How to fix a 'dead' Nvidia GPU with high Power % (TDP) on idle

[quadlt]

Hello nVidia lovers!

All across the internet you can find various people with their GPUs (mostly Kepler series) having a very high Power usage on idle, thus freezing the card's clock speeds making it a useless piece of hardware. Some of the threads here:

Spoiler

• http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/gtx660ti-clock-stuck-at-idle-freq-324mhz.221410/
• http://forums.evga.com/gtx-660-core-clock-won39t-go-over-324-mhz-m2181360.aspx
• https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/737355/gtx-690-stuck-at-324mhz-and-perfcap-pwr/
• http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2095162/gtx-640-stuck-324-clock-budge.html
• http://forums.evga.com/gtx-670-stuck-at-324-mhz-m1760366.aspx
• https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/520236/gtx-680-stuck-at-324mhz-out-of-the-box/

Same problem occurred to me when I bought a used GTX 690 and noticed it was throttling as hell in Multi-GPU mode, but all fine in Single-GPU. Sure enough, my Power % in Afterburner was skyrocketing to 300+% and GPU clocks stayed frozen at 324 MHz (default idle clock speed for Kepler GPUs AFAIK). As I ventured into searching for a fix, I was disappointed with all the threads ending up dead or with RMAs by the owners. Of course, I cannot RMA my card because not only it's now 4 years old, I also don't have any papers for it. Before finally giving up, I tried playing around with clock speeds with Kepler BIOS Tweaker and to my surprise, the dead GPU started functioning and while it was very unstable, it meant that the card is certainly not dead, just defective.
TL;DR Endless hours of modifying BIOSes and restarting after each flash resulted in a perfectly (well, semi) working GTX 690 (notice the spiky GPU1 Power %). You also have a (old) card that suffers from the same problem? Let's fix it! Tools you'll need:

Spoiler

1. Kepler BIOS Tweaker (for modifying Power usage of the GPU) (from here on referred as KBT)
2. Maxwell BIOS Tweaker II (works the same as KBT, but for Maxwell based GPUs)
3. NVFlash (they've updated it on June 6th, I've used an older version in case anything fails) (for flashing our modified BIOS)
4. MSI Afterburner (@Guru3D) or your favorite GPU monitoring software.
5. MSI Kombustor (@Geeks3D) or your favorite GPU benchmark software. (TUTORIAL FOR SLI SUPPORT IN KOMBUSTOR)

WARNING!!! Our broken GPUs are already unstable and we will additionally proceed to flash an unstable BIOS. I am not responsible for any damage caused to your hardware while modifying using my method. Flash at your own risk!

1. Alright, once we have all the tools, let's get a BIOS to work with. There are two ways of getting the BIOS you need:
   1. Downloading off TechPowerUp's VGA Bios Database. Just use the filters until you find your card. NOTE: You don't have to necessarily use the BIOS of your card's vendor (for ex. ASUS BIOS on ASUS GTX 690), you can use any vendor's BIOS as long as they use same clock speeds as your GPU (for ex. I'm using EVGA's BIOS on my ASUS GTX 690)
   2. Using NVFlash to backup your current BIOS (you can modify it as well). Here's how to:
      Spoiler

      1. Boot up NVFlash by extracting it somewhere. Then hold SHIFT and press RIGHT MOUSE anywhere on blank space in the folder. You should see an option "Open command window here", press that and you're ready to play with your BIOS. If you don't see such option, re-read this step and try again. That's how you'll boot NVFlash everytime.
      2. If you're using 32-bit OS, use nvflash.exe, if 64-bit OS, use nvflash64.exe and add --list. (ex. nvflash64.exe --list). You should see something like this. I have the GTX 690 which has 2 GPUs on one card, so unless you're using same card, you should only see one GeForce GTX on your screen. NOTE: Part of my screen starts flickering after I insert various commands, so don't freak out if yours does too.
      3. If you don't see any GeForce GTX cards pop up, your GPU is probably dead and I can no longer help you in such situation. If not, continue further.
      4. The number on the very left (<0>) is an assigned ID for our GPU, we will have to use that.
      5. Type nvflash(64).exe -i(insert the ID here) --save romname.rom. Example: nvflash64.exe -i1 --save stockgpu1.rom, because my GPU1 is defective.
      6. Your screen should go black, that's normal. After some time it will come back up with your stock rom saved. Now we can continue to modifying it.

