# Version 4.6.0 Beta 10 of MSI Afterburner Introduces OC Scanner for Pascal



## Raevenlord (Dec 26, 2018)

One of the runaway features for NVIDIA's latest RTX-20 series of graphics cards was the introduction of support for the OC Scanner feature - a program that automagically tests a range of frequencies on your NVIDIA graphics card and overclocks it to a deemed "stable" sweet-spot. This practically obviates the need for manual fine-tuning, though of course, the best results should always be found down that road - provided there's enough tinkering.

The latest version of MSI's Afterburner (v4.6.0 beta 10, available in the source link) now brings this functionality to Pascal-based graphics cards (besides some other features, such as voltage control, for Turing; check the entire release notes after the break). Have fun.



 

 

 

 



*MSI AB v4.6.0 beta 10*


Added NVIDIA Turing GPU architecture support:
Added voltage control for reference design NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20×0 series graphics cards
Advanced GPU Boost control for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20×0 series graphics cards. Extended voltage/frequency curve editor on GeForce RTX 20×0 family graphics cards allows you to tune additional piecewise power/frequency floor and temperature/frequency floor curves. Control points on those new curves allow you to control GPU Boost power and thermal throttling algorithms more precisely than traditional power limit and thermal limit sliders
Hardware abstraction layer has been revamped to provide support for multiple independent fans per GPU due to introducing dual fan design on reference design NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20×0 series graphics cards and due to introducing native dual fan control in NVAPI. Both fans of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20×0 can be monitored independently in hardware monitoring module now and can be controlled synchronically in manual mode
Added NVIDIA Scanner technology support
Added Monolithic Power Systems MP2884A and MP2888A voltage controllers support
Added core, memory, auxiliary PEXVDD and auxiliary 1V8 voltage control for custom design MSI RTX 2080Ti Lightning series graphics cards with MP2888A + MP2888A +uP1816 voltage regulators
Added VRM and VRM2 temperature monitoring for custom design MSI RTX 2080Ti Lightning series graphics cards
Improved hardware monitoring module:
Added thermal offset for CPU temperature monitoring on AMD Ryzen 7 2700X processors
Similar CPU temperatures are now cloned for all cores on AMD CPUs to provide more convenient and unified On-Screen Display layout between Intel and AMD CPUs
"Pagefile usage" graph in hardware monitoring module has been renamed to "Commit charge"
Added group operation notifier to the caption of active hardware monitoring graphs list in "Monitoring" tab in the application properties. The notifier is informing you that you can apply a setting to all or to multiple selected hardware monitoring graphs when you hold group operation key (i.e. crap or Ctrl) and hover mouse cursor over the setting that can be applied to multiple hardware monitoring graphs at once (e.g. "Show in On-Screen Display")
Added "Select by group" and "Select by type" commands to context menu of active hardware monitoring graphs list in "Monitoring" tab in the application properties. New commands allow selecting the graphs of exactly the same type (e.g. CPU1-CPU8 usage graphs on eight core CPU) or the graphs with the same OSD/LCD group name (for example, GPU clock, GPU power, GPU usage and the rest graphs with "GPU" group name). Such commands allow you to show similar items (e.g. all CPU usages) in On-Screen Display with a single click or rename a group for all child graphs in the single pass
Multi-group edit mode is automatically selected now for group name edit field when you enable "Override group name" option while holding Ctrl key. You may still manually toggle this mode with Ctrl+M hotkey anytime when editing the group name
On-Screen Display item type (i.e. text, graph or combination of both) is now displayed in "Properties" column of active hardware monitoring graphs list in "Monitoring" tab in the application properties
Added programmable hotkey for clearing monitoring history
Added "Apply" button to application properties window. Now you may iteratively customize monitoring module without closing the properties to see the result on each step. Please take a note that some properties (e.g. application language) cannot be applied until you completely close properties window by design of application
Improved On-Screen Display layout editor:
System reserved variable slots 250-255 are now displayed as system variables in the layout editor
Added embedded graphs support. Embedded graphs can be displayed directly in the text in a separate column, it can be convenient for displaying per-core CPU usages
Added embedded graph width adjustment variable to the "Graph" property node
Added new "Graph placement" property node. You can use it to place each graph on top of text, on bottom or make it embedded in in text column
Added new variables to "Separators" property node. Now you may define independent separators for the graphs located on top of text part, for the text part and for the graphs located on bottom of text part.
Slightly altered interpretation of prolog and epilog separators. Please take a note that prolog separator is no longer automatically appended with new line symbol, so you must specify it manually when necessary and epilog separator is now displayed below the bottom group of graphs
The list of hardware monitoring items in "Add item(s)" dialog window is alphabetically sorted now
Added macroses for embedding any data from monitoring module into OSD text (e.g. prolog). You may use macroses to display anything available in the monitoring module, e.g. %CPU temperature%
Improved On-Screen Display hypertext formatting performance due to more optimal macro replace strategy
Revamped "modern web" layout. New layout is demonstrating new text formatting features including big custom framerate counter, custom embedded background and On-Screed Display header, custom benchmark and system time indicators and embedded CPU and GPU usage graphs
