Why does nothing happen when I increase power target to 110%? (GTX 960)

[hsjj3]

I have an EVGA GTX 960 SC.

In MSI Afterburner (and EVGA PX), when I increase the power target to 110%, there doesn't actually seem to be more power being delivered to the GPU. May I know why is this the case?

For example, when running benchmarks, I see that I am throttling due to hitting power limit (the power % is roughly at 100%). This is corroborated by Power being the PerfCap reason in GPU-Z.

So logically I increase power limit to the max, 110% in my case. But, there is ZERO impact. Clocks do not increase, power usage % remains the same, temps do not see an increase etc.

Then I do the reverse. I drop power to 90%. Instantly I see lower power usage %, lower clocks and lower temps.

I then downloaded the BIOS of my GPU and checked it using Maxwell Bios Tweaker II. And it shows, my 100% power target as 128 watts (matches EVGA's rating) and 110% as the max at 141 watts.

So the allowance is there in the cards BIOS. But why is increasing the power limit via either of MSI AB or EVGA PX not working? Can someone please hazard a guess?

Thanks!

 

[Stuka87]

Increasing the power limit will only make a difference if the card needs the power. ie: If you over clocked the card, but with the stock power limit, it would be artificially held back to stay within that power limit.

So if you over clock it, and raise the power limit, you will definitely see it use up that extra power.