GTX 980M Benchmarks thread

That's good Johnksss. Good to see stable high overclocks on those 980M's. GPU usage was in the low to mid 90's consistently in that test, occasionally dropping to the high 80's - is that kind of level of GPU usage normal for sli or would you expect more? Temperatures were really good there too. That's with your modded vBIOS right, how would they perform at those settings without the modded vBIOS, any difference?

 

To me, that's good gpu usage. and if you were looking closely you would see that during battle the gpu useage goes up.

Using my vbios and a stock one would work as well. If adjusted right.

 

Haha Look how low the temps are too

 

Yep, I was looking closely, it's good to know that the GPU usage of 980M sli is as you would expect. Looks like there's more headroom for stable overclocks given your good temperatures there, perhaps that's when your modded vBIOS will make the difference.

 

Those clocks are 1226MHz which is still within the +135MHz threshold of the stock vBIOS. I'd much like to see BF4 multiplayer though and temps there.

 

Exactly why it was done that way. To show that boost would work and hold while running maxed out at 2560x1440p 120hz and ultra high resolution. My temps would be the same even if i was playing multiplayer.

 

I think it would be informative & useful if you showed how stable the clocks were and what the temps would be when overclocked beyond the +135Mhz threshold, because then that would show the potential of the modded vBIOS, hopefully you'll show us something along those lines, that would be interesting.

 

Well. The minute you change anything in the vbios it becomes modded. So for example. The first vbios out was modded already. As you can tell by the benchmarks ran with it by certain Clevo owners. It already showed a vast improvement. This was even before I started doing test with my Clevo.

Bottom line, the 900 series is well worth the buy in price. If you get it from the right place at the right price of course. And it will only get better with time.

 

Awesome clocks there, how much voltage did you have to put through it? Vantage is an odd choice as it's often CPU limited (or at least runs at exceedingly high frame rate), do you have a 3DMark11 or Firestrike run at those clocks (that would probably be more recognisable)? Do the clocks stay stable at your 1467Mhz during a benchmark run that stresses the GPU to 100% (Don't think Vantage stresses the GPU to 100% because old benchmark and CPU limited - at least you didn't run 3DMark06 on it!).

 

And I will be running that when i get around to it.

 

Ah, it's working well there in Battlefield 4. Very good temps, and stable high clocks above the +135Mhz limit by the looks of it. NVidia have done well, with a bit of help from the vBIOS modders!

 

LOL
It crashed at that point. Shadowplay crashed. And I had to go to work.

Will give it another go later today.

 

Ah, that's not so good then, probably just needs one more notch of voltage to gain stability then, shouldn't be a problem given your temperatures.

EDIT: Just ran Vantage (like you did) out of curiosity, and it is platform limited, GPU usage was between 63-100% usage, and if you averaged it out it would be around 80% usage. So, I do find it hard to believe or understand how you got a consistent 97-100% load like you said. Especially as you say it makes no difference if you have just one or twelve CPU cores active, which just proves that it's using just one CPU core, which is even more likely to bottleneck your CPU given that your GPU rendering power of your 980M sli when overclocked is at least x4 more powerful than my GPU which would shift the emphasis even more onto your CPU in comparison to mine. I don't think the single core power of your CPU is x4 more powerful than mine, so I do find it hard to believe/understand how you had a consistent 97-100% GPU load in Vantage. (You're more likely to have non-fluctuating/stable clocks at your 1467Mhz in Vantage given the previous. I suppose the point I'm getting at is that I was interested if you could maintain a non-fluctuating 1467Mhz in 100% GPU load taxing benchmarks like Firestrike & 3Dmark11).

 

You are correct. It's 3dmark11 that is 97 to 99. Just tested with osd and it shows a gpu usage of high 90's for about the first 8 seconds. Then dropping to below 60 percent for another 20 seconds or so, then rises back up high 90's.

3dmark11 is using 97 to 99 percent.

 

Cool, did the card manage to stay at a non-fluctuating 1467Mhz during the 3DMark11? I think if it was able to do so, then that would be a real win for the modified vBIOS & also for the NVidias cards - I'm not really a fan of fluctuating clocks.

 

Hold on a sec. Voltage is all over the place every time i click on my preset clocks and voltage.

Edit:

Did a few runs but crashed right when I was saving the video. twice. And it held at 1446 mhz the whole time, but going to say it's not stable for gaming...still need to do more testing against everything i had running at the time.

