My Confusing Graphics Card Overclocking Experience

[flyoffacliff]

When I first built my computer with this graphics card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... . I downloaded MSI After Burner right away. The voltage slider is greyed out. But I swear I remember the power slider would go to 120%. I recently decided to start overclocking. I found out you have to edit this config file for unofficial overclocking. I did that, but I noticed no change. I installed EVGA Precision X, but with it, the power limit would not go past 102%. I also noticed Precision would let me increase the voltage by +12mv. I tried that but it did not seem to have any effect on the voltage. Since installing Precision, I noticed After Burner would no longer show GPU usage and would stay at 0% all the time. So I uninstalled Precision. Then I noticed after burner would only let me go to 102% power now too. I read online that old versions of Precision work better for voltage control for some reason. My card was running at a voltage of 0.850v / 0.877v. But the voltage slider in the old version of Precision ranged for 0.975v to 1.150v. I tried setting it to 0.975v and HWMoniter registered the change.

So many things about this experience don't make sense to me.
Why did the power limit % change from a maximum of 120% to just 102%? How can I get it back?
Why do all the programs have different voltage options? Why will Precision 2 change voltage, but not Precision 4 (lastest)?
None of this makes any sense. Could someone clear this up please?

 

[Termie]

I can't answer all your questions, but I think you may be going about overclocking the wrong way. You shouldn't start by increasing voltage and power, and furthermore your card may not actually allow voltage adjustments. Furthermore, voltage often doesn't help with Nvidia cards due to the nature of Nvidia Boost, so it could be a moot point anyway.

Next misconception: unofficial overclocking is only relevant for AMD cards, which have a hard cap on clocks. You don't need that on Nvidia cards, and you should probably uninstall MSI Afterburner all together and start over to get it to go back to default.

So, once you've done that, use Afterburner (not PrecisionX, which is only marketed for EVGA cards), and begin overclocking in small steps, monitoring the power levels while checking for artifacts or glitches. Slowly move the core clock up until glitches or crashes occur. Then do the same thing for memory.

If power never goes all the way to 100%, then you don't need to worry about that. Otherwise, simply max out the slider to whatever it allows. It won't damage your card.

I strongly suggest, however, that you not mess with voltage. It really makes overclocking Nvidia cards much more complicated, if it is even possible on your card.

 

[Stuka87]

The power slider and voltage are not the same. Voltage is voltage, power is how much power (ie: Watts) the card can consume.

The vast majority of 600 and 700 series nVidia cards are voltage locked. Changing the setting will do nothing for you if it is locked. That 0.85 voltage is when the card is at idle, not when it is under load.

I would really suggest you go read one of the many nVidia overclocking how-to articles that are out there.