How can I tell what the default voltages on my three GTX 480s are?

[AdamK47]

I have three MSI GTX 480s. Bought them at the same time from Micro Center. When I use MSI Afterburner version 2.0 with voltage control off, it shows all three of them at 1.038V in the hardware monitor. Is this correct? I thought the cards all had different voltage values.

 

[lopri]

Only way to know for certain is to use a DMM on the measure points. Otherwise GPU-Z should give close enough values.

 

[thilanliyan]

Three 480s?! Showoff!!
Cards from the same manufacturer (and likely from the same batch since you bought them together) may all have the same voltage values. Best way to find out is to use a multimeter like lopri said.

 

[JAG87]

Use nvidia inspector.

It may very well be that all your cards have the same stock voltage, but it's unlikely.

 

[AdamK47]

Yeah, I found nVidia Inspector last night.

1st card is 1.100V, 2nd is 1.038V, and the third is 1.012V.

I played around with overclocking/voltage adjustments to see where the cards stood. I've found out that the F@H client makes a great stability tester for the cards. It will heat the cards up quickly with 100% usage and error out if instability is detected. I set all three of them to 800MHz/1600MHz core with 2020MHz memory. The 1st card didn't need any adjustment and stayed at 1.100V. The 2nd card needed 1.075V compared to its 1.038V default. The 3rd card needed the most at 1.125V even though it had the lowest default of 1.012V.

 

[JAG87]

That's good.

Personally I think over 1.1V the load temperature gets a bit out of hand. I have both mine at 1.075, 800/1600/2000.

 

[AdamK47]

Have you done any folding on them with that overclock?

 

[JAG87]

No sir, just gaming. No artifacts to be found and I've tested a lot of games.

One card was stock 1.075 and loved the clocks, the other card was stock 1.050 and needed to be bumped to 1.075 also to be stable. One notch less and it produces minor artifacts.

I tried going for 850, but it required more than 1.100 on both cards and at that point I can make my pasta without turning on the stove. What's the point...

 

[AdamK47]

No sir, just gaming. No artifacts to be found and I've tested a lot of games.

One card was stock 1.075 and loved the clocks, the other card was stock 1.050 and needed to be bumped to 1.075 also to be stable. One notch less and it produces minor artifacts.

I tried going for 850, but it required more than 1.100 on both cards and at that point I can make my pasta without turning on the stove. What's the point...

I've seen posts on other forums from people who have purchased cards with a default voltage over 1.100V.

 

[BFG10K]

Mine's 1.038V. I tinkered with lowering it a bit, but it didn’t seem to make much difference.

 

[JAG87]

It's true some cards are stock over 1.100, so I think it's a combination of that voltage + pushing over 800 Mhz. It makes the card spit fire, at least on air cooling. Not worth the noise or the added risk of running at 95C.

Yea under volting doesn't seem to help much. There was a guy around the forums a while ago with a prototype GF100 card with a completely different shroud and slightly lower default core clock. His card had 0.962 stock voltage... which is the same as the idling voltage lol. And he could get the card to like 850 Mhz without even touching the voltage IIRC. Crazy eh?

 

[AdamK47]

The card I have at 1.075V seems to be the one generating the most heat. The fan can get to 4200 RPM running F@H while the other cards sit at 3900 RPM.

 

[dug777]

The card I have at 1.075V seems to be the one generating the most heat. The fan can get to 4200 RPM running F@H while the other cards sit at 3900 RPM.

Holy smackin' duck poop that must be deafening!?

My single 5850 reference sample is very loud at 3900 rpm, and leafblower at 4200 rpm! I have never seen it above ~2500rpm in 'auto'.

Of course, much above 925Mhz core the juice required starts to cause my VRM temps to begin a 'thermal-runaway' event for any sustained period of furmark load, even at 100%

EDIT: Both the kitty and the better-half are extremely intolerant of >3000 rpm in my experience, if that helps illustrate my point The kitty prowls around the computer looking most curious and whacks it/jumps away when you change the fan-speed setting, and the better-half tells me to make it be quiet...or else

 

[AdamK47]

I've heard my 5870s loud, but I can't remember what RPM they were at. The Antec 1200 seems to cut the noise down, so it's very tolerable. Certainly not as loud as the Sunon and Delta fans I had in my P4 system.

I have my own computer room, so my wife and the cats don't care. My wife only cares when the lights in the house start flickering.

 

[JAG87]

My wife only cares when the lights in the house start flickering.

Lol. Just tell her it's the drier, not the computer.

And that you could actually use your computer as the drier and get rid of one appliance.