Easy method to predict OC capabilities in current Nvidia GPU's

[SF3D]

Hi all!

I have been testing several GTX 480 reference cards on aircooling and LN2.
I usually always test cards on aircooling and then on LN2.
This time I found something new on Nvidia cards.

On current generation cards you can easily see the P0 performance level voltage.
Just open the Nvidia inspector and open the overclocking page.
On the slider on right you can see P0 performance level voltage.
If it does not work you can check it with multimeter in 3D load etc.



P0 is very interesting value,
cause it will tell us few important things.
Lower voltage means directly lower leakage,
cause signal can be delivered inside GPU with less energy.
Higher P0 voltage will mean that the core need more voltage for same data output,
so more energy is lost and more unnecessary heat generated.

GPU's with low P0 value will work cooler and what I have been told from my sources,
there is higher thermal shutdown treshold on these GPU's as well.
So, if you need to pick some GPU for testing,
try to find low P0 ones.

This is nothing that new for most of us,
but now it is easy to see and predict how your card will overclock.
There is easy way to compare GPU's and it is fixed voltage.
If you use for example 1.07V voltage and 100% fan speed max overclock is correlating with P0 value in most cases.





Now I would need to ask you guys put some input on this thread:

Reference GTX 480 designs use 1.07V and 100% fan speed. Then try to run 3Dmark vantage and report the OC results here.

What I have seen in my own tests:
P0=1.063V / MAX OC on air = 775MHz in 3DMark Vantage
P0=0.985V / MAX OC on air = 900MHz in 3DMark Vantage

P0=1.063V / MAX OC on LN2 = 1100MHz in 3DMark Vantage
P0=0.985V / MAX OC on LN2 = 1300MHz in 3DMark Vantage

This thread is here to help you pick up the best cores for air, h2o and LN2 overclocking.
I hope at least few will bother to run few tests and let us all know the data.
This is confirmed information already from my sources, so there is no need to try to argue

P.S This prediction method is proven to work on GTX 460/470/480 cards. It should work same way in all GPU's which have P0 3D VID values + powerstates.

[Lucky_n00b]

Thanks for sharing the info Mr. Petri, will try to find card with low P0 to see the results

[Funky]

What about factory oced cards with custom pcb and mainly custom bios from AIBs. Can we predict the same with those cards.
I know that Galaxy has set the P0 to 1.000 for all their GC Ed GTX 460s as those come factory oced. I have used two of these and both had exact same P0 values.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

I can contribute my findings once I get my gtx470 tomorrow.

Thanks for giving me something to do besides gaming and simple OCing!

[SF3D]

So far this information have been proved correct with reference design and in some custom designed cards too.
If some vendor set P0 to some fixed value, then you can not see anything of course.
Then you just need to test cards separately.

[overdoze]

Would you get a better chance getting lower PO with a superclock card vs the normal gtx 480 ? I'm talking about EVGA cards

[papatsonis]

in general i agree ( as with CPU's VIDs) but there can be exceptions.. like in my case.. 1st 470, vid 962mv, def clocks stable with 0.887, 2nd 470 VID, 937mv, stable at default clocks, with 0.925!!...

[Boulard83]

Interesting

I have 2 GTX460 and a GTS450... ill be testing this milord

[Aedubber]

Good to know

[STEvil]

1.013v for my GTX480.. never really tested how it overclocks yet lol

[ButtSprinkles]

P0 for my gtx 460 is .950 max overclock on air is 902

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

MSI GTX 470 Twin Frozr II

P0 is 1.050v. High.

Well, I did save $100 being open box, lol. Took me 4 hours to get into windows with it. Not sure if anything is wrong with the card or not at this point. VERY VERY confused....

Anyways, I'll try to OC this guy and see if I can do anything with it.

