GTX 680 SLI Overclocking Issues

NickB · 10 Jul 2012

Hey guys, I've purchased my new computer on 19th of August.
It's specs are Intel Core i7-3820 CPU @ 3.60GHz, 32 GB RAM and Dual GTX 680 SLI.
Now, this is my first gaming rig that I've purchased, so of course after I got it, I started running different benchmarking tests to see how it does. I got the EVGA Precision X and after watching many guides, set up clock offsets that seemed to be at reasonable numbers. When running different benchmarking tests, I've found out that whenever my GPU usage reached 100%, my computer freezed and a few times I got Red Screen of Death. So, I tried running benchmarks with EVGA Precision X off, and had no problems. I know that GPU offsets work like this: once usage reachers 100%, then boosts and overclocks kick in, which shows that there is something wrong with my overclock values or there is a problem with the way EVGA handles overclocks with my GPUs.
Anyhow, I just wanted to find out if something could be done about it.

NickB · 11 Jul 2012

Anyone?...

Solarstarshines · 11 Jul 2012

Well honestly with overclocking Video cards you have to know the voltages and how far certain voltages will allow you to use your card at speeds you input

So cards will only clock so high because of hardware and some cards don't run benches well when they are super Overclocked

I would just stick to something mild or just basic clocks you have Sli 680's you pretty much murder anything anyways on stock settings

NickB · 11 Jul 2012

It's just that I got myself GTA IV recently and sometimes my FPS drops to 20, which is weird since I can see with Precision that my cards are only working at 30-40% and the temperatures are at 40-50 C, I just don't understand why it allows the FPS to drop so much. It says that my voltage is 987 mV, and from what I've read GTX 680 can be overclocked really high. I paid a lot for this computer and I want to ensure it's durability, you know, so it can keep up with all the new games.

EDIT:
Well, I played with Precision a little and it seems that after I increased my power target, benchmarks don't crash anymore. After running Unigine though, with a +100MHz GPU Boost and +300MHz Memory Boost I only scored 7 points higher than default. Could it be that CPU is bottlenecking my GPU? I have an Intel Core i7-3820 CPU @ 3.60GHz. Another question, can increasing power target decrease life of a GPU?

Crazymike · 12 Jul 2012

I wouldn't pay too much attention to GTA IV running poorly, it doesn't seem to like SLI systems very much, so much so that I've given up trying to run it on my system because it runs better on my laptop with a Nvidia 9800m GS. Your system is more than capable of running all the new games.

M1GU31 · 15 Jul 2012

NickB said:

It's just that I got myself GTA IV recently and sometimes my FPS drops to 20, which is weird since I can see with Precision that my cards are only working at 30-40% and the temperatures are at 40-50 C, I just don't understand why it allows the FPS to drop so much. It says that my voltage is 987 mV, and from what I've read GTX 680 can be overclocked really high. I paid a lot for this computer and I want to ensure it's durability, you know, so it can keep up with all the new games.

EDIT:
Well, I played with Precision a little and it seems that after I increased my power target, benchmarks don't crash anymore. After running Unigine though, with a +100MHz GPU Boost and +300MHz Memory Boost I only scored 7 points higher than default. Could it be that CPU is bottlenecking my GPU? I have an Intel Core i7-3820 CPU @ 3.60GHz. Another question, can increasing power target decrease life of a GPU?

Gta iv is a poorly coded port and relies more on your cpu then the gpu.Overclocking your card won't do much.GTA iv is just a really poorly and rushed port to the pc.

onesixski · 16 Jul 2012

First off man, ridiculously awesome system. Good choices all around there for building a straight supercomputer. There are plenty of 3rd-party benchmarking apps for you to use with the cards so don't worry if one constantly crashes or doesn't seem to accurately gauge system power, every benchmark works differently. For the CPU bottleneck, that's as good a proc as you can get man... you've really got no weakpoints there. But CPU's have about 1/trillionth the raw power of GPU's nowadays, so in general terms I'd say CPU's are every system's bottleneck in the modern day. As for the power target increase>life decrease, it really just allows the GPU to draw more power if it needs it for higher clocks. But higher clocks, more power, higher voltages... this all goes hand-in-hand with overclocking and anything you do in the field will shorten life directly, but in real life, not very noticeably. But that's not the point, the point is pushing absurd power at any cost which your system's already doing just idle haha.

ganjiry · 16 Jul 2012

a friend of mine has a 680 and for some reason he can only get 17 fps playing DayZ but gets loads in other games.