Oh, The Irony

[lavaheadache]

While I'm no stranger to either camp, if things are pretty close in performance I tend to side with AMD/ATi hardware since I think they are better built most of the time. Going that path I'm usually trying to find ways around little bugs or make Hybrid physx work. Having dumped my Lighting 7970 in favor of the Baus (Titan) I was excited to have an easier time with my hardware.

First up... Crysis 3. Excellent game, minimal issues except things like black boxes around big particle explosions which conviently gets fixed the day after I finished the game. No biggie, from what I gather both camps were affected equally. What I have just come to notice is a very minor issue with Titan clock throttling. I can repeat the issue in a few areas of this game by simply looking a certain direction in the game. It is not severe by any stretch but just annoying that it happens

Second up... Tomb Raider. The game flat up performs like ass with this card. There are graphical anomolies off and on including artifcating in Lara's skin. Nvidia specific issue and a game stopper for now.. I will wait to play this game.

Third up... Need for Speed hot pursuit. The game seems to run flawlessly as in that the frame rate is pegged at 60 on the 30" but for some reason my clocks are locked at 650mhz or so. Again, it is a non issue performance wise since the game runs smooth but why is this happening? No matter what I do the clocks stay there.

$1000 for a card that has had quibbles in every game I've played so far. If I wanted quirks I could have stayed with my excellent 7970.

Come on Nvidia, you got my money.... now, show me why you should be able to keep it

 

[Plimogz]

[...]Third up... Need for Speed hot pursuit. The game seems to run flawlessly as in that the frame rate is pegged at 60 on the 30" but for some rean my clocks are locked at 650mhz or so. Again, it is a non issue performance wise since the game runs smooth but why is this happening? No matter what I do the clocks stay there.[...]

It would actually be a pretty nice power saving feature if the drivers could limit clocks to a lower value in less intensive games, so long as it's still delivering as much performance as is needed to max out the monitor's refresh rate and keep the experience as smooth as would be possible with maximum clock speed.

I'm not really suggesting that this is what is happening; it just strikes me as a interesting idea. Particularly considering Nvidia's recent developments like Geforce Experience, adaptable Vsync and GPU boost 2; which when put together would seem to provide all the building blocks for such a scheme.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Turn off VSYNC. Watch clocks rise.

 

[blackened23]

While I'm no stranger to either camp, if things are pretty close in performance I tend to side with AMD/ATi hardware since I think they are better built most of the time. Going that path I'm usually trying to find ways around little bugs or make Hybrid physx work. Having dumped my Lighting 7970 in favor of the Baus (Titan) I was excited to have an easier time with my hardware.

First up... Crysis 3. Excellent game, minimal issues except things like black boxes around big particle explosions which conviently gets fixed the day after I finished the game. No biggie, from what I gather both camps were affected equally. What I have just come to notice is a very minor issue with Titan clock throttling. I can repeat the issue in a few areas of this game by simply looking a certain direction in the game. It is not severe by any stretch but just annoying that it happens

Second up... Tomb Raider. The game flat up performs like ass with this card. There are graphical anomolies off and on including artifcating in Lara's skin. Nvidia specific issue and a game stopper for now.. I will wait to play this game.

Third up... Need for Speed hot pursuit. The game seems to run flawlessly as in that the frame rate is pegged at 60 on the 30" but for some rean my clocks are locked at 650mhz or so. Again, it is a non issue performance wise since the game runs smooth but why is this happening? No matter what I do the clocks stay there.

$1000 for a card that has had quibbles in every game I've played so far. If I wanted quirks I could have stayed with my excellent 7970.

Come on Nvidia, you got my money.... now, show me why you should be able to keep it

On the last part, enabling "maximize performance" for power management in the nvidia control panel should help with that. What I do is this: I set the default in control panel to maximize performance which applies to everything unless I specify otherwise with a special profile. Then I create profiles for stuff like Chrome, firefox, flash, powerDVD, etc etc and set these programs to "adaptive". If I don't do that, I get full 3d clockspeeds when doing something trivial such as browsing with chrome.

Basically what i've found is if I don't do this some older games just use ridiculously low clockspeeds, like i'll be playing Dead Space 1 at 324mhz or something silly. But if I use maximize performance that doesn't happen - not sure if that applies to you as well but it could help with NFS.

On tomb raider I agree. It's pretty much not very playable right now with all of the crashing and performance anomalies, i'm waiting for the next set of drivers before plunging into it.

