Gtx 560

[LexDiamonds]

I got a MSI Twin Frozr yesterday and spent last night benching it.

I must admit that I'm a little dissapointed.... My card does not scale well with voltage at all. The stock vcore on my card is 1.0125. It will do 940/1125 perfectly stable with this. Adding more voltage really gets me nothing except for heat. I was able to run a few single runs at 1000/1125, with 1.15v, but it gets too hot too fast. Various voltage/core settings in between stock and max end up with questionable stability in 3dmark. I havent seen a core scale this poorly with volts since my 1800+ Palomino!

Now dont get me wrong, the card is fast at 900+ core and is nearly a %100 upgrade over my Oced 260c216. Seeing as how the only recent game I played on the gtx260 that I couldnt max out was metro2033, I really have no reason to complain. I game at 1920x1080. I just saw the maximum value in the 560 with cores clocked over 1000mhz.

The Twin Frozr cooler is dead silent at idle, but starts to get loud (to me) around 55%. I set a custom fan profile to keep it quiet as possible and this works fine at the940core setting. Vantage seems to heat up the core by 4-5C more than 3dm11.

I also replaced the factory TIM, and installed heatsinks on the FETs, so I tried my best to get a 1000+ 24/7 OC (my original goal) but that proved a bit lofty. My card seems more sensitive to temps above 70C than volt hungry. Since this is for my 24/7 gaming rig, silence is my top priority. I was really hoping to get 1000+ core with low noise, but thats not going to happen on this card. Either my core was especially weak, or the Gigabyte SOC cards will be in very short supply...

My question for people landing on 1000+ OCs is at what fan/noise level is this happening at? Can people pass 4-5 vantage runs at said "stability"?


edit: at 940/1880/1125, with cpu in sig, I get P4800 in 3DM11, and roughly P24650 in vantage.

[cowie]

^boy that sucks for you man

these clocks all day long if you keep'um cool + volts

[Sam_oslo]

@LexDiamonds
I'm also wondering how they are going to get SOC up there with stock voltages. It seams we have to wait a good while for that card. LOL.

I begging to think maybe there is some variations between the OC-headroom of these chips, just like Intel's batch#. But it seams to be big variations on coolers too. My GB OC-900 runs really cool and quiet with max-possible-voltage 1.15v on auto-fan.

It can do 930 at stock, maybe more too, but I didn't try yet. It doesn't scale very good with extra voltage, but it's not too bad. I don't have 3DM11 yet, but it has passed unigine heaven, and I have also been playing my good old
Crysis Warhed too, both @1Ghz, 1.15v with auto-fan in a warm room. Here is a shot after 15min Crysis in a warm room-temp, and it hits max temp 66'C with auto-fan:

[LexDiamonds]

@ cowie- what cooling/fan setting are you using for that 1100+ run? Is this with dry ice on the heatsink? What stable clocks can you get with the stock setup and not extreme fan setting?

@sam- nice prelim results for sure, but just looking at the gpu utilization under crysis, I think you are a little premature on your 1ghz OC. I'd be curious if you could run a couple passes of 3dmark vantage at those speeds.

Oh, the "stock" volts on the gigabyte soc are surely much higher.. probably 1.1 or so. I'm just starting to question how many cards are really 24/7 stable at high clocks w/ full GPU load without the fan being an annoyance.

[Sam_oslo]

I'm still testing, and that 1Ghz may not be a total stable OC, but I've been playing games and it hasn't crashed on me yet.
The fan on GB-OC is not load at all. You can hear it at top-speed 75%, but it's pretty quiet to be a GPU-fan.

The SOC-BIOS I found says: Voltage: by ASIC (0.9625 V - 1.0500 V) tho. I don't know how they are going to get it up to 1GHz. Maybe they got better a chips? We have to wait and see.

[Pantsu]

I'm still testing, and that 1Ghz may not be a total stable OC, but I've been playing games and it hasn't crashed on me yet.
The fan on GB-OC is not load at all. You can hear it at top-speed 75%, but it's pretty quiet to be a GPU-fan.

The SOC-BIOS I found says: Voltage: by ASIC (0.9625 V - 1.0500 V) tho. I don't know how they are going to get it up to 1GHz. Maybe they got better a chips? We have to wait and see.

http://lab501.ro/placi-video/gigabyt...overclocking/8

SOC has default voltage of 1.15. Still not all cards have reached 1GHz even with voltage that high.