On-Screen Display layouts are saved in monitoring profiles now
Improved HwInfo plugin:
Added UPS load, power, input voltage and charge level data sources to default plugin configuration
·mproved voltage/frequency editor:
Voltage/frequency editor window is now available on AMD GPUs. On AMD platform it allows you to edit core frequencies and voltages independently per each P-State:
Similar to NVIDIA GPUs, you may either adjust each point frequency or voltage independently with both mouse and keyboard or hold Shift and drag single point to apply similar frequency or voltage offset to all P-states
Read only P-States are currently not tracked, which means that you can try to adjust the frequency and voltage for it but it will be ignored when applying the curve
P-States locking functionality is not implemented yet
Slightly increased default voltage range for voltage/frequency curve. Now you may lock voltage to lower values if you're using voltage/frequency editor to downvolt and reduce power consumption on your NVIDIA GPU. Power users may customize the range further, the voltage and frequency limits are fully adjustable via the configuration file
Now you may press F5 key in the editor window to reread the curve from hardware. This feature can be useful when adjusting the curve in changing thermal environment
Voltage and frequency axes are dynamically scales now, so the captions do not overlap when window is too small
Improved hardware control shared memory interface. During the past years, external applications like MSI Remote Server were using this interface for tuning GPU hardware settings remotely from external applications. The improvements are intended to allow connecting external stress testing and automatic overclocking related applications to MSI Afterburner via this interface:
Now voltage/frequency curve on NVIDIA Pascal and newer NVIDIA GPU architectures is accessible via hardware control shared memory interface
New hardware control shared memory interface command allows MSI Afterburner to load hardware settings from external application without immediately applying new settings to GPU
Added notification message, allowing external applications to notify MSI Afterburner about new command written to hardware control shared memory. Without the notification, MSI Afterburner is executing external commands on each hardware polling iteration like before. Please refer to SDK and MACMSharedMemorySample source code to see notification message usage example
Added hardware identification info to GPU entries in hardware control shared memory. Hardware identification info allows external applications to reconcile own enumerated devices with logical GPUs enumerated by MSI Afterburner
Now hardware control shared memory is refreshed on delayed fan speed readback events
New bundled MSI Overclocking Scanner application in now included in MSI Afterburner distributive:
MSI Overclocking Scanner is currently supported on NVIDIA GTX 10×0 and NVIDIA RTX 20×0 series graphics cards under 64-bit operating systems only. On such systems you may activate the scanner with dedicated button from the main application window or directly from voltage/frequency curve editor window
MSI Overclocking Scanner is powered by NVIDIA Scanner technology, which is using proprietary algorithms to quickly and reliably test manually overclocked GPU stability or find the maximum stable GPU overclocking in automatic mode with a single click. The scanner is using embedded NVIDIA test load to stress GPU. The scanner provides you two functional modes:
In test mode MSI Overclocking Scanner is stress-testing your manual GPU overclocking settings during approximately 5 minutes. The result is returned as GPU stability confidence level (0% - unstable, 100% - stable)
In scan mode MSI Overclocking Scanner is stress-testing and slowly increasing clocks on voltage/frequency curve points and this way automatically detecting the maximum stable GPU overclocking. The result is returned as modified voltage/frequency curve and average GPU overclocking in MHz
Added framerate limiter compatibility settings group to "On-Screen Display" tab to the application properties. The settings include programmable hotkeys for globally disabling, enabling or toggling framerate limiting techniques of RivaTuner Statistics Server. The settings are intended to provide a way to dynamically enable or disable scanline sync technology based framerate limiting without altering application profiles, however you may use it to toggle traditional framerate limiter as well
Fixed kernel mode hardware access interface fix for AMD Vega GPUs. HBM temperature, GPU power and GPU voltage are no longer returning bogus values when kernel mode hardware access interface is enabled on AMD Vega series graphics cards
Hardcoded voltage/frequency curve clock multiplier implementation has been replaced with heuristic multiplier detection in order to provide unified voltage/frequency curve control implementation for NVIDIA Pascal and newer NVIDIA GPU architectures
Improved real-time voltage/frequency curve editor GUI scaling. Now GUI is scaled property when adjusting skin scaling with open voltage/frequency curve editor window
Improved report window, fan curve editor window, monitoring window and voltage/frequency curve editor scaling for scaling ratios greater than 100%
Multilanguage user interface library is DPI aware now. Main window skinned interface is no longer being scaled by OS and no longer looks blurred by default when greater than 100% DPI is selected. Now main skinned window interface can be manually zoomed with skin scaling slider in "User interface" tab, and the properties are automatically scaled by OS according to selected DPI
Added new skin scaling mode for power users. New mode provides better scaling performance at the expense of some scaling image quality loss
Skin scaling implementation is now asynchronous, so increasing skin scaling ratio doesn't increase GUI update time and doesn't decrease GUI response time
Skin scaling slider range has been extended from 75%-150% to 75%-200%
RivaTuner Statistics Server has been upgraded to v7.2.1

