes 168 actual watts .... real watts measured in a test lab.... Forget overclocking, you can't handle the card at stock settings. If your PSU doesn't have the necessary cables, you should get one that does. To do otherwise risks overloading the cable and what is much more of a concern to me, if the PSU does not have the requisite cables, I seriously doubt it's ability to supply sufficient and stable power. Invest $40 in a PSU that will handle 2 970s rather than risking damage to your components. If the PSU is same manufacturer as the case, or some inexpensive equivalent, I wouldn't risk my components to it.

$40 EVGA SuperNOVA 750 B2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438028

Ahhh my bad. I thought I put that I was using an adapter in there. Ok thank you for the information, I'll get a new PSU asap.