Gainward Phantom GTX 980 downthrotling itself.

[ChapeL79]

Hi,

My first post so would like to say hello

I've recently bought GTX 980 foolishly thinking I can run all games on max settings at stable 60 fps That's the case with most of the games but some require little bit extra to get stable 60 fps. Far Cry 4 comes in mind, I don't mention Assasin's Creed Unity as the game is what it is at the moment and my CPU is bottle-necking it a little bit.

Ok so my problem, cards itself is factory overclocked at 1304 MHz (boost) / 1203 MHz (base). 3600 MHz (DDR7200) Memory.

Now I've played with the overclock and found +150 GPU to be stable without artifacts, didn't want to push the memory so it's only +100.

This gives me 1514 MHz Boost.

The problem is that sometimes card just downthrotle itself to around 1340-1350 at random times.

I can play Assasin's Creed, Titanfall all day, run furmark without problem but when I run Valley or play Far Cry 4 it dips for some strange reason.

I've tried setting fan at 100%, Voltage +87, Power Limit 125%, Temp limit at 90 with no luck, same thing happens sooner or later.

I have good ventilation in my case, at 100% fan card never goes above 57 degrees so it can't be overheating.

Any idea what's going on with it?

Have a look at my logs and see what happens around 11:29:13, fans go down to 36% even though they are set manually at 100%. Clock goes down and slightly up. Same happens on default fan profile and my own, more aggressive fan curve.


My Specs:

Asrock Z68 Extreme 4 Gen3
Intel i2500k@4.6GHz
8GB G.Skill RAM
Antec Nine Hundred Two V3
Antec Kuhler H2O 620 with two Corsair SP120 Performance Push/Pull Fans
Side Panel Antec 1400 RPM Fan
Two Intake Fans (case stock)
Top 200mm Exhaust Fan (case stock)
OCZ 750W ZT Series PSU


Thanks in advance

LOGS:
Date , GPU Core Clock [MHz] , GPU Memory Clock [MHz] , GPU Temperature [°C] , Fan Speed (%) [%] , Fan Speed (RPM) [RPM] , Memory Used [MB] , GPU Load [%] , Memory Controller Load [%] , Video Engine Load [%] , Power Consumption [% TDP] , VDDC [V] ,