*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## xkm1948 (Dec 26, 2018)

Damn nice! I always had locking up issues when using v9 of Nvidia scanner.


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## cellar door (Dec 26, 2018)

The download link is broken guys.


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## Raevenlord (Dec 26, 2018)

cellar door said:


> The download link is broken guys.



Delete everything behind msi-afterburner. on the resulting web page for the download.


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## DaMobsta (Dec 26, 2018)

Working link


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## Durvelle27 (Dec 26, 2018)

I like these new scanners as they actually work pretty well

I use the EVGA Precison X1 tool and with the scanner managed to hit 2070MHz on the core from the stock 1410MHz and I like it also tests the OC as well for stability


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## EarthDog (Dec 26, 2018)

About time, msi!!!!




xkm1948 said:


> Damn nice! I always had locking up issues when using v9 of Nvidia scanner.


???? Scanner is the same...it just found its way into MSI AB. The b10 name is for AB, not the version of scanning software.


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## xkm1948 (Dec 26, 2018)

EarthDog said:


> About time, msi!!!!
> 
> 
> ???? Scanner is the same...it just found its way into MSI AB. The b10 name is for AB, not the version of scanning software.




Or to word my previous sentence better: V9 of scanner application with AB had hang-up issues during scanning for my Evga XC card. X1 scanning worked fine but I don't like its buggy fan control. Will give this a try after getting off work later today.


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## EarthDog (Dec 26, 2018)

Scanner was not a part of msi ab until just now in 4.6 b10.

In the other thread you were using 4.5.


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## xkm1948 (Dec 26, 2018)

EarthDog said:


> Scanner was not a part of msi ab until just now in 4.6 b10.




