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The upcoming DC2 and Matrix cards unlocked?

Retired
Not applicable
I spoke to Dart about this just now..

Is the new cards going to work for us that use the cards for benchmarking?

In the past, the cards are almost made fool proof, and many attempts in trying to unlock them didnt work?

The Hotwire function we can dismiss, since you need to physically remove a resistor on the card in order to adjust the voltages ( to put it simple ), and by doing so the warranty is void, and a great risk of damaging the card permanently in the process.

Are there any steps taken from Asus, to make life a little more simplified for us overclockers in the upcoming models?

Or is the upcoming cards still to be associated with clams.....

The Rampage boards are unlocked..

Please share your opinions regarding this topic..

The future is about overclocking......time to establish a more contemporary way of development?
32,370 Views
12 REPLIES 12

Dartmaul
Level 12
Completely agreed with Paw.

It's time to convert Hotwire to something more than just a commercial trick.

Let us tweak voltages within some reasonable borders, like up to 1.5v on GPU and 1.85v on mem without any hardware mods required.
(we have some understanding of what is it all about and we're gonna cool our cards properly before bumping voltages)

You are afraid about rising amount of warranty cases? Here's some ideas:
Asus make awesome motherboards. Awesome because you actually get what you payed for. And no one guessed to set a limit on PCH voltage to prevent people from accidentally killing these boards.

Look at Intel. They offer some extended warranty that covers CPU death in case of overclocking. They haven't set some fancy stickers like "Designed for overclocking" on these CPUs but they actually made a step towards overclockers.

"Designed for overclocking" it's not a colorful gloving logo that indicates how incredibly fast is your card atm, it's something that actually makes it fast.

As a RIVE motherboard user and a man who's extremely excited by overclocking, I'm looking through that feature with real interest.
Also I'm considering to get a pair of R9 290x cards, make a step towards me and I'll be thankful it a way you'll like.

Arne_Saknussemm
Level 40
The 290X is clocked to within an inch of its life anyway....the high temps show that...on air there is no way they will unlock it...it would go down in history....down in flames...

Unfortunately a couple of overclockers with brains does not make a market. Most people would burn their cards with unlocked BIOS and then RMA for a freebie replacement...you guys are in the minority....the reason why I like you:D ROG Hug!

Arne Saknussemm wrote:
The 290X is clocked to within an inch of its life anyway....the high temps show that...on air there is no way they will unlock it...it would go down in history....down in history...down in flames...


You do not understand PowerTune 2.0 at all as it WANTS to run upto 95C. This is no different than NV now raising the max temp for the 780TI to 83C. If you keep it below the max temp then there is NO throttling and will attempt to run at whatever speed you set. There is quite a bit of headroom available with better cooling. I'm not going to link them but people are getting 10-20% more performance with watercooling and NO voltage tweaks. Voltage tweaks would unlock more overclocking potential (I'm not saying that it would not burn up a card but that chance remains REGARDLESS of GPU manufacturer). I'm hoping that the ROG Matrix version of the R9-290X comes with 8x8 PCIe power connectors so I can get more power into the card, but that's my want.

ROG is all about getting better tools (voltage tweaks and cooling) to let overclockers get the most out of their stuff.

Arne, look at MSI.
You have to apply to get ABX. Briliant solution how to solve "brain check" problem)

Also, who uses air cooling with such cards?:D

Hotwire is a hardware feature that allows to use mobo's VRM power to supply the GPU. It's not just unlocked BIOS

Since hotwire requares a set of ROG mobo and VGA, it's a first brain check.
2nd one can be performed through a mobo bios.
"U have brainz? U get a bios with unlocked hotwire voltage tweaks."

I wouldn't argue with you or even start this discussion if this problem wasn't already solved by some other manufacturers.

@ Razorjacked
We understand this subject well.
We're talking about some real serious overclock that isn't to be used for 24/7.
If you have a good water cooling (which we all(ROG team members) have), your GPU wouldn't heat above 50 degrees whatever you do.
So it's not about throttling or thermal\performance\cooling noise balance or whatever.
8x8 PCI powers are used to provide more amps to VRM w\o overloading the chain. Has nothing about our subject.

We're aiming at maximum possible overclock for benchmarking purpose. Just to make it clear.
We all have enough powers in our rigs to handle any game, any rendering or any other performance hungry task even w/o overclock.

So yes we may need overvolting the GPU above current limits.

Poco_OM
Level 10
"down in flames..."
🙂 Indeed.

Retired
Not applicable
yes, the cards is designed/intended for gaming/video only (i get it)..

its sad...

Many overclockers out there, that dont game at all, and get the cards strictly for that purpose..

Menthol
Level 14
Double down on Paw and Dart's statement, there are some of us that don't hard mod and use LN2, we need to have more control. We would like to brag about our all ROG rig's. A little overclock is not enough and we except the risks. At the moment we have to go to the competitors to get our GPU needs.

Retired
Not applicable
Yes, and i am sure that the brand behind the Lightning, isnt going all broke on that model in particular, in fact the second hand value is rated pretty high on that model out there, and maybe not without a reason..

Arne i dont believe the R9 290x is an inch from max (i dont know this for sure), but if i am allowed to speculate, its the cooling tecnique on those cards, that are way medieval..

10 years ago, the vga cooling, looked just about the same like i do today, and with high temps even back then (stock speeds)..

Arne_Saknussemm
Level 40
Yes well, when you're right you're right....I'm sure they could come up with a way to get more power in the hands of the competent user. The hotwire thing is a bit weird....advertising the function but then leaving the how-to to a few murky corners of the internet. I'm just saying that they're not going to leave an open voltage control on a card that is doing 95 at stock on air (or 85 for Nvidia for that matter). I'm sure, as always, it'll be a different beast with a water-cooled VRM and GPU chip.....

The MSI scheme seems a good direction ....Maybe ASUS could have a system to apply, submit card serial numbers and get BIOS to flash....card turns up in RMA gets tossed in the trash and you get an email saying nice try son...buy another one....fair enough. (if BIOS leaks out and found on dead card same deal...) seems simple enough...