Sorry not possible to adjust. Remember that this varies depending on application also.

EVGA_JacobF

Sorry not possible to adjust. Remember that this varies depending on application also.

 
thanks for chiming in. ehh, that's what I was afraid of, pity it cannot get even slightly increased, let's say extra 10% of headroom ...
 
yup, I noticed that different apps (e.g. Heaven 3.0 vs 3dmark11 vs ScannerX) create different load and while in Heaven 3.0 the card completes at 120% max TDP, the 3DMark11 causes the same overclock's TDP to spike up to 130% ... I can imagine it gets even worse with games like BF3 or something like Metro 2033 at full settings ...
 
I actually found a quicker way to check the max actual TDP under load, EVGA Scanner X in full screen Tessy mode and max quality options does it too in a matter of seconds instead of minutes while benchmarking with 3dm11.

feniks

cwinot

My 670SC 4GB also goes over the power target of 122%, I have seen mine go as high as 130%, haven't had it throttle down because of that though.

I can assure you that it does throttle down, but since increments are tiny (13MHz each time, but it can do it several times within a second) you will not notice them on Precision X graphs until you limit MIN to 980 and MAX to like 1300 and set polling interval to 500ms, then you can see it under full load.

other way to notice it is to watch carefully the Precision OSD with current Core clock during benchmark/test and see how it jumps back and down using multiple of 13MHz increments. with the TDP high enough over limit it can drop e.g. 13, 26 (2x 13MHz) or 39Mhz (3x 13MHz) sometimes even if overclock is "normally" stable.

I am running 304.79 driver now if it matters, but I don't think this TDP thing is a driver programmable item, looks like a part of GPU BIOS programming most likely.

Not saying I don't believe you I am sure you have more knowledge than me. I have adjusted my overclock a bit since then (122%,+75core,+210mem now) when my power target was spiking to 130%. Now it only spikes up to 128% (not very often though) and I have never seen it dip below 1228mhz in the OSD while playing BF3. I will set my Precicsion graph limits to what you suggest and check it out when I have a few minutes later. I am on the 304.48 beta driver if that means anything.

Why can these cards even go over the power target that you set in Precision anyhow? I would think if you set a limit on it, shouldn't it stay under that limit, otherwise why even have one? I just don't understand these new cards yet either, I do like them though, great performance! I will figure them out eventually I hope!

Yeah I had a much easier time squeezing every bit of performance I could from my 560SC 2GB card, it seems that these new 600 series cards have a mind of their own sometimes!

Just got done playing some BF3. I setup my GPU clock graph in Precision X how you suggested and even though my power target spiked up to 129% it never down clocked on me, a solid 1228mhz the whole time.

no dice. it still does it, just dropped 13MHz under Scanner X tessy load within 10 seconds. max TDP registered in gpu-z shows 128.1%
 
I guess it's time for me to lower the clocks and find where the core stops getting throttled.

jumped a few steps down and found a spot where it does NOT do this anymore, not a borderline probably as the TDP spikes up to 126.2% and given the specs (122 + 7% variation = 130.5%) it could be below the border.
from previous observations, I think it starts doing the 13MHz power throttling when it hits above 128% TDP.
 


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EDIT:
found the border of power throttling vs no throttling under load to be around those numbers:
a) without power throttling, TDP max 127.5% (under ScannerX-tessy-max) or 115% under heaven3.0, set values were 122%, +110core/+364mem (actual 1202MHz/3370)
b) with power throttling, TDP max 129% (under ScannerX-tessy-max), set values were 122%, +115core/+364mem (actual 1215/3370)
not sure what to think of it at all ...
c) maximum stable with power throttling, TDP max 132%(didn't check under ScannerX-tessy-max), +149/+564 (1246core/3571mem)

idk, the power throttle threshold depends solely on the stregth of stress testing app you use.
I just realized that what was stable (against Power Throttle) under ScannerX and heaven3.0 is NOT any longer "safe" against the 3dmark11 bench (Test#1 is enough)... went as low as +100core/+314mem and the TDP related throttle was still happening ...
 
for now I ignore it and use a high stable OC and see what it gives (perhaps nothing ever).

Hmmmmm...... not sure why my pic isn't showing up? There got it. Looks good huh? (Sorry this really has nothing to do with the power throttling, I just had to show these to someone). 

when OC'ing the core alone I can do +155MHz (1252MHz) with memory stock while I can bump memory +564MHz by sacrificing only 6MHz on the core max boost ... pretty good deal if you ask me

maniacvvv

cwinot

Hmmmmm...... not sure why my pic isn't showing up? There got it. Looks good huh? (Sorry this really has nothing to do with the power throttling, I just had to show these to someone). 

Your video memory OC is way out of bounds

I dont understand you guys....
Why do you think overclocking Vram will give you any real gains in games?
They dont
Memory clocks provide -nothing- compared to core clocks for increasing framerates.

All overclocking memory on 600 series does, is increase the total wattage and -decrease- you ability to reach higher core speeds.
Look at the pics above, was that really worth the whole 1.5fps performance increase with a 400mhz increase

If you want the best performance in game (highest framerates), leave the memory at stock and work on the core alone

Really because I haven't touched my memory overclock since this happened, I backed my core clock down just a bit (-5mhz) and have been problem free since. So if this is related to the memory overclock why did it not do this when I had the memory overclock set even higher? Not saying you are wrong, just trying to figure these 600 series out.  I would think if the memory overclock was WAY out of bounds this would happen more than once, this is the only time I have seen anything like this while playing. I overclocked the core and got that stable (through Heaven) before I even touched the memory overclock, so I don't think reducing my memory overclock is going to gain me a higher core clock.