Underperforming 3080ti FTW3 Ultra - Inconsistent core clock

[rocketrunner442]

I recently purchased a EVGA 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra that I’m running in HiveOS. I’ve tried various settings but can’t seem to get the card to exceed 65-75MHs for ETH. What I’m noticing is that the power consumption never seems to want to exceed 240W and the CClk doesn’t appear to be stay fixed. NBminer seems to get me the most stable results (around 70) while trex drops down to 30-50Mhs.
1100 / 2600 seem to be my most stable settings.

My card was originally on 94.02.71.80.86, but downgraded to see if that would help.

Current settings:
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12053 MB · EVGA
Micron GDDR6X · 94.02.71.80.74 · PL 100 W, 400 W, 450 W
N 470.74
kernel: 5.10.0-hiveos #83

Any advice on what might be the issue or what I can try to get closer to 85-90?

[Grea]

Have not shared temps, so first question is have you confirmed you are not power limited or thermal throttled? Run the various options in Hive Shell to get data, nvidia-info, nvtool --throttle, or nvidia-smi -q -d PERFORMANCE

fwiw: Some of these GPUs have really poor cooling. 2600 Mem is higher than necessary for a 3080TI chipset to run mid 80’s MHs full time. This one is 85-87.5MH/s, weeks at a time. T-Rex.

[rocketrunner442]

Thanks for the information and sorry for not including that temps. I didn’t think about that given the reported temps were 44C. Occasionally during the dips I see SWthrottle show up which appears to correlate with when my hashrate dips. I thought FTW3’s had good cooling but I guess my next route should be to replace the thermals.

Bios 94.02.71.80.86, PCIE Link Gen 2, PCIE Link Width 1x
Power Limit: Min 100.0 W, Default 400.0 W, Max 450.0 W, Current 305.0 W
Frequency: GFXCore 885 MHz, MEMCore 10251 MHz
Memory: Total 12053 MB, Used 5037 MB, Free 7015 MB, Micron GDDR6X
Utilization: GPU 99 %, MEM 97 %, Throttle: SWThermal
PSTATE P2, PWR 229.5 W, Temp 44 °C, Fan 80 %, RPM 2425, RPM 242

[Grea]

Can try improved airflow in that particular GPUs location.

fwiw: I’d move to 100% fans first. Fans are cheap, comparatively.

[rocketrunner442]

I moved a box fan there, and it looks like I’m hitting 84MHs now. I really appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.

[rocketrunner442]

Well, after a couple days I’ll see that throttle is really still preventing me from exceeding 85MHs. (Staying really around 82). It looks like when my card temp hits 44C, the SWthermal kicks in which seems really low. Current settings are 1150 / 2000 / 290 with fans at 100%.

Would it be worth looking into swapping the thermal pads? Maybe I need to just change the orientation of my fan?

[Grea]

I’d want feedback on the particular cooling systems ability to keep that chipset and memory cool enough, regardless of new pads. Some mixes are just bad, I have no information on yours.

I’d see if you can get a hit on your mix in this venue.

I’d post in the discord #mods-overclocks channel for input with your particular brand GPU.

If someone has documented results, go for the pads

[rocketrunner442]

I’m just using my card in an open air rig. The room is admittedly warm (~75F), but I find it odd that my card is throttling when the reported temp 45C. I assume the mem temps are approaching 90+ to kick off the throttling. I figured my card would have to hit 55-60C to get to those relative steps. Thanks for the info. I might try to pop onto the discord. The HiveOS discord?

[Grea]

#mods-overclocks on Hive Discord in particular

[mathelm]

The FTW3 has the biggest cooler on the market. I have both a XC3 and a FTW3, and unless there’s an issue with the memory thermal pads on the backplate, coolings not the issue I don’t think. I know what a huge effect the right bios makes having just updated my XC3, it went from 77 with clock as high as I could get them, to mirroring my FTW3 at same timings as the ftw3. My FTW3 is running 94.02.71.80.74 and is a 12G-P5-3967-KR, so I would consider trying that bios if it were me ( I linked the # to Tech Power Up’s download page).
But IF you do, be sure to backup your current bios, and find a video on how to with hiveos before you try. I recommend Red Panda’s.

[rocketrunner442]

I gave that bios a shot and seem to be getting the same results with hiveos reporting swthrotting when the card itself hits about 45C

[mathelm]

Would have to be a thermal pad issue then I would think. But I have no real experience with that here. The closest was the Asus 3090 I just got off of newegg shuffle. Couldn’t get above 104 mh, even though it would start at 119. Had always used the Hive AI fan control, and the 3090 was reading under 50c, but turned it off and jacked it up to 85%, and there it was, 121 mh. Point is that when tuning, jack the fan up to 100%. I now have the fans set at 75% and a case fan blowing on the backplate doing 123.6mh.

[Slxxpy]

Hey OP, not sure if this will help but if you throw this card into a Windows machine and download EVGA’s Precision X OC software you have a chance to receive a prompt to Update the Cards bios (or software) if I remember correctly. After the update, throw the GPU back in Hive and see if there are any changes. Best of luck!

[ksavage999]

I have this same card. Runs stable 88.6 Mh @281W under trex. Core:1500 Mem:2400 Fan 70 PL 300. Likely your core is too low, causing the unlocker to have to work too hard to prevent locking.

The backplate gets hot AF. Fan blowing on the backplate helps.

Also recommend repadding backplate with high quality 3mm pads. It’s any easy low risk job to do just the backplate only.

[friixiew]

I moved a box fan there, and it looks like I’m hitting 84MHs now. I really appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.

[Nhoren]

In t-rex miner u can see both temps Core and Mem temps so… U should check that bot in the CMD Prompt not HiveOS… But it’s weird. My 3080Ti FTW was at 88-96 Cº and no thermal Throtling… Ant 88-89MH/s

[rocketrunner442]

On windows yes, on linux no. I ended up re-padding my card and now the mem temps do not throttle over 92. I can mine between 85-90 on the card no problem now.