So you had no idea? I have been using AB Beta 9 for Turning scanner overclock for several months now.

https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/msi-afterburner-beta-download.html


*MSI Afterburner v4.6.0 beta 9 (build 13319)*


Added NVIDIA Turing GPU architecture support:

Added voltage control for reference design NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20x0 series graphics cards
Advanced GPU Boost control for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20x0 series graphics cards. Extended voltage/frequency curve editor on GeForce RTX 20x0 family graphics cards allows you to tune additional piecewise power/frequency floor and temperature/frequency floor curves. Control points on those new curves allow you to control GPU Boost power and thermal throttling algorithms more precisely than traditional power limit and thermal limit sliders
Hardware abstraction layer has been revamped to provide support for multiple independent fans per GPU due to introducing dual fan design on reference design NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20x0 series graphics cards and due to introducing native dual fan control in NVAPI. Both fans of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20x0 can be monitored independently in hardware monitoring module now and can be controlled synchronically in manual mode
*Added NVIDIA Scanner technology support*
Improved hardware monitoring module:
Added thermal offset for CPU temperature monitoring on AMD Ryzen 7 2700X processors
“Pagefile usage” graph in hardware monitoring module has been renamed to “Commit charge”


I


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## EarthDog (Dec 26, 2018)

Apparently not.

And neither does the writer who posted this...  look at the title. 

Edit: omg..... I see where I went wrong..  support for PASCAL. Hahahahaha. I'm going to grab some coffee.


It is ironic though you said you dont use beta and yet this rolled off your tongue...hahalol


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## xkm1948 (Dec 26, 2018)

EarthDog said:


> Apparently not.
> 
> And neither does the writer who posted this...  look at the title.
> 
> ...



Yeah looks like you need A LOT OF coffee.

AB scanner implementation was not as good as X1. But AB's fan control is definitely better than X1. As I can't get the damn X1 to remember my fan curve after reboot no matter what I do.


At the same time I do wonder whether AB can implenment something similar on the AMD GPU as well.


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## EarthDog (Dec 26, 2018)

Zero issues here with my 2080ti fe and fan control.


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## Vya Domus (Dec 26, 2018)

Tried it, very conservative, you'd be better served doing it manually.


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## xkm1948 (Dec 26, 2018)

Wait who said I am using 4.5?? I have been using AB 4.6 beta 9 for a long time.


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## EarthDog (Dec 26, 2018)

Maybe I confused you with someone else in another thread? 

Edit: it was knoxx....lol....come on caffeine. Sorry!


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## Xuper (Dec 26, 2018)

Here you go :

http://msi-afterburner.guru3d.com/MSIAfterburnerSetup460Beta10Build14218.rar


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## xkm1948 (Dec 26, 2018)

EarthDog said:


> Maybe I confused you with someone else in another thread?
> 
> Edit: it was knoxx....lol....come on caffeine. Sorry!



Oh man sounds like you need some serious rest instead of coffee    , I sincerely wish you are not working on some life-dependent work today.


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## TheDeeGee (Dec 26, 2018)

Shame you need the garbage UI to get to the option.


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## nico_80) (Dec 26, 2018)

I try and keep getting this... error 3 thing.


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## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Dec 26, 2018)

Here's link for beta 9.


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## Burned (Dec 27, 2018)

I wish I could use this on my EVGA 1080FTW2, but it can't manage the stupid secondary fan controller.


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## xkm1948 (Dec 27, 2018)

Happy to report back the new scanner API implementation is a lot more stable comparing to V9 beta of AB. The scanning actually took less time as well comparing to older scanner API. The final V/F curve is less aggressive comparing to previous API, in which I consistently getting +172 core. Now it is just +137 core. Still the performance using V/F curve overclocking is better comparing to manual overclocking at same target speed, probably due to V/F curve OC smooth out the downclocking once power limit is hit.

Overall good MSI update.


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## Hockster (Dec 27, 2018)

I can open the editor window, but clicking the OC Scanner button does nothing.


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## Mussels (Dec 27, 2018)

xkm1948 said:


> Happy to report back the new scanner API implementation is a lot more stable comparing to V9 beta of AB. The scanning actually took less time as well comparing to older scanner API. The final V/F curve is less aggressive comparing to previous API, in which I consistently getting +172 core. Now it is just +137 core. Still the performance using V/F curve overclocking is better comparing to manual overclocking at same target speed, probably due to V/F curve OC smooth out the downclocking once power limit is hit.
> 
> Overall good MSI update.
> 
> View attachment 113419



how did you bring up the curve editor?