      [*]
2. Now that we have our stock BIOS, make another copy of it so you can modify one and have another as backup.
3. Open up KBT, press Open BIOS and navigate to the rom we want to modify. Here's what I see: PUUSH.
4. Go into Power Table tab and start increasing the numbers to lower the power usage. Yeah, I know it sounds stupid, but that's how it works with defective GPUs it seems. Personally, after editing, the numbers which were lower at default ended up being way higher than the numbers which were higher to begin with. Confusing, I know. Here's a screenshot comparing stock and modified BIOS for me: PUUSH. Please note that these values probably won't work for your specific GPU!
5. Press Save BIOS! You'll get surprised by how many times I forgot that and ended up rebooting without any changes...
6. Open up NVFlash. (tutorial can be found under a spoiler above) Flash the modified BIOS with this command: nvflash(64).exe -i(ID) -6 moddedrom.rom. Example: nvflash64.exe -i1 -6 EVGA.GTX690.2048.120430_1_modifiedpower.rom.
7. Screen will go black again, if it doesn't come up in a low-res 'safemode' look, press y on your keyboard to confirm flashing. Wait some time until normal screen comes back up.
8. Restart computer.
9. Use benchmarks to evaluate whether your modded BIOS works: core clock boosts normally, (on my gpu) power % starts jumping around from 50 to 100.
10. Waste your precious time by adjusting values until you get around 100% power usage in Afterburner on idle or your core clock boots up at higher than default (324MHz) and then drops to default speed.
11. Repeat steps 4-9 until you have a working GPU under stress test. Good luck.

FAQ:

Spoiler

Q: My GPU still doesn't boost properly and has high Power % after modifying the Power Table.
A: Comment bellow if you still can't get it to work and I'll add another fixing method which is more unstable but works as well.

Q: Will I be able to overclock my GPU like everyone else?
A: Most probably - no. Since power management is defective on our GPUs, keeping the card stable at higher clocks is somewhat an adventure. I managed to get a stable OC of around 5% (from 1058 MHz to 1110 MHz boost clock on my GTX 690) instead of a possible OC of 14% of a non-defective card (from 1058 MHz to 1202 MHz), but I'm running things stock anyway to avoid any further damage to my video card. That's what I would advise others to do as well. Memory clock OC seems safe though, so you can experiment with that at your will.

Q: My TDP on idle is too high for my liking.
A: As I explained in the post, our GPUs are most probably reading the power values wrong due to a defective part of the video card, therefore you should not worry about incorrect TDP readings as long as your card works as intended - doesn't crash on stress tests, doesn't have artifacts and etc. FYI my GTX 690 is showing 100+% TDP on idle and around 60% on load, but my GPU still functions as expected.

Q: I'm using a Maxwell based video card (list of Maxwell GPUs), will this work for my card?
A: I don't see a reason why it shouldn't, just use Maxwell BIOS Tweaker II instead of KBT.

Modified working BIOSes (might not work for you even if you have the same model! Use these as an example then):

Spoiler

• GTX 690 (GPU1): Google Drive, MEGA. (EVGA, before 300+% TDP, after 50-100%, OC very unstable - unrecommended)
• GTX 660 Ti: Google Drive (EVGA SC). (thanks to Dr. Robot)
• GTX 660: Google Drive (EVGA). (thank to Jensen) (before 300+% TDP, after ~100%)

Hopefully this will help people who still own these old Kepler GPUs and wanna use or sell them, because they're certainly not dead yet! Also, if there already is such tutorial anywhere, please link me, because I couldn't find any fixes regarding this issue.
If you succeeded in fixing your GPU, please PM me with a download link of your modified BIOS and some info (model, what was your power % before modifying, power % after modifying, maximum safe overclock if you tested). Thank you!

 

[Dr. Robot]

I've Overclocked mine card and it worked normaly.
Here it's mine bios version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5LqMONhqVXieUpodGEzbGwxdlk/view?usp=sharing for GTX 660 Ti Superclocked EVGA.

Hope it can help someone.

Thanks @quadlt

 

[Jensen]

Hi All NVIDIA Fans,

My GTX 660 EVGA Reference Cooler 2GB 192 Bit (GPU Clock 993 Mhz / Boost 1059 Mhz / Memory 1502) also have same issues. The clockspeed was locked at 324Mhz. After following the instructions above and tested almost 18 modified ROMS, luckily after I was able to get the perfect combination of power table - see results below

Screenshot idle speed with high TDP in GPUZ - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwLf7lxvIzZ0S3habXpfcWI4Wjg/view?usp=sharing

Screenshot 17 failed ROM - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwLf7lxvIzZ0ZXpoWmlGRGZGSE0/view?usp=sharing

My Modified ROM with 100% TDP - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwLf7lxvIzZ0ZWFXdEl0N2JWZzg/view?usp=sharing

Screenshot normal clock in GPUZ - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwLf7lxvIzZ0QmZWM21wS1pkUlk/view?usp=sharing

Benchmark using MSI Kombustor 3 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwLf7lxvIzZ0M1J2VWFDNVdSMFU/view?usp=sharing

I would like to thank the author of this post you save my day !!!

