Kepler undervolting works!

[willomz]

Undervolting probably isn't for you then!

 

[Lepton87]

Yes, it's called selling you a working part that is satisfactory to your needs. I'm not sure how or why you bought a $1,000 part with no warranty, but wow, that's unfortunate.

There's only one logical answer to that:
Because I thought I would have warranty.

As for the topic with an offset of +174MHz my card is running at 836MHZ@0.9V, Idle voltage for Titan is .884V if I remember correctly only my frequency is 3x higher. It reduced my 2D T-boost power consumption considerably, so far no crashing.

 

[willomz]

I've found that even if you do push the offset too far that instead of crashing it will just downclock to 2d state. This is still a bad thing but it won't actually crash.

If your clocks are too high it will go down a bin, and this is how we get the low voltages in the first place. If your clocks are really too high (like +200) it will hit the lowest bin and then it's only option is to go right down to 2d mode.

 

[toyota]

1. I can't
2. It works it just rattles at idle, they don't advertise idle noise so they have no obligation to send me a non-rattling card.

lol what? that is not normal.

 

[willomz]

Just because they don't advertise it that doesn't mean it's not defective.

It is defective if it falls below the standard that a normal person would expect.

 

[tviceman]

Boxleit, what differences in temps have you observed with undervolting when under load?

 

[SirCanealot]

Wow, someone talking about this!

I've actually done this a lot on my 680. I have one of the KFA2 versions that clock to 1280mhz out of the box.

I can usually get away with around 80-85% when playing Blood Dragon/FC3 at 1080p, for instance.

With this, I can set the clock offset to around +50-+100. Unfortunately the problems begin when I go to an area that requires a very low power target, and it ends up jumping to 1300mhz+ (anything about 1300 crashes more or less instantly). It's very annoying. If there was some way of me limiting the max boost clock, I could push the card much further.

I even dropped down to about 50-60% power target when playing Civ 5 the other day. It's amazing how much power and heat you save! Otherwise, my card will mostly just sit there at 1280mhz and waste a lot of power... -_-

 

[Lepton87]

Just because they don't advertise it that doesn't mean it's not defective.

It is defective if it falls below the standard that a normal person would expect.

That's what I managed with this undervolting , K-boost desktop
0.9V +174MHz offset, 61C at 30% fan speed, 20% TDP
1.161V, 74C at 30% fan speed, 30% TDP
non-k boost + rattle 7%TDP, voltage 0.875V, temp 40C at 30% but it sometimes goes to P2 or P5 state where its TDP raised 2x.

29C ambient

Ideally I would like to lock the card at P2 or p5 performance level but I haven't found a tool that can do that.
They can send me back the same card, they didn't specify idle noise, the card works. They can turn that RMA down, lots of Titans have coil noises, a lot of people have similar problems with rattling Titans. And it's not like it's a very loud rattle, I heard way worse coil noises, my previous 7970s both had an absurd coil noise that made my ears hurt, that rattle is very mild in comparison. But 7970s coil noise was at load and this card rattles at idle, and I can manage that with K-Boost. With this strange undervolting trick I don't loose that much. I have a very bad luck with silicon lottery. As of late every computer product I buy turns out to be a dud. The last non-duds products I had was my Core 2 Duo E6400@3.6GHz and 5870s@1GHz, i750@3.8GHz was also par for the course. My current CPU is defective, it acts just like IB or HW. The temp ramps up very quickly and I'm thermaly limited with Noctua NH-D14. BTW it provided no improvement over my zalman CNPS10X. Maybe I should lap it or sell it and buy 2600/2700K or 3770K depending on price. I'll probably do the latter, but I don't know if I can sell it with warranty intact because I used IC DIAMOND and that paste leave scratch marks I haven't inspected how badly it scratched my CPU yet.Frankly I'm more pissed that my card can only be stable at +50MHz offset in all games and benchmarks I throw at it then the rattle since I don't lose that much, 50W idle(radeon 4870 days ) instead of 20W idle. Good that it happens at idle and not at load since that would pretty much render the card useless.
What's interesting is that all of the games and benchmarks I tested are stable at +130MHz offset except for metro last light.

 

[willomz]

With this, I can set the clock offset to around +50-+100. Unfortunately the problems begin when I go to an area that requires a very low power target, and it ends up jumping to 1300mhz+ (anything about 1300 crashes more or less instantly). It's very annoying. If there was some way of me limiting the max boost clock, I could push the card much further.

If you were feeling adventurous you could alter the boost table in the BIOS.

But maybe a FPS limiter would achieve the same thing?

 

[willomz]

Boxleit, what differences in temps have you observed with undervolting when under load?

This is just a rough test.

GTX660
1.075v = max 62C
1.000v = max 59C

Identical clock speeds and frame rates.

 

[MrK6]

This is just a rough test.

GTX660
1.075v = max 62C
1.000v = max 59C

Identical clock speeds and frame rates.

What about fan speeds and noise signature?

 

[willomz]

Fan settings were just at default, no discernible differences in noise levels or signature.
Pretty much silent anyway (MSI TF3).

 

[flexy]

Wow, someone talking about this!

I've actually done this a lot on my 680. I have one of the KFA2 versions that clock to 1280mhz out of the box.

I can usually get away with around 80-85% when playing Blood Dragon/FC3 at 1080p, for instance.

With this, I can set the clock offset to around +50-+100. Unfortunately the problems begin when I go to an area that requires a very low power target, and it ends up jumping to 1300mhz+ (anything about 1300 crashes more or less instantly). It's very annoying. If there was some way of me limiting the max boost clock, I could push the card much further.

I even dropped down to about 50-60% power target when playing Civ 5 the other day. It's amazing how much power and heat you save! Otherwise, my card will mostly just sit there at 1280mhz and waste a lot of power... -_-

Yes of course there is a way to limit the max boost table clock, it's one of the things you can adjust in "Kepler Bios Tweaker".

Has anyone undervolted Kepler's idle performance state? It seems a little tricky.

There are four different power states with Kepler cards, and people undervolt those default voltages for ages already, also using "Kepler Bios Tweaker".

However, I don't see the point because of various reasons:

Kepler is already dynamically OC and OV ing, the power states are all set at initially at 987.5mV (incl. idle) and then dynamically go up to 1212.5mV, depending on clock speed.

With Kepler Bios Tweaker, you can still limit those min voltages, eg. set from 987.5mV to 825.0mV (the absolute minimum possible) HOWEVER people already measured the power savings compared to the 987.5mV and the power saved is really minimal, I think it was only like 4W or so less.

 

[Magic Carpet]

There are four different power states with Kepler cards,

Please, elaborate. I have only three states on my card and that's including boost.

and people undervolt those default voltages for ages already, also using "Kepler Bios Tweaker".

Is there anything else worth giving a shot?

Thanks.

 

[Lepton87]

Please, elaborate. I have only three states on my card and that's including boost.


Is there anything else worth giving a shot?

Thanks.

Boost is not a performance state. There is P8>P5>P2>P0

P0 is the state where your card spends 100% of its time while gaming.
For example my P2 clocks are 575/3000. The card should never get that low while gaming.
P8 is 324/324MHz, P5 is 540/810. Those are clocks for a Titan, other kepler cards have different clocks.

 

[tviceman]

I just tried lowering the power limit with my 670 and running Unigine Valley to observe the core clocks and temps, and it's making no difference at all. In fact, afterburner is still reporting the power limit of the card to noticeably exceed the value I'm setting it at.

:/