MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (Obanon)

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:07:16 GMT

Hi sorry this is unrelated and I have simply signed up so I can ask you your help.
I recently purchased a msi 680 lightning and whenever i overclock it at all then my display driver crashes.. i tried following other guides, googling, even just overclocking the core by 20 makes me crash. any way you could help me out?

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (boredgunner)

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:47:40 GMT

ChocoboRRR

Using GTX680 Lighting is there any reason where 450 MHz vs 600 MHz memory make no different on 3Dmark11?

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/254/quickrun01.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/217/quickrun02.jpg/

15 points is a difference! But the core clock is definitely more important than the memory clock. Increasing memory clock too much may limit core overclocking, so be careful.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (ChocoboRRR)

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:33:11 GMT

Using GTX680 Lighting is there any reason where 450 MHz vs 600 MHz memory make no different on 3Dmark11?

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/254/quickrun01.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/217/quickrun02.jpg/

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (dph314)

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 06:38:21 GMT

z999z3mystorys

From what I understand the Classified has a "elevated voltage cap" with the evbot, (and I admit truly unlocked voltages without extra hardware would be better) while atm the MSI lightning still can't be volted beyond standard limits.

If that's true than the lightning is all talk, no walk, while the classified is well... shall we say crawling? not as good as the promised walking that the lightning should be doing, but better than nothing.

Many Lightnings hit higher clocks with only the +100mv from Afterburner 2.2.3 than the Classified can before throttling. Also, apparently the Lightning no longer has a voltage cap ...

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (z999z3mystorys)

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 01:24:24 GMT

From what I understand the Classified has a "elevated voltage cap" with the evbot, (and I admit truly unlocked voltages without extra hardware would be better) while atm the MSI lightning still can't be volted beyond standard limits.

If that's true than the lightning is all talk, no walk, while the classified is well... shall we say crawling? not as good as the promised walking that the lightning should be doing, but better than nothing.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (Johnny_Utah)

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 22:12:57 GMT

shiftylynx

The Lightning 680 really is a nice card. It's a shame EVGA is letting itself get shown up like that. I even understand if they don't want to include voltage control in the 670, but come on, the 680 is a top of the line card and we should have the freedom to push it if we want to.

It's not EVGA where we should be directing our ire. Nvidia is the one that is basically making it a crime to provide software overvolt support for these cards. MSI may well have to change their tune or could lose their partnership....nope not joking.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (shiftylynx)

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 22:05:31 GMT

The Lightning 680 really is a nice card. It's a shame EVGA is letting itself get shown up like that. I even understand if they don't want to include voltage control in the 670, but come on, the 680 is a top of the line card and we should have the freedom to push it if we want to.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (Johnny_Utah)

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:25:30 GMT

It's a beautiful card! My criteria for getting one was that AB work with voltages and they release a 4GB version. I think by the time that comes around, I will be ready for the next generation of cards:) This and the fact that Nvidia is going to lock down these cards with new drivers/bios etc.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (doorules)

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 14:53:32 GMT

Imagine that, higher clocks with more voltage, and stable, all done with afterburner. I remember when evga used to have cards like that.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (Johnny_Utah)

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:34:10 GMT

[H] just did a review redux (now with 2.2.3 AB) on the Lightning:

http://hardocp.com/articl...g_overclocking_redux/1

I read through the entire thing, it's quite impressive!

"At this $569 price, with the extreme overclocking we experienced here today near 1.4GHz with voltage control and overclocking, and the performance improvement that followed we strongly feel this video card deserves our HardOCP Enthusiast Gold Award. The MSI GeForce GTX 680 Lightning is the highest overclocked and fastest GeForce GTX 680 we've ever tested here at HardOCP."

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (awalleyeguy)

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:14:45 GMT

Johnny_Utah

awalleyeguy

Yeah I have one of those, nearly 1400 core. very pleased.
I have never killed a video card by overclocking it. I have killed a couple other ways but never overclocking.

Awesome! Glad you are pleased with your purchase.

I am seriously at a loss for words regarding Nvidia dropping their rubber hammer on AIB companies who are giving enthusiasts what they ask for..namely voltage control on a card that was designed to handle it. It's absurd. It isn't like we are asking to juice the heck out of a 660, right?

Just so you all understand, I too am annoyed with nvidia's stance on these chips.
That said still happy with the lightning.
Also I agree nvidia may not want the current line up to be able to be equal or better with a little more voltage, than the next line up @ stock.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (dph314)

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 06:01:25 GMT

The most plausable explanation I can think of is that these chips are performing so well that they don't want to have them cutting into the sales of the next generation.

If you, for example, look at the Lightning, this card was built from the ground up for performance, but Nvidia still gives MSI a hard time about more than +100mv of additional voltage. This could mean that the chip, even though it performs amazingly well with a little more voltage (lowest-clocking Lightning since AB 2.2.3 is over 1300mhz in the thread over at OCN), it might have already been pushed voltage-wise from the start by Nvidia to reach the stock clocks they wanted. So, that's what I'm led to believe because of the situation with the Lightning.