Thanks @quadlt

 

[Caloss2]

Whale eye beef hooked, said the Irish gentleman !
Only blood worked, a power surge took my old gtx 680 (I was running in sli with a 670 found the guide here DifferentSLI) so was left with just the 670 I was pairing it with, looks like I'm back in business.


Massive kudos to the OP

 

[quadlt]

Whale eye beef hooked, said the Irish gentleman !
Only blood worked, a power surge took my old gtx 680 (I was running in sli with a 670 found the guide here DifferentSLI) so was left with just the 670 I was pairing it with, looks like I'm back in business.


Massive kudos to the OP

You're welcome. Could you share your BIOS via PM? I'd really appreciate that!

 

[Artas1984]

So to point out specifically, what's up with the Kepler video cards - is it the fact that the core clock won't go below 324 MHz on idle or that it will not go beyond 324 MHz even when at full load?

 

[smoka]

Hello nVidia lovers!

All across the internet you can find various people with their GPUs (mostly Kepler series) having a very high Power usage on idle, thus freezing the card's clock speeds making it a useless piece of hardware. Some of the threads here:

Spoiler

• http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/gtx660ti-clock-stuck-at-idle-freq-324mhz.221410/
• http://forums.evga.com/gtx-660-core-clock-won39t-go-over-324-mhz-m2181360.aspx
• https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/737355/gtx-690-stuck-at-324mhz-and-perfcap-pwr/
• http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2095162/gtx-640-stuck-324-clock-budge.html
• http://forums.evga.com/gtx-670-stuck-at-324-mhz-m1760366.aspx
• https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/520236/gtx-680-stuck-at-324mhz-out-of-the-box/

Same problem occurred to me when I bought a used GTX 690 and noticed it was throttling as hell in Multi-GPU mode, but all fine in Single-GPU. Sure enough, my Power % in Afterburner was skyrocketing to 300+% and GPU clocks stayed frozen at 324 MHz (default idle clock speed for Kepler GPUs AFAIK). As I ventured into searching for a fix, I was disappointed with all the threads ending up dead or with RMAs by the owners. Of course, I cannot RMA my card because not only it's now 4 years old, I also don't have any papers for it. Before finally giving up, I tried playing around with clock speeds with Kepler BIOS Tweaker and to my surprise, the dead GPU started functioning and while it was very unstable, it meant that the card is certainly not dead, just defective.
TL;DR Endless hours of modifying BIOSes and restarting after each flash resulted in a perfectly (well, semi) working GTX 690 (notice the spiky GPU1 Power %). You also have a (old) card that suffers from the same problem? Let's fix it! Tools you'll need:

Spoiler

1. Kepler BIOS Tweaker (for modifying Power usage of the GPU) (from here on referred as KBT)
2. Maxwell BIOS Tweaker II (works the same as KBT, but for Maxwell based GPUs)
3. NVFlash (they've updated it on June 6th, I've used an older version in case anything fails) (for flashing our modified BIOS)
4. MSI Afterburner (@Guru3D) or your favorite GPU monitoring software.
5. MSI Kombustor (@Geeks3D) or your favorite GPU benchmark software. (TUTORIAL FOR SLI SUPPORT IN KOMBUSTOR)

WARNING!!! Our broken GPUs are already unstable and we will additionally proceed to flash an unstable BIOS. I am not responsible for any damage caused to your hardware while modifying using my method. Flash at your own risk!

1. Alright, once we have all the tools, let's get a BIOS to work with. There are two ways of getting the BIOS you need:
   1. Downloading off TechPowerUp's VGA Bios Database. Just use the filters until you find your card. NOTE: You don't have to necessarily use the BIOS of your card's vendor (for ex. ASUS BIOS on ASUS GTX 690), you can use any vendor's BIOS as long as they use same clock speeds as your GPU (for ex. I'm using EVGA's BIOS on my ASUS GTX 690)
   2. Using NVFlash to backup your current BIOS (you can modify it as well). Here's how to:
      Spoiler

