SLI GTX 1080 - Should I Overclock?

I'm going to be ordering a new Digital Storm system soon. I've decided to wait for one of the partner cards instead of the Founder's Edition of the NVidia GTX 1080. Also, I've decided to get two cards for SLI. I'm interested in GPU overclocking but am unsure if I should do it.

My questions are:

1. Should I overclock the 1080 cards in SLI?
2. Should I water-cool these video cards whether I overclock or not?
3. Anyone have a suggestion on a good partner card to get that Digital Storm will be offering?

Any suggestions or feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks!

There was a time, not so long ago, when oc'ing a card was more for fun and bragging than actual performance gain.  Not anymore.....

Along with the oc'ing and its potential, water cooling the cards has also become a worthwhile investment for the reasons stated.

As always, not necessary, both oc and water, but does yield results.  

Piggybacking off this thread, but is it hard to do on your own? I've never overclocked a video card, and while I'm going with standard fans and the Air 540 case, I'm wondering if that's enough to OC two 1080s.

Originally posted by Meller What is overclocking?

HydroLux Lite is a 360mm radiator (space for 3 x 120mm fans). HydroLux Pro depends on the case used, but there is usually more radiator area that you end up with, especially in cases like the Velox (420mm [3 x 140mm fans] + 280mm [2 x 140mm fans] radiators), the Hailstorm (480 [4 x 120mm] + 240 [2 x 120] + 360 radiators, but can vary some), and the Aventum (560 [4 x 140mm] + 420 + 280 radiators). The Hailstorm and Aventum cases you would only want to get if you are getting HydroLux Pro.

Is HydroLux Pro needed? No, but your water cooling loop will run a little cooler. The limitation is running your loop up to 60 degrees C, which is the maximum operating temperature of the pump, but you have to be exceeding the general rule of thumb of 1 120mm fan spacing in the amount of radiator in your system per processor to really push the temperature of the loop up.

oh, it's significant alright!  my gpu's would be running in the 70's if it weren't for them being under water.  instead, they never rise above 40C and they're overclocked (1430MHz on the core clock and 8GHz on the memory clock).  cpu idles around 31-36C; high 50's/low 60's under load. 

having moved away from an acrylic tubing water loop, let me tell you that while it looks really cool and all, it's very difficult to deal with.  it increases the risk of damage/leaks during shipping by a lot.  it is difficult to get your hands around when trying to flip switches on the mobo, reseat components, etc.  the rigid tubing works in conjunction with compression fittings and even the slightest pressure against one of the tubes (like when squeezing your hand thru the tubes) can break the seal with the o-ring and you get spillage (trust me i've done this).  i switched over to the flex tubing with quick disconnects.  that way if i need to reseat a vid card i don't have to drain the entire loop.  


Edited by db188 - 01 Jun 2016 at 2:56pm

Originally posted by Nav The GTX 1080 is a BEAST when overclocked. Only thing is that you really need to water-cool the card as it is limited by the stock cooler and will thermal throttle. We recommend going with water-cooling or another AIB card by a company such as ASUS or EVGA.

Glad to hear it! I'm planning on running  2 GTX 1080s in SLI, with Hydrolux Lite water-cooling in the Apollo case.

Any idea when Digital Storm will starting carrying EVGA and/or ASUS 1080 cards?

Originally posted by Meller So the reviews are in on the 1080. Given that your ambient temperature is fairly low (in the 20 C) there is no benefit of water cooling your 1080's over air cooling. Because of the hard voltage limit, the ceiling for overclocking is 2.1Ghz. There is nothing we can do about that. It's not temps keeping us from breaking it, but true voltage limits. JayzTwoCents and many other very high profile hardware reviewers have proven it, unfortunately. Don't get me wrong 2.1Ghz is crazy high, but unfortunately, it means you gain 0 benefit (except for noise) by water cooling. Air cooling can hit the 2.1 Ghz ceiling no problem. :( Nvidia screwed us. #StillLoveThe1080

like they haven't been doing that for years now.  i'm sure you can find a custom bios for it Meller

Just me, and others will cringe , but I wouldn't water cool the cards, even though there are benefits.  I go by the KISS philosophy. Too many years in field service. 

Overclocking is if I felt the need after running them.  Although, it is a great experience tweaking them for whatever you can get.        MSI Afterburner and EVGA Experience make it a snap.   

Originally posted by db188 i wouldn't get a reference card.  wait for the "custom" vendor cards to all come out and see what they can do on air.