 

So you figured out how to unlock the TDP limits then? Nice clocks, when I do get my hands on a truly unlocked vbios eventually there is a lot more fun to be had.

 

Meaker. I figured that out the same day I got the cards.

 

Cool, it's just not my area to actually do the editing. If you feel like sharing let us know, I just look forward to some more numbers

 

Right about the same time you decide to share your memory volt mod.

 

Sharing is caring after all

 

Ok, getting there. 1.5 ghz did all kinds of throttling.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4930K,Notebook P570WM

 

That's a good sign that the clocks didn't fluctuate from 1446Mhz, to me that proves the vBIOS is working well (no power throttles for instance), just a question of lowering the clocks now or upping the voltage to gain stability. Although you did say in your latest post directly above my post here that you got all kinds of throttling in this Firestrike run - do you know what kind of throttling that would be, I can only think that throttling would be due to temperature or power limits, both of which you have control over in the vBIOS? Do you know if svl7 is going to be posting up the modified vBIOS like he did for the Keplers, I'm assuming you're using svl7's vBIOS? (I would think people would be willing to donate, just like they did with the Keplers, I know I would if I had a Maxwell.)

 

That was at 1.5 ghz core. something i'll get back to later.
1.446 ghz core seems stable for gaming, but it keeps crashing due to the osd display. Re testing game now.

I did do a video of it bouncing clocks around between 1.2 to 1.4 ghz, but the quality was poor due to using msi afterburner to record.

No, this is actually my own vbios file from my own cards. Im a very quick learner. I know a few things. . I have a great teacher!

One is in the works as we speak or something there of at least.

 

OK, good stuff, sounds like svl7 may release one soon then! Ah, I see, so the clocks do still fluctuate then, so that's not something that you've wanted or so far been able to get around. Hopefully when svl7 releases his version of the vBIOS the clock fluctuation can be avoided, I don't really see any positive aspects to clock fluctuation unless temperatures are hovering on the borderline dangerous.

 

Had some things set wrong in the os, but i think i got mine worked out. Uploading a video of it running 1446/1453 stable.

 

1.5GHz?! Holy Hell! That's AW cooling for you!

 

Um it's on his Clevo P570WM...

 

Oh his signature confused me, says m18x r2 has 980m SLI (dat "/" should have checked the cpu )

 

Finally, highest settings at over 120 FPS! 120Hz screen, please. That temperature is great, too. Wow...

 

Those temps and clocks are amazing. I might play with those when I get a 980m notebook

 

That's cool, do you get the same non-fluctuating clocks when GPUs are loaded to 100%? In that vid you're platform limited it seems because you're running game settings that give you at least 120fps and about 91% GPU usage consistently (varying about 88-95% usage). Temperatures were very low, lower than a previous vid I think - how did you lower the temperatures while at the same time increasing the overclock?

 

You can get the P570WM with a 120hz screen

Looks like I am making progress but ran out of time as I have to travel 450 miles up to Edinburgh to appear in court (as a witness to a RTA woot) but will be able to have some more fun when I get back. More to come over the weekend if christmas shopping does not eat all my time

Here is a teaser, bear in mind this is a very rough run and there are all sorts of things I need to sort out

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3496303

 

You know...I have to ask. This obsession with trying to run a gpu at 100 percent all the time. What exactly will this accomplish, if all that is needed to run a perticular game fluently is 85 percent? (Can't see running 100 percent gpu to play solitary) What exactly is wrong with that? I'm actually trying to wrap my brain around this.

Example: Say using your gpu and you get 100 percent, but your fps is lower than someone with the same setup as you but with better fps at 90 percent. What would that mean in terms of performance?

Just curious is all.

 

I don't know about that instance... but what I have a problem with is when a game won't hit my target FPS (say 120) and is only using around 70% of my GPUs or so. BF4 is a game that does this quite often. Arma 3 is another such game.

Of course this and that are two entirely different things. As far as I know, you're right in that there's no benefit to making a game run 100% on the GPUs constantly if it can run at 85% and get the desired FPS at the desired settings. It's a detriment as it'll get hotter and draw more power, if anything.

 

Hummm, that is interesting.