[dafour]

MSI GTX460 1GB Cyclone says 0.987 .FYI

[STEvil]

bit of testing on the GTX480.. 800/1600 at 1.013v with no errors as long as the core stays under 70c so far.. fan at ~55-65%

[SF3D]

bit of testing on the GTX480.. 800/1600 at 1.013v with no errors as long as the core stays under 70c so far.. fan at ~55-65%

Try 1.07V and 100% fan. You should get 875-900MHz with that card, if your room is not like sauna or something.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Question for all you guys...

What are you "testing" your card with? I ran kombustor for a while in benchmark and stability mode. Right now, here's what I have stable...

GTX470:

Core Clock: 800mhz
Shader Clock: 1600mhz (still linked)
Memory Clock: 1713 (have not played with this.)
Core Voltage: 1.050 still (on air, stock cooling)

These settings also run the free version of futuremark without any tearing, pixelation, or other issues.

What else should I try?

[Cookiesowns]

Would you get a better chance getting lower PO with a superclock card vs the normal gtx 480 ? I'm talking about EVGA cards

It's been said that EVGA bin the SC cards. I just ordered two of them, I'll let you know the P0 volts. Though, EVGA says the SC+ editions have lower temps, due to the bracket, but after seeing this, I'm assuming they bin those cards with low VID.

[papatsonis]

Question for all you guys...

What are you "testing" your card with? I ran kombustor for a while in benchmark and stability mode. Right now, here's what I have stable...

GTX470:

Core Clock: 800mhz
Shader Clock: 1600mhz (still linked)
Memory Clock: 1713 (have not played with this.)
Core Voltage: 1.050 still (on air, stock cooling)

These settings also run the free version of futuremark without any tearing, pixelation, or other issues.

What else should I try?

Kombustor is REALLY REALLY "LIGHT"....

when kombustor runs "stable".. Crysis WH bench could freeze in 1st minute... or even oldie COD2 in DX7 mode can freeze after some time... , for quick find of major instability might be good.. but is same quick a run of crysis wh benchmark run/freeze

[Cookiesowns]

Kombustor is REALLY REALLY LIGHT....

when kombustor runs "stable".. Crysis WH bench could freeze in 1st minute... or even oldie COD2 in DX7 mode can freeze after some time... , for quick find of major instability might be good.. but is same quick a run of crysis wh benchmark run/freeze

Well, Kombuster does push my cards for high heat, but IT does not represent gaming scenario, 4870 with 1.35v, could reach 870 on kom, but can barley run 815 on BC2.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Alright, well, I don't own Crysis, so I'm downloading S.T.A.L.K.E.R Call of Pripyat benchmark. I figure that should be good enough, no?

[Cookiesowns]

Alright, well, I don't own Crysis, so I'm downloading S.T.A.L.K.E.R Call of Pripyat benchmark. I figure that should be good enough, no?

Most games that support DX10/DX11, should push current gen cards far enough to find a sweet stability spot. DX9 games like CSS, or cod4, will not push it as hard. Although COD5 may.

[SF3D]

This is perfect benchmark for stability.
http://hwbot.org/rankings/benchmark/...28dx11%29/info

Download full version and run the extreme preset. If it can pass, it is game stable almost for sure.

[STEvil]

I was testing with heaven :p

With fan at 100% and 1.07 I managed to get through it at 910.

for 24/7 i'm running 800 at 1.05 with fan on auto.

[SF3D]

I was testing with heaven :p

With fan at 100% and 1.07 I managed to get through it at 910.

for 24/7 i'm running 800 at 1.05 with fan on auto.

So my guess about the overclockability was somehow correct. I always use vantage, so GT2 is making the difference in the end in my own tests.

Thanks for the info.

Waiting to see some more

[mk-ultra]

I've notice this too on my 3 480 i,ve had. 1=1038mv, 2=980mv 3=1075mv

on water
first one max @ 930
2nd one max @ 950
3rd one max @ 888

you don't really need nvidiainspector, just check stock voltage in afterburner
i wish that 2nd card didn't died it looked like a monster!!!