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## xpredator_13 (Dec 27, 2018)

Should I leave the fan curve be controlled by the OC Scanner? It sets my fan curve to AUTO...if I click the manual curve option, it ramp ups my fan speed...shouldn't this be at 100% when scanning? I mean, thermals can affect the total boost to nvidia cards...


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## xkm1948 (Dec 27, 2018)

Just follow the directions in the video with a minor difference:


After scanning IMMEDIATELY apply your curve and save it to a profile. Or your curve will be lost and you have to start all over again.

Also do not slide the power and temp limiter before scanning. That will create instability issues. Leave them as default and do the scanning.

As for fan curves you can do 100% fan speed before scanning, but then that means the stability is only good if you blast it at 100% fan all the time.

For me I just used a custom fan curve and start scanning afterwards.


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## AlexUnwinder (Dec 27, 2018)

xkm1948 said:


> AB scanner implementation was not as good as X1.



You're mistaking. There is no "AB scanner implementation", there is no "X1 scanner implementation". So both you and those who declare absolutely opposite thing (there are a lot of people online claiming that AB scanner implementation is better for them) are mistaking, any RTX overclocking application with NVIDIA Scanner technology support is just a GUI frontend for NVIDIA's own stress-testing API. And in any case testing is done by NV components rather than by third party vendor technology.


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 27, 2018)

BTW,

Has anyone found how to save complete OC profiles + OSD settings? Where are the config files? There is no import or export function.


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## Vya Domus (Dec 27, 2018)

xpredator_13 said:


> I mean, thermals can affect the total boost to nvidia cards...



This only tests for stability at certain frequency points, thermals and power limits only determine for how long those clocks can be kept.


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## commission3r (Dec 27, 2018)

Does'nt work with windows 8.1 keeps crashing


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## EarthDog (Dec 27, 2018)

xkm1948 said:


> Also do not slide the power and temp limiter before scanning. That will create instability issues. Leave them as default and do the scanning.


Always cranked it... that how you OC these cards...

Wonder if @AlexUnwinder can confirm this? I didnt experience any issues doing so.


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 27, 2018)

EarthDog said:


> Always cranked it... that how you OC these cards...



Absolutely, because not doing so the test looses it's basic idea.


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## xkm1948 (Dec 27, 2018)

Ferrum Master said:


> BTW,
> 
> Has anyone found how to save complete OC profiles + OSD settings? Where are the config files? There is no import or export function.



You gonna have to re-scan I guess


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## EarthDog (Dec 27, 2018)

Hoping this isnt another lack of caffeine moment...lol...

...what does scanning have to do with saving profiles? I dont use the OSD...but wondering how scanning helps save profiles.


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## Slizzo (Dec 27, 2018)

After you do the scan, you have to save the OC it finds to a profile, otherwise when the program relaunches it will have no memory of what you did.

You need to save the results to a new profile after doing the scan, then set it as the active profile so it uses it when your card clocks up.


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## Mayclore (Dec 27, 2018)

Hockster said:


> I can open the editor window, but clicking the OC Scanner button does nothing.



Yeah, same issue. Nothing happens.


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## Wavetrex (Dec 27, 2018)

Vya Domus said:


> Tried it, very conservative, you'd be better served doing it manually.


So, I just made 3-4 runs on my Zotac 1080 Amp! which is factory overclocked to +75 Mhz

Noticed same thing as you, this OC scanner is quite conservative, and it resulted in different attempts between +60 and +80 Mhz, putting the card at the same level as it starts from bios, and the curve barely touching 2000 Mhz.
However, doing manual overclock (120% TDP, linked) I can push it to around +125 without voltage tweaks, and +150 by adding a bit to max voltage (+10%), occasionally seeing 2100Mhz, with measurably higher scores in benchmarks.
I probably have a pretty good chip, if I would convert this card into water cooled via custom loop block to keep the temps under 60 degrees I could probably even reach 2150 Mhz without crashing. (Tried it on air and it wasn't stable, reaching 90+ degrees even with the fan at 100% and crashing after 20-40 seconds)

I think this scanner API was designed for "reference" cards which do not come already overclocked. For factory overclocked models it does ... well, nothing.


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## Gasaraki (Dec 27, 2018)

EarthDog said:


> Always cranked it... that how you OC these cards...
> 
> Wonder if @AlexUnwinder can confirm this? I didnt experience any issues doing so.



