GTX 680 Voltage

[blindhamster]

Hi all,

so i noticed something the last few days, my Palit gtx 680 4gb is topping out at 1.162v when at max load, is that correct? I thought the voltage at such times should be at 1.175v? Is it an issue or is everything fine and i shouldn't worry about it? I mostly ask as I continue to get marginally lower FPS than others with the same setups and it occurs that it might be this thats the issue (and I'm an utter noob for not noticing this sooner if this is indeed whats causing the lower fps)

Thanks in advance

 

[Buzz]

If you are only getting marginal differences, well that could be down to a number of things really. How much the CPU is overclocked. How hot the room is, the brand of GPU brand of mobo etc etc.

I have noticed on 3DM11 even computers with the exact same specs and the same clock speeds have been different.

So when you say you are getting marginally lower FPS how much of a decreased FPS are you actually getting vs a comp of same specs. Have you checked the CPU clock speeds when comparing?

 

[baron75mk2]

remember a while back someone else had a similar issue with the 4gb version of the GTX 680 not performing quite as well as the 2gb version in 3d mark 11 benchmarks , something to do with the way the manufacturer made the card if i remember rightly , but in other benchmarks it was almost the same ( like unigine heaven) , maybe try a different benchmark (3dmark06 or vantage).

Its only a personal opinion but i don't trust that new one at all (3dmark11) , at one point it dragged my setup down to 15 fps , noooooooooooooo i don't think so , not a chance [rollinglaugh]

( try not to get to bogged down i benchmarks , as long as your games are performing well its all that matters )
In fact its how i really bench my GPUs - with game comparisons , this is what matters.

 

[blindhamster]

I was basing the fps on actual game play, I did look at benchmarks a lot when i first got the machine and got frustrated a lot with the lower scores I was getting but eventually decided to just ignore it. But i now have two friends with near identicle systems (2gb graphics cards being the only difference)

It was only the last few days I noticed my voltage for the GPU is capping out while in stressful games at 1.162V instead of the 1.175V it's meant to and i wondered if perhaps that had something to do with it.

couple examples:
The Witcher 2 with everything maxed except ubersampling at just 1080p resolution doesn't actually hit 60fps pretty much ever
Skyrim with the official HD texture mod and a few graphics tweaks in the ini file generally caps out in the high 40s
Battlefield 3 single player with all settings turned up to max except MXAA at 2 and antistropic filtering at 8 instead of 16was getting FPS in the 40s - 50s I believe.
Crysis 2 with DX11 and hd texture patches was kind of sluggish to play, but i didn't have fraps on with that one.

temperature while playing battlefiled/the witcher 2 or crysis tends to be around 54-58 degrees with skyrims temps being around 50.
The card runs at between 98% and 100% in all of the above games and it's voltage steadily runs at about 1.162v

p.s.
Other important system specs:
3.5 ghz i7 3770k (overclocked by PCSpecialist to 4.6 ghz - i never get temperature issues with this, even in prime95 it doesn't tend to go much higher than mid 70s and everything else it caps out in the 50s usuaully)
Asus z77 Sabertooth Motherboard
16GB of kingston hyper - x ram at 1866mhz
games are all installed on a 1TB caviar black hard drive.
OS is on a 520 series intel SSD
graphics card uses the 301.42 drivers and i also have a custom setting for the fans to have them running faster than they do stock to keep temps down.

 

[baron75mk2]

I was basing the fps on actual game play, I did look at benchmarks a lot when i first got the machine and got frustrated a lot with the lower scores I was getting but eventually decided to just ignore it. But i now have two friends with near identicle systems (2gb graphics cards being the only difference)

It was only the last few days I noticed my voltage for the GPU is capping out while in stressful games at 1.162V instead of the 1.175V it's meant to and i wondered if perhaps that had something to do with it.

couple examples:
The Witcher 2 with everything maxed except ubersampling at just 1080p resolution doesn't actually hit 60fps pretty much ever
Skyrim with the official HD texture mod and a few graphics tweaks in the ini file generally caps out in the high 40s
Battlefield 3 single player with all settings turned up to max except MXAA at 2 and antistropic filtering at 8 instead of 16was getting FPS in the 40s - 50s I believe.
Crysis 2 with DX11 and hd texture patches was kind of sluggish to play, but i didn't have fraps on with that one.

temperature while playing battlefiled/the witcher 2 or crysis tends to be around 54-58 degrees with skyrims temps being around 50.
The card runs at between 98% and 100% in all of the above games and it's voltage steadily runs at about 1.162v

p.s.
Other important system specs:
3.5 ghz i7 3770k (overclocked by PCSpecialist to 4.6 ghz - i never get temperature issues with this, even in prime95 it doesn't tend to go much higher than mid 70s and everything else it caps out in the 50s usuaully)
Asus z77 Sabertooth Motherboard
16GB of kingston hyper - x ram at 1866mhz
games are all installed on a 1TB caviar black hard drive.
OS is on a 520 series intel SSD
graphics card uses the 301.42 drivers and i also have a custom setting for the fans to have them running faster than they do stock to keep temps down.

