Overcoming Voltage & Power Limit for GTX 970?

[GWLucid]

Hey everyone! I'm currently trying to pump more power out of a MSI GTX 970. I seem to come up against a wall though, MSI Afterburner seems to max the voltage at 1.250 and the TDP at 106. The temperatures I'm not worried about yet. Yet, I've only got about 1500/3500 out of it, but only in some synthetic tests.

I'm not sure if I want to get more OC out of it, but I do want it to be stable. It seems to roll from 0 to 1 in the limits repeatedly during gameplay creating some noticeable chop in frames. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[KKAW]

Hey everyone! I'm currently trying to pump more power out of a MSI GTX 970. I seem to come up against a wall though, MSI Afterburner seems to max the voltage at 1.225 and the TDP at 106. The temperatures I'm not worried about yet. Yet, I've only got about 1500/3500 out of it, but only in some synthetic tests.

I'm not sure if I want to get more OC out of it, but I do want it to be stable. It seems to roll from 0 to 1 in the limits repeatedly during gameplay creating some noticeable chop in frames. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I wouldn't recommend going higher than what MSI Afterburner feels that is safe for the graphics card.
Just try to lower the clock speed and memory speed to make sure it is stable.

 

[GWLucid]

Hey everyone! I'm currently trying to pump more power out of a MSI GTX 970. I seem to come up against a wall though, MSI Afterburner seems to max the voltage at 1.225 and the TDP at 106. The temperatures I'm not worried about yet. Yet, I've only got about 1500/3500 out of it, but only in some synthetic tests.

I'm not sure if I want to get more OC out of it, but I do want it to be stable. It seems to roll from 0 to 1 in the limits repeatedly during gameplay creating some noticeable chop in frames. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I wouldn't recommend going higher than what MSI Afterburner feels that is safe for the graphics card.
Just try to lower the clock speed and memory speed to make sure it is stable.

There seems to be more room in the sliders for increasing voltage, or does that not adjust for each card?

 

[KKAW]

Hey everyone! I'm currently trying to pump more power out of a MSI GTX 970. I seem to come up against a wall though, MSI Afterburner seems to max the voltage at 1.225 and the TDP at 106. The temperatures I'm not worried about yet. Yet, I've only got about 1500/3500 out of it, but only in some synthetic tests.

I'm not sure if I want to get more OC out of it, but I do want it to be stable. It seems to roll from 0 to 1 in the limits repeatedly during gameplay creating some noticeable chop in frames. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I wouldn't recommend going higher than what MSI Afterburner feels that is safe for the graphics card.
Just try to lower the clock speed and memory speed to make sure it is stable.

There seems to be more room in the sliders for increasing voltage, or does that not adjust for each card?

Hmm can you take a screenshot? I don't think i know anyone who have encountered this problem before.

 

[GWLucid]

Hey everyone! I'm currently trying to pump more power out of a MSI GTX 970. I seem to come up against a wall though, MSI Afterburner seems to max the voltage at 1.225 and the TDP at 106. The temperatures I'm not worried about yet. Yet, I've only got about 1500/3500 out of it, but only in some synthetic tests.

I'm not sure if I want to get more OC out of it, but I do want it to be stable. It seems to roll from 0 to 1 in the limits repeatedly during gameplay creating some noticeable chop in frames. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I wouldn't recommend going higher than what MSI Afterburner feels that is safe for the graphics card.
Just try to lower the clock speed and memory speed to make sure it is stable.

There seems to be more room in the sliders for increasing voltage, or does that not adjust for each card?

Hmm can you take a screenshot? I don't think i know anyone who have encountered this problem before.

Here it is:

 

[KKAW]

Hey everyone! I'm currently trying to pump more power out of a MSI GTX 970. I seem to come up against a wall though, MSI Afterburner seems to max the voltage at 1.225 and the TDP at 106. The temperatures I'm not worried about yet. Yet, I've only got about 1500/3500 out of it, but only in some synthetic tests.

I'm not sure if I want to get more OC out of it, but I do want it to be stable. It seems to roll from 0 to 1 in the limits repeatedly during gameplay creating some noticeable chop in frames. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I wouldn't recommend going higher than what MSI Afterburner feels that is safe for the graphics card.
Just try to lower the clock speed and memory speed to make sure it is stable.

There seems to be more room in the sliders for increasing voltage, or does that not adjust for each card?

Hmm can you take a screenshot? I don't think i know anyone who have encountered this problem before.

Here it is:

So you can not slide the voltage bar further to the right?

Try downloading Nvidia Inspector, press show overclock and try to overclock it from there.

 

[GWLucid]

Hey everyone! I'm currently trying to pump more power out of a MSI GTX 970. I seem to come up against a wall though, MSI Afterburner seems to max the voltage at 1.225 and the TDP at 106. The temperatures I'm not worried about yet. Yet, I've only got about 1500/3500 out of it, but only in some synthetic tests.