No. That's not how you use the scanner. You don't always CRANK it. 

You leave the power limit at 100%, run scanner, apply settings, turn up power limits.


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## EarthDog (Dec 27, 2018)

Gasaraki said:


> No. That's not how you use the scanner. You don't always CRANK it.
> 
> You leave the power limit at 100%, run scanner, apply settings, turn up power limits.


Why would I base the overclock off the 100% power limit? Wouldn't I want it to find the highest stable clock possible within the raised/max power limit? You wont get as much with leaving at default. Doesnt the algo check clocks, voltage, temps, and power limit? So the curve would be lower since chances are it hits the power limit.


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## puma99dk| (Dec 28, 2018)

I think I will try that auto oc function for my GTX 1080 Ti Hybrid even I am just bump up the power limit and it does nicely


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## Deleted member 67555 (Dec 28, 2018)

So it took about 45 minutes for this to figure out what took me a week but with a better fan curve....it's 5mhz less than what I had.
No more thinking to OC a GFX for me... it's just clicky clicky  now...


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## Enterprise24 (Dec 28, 2018)

The curve that OC scanner suggest is very aggressive on my card. It set 2139Mhz at only 1.062V !! I know that my card need 1.1V for that clock... Testing with Heaven and got black screen immediately.


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## puma99dk| (Dec 28, 2018)

Am I the only one after this Afterburner update that has problems with the OSD (On Screen Display) via RivaTuner?

Mine keeps disappearing and if I reboot my Windows 10 it works again.


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## Assimilator (Dec 28, 2018)

I must say, this is a damn useful and impressive feature - it honed right in on the exact maximum stable value that took me many long hours of tweaking to determine. Next NVIDIA card I buy, I'm probably gonna run this OC Scanner against it first thing, then never touch the clocks again.

(I don't understand why you have to change to a shitty MSI AB skin to get access to the feature, but oh well.)



Wavetrex said:


> I think this scanner API was designed for "reference" cards which do not come already overclocked. For factory overclocked models it does ... well, nothing.



Nope, I have one of these https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/msi-gtx-1070-armor-oc.b3654 and default boost is 1746, OC Scanner pushed it all the way to 1961.5 (with +100 vCore/126% power).


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## AlexUnwinder (Dec 29, 2018)

Assimilator said:


> (I don't understand why you have to change to a shitty MSI AB skin to get access to the feature, but oh well.)



You may access voltage/frequency editor with keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+F) from any pre-Pascal (V2 and V3) or third party skin having no dedicated buttons for OC scanner and VF editor in main GUI.


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## Mussels (Dec 29, 2018)

AlexUnwinder said:


> You may access voltage/frequency editor with keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+F) from any pre-Pascal (V2 and V3) or third party skin having no dedicated buttons for OC scanner and VF editor in main GUI.



thanks, i couldnt find that menu


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## D_Lo (Jan 19, 2019)

Hi,

I've been following this forum from time to time,  and only joined today for my first post. Although technically minded I have limited overclocking experience, please bear with me, thanks.

Two Gigabyte RTX 2080 cards were tested to check and compare their health and performance:
VCard 1=Windforce 8Gb OC (Bios F4Beta) and VCard 2= Gaming 8Gb OC (Bios F8), with max Power of 120 and 122 %TDP after Bios upgrade.

There was no problem running AB OC scanner its included Test with the first card. On the other hand, for the second one (Gaming) the monitor screen went black for several seconds (1s to 10s), and usually, this happened just at the change over from Point 1 to 2, and 3 to 4 and the end of the scan.  The Power Limit (and Temperature Limit)  slider was tested between default and max out and also the voltage control and monitor locks were toggled and not to avail.  I let the room temperature drop for the tests between 13.6-15.7C, GPU max temp =56-72C (+42 to 52 relative to RT), Gaming has a little better cooler than Windforce.  The Fan was tested with Auto and custom curve and also with a set value of 80-100%.