For reference cards, they usually can reach 1250mhz no problem. If Nvidia forsees a small increase in performance, as opposed to the big one we saw in going from the 500 to 600 series, then they may be protecting their yet-to-be-released 700-series. Who's going to pay $500 for another GPU a couple months after just recently getting one that can run @ +1250mhz and play every game they have perfectly already?

So, it has to be either the chips are already pushed voltage-wise to hit the clocks Nvidia needed to hit to remain competitive, or it's that they are protecting the 700-series from being cannibalized by the 600s.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (willdearborn)

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 05:29:03 GMT

Johnny_Utah

It isn't like we are asking to juice the heck out of a 660, right?

I hate to bring it up again, but we kinda are asking for that. The 680 is essentially what should have been the 660. But since the 680 is what it is, they really shouldn't be limiting voltage like they are. I don't really get it. I've been trying to come up with reasons and all I can think of is:

1. Are they trying to limit RMAs this way? I don't know that limiting voltage will accomplish that. I don't think too many people kill chips by over-volting but I could be wrong.

2. Maybe they don't want these cards performing too well with the extra voltage. Could be because when overvolted they perform near the GK110s and when those are released (if they ever get released) they don't want GK104 cutting into GK110 sales?

Who knows why Nvidia does what they do. All I know is that they don't really seem to care about what the customers want with this generation. With the voltage lock along with the temperature throttling, it seems like they don't want these chips to perform at their highest potential. It all seems devious to me, especially since no one will answer the question "why" these heavy restrictions are in place.

All nvidia cares about these days is selling their chips as Tesla parts for much higher margins than in the gaming market. They know than can charge large companies a lot more per chip than the average Joe Gamer. That's why we haven't seen GK110 already. I read that they have sold out all the GK110s they can produce throughout the end of 2012 as all Tesla parts, and won't be releasing Geforce GK110 unless AMD puts out something better making it necessary. They figure they can rake in the dough while we only get GK104 because it's "good enough". And on top of it all, they restrict the cards so much like they have. Come on AMD..where you at?

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (AlexisRO)

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 04:28:09 GMT

Nice! Do have fun with it!

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (Solfaur)

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 02:46:21 GMT

Hey guys, I finally managed to take some pictures of my new build, If some of you wonder how these cards look in SLI, here you go.

PS- Sorry for the bad quality, only had my phone at hand when I first asmebled the rig. Will make better ones when I sort cable management and stuff.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (Johnny_Utah)

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:34:40 GMT

awalleyeguy

Yeah I have one of those, nearly 1400 core. very pleased.
I have never killed a video card by overclocking it. I have killed a couple other ways but never overclocking.

Awesome! Glad you are pleased with your purchase.

I am seriously at a loss for words regarding Nvidia dropping their rubber hammer on AIB companies who are giving enthusiasts what they ask for..namely voltage control on a card that was designed to handle it. It's absurd. It isn't like we are asking to juice the heck out of a 660, right?

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (awalleyeguy)

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:24:54 GMT

Yeah I have one of those, nearly 1400 core. very pleased.
I have never killed a video card by overclocking it. I have killed a couple other ways but never overclocking.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (boredgunner)

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:42:22 GMT

Intel turns into overclocking Nazis and so does NVIDIA. This isn't surprising at all. As long as that old BIOS stays around in the wild, this shouldn't be a huge problem for this particular card. I knew something was going to happen eventually, since I read a while back how NVIDIA excluded software voltage control (at least past 1.175v). Very smart of EVGA to use their EVBot tool. But MSI, you can't be a renegade in this market. You have to find a loophole like how EVGA did.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (Solfaur)

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 22:34:24 GMT

Yea it's very very lame. At least I know for sure that I have the "old" bios and will be good to go OCing wise. Still waiting and hoping for a better solution in maybe a future Afterburner release. Even so, my cards perform like beasts even without voltage unlock, best cards I ever had.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (Johnny_Utah)

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 22:18:30 GMT

dukenuke88

http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-gtx-680-lightning-voltage-tweaking/

Afterburner 2.2.3 is out and voltage control is now confirmed....thanks to Unwinder for all his hard work!

I know this is only one sample....but lets see what others are getting as well!

A quote from that article that is VERY interesting and quite frankly may impact your decision on getting this card:

" While I was writing this article I learned that NVIDIA just issued new BIOS files to the AIC partners and is frowning upon voltage tweaking outside their limitations. As such all new batches Lightning cards will have BIOSes where their limit of 1.175V is enforced, even in the LN2 BIOS. MSI has to follow that directive or probably face the fact that they will not be able to purchase the GPUs anymore.