 

Haha, I know, I'm obsessed in my last posts about 100% GPU usage - it's true! I'm just trying to understand how the Maxwell cards behave with the modified vBIOS & without the modified vBIOS, in terms of power throttle / temperature throttle, and worse case scenario for any of that throttling (or fluctuating of clocks) is likely to happen at 100% GPU load, so that's why I've been asking you about that. I'm also curious about Maxwell sli and if it's efficiency problems (if any), I guess which could also be characterised by GPU usage. So, yes, it's been GPU usage all the way for me!

 

I just upgraded my Laptop from GTX780M to GTX980M and I'm amazed how cool and fast that card is.
However I also know that I was able to OC my GTX780M by 20% using a slight volt increase (I used svets OC tool as modding the bios myself is beyond my abilities (or time)).
I'm really looking forward to get hold of a modding tool or modded vBios for MSI (bios with another vendor ID won't work in my machine - I had/have to flash MSI bios) to unleash those 20%...

Any hints on how to mod the GTX980M bios or even help would be very highly appreciated ! Would be willing to donate to the cause.
Why ? Maybe because - well... Christmas spirit ?

Honestly I'm not lazy I just can't afford to put the time needed into finding all the necessary parts and info to learn it right now.
I would however be willing to contribute by testing, giving feedback etc...

 

It's possible that svl7 over on Tech Inferno forums might release a modded vBIOS for the Maxwell cards like he did for the Kepler cards:
NVIDIA Kepler VBIOS mods - Overclocking Editions, modified clocks, voltage tweaks

Or maybe Johnksss might share his vBIOS at some point (although not MSI), and others I've seen have overclocked past the +135Mhz limit, so praps one of them too.

Praps something will pop up on this thread too:
http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/7759-maxwell-gm204-gtx980m-gtx970m-14.html

 

Well, the % usage will be dependent of bottlenecks too. If a CPU is holding back framerate at any particular moment, even slightly, the % usage of the GPU will drop.

As long as clocks remain stable, % usage depends on another set of factors, from drivers, to gamecode, to other components etc. Still, above 90 is pretty good.

 

This is true, but I'm talking like... if I'm getting 90-120fps in BF4 with 4 settings on "ultra" and the rest on "low/off" with 60-70% GPU usage and ~55% CPU usage, I can turn up another 4-5 settings to "ultra" and my GPU usage spikes to 70-90% and my CPU usage spikes to ~65-70%. I don't get why it simply won't use the extra power at lower settings and grant me the better framerate... in some instances, it's actually entirely pointless for me to lower the settings at all, unless I'm fighting to keep my laptop cool (which I'm not). Only a couple settings make a huge difference in framerate like MSAA (without simply adjusting GPU util to suit). Arma 3 follows the same thing. I'll get 45fps no matter what settings I use in the SP missions, so I just set it all to ultra and be done with it. To an extend, CoD: Advanced Warfare

But that's usually game- or engine-dependent, and many games won't suffer from this, unless they're coded for a specific framerate (like CoD: Advanced Warfare MP, that will drop below the 90fps cap in MP all the time while using like 60% GPU power... but NEVER below 60fps, which is what it was designed to hit).

 

Right so I have my 980m sli system.. lets get clocking the CPU and GPU!

I know how to do the stuff on the pc.. so what do I need to clock the 4810 and the 980m sli?

clevo 370sm-a

cheers guys

 

Did you even try it at stock first to see if it was working correctly?

 

Before you even begin CPU overclocking, prop that machine up and get used to fn + 1 for max fans so you get some good cooling down.

 

I need to know the benchmarks of these games using 980M SLI please...

a) Assassins Creed Unity

b) Crysis 3

c) Witcher 3

 

???

Game comes out May 2015...

 

Witcher 2. Ooppps. That was my mistake.

 

Scoring just under 13k in firestrike. It is actually working! No freezing. I'm so happy right now! Only taken 6 months!

 

I have to say temps are amazing on this system are insane. GPU is under 60 and CPU is hitting 52 running Valley for 35 min now.

 

Cool, what system are you running? Haha, John will have a fit if I ask you about GPU usage, but I'd be interesting in finding out a few things from you about how these cards behave:
1) Do clocks fluctuate on stock vBIOS or just run at max boost when loaded with a game that's pushing GPU load to a consistent near 100% GPU load?
2) Same question as number 1, but at max overclock settings on stock vBIOS.
3) Same question as number 1, but at max overclock settings on modified vBIOS which allows for overclocking beyond +135Mhz limit.

Haha, sorry for the numbered list, I couldn't work out another way to ask clearly.