force constant clock speed for kepler GPU's

[LeetMiniWheat]

hopefully this may help someone here with a kepler gpu too. I got fed up with my GPU's dynamically clocking themselves in skyrim, resulting in more stuttering than would normally occur so I decided to research how to disable kepler boost.

 

I found a great guide on how to force consistent clocks here

 

but I recommend using a .bat file for easy access, I made one using their templates to force my custom overclock and the pstate on both of my GPU's (don't copy verbatim obviously):

 

"C:\Program Files (x86)\nvidia inspector\nvidiaInspector.exe" -setBaseClockOffset:0,0,118 -setMemoryClockOffset:0,0,444 -setpowertarget:0,135 -setVoltageOffset:0,0,187500 -setGPUClock:0,2,1163 -setMemoryClock:0,2,3445 -forcepstate:0,2

"C:\Program Files (x86)\nvidia inspector\nvidiaInspector.exe" -setBaseClockOffset:1,0,118 -setMemoryClockOffset:1,0,444 -setpowertarget:1,135 -setVoltageOffset:1,0,187500 -setGPUClock:1,2,1163 -setMemoryClock:1,2,3445 -forcepstate:1,2

Note: this will make them run in full power mode ALL the time (or at least until the next reboot). but you can force power management clocks again by using nvidia inspector's Multi Display Power Saver (Use the Windows 7 jumplist for quick access to Multi Display Power Manager after pinning nvidia inspector to start menu/taskbar, or by right clicking the "Show Overclocking" button on the main Nvidia Inspector window to get to Multi Display Power Saver, then putting a checkbox next to each GPU. But remember to uncheck before you game again!)

[JudgmentJay]

Interesting. Have you noticed any change in performance? I wish I could just run them in full power mode permanently as the difference between idle and full power on my watercooling setup is only 4-8c.

[LeetMiniWheat]

you can run them full power mode all the time with this, that's the point. you just have to run the batch file at startup that forces the card(s) into P2 power mode and your specified clocks. I haven't really noticed a difference, but I imagine it is reducing stutter a little bit since the cards clocks aren't jumping all around

 

Edit: Dayum! three 680's now i'm jealous :D I wish I could Tri-SLi a 680 with my 690

[LeetMiniWheat]

In your case, you'd need three nvidia inspector lines one for each card. well, technically you can run it all in one command but I find it easier to read when separate.

 

so lets say you wanted a 1200mhz OC on each card (assuming it's stable) and 3400 mem, you'd do something like this:

 

"C:\Program Files (x86)\nvidia inspector\nvidiaInspector.exe" -setBaseClockOffset:0,0,500 -setMemoryClockOffset:0,0,500 -setpowertarget:0,135 -setVoltageOffset:0,0,187500 -setGPUClock:0,2,1200 -setMemoryClock:0,2,3400 -forcepstate:0,2

"C:\Program Files (x86)\nvidia inspector\nvidiaInspector.exe" -setBaseClockOffset:1,0,500 -setMemoryClockOffset:1,0,500 -setpowertarget:1,135 -setVoltageOffset:1,0,187500 -setGPUClock:1,2,1200 -setMemoryClock:1,2,3400 -forcepstate:1,2

"C:\Program Files (x86)\nvidia inspector\nvidiaInspector.exe" -setBaseClockOffset:2,0,500 -setMemoryClockOffset:2,0,500 -setpowertarget:2,135 -setVoltageOffset:2,0,187500 -setGPUClock:2,2,1200 -setMemoryClock:2,2,3400 -forcepstate:2,2

note: I set boost clock to +500 and mem to +500 just so there's headroom for the P2 power mode to go whereever you want it to. the P2 mode is limited by P0, so P0 has to be equal or greater

 

Edit: also if you want to temporarily force the cards to power management mode (324MHz) I recommend pinning nvidia inspector to start menu or taskbar, the jumplist has "Multi Display Power Saver" on it for easy access.

Edit2: and I wouldn't recommend running EVGA Precision X or MSI Afterburner, it may mess with the power modes and force it back into P0 again (unconfirmed though). if you want to monitor your stuff, nvidia inspector has some nice monitor graphs.

[JudgmentJay]

Yeah, I meant permanent as in not even having to mess with the batch files. Seems good though!

[LeetMiniWheat]

well you can add the batch file to startup :)

 

but it doesn't look like nvidia inspector itself has a "set clocks at startup" type feature, and a lot of other stuff that is missing from the GUI anyways

[LeetMiniWheat]

well, technically 1202Mhz would be where it lands for a ~1200'ish OC, setting 1200 ends up at 1189. i'm sure you know keplers have multipliers of 13 basically.

 

but that was just my guess for a safe 680 OC, how far have you pushed yours? my 690 only does about 1163 stable (though I'm testing lower memory to see if I can get to 1200)

[JudgmentJay]

I keep them at a conservative +130/+500. I know the max core is somewhere around 160 and I'm not sure for memory... I've had it up to a stable +525.

[LeetMiniWheat]

you sure it's stable at that memory clock? I was getting artifacts at 500 and above in EVGA OC Scanner w/ "Heavy Mode" enabled after a few minutes of testing, though you could have some good cards. from my understanding most people are at 7GHz or lower. the artifacts don't always get detected by the artifact scanning in OC Scanner though, so you have to watch for visual anomalies. as for regular core artifacts, i found that watching Heaven run for a few minutes was enough. like around 1189-1202 and I get some green triangle things. (but 680's OC better than 690's). OC Scanner in "heavy mode" is an unrealistic core stress since it just makes the GPU's downclock due to reaching the power limit of 135% but it's fine for memory

[LeetMiniWheat]

sorry, I edited above post while you were reading (I think) ^^

 

Edit: also, OC Scanner in "heavy mode" is just like furmark was before they power limited it. in fact, i believe it was written by the same people that make furmark and then branded EVGA, just like EVGA Precision and MSI Afterburner are really rivatuner. and same goes for MSI kombuster, but I'm not sure if they have a "heavy mode" (i.e. disables power throttling). just don't run OC Scanner or Kombuster overnight or anything with heavy mode, or your cards might *really* combust :D

[JudgmentJay]

you sure it's stable at that memory clock?

I can't say it was 100% stable, but it passed a number of 3DMark Vantage and Heaven Benchmarks at that speed with no visible artifacts. I didn't do any real-world gaming though so who knows. I felt like it shouldn't be stable at that speed since it seems like most people hit a wall at around 500, so I backed it down. I doubt there's any real-world performance gains to be had there anyway.