      1. Boot up NVFlash by extracting it somewhere. Then hold SHIFT and press RIGHT MOUSE anywhere on blank space in the folder. You should see an option "Open command window here", press that and you're ready to play with your BIOS. If you don't see such option, re-read this step and try again. That's how you'll boot NVFlash everytime.
      2. If you're using 32-bit OS, use nvflash.exe, if 64-bit OS, use nvflash64.exe and add --list. (ex. nvflash64.exe --list). You should see something like this. I have the GTX 690 which has 2 GPUs on one card, so unless you're using same card, you should only see one GeForce GTX on your screen. NOTE: Part of my screen starts flickering after I insert various commands, so don't freak out if yours does too.
      3. If you don't see any GeForce GTX cards pop up, your GPU is probably dead and I can no longer help you in such situation. If not, continue further.
      4. The number on the very left (<0>) is an assigned ID for our GPU, we will have to use that.
      5. Type nvflash(64).exe -i(insert the ID here) --save romname.rom. Example: nvflash64.exe -i1 --save stockgpu1.rom, because my GPU1 is defective.
      6. Your screen should go black, that's normal. After some time it will come back up with your stock rom saved. Now we can continue to modifying it.

      [*]
2. Now that we have our stock BIOS, make another copy of it so you can modify one and have another as backup.
3. Open up KBT, press Open BIOS and navigate to the rom we want to modify. Here's what I see: PUUSH.
4. Go into Power Table tab and start increasing the numbers to lower the power usage. Yeah, I know it sounds stupid, but that's how it works with defective GPUs it seems. Personally, after editing, the numbers which were lower at default ended up being way higher than the numbers which were higher to begin with. Confusing, I know. Here's a screenshot comparing stock and modified BIOS for me: PUUSH. Please note that these values probably won't work for your specific GPU!
5. Press Save BIOS! You'll get surprised by how many times I forgot that and ended up rebooting without any changes...
6. Open up NVFlash. (tutorial can be found under a spoiler above) Flash the modified BIOS with this command: nvflash(64).exe -i(ID) -6 moddedrom.rom. Example: nvflash64.exe -i1 -6 EVGA.GTX690.2048.120430_1_modifiedpower.rom.
7. Screen will go black again, if it doesn't come up in a low-res 'safemode' look, press y on your keyboard to confirm flashing. Wait some time until normal screen comes back up.
8. Restart computer.
9. Use benchmarks to evaluate whether your modded BIOS works: core clock boosts normally, (on my gpu) power % starts jumping around from 50 to 100.
10. Waste your precious time by adjusting values until you get around 100% power usage in Afterburner on idle or your core clock boots up at higher than default (324MHz) and then drops to default speed.
11. Repeat steps 4-9 until you have a working GPU under stress test. Good luck.

FAQ:

Spoiler

Q: My GPU still doesn't boost properly and has high Power % after modifying the Power Table.
A: Comment bellow if you still can't get it to work and I'll add another fixing method which is more unstable but works as well.

Q: Will I be able to overclock my GPU like everyone else?
A: Most probably - no. Since power management is defective on our GPUs, keeping the card stable at higher clocks is somewhat an adventure. I managed to get a stable OC of around 5% (from 1058 MHz to 1110 MHz boost clock on my GTX 690) instead of a possible OC of 14% of a non-defective card (from 1058 MHz to 1202 MHz), but I'm running things stock anyway to avoid any further damage to my video card. That's what I would advise others to do as well. Memory clock OC seems safe though, so you can experiment with that at your will.

Q: My TDP on idle is too high for my liking.
A: As I explained in the post, our GPUs are most probably reading the power values wrong due to a defective part of the video card, therefore you should not worry about incorrect TDP readings as long as your card works as intended - doesn't crash on stress tests, doesn't have artifacts and etc. FYI my GTX 690 is showing 100+% TDP on idle and around 60% on load, but my GPU still functions as expected.

Q: I'm using a Maxwell based video card (list of Maxwell GPUs), will this work for my card?
A: I don't see a reason why it shouldn't, just use Maxwell BIOS Tweaker II instead of KBT.

Modified working BIOSes (might not work for you even if you have the same model! Use these as an example then):

Spoiler

• GTX 690 (GPU1): Google Drive, MEGA. (EVGA, before 300+% TDP, after 50-100%, OC very unstable - unrecommended)
• GTX 660 Ti: Google Drive (EVGA SC). (thanks to Dr. Robot)
• GTX 660: Google Drive (EVGA). (thank to Jensen) (before 300+% TDP, after ~100%)

Hopefully this will help people who still own these old Kepler GPUs and wanna use or sell them, because they're certainly not dead yet! Also, if there already is such tutorial anywhere, please link me, because I couldn't find any fixes regarding this issue.
If you succeeded in fixing your GPU, please PM me with a download link of your modified BIOS and some info (model, what was your power % before modifying, power % after modifying, maximum safe overclock if you tested). Thank you!

hi
after i flash my gpu first time work very well but wean i edit some volt in PCI-E from 66000 to 75000 and res restart pc the video card work but only black screen ???pls help what i do

 

[quadlt]

So to point out specifically, what's up with the Kepler video cards - is it the fact that the core clock won't go below 324 MHz on idle or that it will not go beyond 324 MHz even when at full load?