For stress tests, I have also used 3DMark , FurMark, Heaven, ... None of these runs exposed instability for either of these cards though.  The best average OC from MSI AB OC Scan tool were:  Windforce = 73MHz (max GPU Temp = 68C, RT=13.6) and Gaming = 61MHz (Max GPU temp =62C, RT=15.6), repeats for gaming had more variability 53-61MHz, averaging in the 50s.

Is the screen going black a typical "instability" as quoted below?
Can these be a sign that the "Gaming" card having some underlying issues not present in the "Windforce" card?  Is it power limited?  (Did forget that the CPU had been set on Boost 4200 -> 4800 MHz when Benchmark a couple of days ago.  Platinum 550W PSU, M.2 SSD, 3 120 PWM case fan, low profile Noctua CPU fan.  Silverstone confirmed the PSU should be fine.)

Interestingly the hickups of the Gaming card never prevented it from failing the OC scan, and often the scan at point 4 was taking longer with no black screen until the end of run scan flicker.
Another note, I noticed that with constant fan setting, say 100%, for Point 4, the fan control seemed to have switched to Auto/Custom and then reverted back to 100% once the scan had ended.  Anyone else noticed this?

The goal here is not to overclock my GPU but to test the health and performance of these cards.  One was a new card but looked like an opened box (Windforce), the other was a like-new item (Gaming), which didn't come in the original box.  This made me concerned and suspicious (especially for the Gaming OC card - hence these quick series of benchmarking- and stress-tests.  I will keep one in the end and these quick tests were carried out to help decide.

Any thoughts and recommendations for testing these two cards?

Thank you for your inputs, it'll be greatly appreciated.
D




xkm1948 said:


> Just follow the directions in the video with a minor difference:
> 
> 
> After scanning IMMEDIATELY apply your curve and save it to a profile. Or your curve will be lost and you have to start all over again.
> ...


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## D_Lo (Jan 19, 2019)

Update:

The Gigabyte RTX 2080 Gaming OC was further tested to look into possible insufficient PSU power.  The very first change was to go in my MSI Z270 Carbon Pro Motherboard Bios to switch off the I7-7700K CPU Boost option from 4800MHz back to 4200MHz.  The control fo the case fans were modified in stages as follow:
1)  First, the three 120 PWN arctic case fans were set to manual values, and so was the trio fans on the GPU in an effort to minimize fluctuation in load and noise
2)  Once the case ran sufficiently cool, on a second pass both an HDD and an Optical DD were removed.
3)  Fan control was changed back Custom profile in the end, with at RT=17C, Idle GPU Temp=28C.

The trends looked less noisy but overall the average OC frequencies achieved were between 53 to 56MHz.
For the last OC scan, at the end of the pass for Point 4 (i.e just before results), GPU Temp max=54C (Custom profile GPU Fan=54%), GPU core clock 2040MHz.  Voltage locks were back ON and Limit Power=100, Limite Temp=83C.  Scan succeeded, average overclock is 53MHz, and a message about Dominant limiters:   Voltage,  No load.

The goal was leaner power usage on my HTPC/VR system,  and it seems that it helped but the instabilities still occur.  It is not clear cut my Silverston Strider Platinum 80 Plus 550W PSU is really insufficient.  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017WL5UIG/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
The few PSU calculators I tried indicated that even with peak load for all components, the requirement was expected to be between 480-510W - and that was before removing the two drives and there one PCI-e x1 TV tuner I can remove too.

Can this black screen instabilities a cause for concern (i.e. GPU health/performance)?  Are they really indicative of PSU issue?

Was this GPU abused already (before I got) or is it just a case of the "Silicon lottery" that it performs poorly on these quick scans and stress tests in comparison with the other Graphic card, the RTX 2080 Windofrce 8Gb OC?

On a side note, when the GPU Trio Fans were set to a fixed value, the value did vary for point 3 and point.  Usually, for point 3, it dropped below and it ramped back up and overshot for point 4 tests.  ANyone else noticed, and is it expected?

I am learning a lot in the process and there are quite a few variables.  Thank you for reading my posts today.  Looking forward to some pointers and clarifications about Afterburner's OC Scan tool.

