NEW PC Setup

[Hameister]

Hmmm, the first thing I noticed was your score of P13479. It hit me, only because that is the same score I get with my GTX 580 cards. That didn't seem right.

Next I noticed that your GTX 690 is running a core clock of 705MHz??? That's not right. The 690 is spec'd at 915MHz stock.

Why are you so under clocked, at 705MHz??? If that is accurate, your score should be considerably higher. What actual core clock is shown on GPU-Z? Check it, if you haven't already. Perhaps the FutureMark report is not accurate.

I've attached a screenshot of my 3dMark11 scores, running at the same approx. core clock, at which the GTX 690 is rated. Ignore the "PhysX Score", because that is largely a function of the processor, and our processors are not comparable.

 

[rio1]

hmmm, as far as I remember it was at 705mhz in GPU-Z as well, but I will double check it when I get home tonight. I actually didn't notice this so thanks for pointing it out. For me it was a night and day difference going from gts450 to this so everything seemed good. Any idea why this might have happened?

 

[Hameister]

...Any idea why this might have happened?...

A few thoughts....I was hoping that it was just a reporting error in FutureMark.

I checked your card, and it should be clocked at 915MHz.

Are you using PrecisionX, or AfterBurner, or similar app.?

If you are, you may have accidentally lowered the core clock. It's easy to do if you're not careful.

After you've checked everything, check and see if your GPU is throttling back when idle. In other words, it may be running at 915MHz while running an app, but throttle back to 705MHz to conserve power, when that screen shot was taken.

One way to check on that, would be to go into your Nvidia Control Panel, and check your settings. If it has defaulted to "Adaptive", set it on "Performance", and run 3dMark11 again. If you now see 915MHz in the report, you'll know it's just the normal throttle back of the GPU, and then you can reset it to "Adaptive" once again.

If it was running at the stock 915MHz then there must be tons of headroom for overclocking that card. Obviously, it will perform far better than my 580s once it's overclocked.

 

[rio1]

Yeah Im using PrecisionX. Ill check to see if I might have messed it up
Will also check the Nvidia control panel and redo the test.
Is your 580s overcloked?

 

[Hameister]

Yeah Im using PrecisionX. Ill check to see if I might have messed it up
Will also check the Nvidia control panel and redo the test.
Is your 580s overcloked?

Yes, my 580s were overclocked to 910MHz when that run was made. Of course 910MHz is stock for your GTX 690.

However, it was nice to see that a pair of 580s overclocked, is comparable to a 690 stock. My guess is once your 690 is overclocked, it will provide a score of around P15500 to P16000.

 

[rio1]

I just checked on 3dmark website few other 3570k results with the GTX690 and they all seem to have the core clock 705 MHz reported. Also the highest Valid P score is 15525 and that's with an overclocked CPU and GPU. So the score I got should be right. I'm now thinking that I might be CPU limited? Check out the 3570k scores they are mostly in the same range as mine.

 

[Hameister]

I just checked on 3dmark website few other 3570k results with the GTX690 and they all seem to have the core clock 705 MHz reported. Also the highest Valid P score is 15525 and that's with an overclocked CPU and GPU. So the score I got should be right. I'm now thinking that I might be CPU limited? Check out the 3570k scores they are mostly in the same range as mine.

Oh, I definitely wouldn't be worried about the CPU limits if I were you.

Everything you've researched, leads me to believe that it is a throttle back of the GPU, and my assumption in my last post that you'd hit around P15500 to 16000 once overclocked, appears to be accurate.

You'll know when you give it a try. So, based on your research everything looks just fine!

 

[Hameister]

Yo RIO....just ran into OS-Wiz, and asked him to stop by here. He's running the new 600 series cards, and the protocol has changed from what I know to be fact with the 580s vs. the new power handling of the 680, 690...he can explain better than I.

 

[OS-Wiz]

Hi Rio, let me try to shed some light on this issue. And thanks to Ham-N-Eggs for alerting me to this.

First, and obviously as you and Ham have noticed, there is a world of difference in how nVidia handles voltage, GPU clocks and memory clocks with the 580 vs the 680. With the 680/690 all three, voltage, GPU clocks and memory clocks vary constantly, even during a benchmark run, by design.

Second, the nVidia Control panels settings are important for good benchmark scores when running 3D benchmarks. I've attached the correct settings below.

Third, the best way to see how the card is managing things is to start a 3DMark 11 run in a small window and MSI Afterburner in another so you can see both at the same time. You can then observe what's going on with the 690 while the bench is running.

Fourth, overclocking (OCing) the 690 is very different than the 580 and downward series cards. Ignore trying to set voltage, nvidia has basically taken that out of your hands to a large degree. There are only three controls/sliders you can use to OC: Power Limit, Core Clock and Memory Clock (see pic below).

If you've questions, just ask.

 

[rio1]

Thanks for all that! I'm going to make the changes in my NVidia control panel. One question, once I'm done performing the 3dmark 11 benchmark should I change it back to what it was?

Another question how can I run 3dmark 11 in window mode? I have the free version.

I was also checking out this video on YouTube on how to overclock the card. I'm gone try it later and see how it goes.

NVIDIA Geforce GTX 690 OC Guide using EVGA Precision X - YouTube