The latter. This fix is to get around the faulty power detector on the card in order to allow it to clock up normally.

hi
after i flash my gpu first time work very well but wean i edit some volt in PCI-E from 66000 to 75000 and res restart pc the video card work but only black screen ???pls help what i do

I don't own a Kepler GPU anymore unfortunately so I cannot help you out on this problem. I suspect you fu*ked up the BIOS and the card might be dead. I did warn you in the original post about playing around with bios, so it's a high possibility. Try testing the gpu on another PC. If you have a CPU with integrated graphics, just connect your display cable to the motherboard display output and the computer should work, reflash to last working BIOS and continue from there again. If you don't have an integrated GPU, use another GPU in a second PCI-E slot and connect display to that GPU, reflash to last working BIOS. (don't forget to choose the right GPU ID in NVFlash or things could go really bad!) If you don't have a spare GPU or any more PCI-E slots, you'll have to find someone else who could help you with that.

 

[Artas1984]

I don't have any Kepler GPU, nor did encounter any problem when i did my mid-range video card benchmark that had 4 Kepler video cards. I was just curious.

 

[antemrsic]

if you wanna backup original bios on your gpu, but gpu is doesnt work anymore cuz new bios ,use OnBoard gpu ,btw dont uninstall gpu from slot ,just put display to OnBoard gpu , than boot pc ,after that use Nvflash version 5.142 , if command doesnt work like before when you flashed gpu , no worries...
you will see you have 2 gpu's installed , when you are not able to flash back old Bios to gpu , use command nvflash -i2 -4 -5 -6 bios.exe then enter then back your old bios ,by the way if you didnt save old bios to files, you have to download it from this site i mean where you downloaded new bios
try that command , flash back your old gpu and Enjoy

 

[somelilboy]

I made a account to tell what I have found out. I have found the formula for the tables let me explain it. like 4 months ago i read this searching for a answer and your thing works to a point. BUT, the formula is a ratio of you faulty bios to your power in msi afterburner. For ex: your faulty crap bios has a power of 580% way wrong right? your target is 100% so what is a ratio of 580 to 100% it is 5.8 so take every single thing in your power table on your bios editor and multiply everything by 5.8 so say table 1 is 2000-60000-60000 multiply all of them by 5.8 so 11600-348000-348000 is the first tables new numbers neat right? do that for every table all the way down and thats it your new target is 100%. I assume if you wanted a target of 110% and you find your power % and ratio it out and multiply by that ratio same thing in theory should work but I know for a fact the 100% to your power % ratio will always get you 99-101 which is normal. I am so happy i finally figure this out and hope anyone looking at this thread will know from now on this is truly how you fix it. test it yourself

here is comparison so you understand
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zael6blyix38uvk/final.rom?dl=0 here is my final rom
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rvyrsjk6cuh8w09/stock.rom?dl=0 here is my backup of my stock bios
this is for gtx 970 zotac model

also for me i had to download a nvflash with certificates removed
http://www.overclock.net/t/1521334/...ypassed-for-gtx-950-960-970-980-980ti-titan-x


(Updated 2/11/2015) NVFlash v5.206.0.1 All Checks bypassed: (Use this if you want to flash BIOS from different models. Like flashing 980 BIOS onto a 970)
only could get this version only to work nvflash right other gave errors even the newest version

https://mega.co.nz/#!LxgQia4B!03HL7IxPPrNejK3emvyAKpygNJUpUvN1-ULK1apArSI

used gpu-z to get backup of my rom
nvflash --protectoff to remove bios protection
nvflash -6 nameofromhere.rom

 

[quadlt]

I made a account to tell what I have found out. I have found the formula for the tables let me explain it. like 4 months ago i read this searching for a answer and your thing works to a point. BUT, the formula is a ratio of you faulty bios to your power in msi afterburner. For ex: your faulty crap bios has a power of 580% way wrong right? your target is 100% so what is a ratio of 580 to 100% it is 5.8 so take every single thing in your power table on your bios editor and multiply everything by 5.8 so say table 1 is 2000-60000-60000 multiply all of them by 5.8 so 11600-348000-348000 is the first tables new numbers neat right? do that for every table all the way down and thats it your new target is 100%. I assume if you wanted a target of 110% and you find your power % and ratio it out and multiply by that ratio same thing in theory should work but I know for a fact the 100% to your power % ratio will always get you 99-101 which is normal. I am so happy i finally figure this out and hope anyone looking at this thread will know from now on this is truly how you fix it. test it yourself

here is comparison so you understand
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zael6blyix38uvk/final.rom?dl=0 here is my final rom
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rvyrsjk6cuh8w09/stock.rom?dl=0 here is my backup of my stock bios
this is for gtx 970 zotac model

also for me i had to download a nvflash with certificates removed
http://www.overclock.net/t/1521334/...ypassed-for-gtx-950-960-970-980-980ti-titan-x


