Hey guys,
 
I know this has been discussed numerous times and most of those times the slave bios was not activating.
 
What I'm experiencing is this. Although precision XOC lets me move the power target slider to 127% the card is power limited at 117%.
 
Let me give you an example:
If I run a game that runs the GPU under 117% power then the card runs at 2100MHz constantly (every game I tried runs the card at around 100% power). If I run, let's say, Furmark, the card runs at around 1880MHz at 117%. If the slave BIOS was working correctly, then the card would go to 127% (at least this is what I understand). Precision XOC and Furmark both say that the card is power limited.
 
My GPU temps do not pass 37C, and the rest of the sensors are under 45C. Slave bios is 86.02.39.01.90.
 
Just to be clear: I am not saying that the card under-performs, on the contrary, it OCs to a stable 2100MHz during gaming with no frequency dipping whatsoever. The reason I'm opening this thread is that I believe that the slave bios, or something else is keeping the GPU from working as a FTW3 should.
 
I also contacted support but the tech just keeps giving me unrelated motivations like:
 

"Not hitting the power target is actually not a bad thing, it does mean that the card is able to reach the maximum performance set by GPU-Boost without requiring the full power target to do so.
Please also note that the power draw and power target used may vary from application to application even though you see 100% GPU load, and there may also be other limiting factors like temperature or stable voltage from the PSU, but the clock your card is reaching does see to be quite alright."
 
"The GPU clocks are controlled by Nvidia Drivers, and once the GPU clocks reaches maximum ( max Boost) Driver controls the power factor to certain limit even though power target is set to 127%.
If your GPU is giving Maximum performance at 117% it means you have one of the good GPU on the Graphics card. Which means Your GPU needs less energy to reach Peak performance.
But Some Graphics card may need 120% or upto 127% to get peak performance.
The Power Target and Temperature targets are supplementary to Nvidia Boost. Once Graphics card reaches peak of the performance at certain Frequency.
Driver controls the power target for the stability of the Graphics card, Please go through following link to know more about Nvidia GPU boost 2.0.
https://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/technology/gpu-boost-2/technology.
Nvidia Driver play main role to control overall performance, Even though the BIOS has set 127% power Target, "

 
In my opinion he is not on the subject even if I tried explaining three times already.
 
Any insight is appreciated.
 
Cheers.
 

 
 
How to properly update your cards vbios: (Only for 6696 & 6698 cards)
 
#1 If you own a 6696 download the ftw3.rar. If you own a 6698 download the ftw3_hybrid.rar.
#2 Extract all files to the desktop.
#3 Shutdown pc, unplug psu from wall, hold case power on button for 30 seconds.
#4 Move vbios selector switch to the slave position. The vbios selector switch can be located to the left of the two 8-pin power inputs on the card.
#5 Plug psu back into wall & boot pc.
#6 Open precision xoc and verify you're on the slave vbios. If you're on the slave vbios you should be able to slide the power target slider to 127% inside precision xoc. Close xoc.
#7 Use the secondary.exe to update the slave vbios. Shutdown pc, unplug psu from wall, hold case power on button for 30 seconds, replug psu back into wall & boot pc. Reinstall graphics drivers if necessary.
 
If you own a 6699, 6796, 6797, or 6694 you'll need to do the following...
 