 

[chimaxi83]

It would actually be a pretty nice power saving feature if the drivers could limit clocks to a lower value in less intensive games, so long as it's still delivering as much performance as is needed to max out the monitor's refresh rate and keep the experience as smooth as would be possible with maximum clock speed.

This feature exists, and it's called Adaptive Vsync.

On the last part, enabling "maximize performance" for power management in the nvidia control panel should help with that. What I do is this: I set the default in control panel to maximize performance which applies to everything unless I specify otherwise with a special profile. Then I create profiles for stuff like Chrome, firefox, flash, powerDVD, etc etc and set these programs to "adaptive". If I don't do that, I get full 3d clockspeeds when doing something trivial such as browsing with chrome.

Basically what i've found is if I don't do this some older games just use ridiculously low clockspeeds, like i'll be playing Dead Space 1 at 324mhz or something silly. But if I use maximize performance that doesn't happen - not sure if that applies to you as well but it could help with NFS.

On tomb raider I agree. It's pretty much not very playable right now with all of the crashing and performance anomalies, i'm waiting for the next set of drivers before plunging into it.

I could be wrong, because I haven't used sons 680 rig in a while, but doesn't changing to maximize performance prevent the card from dropping down to low idle clocks? Not that it really matters much, just curious.

Edit: nevermind hehe I just read through your whole post again.

 

[thilanliyan]

Pffft...driver issues with nVidia? No way, they make perfect drivers.


I wonder if this is because of the expansion of Gaming Evolved...will we see more issues with nV cards now....? I hope not, I have never chosen a card based on lack of driver issues, and I hope I don't ever have to do that.

 

[Plimogz]

This feature exists, and it's called Adaptive Vsync.

Ah, from what I'd gathered from the AT articles Adaptive Vsync just allowed smoother levels of Vsync when the FPS dropped below the monitor's max refresh.

Well, it's pretty cool if the drivers do actually work that way: all of the buttery smoothness with only half the calories.

 

[lavaheadache]

"maximum performance" worked for N4S, though I think I'll let the card downclock for the sake of a greener planet =). I just hate intrusive stuff when I can't control things like that.

The Tomb Raider issue is bugging the crap out of me. Last night aside from the anomolies I was getting I figured i would just paly anyways, that was until I had the game CTD twice on me. No driver fails or anything, just Tomb Raider failing to respond for no reason that I knew.

 

[blackened23]

I could be wrong, because I haven't used sons 680 rig in a while, but doesn't changing to maximize performance prevent the card from dropping down to low idle clocks? Not that it really matters much, just curious.

No, they don't - but the thing is, there are a ton of programs not recognized by the nvidia driver that will automatically make it go to the highest 3d clocks when maximum performance is enabled. For instance, my logitech mouse drivers and my sound blaster ZXR software actually trip up the driver when maximize performance is enabled in the CP, and will cause my cards to "idle" at max 3d clocks.

You basically have to figure out which programs do this and create profiles to set those specific programs to adaptive. In my case, I use program profiles for my mouse drivers, SB Z software, chrome, firefox, powerDVD, and a few other things so those are run at adaptive. My default is set to maximize performance.... Or you can make a global profile and make everything adaptive.

Basically you have to play around and figure out which programs trip the control panel up when you have max performance enabled. It took me a while to figure out that my actual mouse driver software in my system tray was causing my cards to use 3d clocks, once I set that to adaptive via program profile I idle at 324mhz again.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

"maximum performance" worked for N4S, though I think I'll let the card downclock for the sake of a greener planet =). I just hate intrusive stuff when I can't control things like that.

The Tomb Raider issue is bugging the crap out of me. Last night aside from the anomolies I was getting I figured i would just paly anyways, that was until I had the game CTD twice on me. No driver fails or anything, just Tomb Raider failing to respond for no reason that I knew.

Turn off tesselation and tomb raider should work better.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Basically what i've found is if I don't do this some older games just use ridiculously low clockspeeds, like i'll be playing Dead Space 1 at 324mhz or something silly.

If my 9600GT can run Dead Space at a solid 85FPS at 650MHz, I'd hope a Titan would be able to run it at 60FPS at 324MHz.

 

[blackened23]

If my 9600GT can run Dead Space at a solid 85FPS at 650MHz, I'd hope a Titan would be able to run it at 60FPS at 324MHz.

Have you tried running various games at 2d clocks? Because 324mhz is the 2d clockspeed on the 680.