(Updated 2/11/2015) NVFlash v5.206.0.1 All Checks bypassed: (Use this if you want to flash BIOS from different models. Like flashing 980 BIOS onto a 970)
only could get this version only to work nvflash right other gave errors even the newest version

https://mega.co.nz/#!LxgQia4B!03HL7IxPPrNejK3emvyAKpygNJUpUvN1-ULK1apArSI

used gpu-z to get backup of my rom
nvflash --protectoff to remove bios protection
nvflash -6 nameofromhere.rom

Interesting findings. They make sense, but when I was editing my 690's tables, I had to decrease numbers instead of increasing them and they had no mathematical connection to the default values (at least I think so). I literally had to adjust every single table differently to get it just right. Could've been because it's a multi GPU card or different architecture. Either way, looks like my tutorial helped you and you have a proper GPU now.

 

[PermBan]

Same problem occurred to me when I bought a used GTX 690 and noticed it was throttling as hell in Multi-GPU mode, but all fine in Single-GPU. Sure enough, my Power % in Afterburner was skyrocketing to 300+% and GPU clocks stayed frozen at 324 MHz (default idle clock speed for Kepler GPUs AFAIK). As I ventured into searching for a fix, I was disappointed with all the threads ending up dead or with RMAs by the owners. Of course, I cannot RMA my card because not only it's now 4 years old, I also don't have any papers for it. Before finally giving up, I tried playing around with clock speeds with Kepler BIOS Tweaker and to my surprise, the dead GPU started functioning and while it was very unstable, it meant that the card is certainly not dead, just defective.
TL;DR Endless hours of modifying BIOSes and restarting after each flash resulted in a perfectly (well, semi) working GTX 690 (notice the spiky GPU1 Power %). You also have a (old) card that suffers from the same problem? Let's fix it! Tools you'll need:

Few days ago happened exatly the same to me
Played max 15min in Far Cry Primal then my PC shut down and something exploded in the computer (WTF). The procesor & grapchic card was at 45*C! due to water blocks + radiator with 2 big fans.
Look at this:

 

[wurschti]

I think this a trick from nvidia to make users upgrade to newer cards. No more effective driver updates and broken cards = $ALE$! This has happened before with 9000 series that would turn of the fans and burn from overheating.
What I have also noticed is that having a 600 gen card from NVIDIA and geforce experience and using auto config you get the lowest details, even if you have a 680. I adjusted everything to High and worked flawlessly. For noobs that a big selling point, since they have no idea.

 

[PermBan]

I think this a trick from nvidia to make users upgrade to newer cards. No more effective driver updates and broken cards = $ALE$! This has happened before with 9000 series that would turn of the fans and burn from overheating.
What I have also noticed is that having a 600 gen card from NVIDIA and geforce experience and using auto config you get the lowest details, even if you have a 680. I adjusted everything to High and worked flawlessly. For noobs that a big selling point, since they have no idea.

+1000

But how to overheat f**** graphic card when big water block is on it??

 

[natr0n]

FYI furmark is garbage. Any sensible tech person knows this. You and only you killed your card by using that "software".

 

[Vya Domus]

FYI furmark is garbage. Any sensible tech person knows this. You and only you killed your card by using that "software".

It is garbage , though it's shouldn't brake a perfectly working card. If everything works as it should you would get a system shutdown/restart well before you can screw up your card.

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

It is garbage , though it's shouldn't brake a perfectly working card. If everything works as it should you would get a system shutdown/restart well before you can screw up your card.

Remember GTX 590? That thing would burst into flames with the wrong driver...

 

[Vya Domus]

Remember GTX 590? That thing would burst into flames with the wrong driver...

What I know for sure is that it would burst into flames if you overvolted it . But hey I'm sure people would never blame software for their own mistakes.

 

[PermBan]

FYI furmark is garbage....

Guys read please more carefully

Played max 15min in Far Cry Primal....

Used furmark AFTER (few hours later) my card 'gone'

 

[wurschti]

+1000

But how to overheat f**** graphic card when big water block is on it??

In this case it is worse than overheat. What happened here I suspect is overcurrent. This is deadly for electronics. Problem is, you will have to find the original broken chip and solder it. Few people do that tho.

