SLI overclocking issues

[Jgretty]

Is overclocking in SLI much different than overclocking a single card? I am unable to get much more than stock out of my MSI 980ti gaming 6 cards in SLI and when I do OC them they will be stable in one benchmark the crash in another benchmark or game. The results vary wildly under even a modest oc. Any ideas or do you think my cards are just weak Overclockers? Thanks,

 

[Warchild]

Yes, when you run SLI, the OC may need further tweaking if you want to try to get the same boost you had on a single card.

Personally I like to keep my GPUs at stock since 980Ti are great performers out of the box anyway and OC the CPU to Kingdom come. I noticed when I borrowed a watt meter and OC'd the gpus just with a modest value, I saw the power draw rise way more than I would like. (reference cards from Gainward)

As for the benchmark stability which ones are you using?

 

[Jgretty]

Thanks. I've been using heaven, valley, catzilla and a few on steam like firestrike and the time one.

 

[AlienALX]

It all depends really. I overclocked my SLi Titan Blacks, but one of them was nowhere as good as the other one and thus they will only go as fast as the slowest card.

8 Pack usually bins cards one at a time, then puts the faster one in the primary slot. Apparently that helps.

Having a good motherboard would also help. The Rampage should be more than good enough

 

[jimma47]

Sli means more heat in the case so you'll have less thermal headroom. Modern cards tend to clock themselves until a certain temperature then throttle back from there. My top card is consistently 5-10c hotter than the bottom one.

It depends whether you want a 24/7 fixed overclock or find a maximum stable clock speed and let the card take care of it.

You'll also have twice the silicon lottery chances. So one card may be awesome but the other will be rubbish and you'll be stuck running at whichever card clocks the lowest.

 

[Kaapstad]

Fastest in slot 1

Second fastest in slot 3

Slots 1 and 3 are normally the X16 ones and give good cooling.

Make sure you have good case air flow as heat build up can crash the rest of the system.

Don't overclock the living daylights out of the CPU, it is not needed. Just increase the game settings to use the extra performance. You only have to get the fps high enough to keep your monitor happy.

Make sure you are using a good quality PSU with enough headroom.

 

[Willie V.]

Any updates on how your system is over locking now? Have you made any changes or additions, just curious all feedback has been right on.