[Mungri]

I replaced the tim on my MSI cards to see if I could improve overclocking past 950 Mhz. I forgot to take a screenshot of the results before, but using the same settings and custom fan profile in Afterburner my cards were previously maxing 75 degrees in Kombustor. After the tim replace using MX3, the temps on both cards are maxing out at 69 in the same test:



Thats 6 degrees less, before the driver crashed at 28 mins, but thats only because it isnt loading the cards enough. I never managed to get through the first two Vantage game tests without crashing at 1000 Mhz before, I'll see if I can now after I reach 30+ mins in kombustor. I also chopped 5 degrees off my CPU temps by giving it a dusting and reseat, and got 4200 Mhz stable for 10 mins in Prime, meaning it should be ok for some Vantage + 3D mark runs before I set it back to 4 Ghz for 24/7 use :p

(My CPU is seriously voltage hungry, it needed 1.375v with 100% LLC for 10 mins of stability at 100% load).

but it gets too hot too fast.

Try replacing the tim like I did. I used two horizontal strips of MX3 about 1/4 in from the top and the bottom of the GPU and my temps are down by 5-6 degrees. The problem with the stock tim is that they put far too much on it. It actually comes with MX3 already on, exactly the same stuff as whats in my tube, but with too much of it.

[LexDiamonds]

http://lab501.ro/placi-video/gigabyt...overclocking/8

SOC has default voltage of 1.15. Still not all cards have reached 1GHz even with voltage that high.

Good find.

This is a big tell actually. I am no longer of the belief that the majority of 560s will reach 1ghz core with low temps and reasonable fan noise. Obviously, the gigabytes chips are cherry picked to begin with, and even those need 1.15v for reliable operation.

I dont mean to be Debbie Downer here... I love the 560Ti... just trying to possibly dispell the myth that the majority of boards will reach 1ghz 24/7 or confirm that my chip is particuarily bad.

[Mungri]

just trying to possibly dispell the myth that the majority of boards will reach 1ghz 24/7 or confirm that my chip is particuarily bad.

It is a myth. I tried both my cards as the main with SLI disabled. One only reaches 950 Mhz @1025 mV, above that the driver starts crashing. The other reaches 1 Ghz @ 1100 Mv with no problems at all.

So I have the 1 Ghz one in slot 1, and am trying to make the other one stable too with the Tim replace I just did.

I've passed 30 mins now, and they peaked at 71 degrees compared to peaking and crashing at 75 degrees at 28 mins before the Tim replacement:



I custom set the fans to run at 80% @ 70 degrees, and 100% @ 80 degrees. I'll try vantage next with them at 1 Ghz, I hope they work.

[LexDiamonds]

@bhavv-- looking forward to seeing if you can get vantage stable at 1ghz core. You are right to look at GPU load as a key indicator. While games (and even kombustor apparently) only load a gpu at 60-70%, that isnt enough for me to call stable 24/7.

[Sam_oslo]

http://lab501.ro/placi-video/gigabyt...overclocking/8

SOC has default voltage of 1.15. Still not all cards have reached 1GHz even with voltage that high.

Yeah, that was my thought too after playing a couple of days with this card. That 1.115v makes better scence.

I've been getting pretty much the exact same temp with the 1.115v and same GB-cooler, as that link toy had:

Stock cooler/auto rpm/stock volt(1.15v load)/23c ambient/warhead – 65c max – 292 watt max

But I didn't know, and don't like that 292w max Maybe I have to back down to stock volts.

Good find.

This is a big tell actually. I am no longer of the belief that the majority of 560s will reach 1ghz core with low temps and reasonable fan noise. Obviously, the gigabytes chips are cherry picked to begin with, and even those need 1.15v for reliable operation.

I dont mean to be Debbie Downer here... I love the 560Ti... just trying to possibly dispell the myth that the majority of boards will reach 1ghz 24/7 or confirm that my chip is particuarily bad.

Yeah this card is a great performer at stock speeds too, but it's always fun to get some extra OC. They have pushed these to the limits at stock volts aleready, my GB OC-900Mhz doesn't have much OC-headrooom left at stock voltage, anyways. But it's doing really goog, and over my expectations, even at stock speed.