 

[Chesster]

Hello nVidia lovers!

All across the internet you can find various people with their GPUs (mostly Kepler series) having a very high Power usage on idle, thus freezing the card's clock speeds making it a useless piece of hardware. Some of the threads here:

Spoiler

• http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/gtx660ti-clock-stuck-at-idle-freq-324mhz.221410/
• http://forums.evga.com/gtx-660-core-clock-won39t-go-over-324-mhz-m2181360.aspx
• https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/737355/gtx-690-stuck-at-324mhz-and-perfcap-pwr/
• http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2095162/gtx-640-stuck-324-clock-budge.html
• http://forums.evga.com/gtx-670-stuck-at-324-mhz-m1760366.aspx
• https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/520236/gtx-680-stuck-at-324mhz-out-of-the-box/

Same problem occurred to me when I bought a used GTX 690 and noticed it was throttling as hell in Multi-GPU mode, but all fine in Single-GPU. Sure enough, my Power % in Afterburner was skyrocketing to 300+% and GPU clocks stayed frozen at 324 MHz (default idle clock speed for Kepler GPUs AFAIK). As I ventured into searching for a fix, I was disappointed with all the threads ending up dead or with RMAs by the owners. Of course, I cannot RMA my card because not only it's now 4 years old, I also don't have any papers for it. Before finally giving up, I tried playing around with clock speeds with Kepler BIOS Tweaker and to my surprise, the dead GPU started functioning and while it was very unstable, it meant that the card is certainly not dead, just defective.
TL;DR Endless hours of modifying BIOSes and restarting after each flash resulted in a perfectly (well, semi) working GTX 690 (notice the spiky GPU1 Power %). You also have a (old) card that suffers from the same problem? Let's fix it! Tools you'll need:

Spoiler

1. Kepler BIOS Tweaker (for modifying Power usage of the GPU) (from here on referred as KBT)
2. Maxwell BIOS Tweaker II (works the same as KBT, but for Maxwell based GPUs)
3. NVFlash (they've updated it on June 6th, I've used an older version in case anything fails) (for flashing our modified BIOS)
4. MSI Afterburner (@Guru3D) or your favorite GPU monitoring software.
5. MSI Kombustor (@Geeks3D) or your favorite GPU benchmark software. (TUTORIAL FOR SLI SUPPORT IN KOMBUSTOR)

WARNING!!! Our broken GPUs are already unstable and we will additionally proceed to flash an unstable BIOS. I am not responsible for any damage caused to your hardware while modifying using my method. Flash at your own risk!

1. Alright, once we have all the tools, let's get a BIOS to work with. There are two ways of getting the BIOS you need:
   1. Downloading off TechPowerUp's VGA Bios Database. Just use the filters until you find your card. NOTE: You don't have to necessarily use the BIOS of your card's vendor (for ex. ASUS BIOS on ASUS GTX 690), you can use any vendor's BIOS as long as they use same clock speeds as your GPU (for ex. I'm using EVGA's BIOS on my ASUS GTX 690)
   2. Using NVFlash to backup your current BIOS (you can modify it as well). Here's how to:
      Spoiler

      1. Boot up NVFlash by extracting it somewhere. Then hold SHIFT and press RIGHT MOUSE anywhere on blank space in the folder. You should see an option "Open command window here", press that and you're ready to play with your BIOS. If you don't see such option, re-read this step and try again. That's how you'll boot NVFlash everytime.
      2. If you're using 32-bit OS, use nvflash.exe, if 64-bit OS, use nvflash64.exe and add --list. (ex. nvflash64.exe --list). You should see something like this. I have the GTX 690 which has 2 GPUs on one card, so unless you're using same card, you should only see one GeForce GTX on your screen. NOTE: Part of my screen starts flickering after I insert various commands, so don't freak out if yours does too.
      3. If you don't see any GeForce GTX cards pop up, your GPU is probably dead and I can no longer help you in such situation. If not, continue further.
      4. The number on the very left (<0>) is an assigned ID for our GPU, we will have to use that.
      5. Type nvflash(64).exe -i(insert the ID here) --save romname.rom. Example: nvflash64.exe -i1 --save stockgpu1.rom, because my GPU1 is defective.
      6. Your screen should go black, that's normal. After some time it will come back up with your stock rom saved. Now we can continue to modifying it.