Thank you.
D


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## Mussels (Jan 20, 2019)

The scanners arent magic, it could just be picking an OC thats too high for your card


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## D_Lo (Jan 20, 2019)

Mussels said:


> The scanners arent magic, it could just be picking an OC thats too high for your card



Hi,
Good to hear, it makes sense intuitively.  It was surprising that these two similar Gigabyte card designs behave so differently.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Comparison/Result/3?pids=6705,6706

So the display signal loss (screen going black) for 1 to 10s is nothing to worry about during the scan?

It isn't unusual that it picks up 2 to 4 times per scan OC values (freq./Voltage pairs) that would be out of spec and throw the fit off then?

A card that would have been driven hard would not behave like this, would it?

Also, I found the performance of the Gaming model underwhelming in comparison with the Windforce, which was unexpected (and seemed suspicious).  The main draw towards the Gaming OC model is a slightly better cooling unit and slightly larger trio fans, which lend to lower temp and in theory, improved boost mode OC (about 30MHz from the factory according to specs in the link above).  My HTPC/VR case is compact and the little more efficient air cooling for about the same price would help towards quieter and lower temp operations.

As I mentioned in my emails, it was cheaper because it was a like new-used item, and considering the economics, and that it is covered with warranties (from Amazon and Gigabyte), I made the plunge.  The irony is it seemed it'd be a clear cut decision to return the Windforce model.   Of course, with such big sticker price, I have been second guessing myself since the bargain is not all that much less than prices new with a promotion this past week - and it does not include the two NVidia Bundle games (more curious than hardcore games).  A reason to decide which to return is easier if there is a suspected hardware issue.
Stress benchmarking testing and OC Scanning seemed like a reasonable approach. Buying used new computer part is tricky.

Thank you for your input,
D


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## Mussels (Jan 20, 2019)

black screen could well be the card crashing out, and the driver resetting to stock clocks

I've seen that happen and the card be forced to stock clocks until a reboot


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## D_Lo (Jan 20, 2019)

Mussels said:


> black screen could well be the card crashing out, and the driver resetting to stock clocks
> 
> I've seen that happen and the card be forced to stock clocks until a reboot



That's a thought and it'd make sense since I swapped twice the two cards, and the second card (Gaming) might not have properly installed driver.  I did have to do a clean install of  Afterburner once as after a swap AB OC would scan the cards anymore. 

Your comment reminded me about DDU.  Would you recommend the following steps I found a post elsewhere:
a) download and run DDU (use the "recommended" option).
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
b) reboot then clean install NVidia's software again?

Thank for the pointers, I'll try later tomorrow.
 G'day.


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## puma99dk| (Jan 20, 2019)

How long does the oc scanner take in general?

Lol max temps on my GTX 1080 Ti is hovering around 47-49c max doing the oc scanner tests hurray for Hybrid cooling that also cools around the aio


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## Mussels (Jan 20, 2019)

puma99dk| said:


> How long does the oc scanner take in general?
> 
> Lol max temps on my GTX 1080 Ti is hovering around 47-49c max doing the oc scanner tests hurray for Hybrid cooling that also cools around the aio



i love water cooled GPU's, i got similar temps in this and sit around 35C in less demanding DX9 games


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## puma99dk| (Jan 20, 2019)

Mussels said:


> i love water cooled GPU's, i got similar temps in this and sit around 35C in less demanding DX9 games



I got 2 AIO's in my system too dumb to build a custom loop  and i don't have the money for it so I am happy with what I got and I will say that a gpu really deserve a blower style cooler with a aio because there is airflow around the pump unit itself plus the ram


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## D_Lo (Jan 20, 2019)

Hi,

I looked AIOs, I'd have to change case or find a way to run the cooling block outside of the case.  There is this new AIO:
Alphacool Eiswolf 240 GPX Pro Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 

DDU was run and drivers reinstalled.  No difference.

Temp was 55c max.  OC of 57MHz.

Thanks,
D


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## TommyG (Aug 13, 2019)

Hi
I saw, you added Native NVAPI dual fan control.

I asked NVAPI and they said "NvAPI_GPU_GetTachReading" does not support RTX/dual fan,

could you tell me what command you used to do the same for RTX?

Tom


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