2015-01-21 11:29:12 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 54.0 , 100 , 2702 , 821 , 96 , 68 , 0 , 101.4 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:12 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 54.0 , 100 , 2702 , 821 , 96 , 68 , 0 , 101.7 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:12 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 54.0 , 100 , 2702 , 821 , 99 , 70 , 0 , 101.9 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:12 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 54.0 , 100 , 2702 , 822 , 99 , 70 , 0 , 102.0 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:12 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 54.0 , 100 , 2695 , 822 , 99 , 70 , 0 , 102.1 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:12 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 54.0 , 100 , 2702 , 822 , 99 , 71 , 0 , 102.2 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:12 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 54.0 , 100 , 2695 , 822 , 99 , 72 , 0 , 102.1 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:12 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 52.0 , 100 , 2710 , 822 , 99 , 72 , 0 , 68.9 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:12 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 51.0 , 100 , 2711 , 822 , 99 , 30 , 0 , 49.6 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:13 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 51.0 , 100 , 2718 , 822 , 99 , 0 , 0 , 42.8 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:13 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 50.0 , 100 , 2726 , 822 , 99 , 0 , 0 , 40.3 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:13 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 50.0 , 100 , 2726 , 822 , 100 , 0 , 0 , 39.4 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:13 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 50.0 , 100 , 2726 , 822 , 100 , 0 , 0 , 38.9 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:13 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 49.0 , 100 , 2726 , 822 , 100 , 0 , 0 , 38.8 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:13 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 49.0 , 100 , 2734 , 822 , 100 , 0 , 0 , 38.7 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:13 , 1516.8 , 1851.4 , 49.0 , 100 , 2726 , 822 , 99 , 0 , 0 , 38.6 , 1.2430 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:16 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2632 , 137 , 3 , 0 , 4 , 24.1 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:16 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2610 , 163 , 3 , 0 , 4 , 24.2 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:16 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2518 , 173 , 9 , 1 , 4 , 24.3 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:16 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2518 , 186 , 9 , 1 , 4 , 24.3 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:16 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2472 , 194 , 16 , 1 , 4 , 23.9 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:16 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2433 , 341 , 8 , 1 , 3 , 23.8 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:16 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2378 , 349 , 8 , 1 , 3 , 23.6 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:16 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2342 , 353 , 2 , 0 , 3 , 23.7 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:17 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2297 , 362 , 3 , 1 , 3 , 23.5 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:17 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2264 , 364 , 3 , 1 , 3 , 23.3 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:17 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2221 , 395 , 1 , 0 , 3 , 23.3 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:17 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2180 , 395 , 6 , 1 , 3 , 23.2 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:17 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2141 , 403 , 6 , 1 , 3 , 23.2 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:17 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2098 , 407 , 1 , 0 , 2 , 23.2 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:17 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2066 , 407 , 1 , 0 , 2 , 23.1 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:17 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 2026 , 413 , 1 , 0 , 2 , 23.1 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:17 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 1996 , 419 , 1 , 0 , 2 , 23.0 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:17 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 1954 , 560 , 8 , 1 , 2 , 23.9 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:18 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 1922 , 578 , 8 , 1 , 2 , 23.7 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:18 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 43.0 , 36 , 1884 , 581 , 7 , 2 , 2 , 23.5 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:18 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 1854 , 621 , 5 , 2 , 2 , 23.6 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:18 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 43.0 , 36 , 1826 , 637 , 5 , 2 , 2 , 27.0 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:18 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 1784 , 635 , 15 , 8 , 1 , 30.4 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:18 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 1758 , 644 , 26 , 15 , 1 , 30.4 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:18 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 1726 , 647 , 26 , 15 , 1 , 29.3 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:18 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 1698 , 654 , 13 , 8 , 1 , 28.5 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:18 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 44.0 , 36 , 1668 , 660 , 32 , 19 , 1 , 36.9 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:19 , 1202.3 , 1800.0 , 45.0 , 36 , 1639 , 667 , 32 , 19 , 1 , 48.3 , 1.0500 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:19 , 1328.9 , 1800.0 , 46.0 , 36 , 1608 , 669 , 78 , 54 , 1 , 63.2 , 1.1680 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:19 , 1328.9 , 1800.0 , 47.0 , 36 , 1581 , 669 , 78 , 54 , 1 , 71.2 , 1.1680 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:19 , 1353.8 , 1800.0 , 48.0 , 36 , 1550 , 671 , 89 , 60 , 1 , 78.9 , 1.2180 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:19 , 1353.8 , 1800.0 , 48.0 , 36 , 1522 , 671 , 94 , 61 , 1 , 84.5 , 1.2180 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:19 , 1353.8 , 1800.0 , 49.0 , 36 , 1508 , 670 , 94 , 61 , 1 , 87.4 , 1.2180 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:19 , 1353.8 , 1800.0 , 49.0 , 36 , 1481 , 669 , 99 , 69 , 1 , 88.8 , 1.2180 ,

2015-01-21 11:29:19 , 1353.8 , 1800.0 , 49.0 , 36 , 1459 , 671 , 99 , 69 , 1 , 89.3 , 1.2180 ,

 

[lavaheadache]

First thing, you could make sure the card is set for maximum performance in the driver control panel.

 

[Keysplayr]

Check cpu load.

 

[Udgnim]

if you have vsync enabled, it's because of that & whatever Nvidia's power saving feature is called

if vsync is not enabled, then find out whatever Nvidia's power saving feature is called and find out how to disable it

 

[Deders]

There does seem to be a gap in the GPU and Memory controller load which indicates to me that something is happening either on the video bios or driver level causing this.

Is there any way to show the PerfCap Reason sensor in GPUz like with Kepler cards?