This as well includes setting restrictions in the new AfterBurner 2.2.3 (download here)

So while everything as described above is possible it in the end means that only the first batch of 5000 cards will have an OLD Bios that is freed up from the limitation and thus allows voltage tweaking to a certain extent. We can only assume that the old BIOS will spread like a virus to current Lightning owners to give them a little more flexibility on voltage tweaking matters. However you'd also need a special MSI AfterBurner build to support it. And that we do not see happening, due to the limitations requested by NVIDIA.

We understand NVIDIA's point of view on this, really .. extreme voltage tweaking can damage GPUs, and in the end these are returned to NVIDIA. Next to that the complexity of this new methodology is extensive and to a certain extent even unreliable. For NVIDIA it thus is matter of RMA and cost.

The flipside of the coin however is that when imposing such limitation on the high-end GPUs it pretty much kills off the fun for many of you. Extreme performance and tweaks drive the overclocking community and in the end drive the sales of the complete product line."

I think it's a joke that they impose this restriction.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (iyiff)

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 21:05:49 GMT

I was able to hit 1350 / 7000 tonight using the afterburner 2.2.3.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...6CFQ&v=JWxYyM3BcvQ

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (Johnny_Utah)

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 14:02:21 GMT

dukenuke88

http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-gtx-680-lightning-voltage-tweaking/

Afterburner 2.2.3 is out and voltage control is now confirmed....thanks to Unwinder for all his hard work!

I know this is only one sample....but lets see what others are getting as well!

I'll admit, I didn't think this was going to happen after his last post. This is WONDERFUL news for all those with Lightnings and those of us who were considering these great cards. Superb job Alexey!

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (dukenuke88)

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:52:24 GMT

http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-gtx-680-lightning-voltage-tweaking/

Afterburner 2.2.3 is out and voltage control is now confirmed....thanks to Unwinder for all his hard work!

I know this is only one sample....but lets see what others are getting as well!

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (dph314)

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 17:03:49 GMT

Johnny_Utah

http://forums.guru3d.com/...68157&postcount=42

This is awesome. Now, I just have to think positively about them releasing a 4GB extreme!!!

Indeed

That's the post from him that I was referring to. Also, in a later post, he said +300mv on the core (as of now). Hopefully MSI doesn't decide to lower that and those of us that want to watercool someday will really be able to push the card.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (Johnny_Utah)

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 16:23:20 GMT

http://forums.guru3d.com/...68157&postcount=42

This is awesome. Now, I just have to think positively about them releasing a 4GB extreme!!!

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (dph314)

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 10:47:34 GMT

boredgunner

dph314

We're not waiting anymore

Unwinder confirmed that software voltage control is functional and will be out soon. When he last posted, he had +300mv and said MSI needs to do internal testing before approving the final voltage limit. But yeah, around 1.5v as it stands now.

Didn't see this posted here so I wasn't sure if everyone heard the good news.

Wow that's great news, I can't wait to see what kind of OC you guys pull off. I'm already impressed by the overclocks without voltage control, and then I look back at my GTX 680 and laugh at its < 1100 MHz max stable overclock.

Could always sell it and go with a Lightning :)

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (boredgunner)

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 10:43:28 GMT

dph314

We're not waiting anymore

Unwinder confirmed that software voltage control is functional and will be out soon. When he last posted, he had +300mv and said MSI needs to do internal testing before approving the final voltage limit. But yeah, around 1.5v as it stands now.

Didn't see this posted here so I wasn't sure if everyone heard the good news.

Wow that's great news, I can't wait to see what kind of OC you guys pull off. I'm already impressed by the overclocks without voltage control, and then I look back at my GTX 680 and laugh at its < 1100 MHz max stable overclock.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (dph314)

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 10:20:31 GMT

We're not waiting anymore

Unwinder confirmed that software voltage control is functional and will be out soon. When he last posted, he had +300mv and said MSI needs to do internal testing before approving the final voltage limit. But yeah, around 1.5v as it stands now.

Didn't see this posted here so I wasn't sure if everyone heard the good news.

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (boredgunner)

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 17:28:31 GMT

iyiff

It is weird that you say that about the Classifieds and throttling, because I have read multiple posts in the 600 series forum saying that the Classified is in fact affected by thermal throttling.

I wasn't certain, but that would be odd wouldn't it? How would they expect to set world records this time?

VegetaCreeper

Did you see they dropped the prices on these cards to $569.00?

Yeah, part of me wishes I bought this card. I didn't since I wanted an external exhaust design, so I can do away with my 65 DBA CPU fan. It was a trade, alright...

Re:MSI GTX 680 Lightning Thread (Johnny_Utah)

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 16:05:59 GMT

Yeah 569 is pretty nice. Although we are still waiting to here about the new Afterburner.

If AB will work and they release a 4GB extreme, I'm in for a fewof these. Otherwise, I will stick with what I have.