GPU-Z Able To Disable GTX 580 Power Throttling

[mikellini]

Less than a week after release, a W1zzard over at TechPowerUp has released a "feature" for GPU-Z that prevents GTX 580 throttling from occurring when running programs like FurMark, Kombustor, and OCCT. The results are temporary, and the throttling mechanism is enabled once again upon system reboot. Full details can be found here.... [ Read full article ]

[genbrien]

Time to cook some bacon

Both AMD and Nvidia feel a great deal of disdain for Furmark and OCCT, calling them "power viruses" and other names. However, where AMD has improved their products so that the VRMs don't get scorched in hours of burning tests (tehehehe, I just love those), Nvidia decided to cheat in benchmarks and they even charge the consumer for it.

[martin_metal_88]

Ok so at the end the 580 isn't really that good...temp and power comsuption are only kind of cheated. I'm kind of disapointed. the 580 was the first IMO decent high end fermi card. Let's wait Nvidia to react now.

[FiXT]

It takes power to produce power.

I wish AMD all the best of luck in matching the GTX 580's performance with a single GPU, that doesn't turn out to be a hot power hog.....


Also, unregistered dude - part of the reason for the power throttling is to do the ATX standard power specifications, which the GTX 580 exceeds when the throttling is not enabled.
For those that wish to exceed the maximum, they can do so with their own risk. The limiter is put in place, simply for end user protection, without it, it could be dangerous and also not allowable.

Much the same way that your average sports car can go must faster than 180km/h, but the governor is there simply as a safety precaution.

[mikellini]

Originally Posted by martin_metal_88

Ok so at the end the 580 isn't really that good...temp and power comsuption are only kind of cheated. I'm kind of disapointed. the 580 was the first IMO decent high end fermi card. Let's wait Nvidia to react now.

The throttling doesn't affect any other applications, so when the 580 uses less power and has lower temps than the 480 under load in, say, Crysis, those numbers are real. I don't think NVIDIA enabled the throttling so they could claim it's more efficient while running FurMark; I think they did it because they feel that the numbers produced by programs like that are unrealistic and they show high power cards in a bad light.

The problem I have with it is that you lose the opportunity to use a program like Kombustor for stability testing of an overclock. However, I must admit that with a GPU overclock, I consider it stable if it doesn't crash or artifact in actual games, not furmark. Slightly different concept of stability than a CPU or RAM overclock. Also, I've encountered scenarios where a card could handle FurMark but crashed while running the Heaven benchmark

[SKYMTL]

Blown way out of proportion. The overclocking article will go live tonight and even at 950Mhz and 1.13V, the OCP wasn't limiting performance IN ANY WAY.

[mikellini]

I'm soo looking forward to that article!

[vohiep84]

Same here,

I've been waiting for a good GTX 580 overclocked article.

[belgolas]

WHOA 950mhz on stock cooler?

That is gonna be some crazy performance. Must resit all temptation to flip out wallet..... Ah well I will eagerly wait for the 600 series and see if games finally catch up to the capabilities of our high end GPU's. If not then the 700 series awaits. I plan to get my 480's for another generation or two.