#1 Download this file.
#2 Extract all files to your c:\ drive.
#3 Shutdown pc, unplug psu from wall, hold case power on button for 30 seconds.
#4 Move vbios selector switch to the slave position. The vbios selector switch can be located to the left of the two 8-pin power inputs on the card.
#5 Plug psu back into wall & boot pc.
#6 Open precision xoc and verify you're on the slave vbios. If you're on the slave vbios you should be able to slide the power target slider to 127% inside precision xoc. Close xoc.
#7 Run command prompt via administrator. 
- Windows 7: Press the start button and type "cmd", right click "cmd" in the list that pops up and select run as administrator.  
- Windows 8/10: Press the Windows Key & X keys together, right click "command prompt" and select run as administrator. 
#8 Type the following commands into the command prompt... "cd  c:\nvflash(3)" without quotes and hit enter. 
- Type "nvflash64 --protectoff" without quotes and hit enter. (Turns off write protection on the card. Some cards will need to have this disabled before you can flash the card so always perform this command before flashing.) 
- Type "nvflash64 -6 FTW3Slave.rom" without quotes and hit enter. 
#9 If you get an error stating "Firmware image PCI Subsystem ID <xxxx.xxxx> does not match adapter PCI Subsystem ID <xxxx.xxxx>" just ignore the error (this error will cause no harm, it's just letting you know you are changing the subvendor name/subsystem id on the card.) Continue on flashing by pressing "Y" to override the error. nvflash should now flash the FTW3Slave.rom to your card and complete by saying the flash was successful. 
#10 Restart PC. (NVIDIA drivers should automatically detect and install the card, if not, you may need to uninstall the drivers and re-install them.)
#11 Download the ftw3.rar & extract all files to your desktop.
#12 Use the secondary.exe to update the slave vbios. Shutdown pc, unplug psu from wall, hold case power on button for 30 seconds, replug psu back into wall & boot pc. Reinstall graphics drivers if necessary.
 
Note: If you own a FTW3 that runs at 12 GHz on the memory you'll need to use msi afterburner to overclock the memory back to 12 GHz as you'll be installing a vbios that will run the memory at 11 GHz. If you own a FTW3 DT card you may notice instability as you just installed a regular ftw3 vbios onto your card.
 
The original ftw3 slave vbios is included in the nvflash.rar file listed under the 6699, 6796, 6797, or 6694 update procedure.
 
 
 
***Post Edited by Sajin to include updated info and fix for this issue. Helping to avoid members combing through 34 pages of posts. Edit was done with OP's approval.***

 
 
 
 

arestavo
The GPU won't pull more power than it needs, that's very likely why you don't see the full 127% pulled. That's how it works - if it doesn't need it, it won't pull it. Period.
 

 
It does need it otherwise it would not downclock.
 
Anyway, ran both, Superposition 4k and Timespy, screenshots below:
 
Superposition:

 http://imgur.com/a/VNdKg
Timespy:

 http://imgur.com/a/E2haF
 
Still throttles earlier than set.

Wreck3r

arestavo
The GPU won't pull more power than it needs, that's very likely why you don't see the full 127% pulled. That's how it works - if it doesn't need it, it won't pull it. Period.
 

 
It does need it otherwise it would not downclock.
 
Anyway, ran both, Superposition 4k and Timespy, screenshots below:
 
Superposition:

 http://imgur.com/a/VNdKg
Timespy:

 http://imgur.com/a/E2haF
 
Still throttles earlier than set.

Wreck3r
Just to be clear: I am not saying that the card under-performs, on the contrary, it OCs to a stable 2100MHz during gaming with no frequency dipping whatsoever. 

 
Sounds like there isn't a problem (I can't read those graphs as they're really compressed and pixelated for the text), yet maybe your card is broken. I take it you don't want to trade cards? I'll pay for both of our shipping costs.
 
My card dips the frequency during new/heavy load benchmarks, and I very rarely ever see that happen during gaming. Welcome to Pascal and GPU Boost 3.0. Try setting Kboost in PrecisionX and Prefer Maximum Performance in the NVCP to see if that forces the card to work the way you'd like it to, over what Nvidia designed them to do.

arestavo
 Welcome to Pascal and GPU Boost 3.0. Try setting Kboost in PrecisionX and Prefer Maximum Performance in the NVCP to see if that forces the card to work the way you'd like it to, over what Nvidia designed them to do.

+1   GPU Boost 3.0
 
I can tell you from my Folding, that the work required does affect the power drawn
 
Wreck3r --> This the GPU you have 11G-P4-6699-KR  ?   EVGA 1080 Ti FTW3 iCX
 

Here is the card:

Valtrius Malleus
You can see the card is hitting the power limit at 117%, as you say. Its in the bottom right of the image in the first post.
 
Try this: Create a txt file and put this in it:

 
@ECHO
start cmd.exe /k "C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI\nvidia-smi.exe" -pl 355
 

Then change the .txt file to .bat and run it. See if that helps.