I can totally understand your point on skyrim , even with the texture mod you should be getting better fps with that Card
( but then i have not tested it with the official HD texture mod with one card myself , only with two cards)

Now with witcher two & battlefield 3 , you wont get 60fps out of either of them with one card , they need two GTX580s SLi minimum .

Ill go off & do a few tests with only one card enabled - everything will be maxed out on both
( only no ubersampling for witcher two) & for witcher two i will bench on the bit where you follow the Owl through the battle field (easily the most demanding bit in the game - in any game i have seen)
for battlefield 3 it will be on "operation sword breaker" mission , ill post both one & two card benches.

I will have v-sync enabled so there will be nothing above 60fps

Update ;

Battlefield 3

"operation sword breaker" full level (maxed out completely to death Ultra everything as high as game will allow) - 1 GTX 580

Minimum 35fps

Maximum 60fps

Average 52fps

"operation sword breaker" full level (maxed out completely to death Ultra everything as high as game will allow ) - 2 GTX 580 SLI

Minimum 60 fps

Maximum 60 fps

Average 60 fps

Witcher 2

Following owl through the crazy battlefield
(Maxed out completely to death Ultra everything as high as game will allow - except for ubersampling) 1 x GTX 580

Minimum 35 fps

Maximum 60 fps

Average 40 fps

Following owl through the crazy battlefield
(Maxed out completely to death Ultra everything as high as game will allow - except for ubersampling) 2 x GTX 580

Minimum 60 fps

Maximum 60 fps

Average 60 fps

Skyrim

1X GTX 580

Completely maxed out to death (8x AA 16x AF , Ultra everything as high as game will allow)

25 minutes of pure wandering around outside in large areas , inside in dungeons & out & around various towns etc
(as well as the very first bit on the cart)

(mods)

1) HighResTexturepack01.esp
2) HighResTexturepack02.esp
3) Legible road signs high res
4)Sexy elven Armour
5) Wearable lanterns
6) Better females by bella
7) Lightning during thunderstorms
8) Better underwater sight - Clearer
9) Water & terrain enhancement - redux
10) Improved roads & bridges
11) HQ snow textures
12) Real Glaciers V2

Minimum 60 fps

Maximum 60 fps

Average 60 fps

(no point in benching 2x GTX 580 SLI for this one unless v-sync disabled , it never dropped below 60 fps)
( had my m8 watching FRAPS the whole time for all benches.)​

So comparing my benches on one card to yours , it looks like battlefield 3 is where it should be i would think for a single GTX 680. (although it should really be better than one GTX 580 i would say , but not by a huge amount)

Cant really say for witcher two as you have not posted exact Frame rates for it.

But Skyrim is a bit worrying , i don't get that at all , as you can see with mine only on one card with it completely maxed out with all those mods running simultaneously , it never drops below 60 fps , so it shouldn't be lower on a GTX 680 at all.

As for crysis 2 , i didn't bench it as i only run in DX9 mode , DX11 mode doesn't look any better
(unless you walk right up to every texture literally) & just kills performance something awful.

To be honest i don't know what to make of it , i was expecting to be stomped all over by only running one card against a GTX 680 , but in this bench it doesn't seem to be so , plus on one game im running extra AA options as well (battlefield 3 i think)

i presume when you benched you also benched these games with v-sync enabled ? (if not then it is a bit serious)

(i can re-do the benches with no v-sync if required)

It is strange

 

[blindhamster]

hmmm i shrug my shoulders, my voltage was once again running at 1.162 constantly throughout and for the witcher 2 I had the following:

Following owl through the crazy battlefield
(Maxed out completely to death Ultra everything as high as game will allow - except for ubersampling) 1 x GTX 680

Minimum 40 fps

Maximum 60 fps

Average 58 fps

which sounds about right compared to your 580.


Skyrim for me however is lower than yours, I suspect my ini settings might be more intensive than yours? Take a look, maybe test my settings if you feel like it?
All settings in 'settings' maxed out

Skyrim.ini:

[General]
sLanguage=ENGLISH

uGridsToLoad=9
uExterior Cell Buffer=100
iPreloadSizeLimit=4294967296

[Display]
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0
fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0
fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
bAllowScreenshot=1

[Audio]
fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0
fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0
fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0
fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0

[Grass]
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bAllowLoadGrass=0

[GeneralWarnings]
SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.