I'm not sure if I want to get more OC out of it, but I do want it to be stable. It seems to roll from 0 to 1 in the limits repeatedly during gameplay creating some noticeable chop in frames. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I wouldn't recommend going higher than what MSI Afterburner feels that is safe for the graphics card.
Just try to lower the clock speed and memory speed to make sure it is stable.

There seems to be more room in the sliders for increasing voltage, or does that not adjust for each card?

Hmm can you take a screenshot? I don't think i know anyone who have encountered this problem before.

Here it is:

So you can not slide the voltage bar further to the right?

Try downloading Nvidia Inspector, press show overclock and try to overclock it from there.

I can slide the bar, but the sensors report that it doesn't get any higher than 1.250v

 

[gotovato]

The card is like most, probably voltage locked in the vbios. Only way to get around it would be to find a modded vbios for the card and flash it so you can get more voltage. Overclock.net would be the best place to look. I'm running modded vbios's on my 780's and it's amazing.

 

[GWLucid]

The card is like most, probably voltage locked in the vbios. Only way to get around it would be to find a modded vbios for the card and flash it so you can get more voltage. Overclock.net would be the best place to look. I'm running modded vbios's on my 780's and it's amazing.

Okay. I don't know anything about that. Is there a guide to flashing a bios for gtx 970s? Is it reversible? Is it the same as the drivers that Nvidia sends out?

 

[gotovato]

There's a guide on overclock.net. It can be undone yes but you'll have to backup your current vbios. It's not a driver. It's a bios. it'll allow you to push more voltage into the card, raise power and temp target as well. It can also brick your card if you mess it up. Bricking is tough to fix and can often leave the card dead and good for nothing so be careful. It does yield amazing Benifits if done correctly though. Proceed at your own risk.

 

[GWLucid]

There's a guide on overclock.net. It can be undone yes but you'll have to backup your current vbios. It's not a driver. It's a bios. it'll allow you to push more voltage into the card, raise power and temp target as well. It can also brick your card if you mess it up. Bricking is tough to fix and can often leave the card dead and good for nothing so be careful. It does yield amazing Benifits if done correctly though. Proceed at your own risk.

Sounds scary. Is reversing the brick possible if you have the original BIOS and run the process with integrated graphics?

 

[gotovato]

Yes it is. If you're lucky. Me and buddy bricked his 980 a few times but were able to save it. Another buddy bricked his 780 but again was able to fix it. Often you can unbrick a card if you have onboard video available. I honestly don't think I'd recommend you flash you vbios unless you're willing to brick your card. I'm not saying it'll happen, probably won't but the risk is there so be prepared. Now all of this will mean nothing if there is no bios for your exact card but if there is...again, proceed with caution!

 

[GWLucid]

Yes it is. If you're lucky. Me and buddy bricked his 980 a few times but were able to save it. Another buddy bricked his 780 but again was able to fix it. Often you can unbrick a card if you have onboard video available. I honestly don't think I'd recommend you flash you vbios unless you're willing to brick your card. I'm not saying it'll happen, probably won't but the risk is there so be prepared. Now all of this will mean nothing if there is no bios for your exact card but if there is...again, proceed with caution!

Thanks for that. I'm using this: http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?architecture=NVIDIA&manufacturer=MSI&model=GTX+970&interface=PCI-E&memType=GDDR5&memSize=4096

This is my card: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/b3055/msi-gtx-970-ocv1.html

Now, are these unlocked BIOS(es) or the stock ones? Sorry I'm asking so much. I really don't have a clue and would like to be as prepared as possible.

 

[gotovato]

I'm honestly not sure if those are unlocked or not. I get mine from overclock.net and they have alot of info as to what the bios will do. Use gpu-z to see what bios version you have and see if its listed there. If it is chances are those are all stock. The core clocks on that list of bios's are all higher then yours so they might be modded. I think finding one for your card will be a little tough as most of the modded stuff is for Evga cards.

 

[GWLucid]

I'm honestly not sure if those are unlocked or not. I get mine from overclock.net and they have alot of info as to what the bios will do. Use gpu-z to see what bios version you have and see if its listed there. If it is chances are those are all stock. The core clocks on that list of bios's are all higher then yours so they might be modded. I think finding one for your card will be a little tough as most of the modded stuff is for Evga cards.

Do I just search the forums or is there a database on the site (can't find it)? For more information, my BIOS has two versions numbers apparently: 84.04.2f.00.19 and NV317MH.221

 

[gotovato]

Your stock bios doesn't match anything on that list you linked. As long as you get the right model and the right modded bios you should be ok. Best forums to search would be overclock.net, techpowerup, and tech inferno