I think this is pretty much what I'm going to do at this point. I'm anxious to see what people think about the ASUS and EVGA 1080 cards. Water-cooling looks awesome but air-cooling would be better on my budget. Ultimately, I just want the cards to perform as fast as they can and still remain stable. Hopefully these partner cards will be available soon and we'll get some more hands-on reviews to look at.

With all due respect to everybody but I think we or maybe I am missing something here.

1. should I OC my gpu?

Depends, do you need the extra power? if not why put the gpu under pressure and shorten the life of the gpu?

So I think you should be looking at what games you play, what res you play and if you need the extra power to begin with.

Just my 2 cents.

Well I would oc it in that case and see what is the fps difference and if its really worth it to me.

Personally I don't like to keep extra heat in my case if the gain is not worth it. Higher the temp inside my case more heat for my other parts to have to deal with.

Edited by DST4ME - 10 Jun 2016 at 10:57pm

Keep in mind ocing the cpu is not the same as gpu, cores are different so you can't really compare your intel chip cpu to nvidia gpu chip. IMHO cpu chips can take lot more stress than the gpu chips.

Oc profiles are a great way to manage your gpu oc IMHO.

I can promise you a bad cpu if your voltage is hight enough and your pc is under stress most times.

Edited by DST4ME - 10 Jun 2016 at 11:01pm

Didn't realize this was still in discussion. o.O my bad.

1.) Should you overclock your cards?
- I mean, I would. But I'd also watercool them

But that's only because if I am spending that kind of money, I'm getting my moneys worth out of my hardware. Otherwise I'd buy a much cheaper card like a 970 or really any $350 or cheaper card.

If the fps makes no difference then you are not getting the most out of your money.

Actually oc is mainly used for people who don't want to get the most expensive card so they get the one below and oc it to try and match the higher card's performance.

If one wants to oc because that is what they like that is fine. but the question to "should I oc" is always "do you need the power?"

Why put your system/parts under stress if there is no real world gain in games?

Reasons to OC:

1. spend less but oc the cpu/gpu for more needed power.

2. benchmark, no real world use here you just want to see high numbers on your bench tests.

3. You are an OC enthusiast and just like to OC stuff and enjoy the art of ocing.


EVGA is known for having best customer svc and better quality IMHO.


Edited by DST4ME - 11 Jun 2016 at 1:43pm

I view it completely differently. It's like CPU's. Spend the extra $$ get the K edition to overclock it... or save money and get the non-k edition because you don't need all that performance.

Buying a GTX 970 to save $200 to overclock it to match a completely non-overclocked 980 Ti isn't exactly optimal, considering the damage you'd do to get it to match.

Overclocking GPU's is not an enthusiast thing anymore as even with water cooling we are only seeing like 10-15% improvement. A 10% overclock on any video card takes 2 minutes of some ones time... even without OC experience. And you won't match a 1080 by overclocking a 1070 by 10-15%... it's not happening.

So, Don't (in my opinion) spend less and expect to over clock it to match the higher cards. Overclocking has very real, real life benefits. Higher FPS in games, better settings (IE turning the settings up higher)... and so on. While overclocking your CPU doesn't show an extreme amount of real life benefits... you will see very real benefits in games. Especially when you're playing at 1440p or 4k. Overclocking can get you over that 60 FPS limit. And with 1440p monitors falling very cheap, and 4k getting quite cheap too...

Anyways, point is Overclocking lower end cards to match higher end cards isn't really a thing unless you get super lucky on your lottery. SLI lowering cards can give you better performance than the higher cards for a lower cost. And there is real life gain from it in things other than benchmark. I would say water cool it, as it reduces sound and extends the life of your hardware.

there's another thread around here talking about cpu bottlenecks.  well, one way to extend the usefulness of an older cpu while upgrading your gpu is to increase the clock speed of the cpu.  running at a higher frequency means your expensive new gpu isn't waiting around on your old, tired cpu. 

like Meller said, oc'ing can be the difference at higher resolutions of getting you over the hump on minimum FPS situations where the dips are down to a level that the visual experience is negatively impacted.  it can allow you to turn on that extra setting of bling.    

Originally posted by DST4ME I know about the bottle neck and etc, we have discussed these manytimes in depth many few ago, the threads are not around for us to look at now.

They have quite a lot. If you go up to search, there is a hidden button just below the "Show Posts" for an advanced search. In advanced search, you can select to search longer than the typical 6 months the search is limited to.

Edit: I just did a search and found some of your posts all the way back in 2008, so they may all still be up.

Edited by  - 11 Jun 2016 at 2:18pm