[Archive]
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

[Combat]
fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0
fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0

[Papyrus]
fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0
bEnableLogging=0
bEnableTrace=0
bLoadDebugInformation=0
[Water]
bReflectLODObjects=1
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectSky=1
bReflectLODTrees=1

SkyrimPrefs.ini

[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=2
[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=4096
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=16
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=10000000.0000
fGamma=1.0000
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=8
iShadowMode=3
bDoDepthOfField=1
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=0
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1080
iSize W=1920
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=24000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=28000.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=16000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=24000.0000
iScreenShotIndex=2
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100
bFloatPointRenderTarget=0
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680"
bFXAAEnabled=1
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=0
iShadowFilter=3
bShadowsOnGrass=1
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDeferredShadows=1
bDrawShadows=1
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=1
fGrassStartFadeDistance=14000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=28000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000
bDrawShaderGrass=1
[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=1
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=1.0000
bSaveOnPause=1
bSaveOnTravel=1
bSaveOnWait=1
bSaveOnRest=1
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000
[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=3
[Interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=0
bGeneralSubtitles=0
fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000
bShowCompass=1
[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0240
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=1
bMouseAcceleration=1
bUseKinect=0
[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750
[SaveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000
[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=0
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=0
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=0
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=0
fVal3=1.0000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.4000
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=0.8000
uID0=1007612
[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000
[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=140000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=70000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.5000
bShowLODInEditor=0
[NavMesh]
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000
[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=24
[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=16.0000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=3
[BlurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1
[BlurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=1024
iWaterReflectWidth=1024
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1
bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1
bReflectExplosions=1
iWaterBlurAmount=4
bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=0
bForceHighDetailReflections=1

Mods:

unofficial skyrim patch
better dynamic snow
more rain
deeper snow
flounce's arrow crafting
unlimited bookshelves
moonpath to elsweyr
static mesh improvement
distant detail
enhanced distant terrain
XCE
highrestexturepack01
highrestexturepack02
hd plands + herbs
lush trees
kerplunk - watery rocks
lush grass
that's ice
realistic lighting
moonpath hd texture pack
upgrade leveled items
stones of barenziah quest markers
the paarthurnax fix
fa guard helmet
morevillageanimals
skytest-realisticanimals&predators
water and terrain enhancement
lanterns of skyrim - all in one

Minimum 22 fps (only times it went as low as that was while loading areas - going in and out of whiterun and going in and out of a couple of dungeons)

Maximum 60 fps

Average 55 fps

 

[baron75mk2]

hmmm i shrug my shoulders, my voltage was once again running at 1.162 constantly throughout and for the witcher 2 I had the following:

Following owl through the crazy battlefield
(Maxed out completely to death Ultra everything as high as game will allow - except for ubersampling) 1 x GTX 680

Minimum 40 fps

Maximum 60 fps

Average 58 fps

which sounds about right compared to your 580.


Skyrim for me however is lower than yours, I suspect my ini settings might be more intensive than yours? Take a look, maybe test my settings if you feel like it?
All settings in 'settings' maxed out

Skyrim.ini:

SkyrimPrefs.ini


Mods:

Minimum 22 fps (only times it went as low as that was while loading areas - going in and out of whiterun and going in and out of a couple of dungeons)

Maximum 60 fps

Average 55 fps

Looking at it its probably just that you have different mods & different INI & User INI settings i would think , witcher two is running at what i would expect for a GTX 680 ( actually better than most on that bit with the owl for one GTX 680).

Battlefield 3 is running quite respectively & where i would expect it to be for one GTX 680.

So its only skyrim that is different & i suspect its to do with the completely different settings & mods that you have Vs mine , i would like to try out your settings but if i fluff something up ill have to re-install it again & all the mods.

I don't think you need to worry about the card myself - it seems fine .

There are ways to increase the voltage , but i cant advise this as it will invalidate your warranty & could damage the card .

I think its just that for what ever reason the 4GB version runs at a slightly lower voltage & thus doesn't perform quite as well as the 2GB version.
( there has to be good reason for the lower voltage compared to the 2gb version , maybe a heat related thing ?) ,

Could be any amount of reasons.

There was a thread on here somewhere concerning the same skewed benchmarks between the GTX680 - 4GB & the GTX 680 - 2GB & it was the same issue , the 2GB was in front in that as well - but it was only in 3d mark 11 , in everything else , unigine heaven , 3d mark 06 , vantage & mostly in game the card was performing as it was to be expected to.

I wouldn't worry to be honest , seems ok to me , witcher two & battlefield 3 are running well for a single GPU setup & i would be willing to bet if you installed skyrim with just the Official HD texture packs & a few other mods ( like the ones i have) & no INI Hacks , it will be running at 60fps all the time.

Its a great card you have there in my opinion looking at the witcher 2 & battlefield 3 benches