Legit Reviews

so I got my gtx 980 replaced at last. however, I'm having an issue where the gpu will boost in some games and benchmarks but not others. for instance in 3dmark 11 the first test it will boost at 99% usage but drop down from 1481mhz boost to 1354mhz no boost and 99% usage. the second test wont boost at all and stay at 1340-1354mhz with 99% usage. the third test hits full boost at 1481mhz throughout and the fourth test boost jumps up and down from 1354mhz to 1481mhz throughout the test. combined test I get full 1481mhz boost clock.

on the first and second test my FPS compared to my previous gtx 980 (same inno3d gtx 980 x4 airboss) had 5fps higher at the same clocks only it boosted in all tests at the time. the only test that remained at same FPS is test 3 133FPS. the cards have the same bios number and the same clock speeds including boost speed. what could be doing this?

killing floor 2 v-sync off 1340-1354mhz no boost @ 99% usage, dying light v-sync off 1354-1480mhz boost @ constant 99% usage throughout and finally black ops III v-sync off 1340-1354mhz no boost @ 99% usage.

What driver are you running?

GeForce 361.60 drivers fixes a clock issue back in January. The same fix is included in the latest GeForce 361.75 WHQL drivers and the 361.82 Hotfix drivers (download link).

NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0 delivers variable clock speeds and uses temperature as a boosting variable. My guess is that they two cards you have used have different cooling solutions and you are seeing how that is impacting boost clocks first hand. You can play around with fan speeds and the temperature target to improve performance if you like.

I using 361.43. running 1481mhz but usually runs at 1354-66mhz. in some cases it runs at 1280mhz. so I modded the bios to set 1481mhz as the boost but it didn't do a thing except keep the voltage at 1.212v. anything above 1300mhz I got driver crashing due to low voltage. normally boost clocks would cause the voltage to drop and then crash but mod has fixed this. my temps don't go above 58c at 100% load boost clock 1481mhz and power target is now at 300 watts so should be plenty juice for the boost.

Be sure to grab the latest drivers as you have the older driver with the clock issue. GeForce 361.82 drivers came out this week - http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4026

got the lastest driver thx. but makes no difference to performance. so I back dated to windows 7 and 3dmark 11 boost fully during fourth test but made no difference to other tests so must be software issue. black ops 3 and dying light is boosting so it windows 10 stopping the card boosting in certain situations