Anyway, there are other games such as Darksiders 1 that stutter a ton with 2d clockspeeds, keep in mind that 324mhz at 60 fps will require something like 90% utilization with stuttering - whereas, if you use maximum performance and have your default boost speed with 30-40% utilization the game will be silky smooth.

It is never really ideal to game at 2d clocks.

 

[DominionSeraph]

keep in mind that 324mhz at 60 fps will require something like 90% utilization with stuttering

If your Titan can't handle Dead Space at 1/3rd its max clocks, send it back. You seem to have gotten a rebadged GTX 460.

 

[blackened23]

If your Titan can't handle Dead Space at 1/3rd its max clocks, send it back. You seem to have gotten a rebadged GTX 460.

Good GRIEF. I don't have a Titan, I have 680 sli as my sig indicates. I have NO IDEA why you're telling me the stuff, I relayed my experience to the OP to help with his issue of being stuck at low clockspeeds in games. And his issue was fixed (being stuck at low clocks) if you read above. Right now you are arguing for arguing sake and no other reason, are you enjoying it? I was trying to help out, I really have no idea what your problem is - are you having a bad day or something? Did somebody spit in your cereal? You know, don't bother.

 

[blastingcap]

Third up... Need for Speed hot pursuit. The game seems to run flawlessly as in that the frame rate is pegged at 60 on the 30" but for some rean my clocks are locked at 650mhz or so. Again, it is a non issue performance wise since the game runs smooth but why is this happening? No matter what I do the clocks stay there.

Vsync on?

 

[Termie]

Third up... Need for Speed hot pursuit. The game seems to run flawlessly as in that the frame rate is pegged at 60 on the 30" but for some rean my clocks are locked at 650mhz or so. Again, it is a non issue performance wise since the game runs smooth but why is this happening? No matter what I do the clocks stay there.

Vsync on?

No, that would happen regardless of Vsync. The GTX600/Titan series has the ability to downclock when presented with very low loads. This is completely separate from Adaptive Vsync, and it's a feature not a bug. In my opinion it's one of the smartest things to happen in video card development in a long time. It means you can game at extremely low power levels.

When I play Age of Empires, my clocks are at about 500MHz, and the load is below 100w. That's CPU, GPU, the whole shebang.

 

[tviceman]

"maximum performance" worked for N4S, though I think I'll let the card downclock for the sake of a greener planet =). I just hate intrusive stuff when I can't control things like that.

The Tomb Raider issue is bugging the crap out of me. Last night aside from the anomolies I was getting I figured i would just paly anyways, that was until I had the game CTD twice on me. No driver fails or anything, just Tomb Raider failing to respond for no reason that I knew.

A tomb raider patch hit last night / this morning. Have you tried since the update?

 

[tviceman]

While I'm no stranger to either camp, if things are pretty close in performance I tend to side with AMD/ATi hardware since I think they are better built most of the time. Going that path I'm usually trying to find ways around little bugs or make Hybrid physx work. Having dumped my Lighting 7970 in favor of the Baus (Titan) I was excited to have an easier time with my hardware.

First up... Crysis 3. Excellent game, minimal issues except things like black boxes around big particle explosions which conviently gets fixed the day after I finished the game. No biggie, from what I gather both camps were affected equally. What I have just come to notice is a very minor issue with Titan clock throttling. I can repeat the issue in a few areas of this game by simply looking a certain direction in the game. It is not severe by any stretch but just annoying that it happens

Second up... Tomb Raider. The game flat up performs like ass with this card. There are graphical anomolies off and on including artifcating in Lara's skin. Nvidia specific issue and a game stopper for now.. I will wait to play this game.

Third up... Need for Speed hot pursuit. The game seems to run flawlessly as in that the frame rate is pegged at 60 on the 30" but for some rean my clocks are locked at 650mhz or so. Again, it is a non issue performance wise since the game runs smooth but why is this happening? No matter what I do the clocks stay there.

$1000 for a card that has had quibbles in every game I've played so far. If I wanted quirks I could have stayed with my excellent 7970.

Come on Nvidia, you got my money.... now, show me why you should be able to keep it

So Tomb Raider is really the only game that gave you nvidia-specific problems? If need for speed ran flawlessly, then who cares what clocks the card ran at. Sounds like it is downclocking because it does not need to run at 1000mhz to achieve maxed out vsycn performance. And Crysis 3 had issues with both cards, so again you can't be mad for getting Titan and having graphical anomolies that would have still been present had you used your hd7970. And Nvidia already beat you to the punch with Tomb Raider, acknowledging issues and promising to fix them via drivers and game updates ASAP, so you knew going into that game there would be issues.