      [*][*]
2. Now that we have our stock BIOS, make another copy of it so you can modify one and have another as backup.
3. Open up KBT, press Open BIOS and navigate to the rom we want to modify. Here's what I see: PUUSH.
4. Go into Power Table tab and start increasing the numbers to lower the power usage. Yeah, I know it sounds stupid, but that's how it works with defective GPUs it seems. Personally, after editing, the numbers which were lower at default ended up being way higher than the numbers which were higher to begin with. Confusing, I know. Here's a screenshot comparing stock and modified BIOS for me: PUUSH. Please note that these values probably won't work for your specific GPU!
5. Press Save BIOS! You'll get surprised by how many times I forgot that and ended up rebooting without any changes...
6. Open up NVFlash. (tutorial can be found under a spoiler above) Flash the modified BIOS with this command: nvflash(64).exe -i(ID) -6 moddedrom.rom. Example: nvflash64.exe -i1 -6 EVGA.GTX690.2048.120430_1_modifiedpower.rom.
7. Screen will go black again, if it doesn't come up in a low-res 'safemode' look, press y on your keyboard to confirm flashing. Wait some time until normal screen comes back up.
8. Restart computer.
9. Use benchmarks to evaluate whether your modded BIOS works: core clock boosts normally, (on my gpu) power % starts jumping around from 50 to 100.
10. Waste your precious time by adjusting values until you get around 100% power usage in Afterburner on idle or your core clock boots up at higher than default (324MHz) and then drops to default speed.
11. Repeat steps 4-9 until you have a working GPU under stress test. Good luck.

FAQ:

Spoiler

Q: My GPU still doesn't boost properly and has high Power % after modifying the Power Table.
A: Comment bellow if you still can't get it to work and I'll add another fixing method which is more unstable but works as well.

Q: Will I be able to overclock my GPU like everyone else?
A: Most probably - no. Since power management is defective on our GPUs, keeping the card stable at higher clocks is somewhat an adventure. I managed to get a stable OC of around 5% (from 1058 MHz to 1110 MHz boost clock on my GTX 690) instead of a possible OC of 14% of a non-defective card (from 1058 MHz to 1202 MHz), but I'm running things stock anyway to avoid any further damage to my video card. That's what I would advise others to do as well. Memory clock OC seems safe though, so you can experiment with that at your will.

Q: My TDP on idle is too high for my liking.
A: As I explained in the post, our GPUs are most probably reading the power values wrong due to a defective part of the video card, therefore you should not worry about incorrect TDP readings as long as your card works as intended - doesn't crash on stress tests, doesn't have artifacts and etc. FYI my GTX 690 is showing 100+% TDP on idle and around 60% on load, but my GPU still functions as expected.

Q: I'm using a Maxwell based video card (list of Maxwell GPUs), will this work for my card?
A: I don't see a reason why it shouldn't, just use Maxwell BIOS Tweaker II instead of KBT.

Modified working BIOSes (might not work for you even if you have the same model! Use these as an example then):

Spoiler

• GTX 690 (GPU1): Google Drive, MEGA. (EVGA, before 300+% TDP, after 50-100%, OC very unstable - unrecommended)
• GTX 660 Ti: Google Drive (EVGA SC). (thanks to Dr. Robot)
• GTX 660: Google Drive (EVGA). (thank to Jensen) (before 300+% TDP, after ~100%)

Hopefully this will help people who still own these old Kepler GPUs and wanna use or sell them, because they're certainly not dead yet! Also, if there already is such tutorial anywhere, please link me, because I couldn't find any fixes regarding this issue.
If you succeeded in fixing your GPU, please PM me with a download link of your modified BIOS and some info (model, what was your power % before modifying, power % after modifying, maximum safe overclock if you tested). Thank you!

Hi, I have a same problem (power tdp of 400%) for one GPU GTX 690...
Yesterday the whole day tried to correct tables of a power supply... did not bring results!
Will you help? It is possible that I that I do that incorrectly!

 

[Owoshima]

Just made an account to post that I've finally found a thread like this.

After making countless Reddit threads on the matter I am quite glad to have found this.

My issues are with my EVGA GTX 670, and the similar problems above with being locked at 324MHz with over 100% TBP when idle.
I've found I can ramp up the memory clock of my card and that will work, but I can't do the same to my core clock.

As such this is my only card and I have no money to afford a new one.

I was wondering if anyone has any specific instructions for the 670 or should it still be same, also if there are any traps/pitfalls I can avoid to make sure it makes it out alive.
Only thing I've noticed is none of the old photo links posted earlier work, as of course this is an old thread, so I'm kind of afraid of approaching this method without some confidence.

Thank you in advance, you have no idea how much I appreciate it ^_^

I also have no idea what to do with the Power Table.

 

[Owoshima]

I think the problem is with the power consumption, as it never gets detected and always shows 0.0 W in any monitoring program.

 

[Vya Domus]

You may be able to do a shunt mod to remove the power limit physically if you can't through software.