 

[ChapeL79]

Thanks for replies, as of my situation. Drivers are set to performance, CPU is fine, when testing Valley it doesn't go above 50% more or less. I've manged to get Perfcap to show (didn't know I had to install GPU-Z instead just running it from the file).

Perfcap shows Util when not in testing and when testing is showing VRel, VOp when overclocked and VRel only when running stock. I found that this is perfectly normal as:

VRel = Card in maximum boost state as limited by current voltage

VOp = Card in maximum boost state as limited by maximum permitted voltage (card running at maximum overvolt)

I think that my card just doesn't like to be overclocked. I did try on +100 Core Clock and same thing happens just not as often.

 

[cmdrdredd]

When you overclock did you set it to temp target priority and set the temp to something like 80c or so? That's a temp you would probably never see.

 

[ChapeL79]

I did set it to 83 prioritize. Card on 100% fan is not going above 57 degrees.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Then my guess is it's hitting TDP at some point. Every card is different. It's a bit odd sometimes to figure out the limits. AT mentioned how the 970 and 980 would throttle in their initial review of the 970. Sometimes it would throttle down to the 1100s.

 

[ChapeL79]

Well it seems like it's not a very good card to overclock. I'm glad it was £100 cheaper then normally, makes me feel a little bit better

 

[Deders]

Thanks for replies, as of my situation. Drivers are set to performance, CPU is fine, when testing Valley it doesn't go above 50% more or less. I've manged to get Perfcap to show (didn't know I had to install GPU-Z instead just running it from the file).

Perfcap shows Util when not in testing and when testing is showing VRel, VOp when overclocked and VRel only when running stock. I found that this is perfectly normal as:

VRel = Card in maximum boost state as limited by current voltage

VOp = Card in maximum boost state as limited by maximum permitted voltage (card running at maximum overvolt)

I think that my card just doesn't like to be overclocked. I did try on +100 Core Clock and same thing happens just not as often.

What does it read at moments like when there are drops in the graphs like I mentioned?

 

[ChapeL79]

What does it read at moments like when there are drops in the graphs like I mentioned?

Nothing happens, literally It goes from VRel, VOp to Util to Vrel Only. Overclocked, Idle, Stock.

 

[Deders]

The grey bits in the gaps mean either that it's limited by GPU utilisation or it could just be that it's what it shows at default. Either way something is making it choke unnaturally. Might be worth showing this thread to Gainward in case it has something to do with their bios programming. That is if people with other makes of 980 aren't having the same problems.

 

[ChapeL79]

Will try to contact them but to be honest don't have much hope. Card is working as intended i.e out of the box on their stock clocks is working fine. It's just a shame that it doesn't overclock, normally I would go for MSI or Gigabyte G1 but price of this one was to good to pass.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Deders]

You might have some luck with adjusting the voltage. Asus GPU tweak has a hidden option for minimum voltage. Raising this may be worth a shot.

 

[ChapeL79]

Thanks, will have a look at it tomorrow morning.

 

[ChapeL79]

Quick update, minimum voltage limit didn't help, tried asus, evga, gigabyte, zotac and other programs. Looks like the only option is bios hack but not really willing to do it. It's just crap card to overclock plus seems that some people have similar issues with GTX 980 in general.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...-instability-in-low-utilisation-situations/1/

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...mkm-oc-vs-gpu-load-vs-boost-clock-vs-voltage/

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/784898/gtx970-and-gtx980-black-screen-/

 

[garagisti]

Shame, as once Gainward's golden samples were known to be a bit of a b*s***d at overclocking...

 

[cmdrdredd]

Yeah I remember them back in the day (Geforce 3). They haven't been available in the US since I can't remember when.

 

[ChapeL79]

Just to add to weird issues with this card. I found this article about Nvidia memory issue on gtx970 over 3,5 GHz:

http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/NVIDIA-Responds-GTX-970-35GB-Memory-Issue

Well I ran this test and got this plus it crashes my display driver

Should I be worried?

[EDIT]
Panic over, had to disable aero for test