Really, had you made a post about CFX 7970's and microstuttering, or whatever, and said the same thing about having issues, I'd be questioning your validity to complain just as I am now given the plethora of information that has recently come to light regarding CFX (and sometimes SLI) frame time issues.

 

[blastingcap]

No, that would happen regardless of Vsync. The GTX600/Titan series has the ability to downclock when presented with very low loads. This is completely separate from Adaptive Vsync, and it's a feature not a bug. In my opinion it's one of the smartest things to happen in video card development in a long time. It means you can game at extremely low power levels.

When I play Age of Empires, my clocks are at about 500MHz, and the load is below 100w. That's CPU, GPU, the whole shebang.

That. Is. Awesome. The electricity savings will help pay down the cost of the card. I hope this feature makes its way into all video cards. Niice!

 

[lavaheadache]

A tomb raider patch hit last night / this morning. Have you tried since the update?

I have the game via steam so it should have patched on it's own. With that said... With tess. on the game is still broken. Without it, like the suggestion somebody gave a few post earlier all seems well.

 

[Firestorm007]

So Tomb Raider is really the only game that gave you nvidia-specific problems? If need for speed ran flawlessly, then who cares what clocks the card ran at. Sounds like it is downclocking because it does not need to run at 1000mhz to achieve maxed out vsycn performance. And Crysis 3 had issues with both cards, so again you can't be mad for getting Titan and having graphical anomolies that would have still been present had you used your hd7970. And Nvidia already beat you to the punch with Tomb Raider, acknowledging issues and promising to fix them via drivers and game updates ASAP, so you knew going into that game there would be issues.

Really, had you made a post about CFX 7970's and microstuttering, or whatever, and said the same thing about having issues, I'd be questioning your validity to complain just as I am now given the plethora of information that has recently come to light regarding CFX (and sometimes SLI) frame time issues.

So basically, now, you're questioning his validity because it's an Nvidia card. Ok, got it. Since he has a Titan I would take his opinion a little more seriously than yours; just saying. However, beyond this. I bet a driver update will fix this Lava. I'm sure Nvidia wouldn't want their flagship portrayed in a negative light.

 

[tweakboy]

Turn off VSYNC. Watch clocks rise.

NOPE! YOu will see image tearing and its nasty on the eyes and ugly.

You want vsync ON. Me I got 1ms ,, and OCed to 75hz its smooth as butter and better then fw900..... yay!!!

 

[Plimogz]

No, that would happen regardless of Vsync. The GTX600/Titan series has the ability to downclock when presented with very low loads. This is completely separate from Adaptive Vsync, and it's a feature not a bug. In my opinion it's one of the smartest things to happen in video card development in a long time. It means you can game at extremely low power levels.

When I play Age of Empires, my clocks are at about 500MHz, and the load is below 100w. That's CPU, GPU, the whole shebang.

Ah! and Termie shines light on the situation

And yeah, that is really cool. When I read the "problem" in the OP I could only think "well, it would be awesome if this was intended behavior."

Well done nVidia.

 

[lavaheadache]

Ah! and Termie shines light on the situation

And yeah, that is really cool. When I read the "problem" in the OP I could only think "well, it would be awesome if this was intended behavior."

Well done nVidia.

I agree

 

[lavaheadache]

So Tomb Raider is really the only game that gave you nvidia-specific problems? If need for speed ran flawlessly, then who cares what clocks the card ran at. Sounds like it is downclocking because it does not need to run at 1000mhz to achieve maxed out vsycn performance. And Crysis 3 had issues with both cards, so again you can't be mad for getting Titan and having graphical anomolies that would have still been present had you used your hd7970. And Nvidia already beat you to the punch with Tomb Raider, acknowledging issues and promising to fix them via drivers and game updates ASAP, so you knew going into that game there would be issues.

Really, had you made a post about CFX 7970's and microstuttering, or whatever, and said the same thing about having issues, I'd be questioning your validity to complain just as I am now given the plethora of information that has recently come to light regarding CFX (and sometimes SLI) frame time issues.

Why can't I bitch about a card I own? Anyhow, Crysis 3 is throttling for no good reason since you appear to have missed that part.