[Mungri]

@bhavv-- looking forward to seeing if you can get vantage stable at 1ghz core. You are right to look at GPU load as a key indicator. While games (and even kombustor apparently) only load a gpu at 60-70%, that isnt enough for me to call stable 24/7.

Nope, vantage crashed. Kombustor is a fail for testing for GPU stability, and unlock power draw is grayed out. I should be able to get my worse card a little higer than 950 now with the lower temps I hope.

Vantage is the best test for stability IMO. If your overclock is unstable, it will crash or artifact withing the first two tests.

[LexDiamonds]

Here is a pic of the fan profile I use for the MSI frozr. This is as loud as I care for my vidcard to be... 945mhz is the 24/7 limit for my card at these preferred noise levels. After this, it turns into a total voltage sucking hose-beast.

[Johnny87au]

@bhavv, U having any sucess jumping up the voltage on the 2nd card running @ 950 Mhz @1025 mV ?? Does it help jumping it up to say 1.1 ?

[Mungri]

@bhavv, U having any sucess jumping up the voltage on the 2nd card running @ 950 Mhz @1025 mV ?? Does it help jumping it up to say 1.1 ?

No it doesnt and thats what I find strange. 950 Mhz @ 1025 mV on one card, 1000 Mhz @ 1100 mV on the other are their stable max speeds.

Increasing the voltage on the 950 Mhz one doesnt even make 960 Mhz stable.

[Johnny87au]

No it doesnt and thats what I find strange. 950 Mhz @ 1025 mV on one card, 1000 Mhz @ 1100 mV on the other are their stable max speeds.

Increasing the voltage on the 950 Mhz one doesnt even make 960 Mhz stable.

Wow thats really odd, Making a vbios flash could help.. too early to tell atm..

[Mungri]

Wow thats really odd, Making a vbios flash could help.. too early to tell atm..

I even spent half a day removing everything from my PC, cleaning out all the dust, reapplying TIM to the CPU and both graphics cards, reduced my CPU temp by 8 degrees (My Triton 88 was full of dust and definitely unseated), and my GPU temps reduced by 5 degrees because GFX card manufacturers never apply TIM right, even to cards with such great coolers as these.

I do all that and I get my CPU bench stable at 4200 Mhz again, but absolutely no difference to the GTX 560 overclocks.

[Johnny87au]

Whats the max voltage on the 2nd 560??? Have you tryed setting it max and booting up higher? If you did i guess wait for a modded bios..

[Mungri]

Im going to wait for the SOC bios for the 950 Mhz versions of these cards and flash using that since 950 is stable.

Do you think I might have a problem with voltage regulation on my second card? Im going to send MSI support a few emails about it to try my luck at getting it replaced, but its fine at stock so I doubt anything will be done about it.

[Johnny87au]

Highly doubt it mate, just wait it out.. im sure a new Vbios will do the fix

[Mungri]

I got 980 Mhz stable, just with 100% fanspeed:



It must be the temps causing the instability then, one card is crapping out at a lower max temp than the other since the temperatures on both are identical.

[Johnny87au]

thats odd cause your first gpu hits 1000 np with 1.1mv but 2nd struggles with 1.1 @ 1000 and runs better with fan speed of 100%... whats your load temps ?

[MacClipper]

Here's a version of nvflash which works on the GTX560 Ti for the guys who are interested.
http://www.ziddu.com/download/13613217/nvflash.rar.html

[LexDiamonds]

For those with MSI cards, we also have to keep in mind that MSI will also be releasing a card in the future at 950core. I would say those like bhavv and myself that run into core limiations at the 940-950ish level are simply recipients of binned cards.

I was doing some more testing today, and I can confirm that adding extra vcore really skyrockets overall power comsumption (even at stock speeds). With this in mind, I have resolved to be happy at 940core @ 1.037v. Not my greatest overclock ever, but I cant justify a waterblock on a $250 card and it is still wicked fast for my gaming res (1920x1080).

[vern]

I got 980 Mhz stable, just with 100% fanspeed:



It must be the temps causing the instability then, one card is crapping out at a lower max temp than the other since the temperatures on both are identical.

Nice bhavv
Change the cooling to get stability , 560 heat than I expected