Hi Valtrius,
 
Funny thing: "Power limit for GPU 00000000:01:00.0 was set to 355.00 W from 355.60 W."
 
Unfortunately, still no change:
 

 

From what I gather, the slave BIOS is activated. This is confirmed by the version of the BIOS read by gpuz 86.02.39.01.90 (86.02.39.00.90 is the master) and by the fact that Precision xoc and afterburner lets me move the power slider all the way to 127%.

I will go through all those steps one more time switching to primary and again switching to slave and report back.

Wreck3r
Come on with the Furmark thing. It emphasizes exactly what I'm saying. The card goes into Power Limit mode at 117% not 127%. If it were at 101,105,110 or anything other then 117%, I would have ignored it and blame it on the "Furmark Ban thing". But have confirmed this with both Time Spy and Superposition, albeit the toll on maximum boost is smaller than Furmark.
 
Also, the slave bios is loaded. It is confirmed by both Precision and GPUz looking at the BIOS version (i have mentioned this in the OP). 
 
I have uninstalled Precision for testing sake and also went with Afterburner because the voltage/frequency curve is more granular than Precision, which increments frequency by 25MHz (don't understand why when the GPU clock increments in 13Mhz if I'm not mistaken).
 
I'm keeping the card as you can imagine. I said this from the start. Or were you being sarcastic?
 
Guys, if you don't want to read, or don't care about benching scores and only gaming, please stop posting. it's not helping as is the support tech that has my case.
 
YES, I want to see this card power limit at 127%. 
 
PS: The linked images are clear enough. Anyway, they show a slight dip in frequency (~2080) and Power Limit at 116%.

Run FS ultra or Superposition 4k with the GPUz sensors tab open.  Crank up the clocks as high as possible, and post a screenshot of the GPUz sensors tab.  If you're seeing green, or "PWR" in the PerfCap Reason line, then you have a legitimate ****, gripe or complaint.  If you're NOT hitting the power limit, then the % of power the software is telling you the card is running at means exactly nothing.

Also, a screenshot of your voltage / frequency curve would help.

Hmm....with the frequency set at 2100 @ 1.093v, I would think it'd try to run there...or should.  

I also wouldn't think it'd be hitting the power limit already at 1.075v...or certainly shouldn't.  Not if it was actually bumping the power limit up to 320+ watts.  

I'd either ask EVGA for a copy of the slave bios with the increased power limits, or RMA it.  You're correct.  It's not operating as intended.

This has been reported before... https://forums.evga.com/Q...ower-cap-m2675318.aspx

Yeah, I saw that video earlier.....it's terrible, and he's way off on his particular problem.  

The power limit problem doesn't seem to be connected to temps / voltage, but to actual power draw....he's getting a power limit throttle with the GPU at 116-117%, which shouldn't happen if the bios was setup correctly.  There's a problem in the bios.

EVGA needs to look at this....

arestavo
 
 
Then again, some people can't stand things not working the way they expect them to - even if they are working better than the majority of the run. 

Certainly. I am one of those but with one correction: It's not working as "advertised", my expectation is not surpassing that. But may I ask you one thing? Why is there a FTW3 card?
 
@Sajin: I read the posts you mentioned before installing the card but the OP never comes to a conclusion. The other thread with the video slides away from the subject.

Sajin

kwkrnu72
Yeah, I saw that video earlier.....it's terrible, and he's way off on his particular problem.  

The power limit problem doesn't seem to be connected to temps / voltage, but to actual power draw....he's getting a power limit throttle with the GPU at 116-117%, which shouldn't happen if the bios was setup correctly.  There's a problem in the bios.

EVGA needs to look at this....

The real question is it the vbios, card or driver at fault.

Agreed. Judging on how my emails with the current EVGA tech are going, I think Volta gaming will launch and we would still be in the dark.
 
Anyway, i charted the power and voltage chart during an 117 and 127 Superposition run.
 
Voltage:

 
Average voltage: 1.041mV (127) and 1.029mV (117)
 
Power:

 
Average power: 111.426% (127) and 107.946% (117)
1.041261

Sajin
You're the thrid person that has reported this issue. I've reported this thread to evga. 

Thank you.  I think this is something that they should look at.  If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck....it's probably a duck.