Installation
Test Rig:
Intel i7 920 LGA 1366 processor
ASRock X58 SuperComputer motherboard
Kingston HyperX DDR3-2000 3GB triple channel kit
OCZ EliteXStream 800 watt power supply
Noctua NH-U12P CPU cooler
NZXT Tempest extended midtower
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
Installation is simple, place the card in the upper PCI-E slot, plug in the power cables, boot the rig and load the drivers. If it is a replacement for another card, I recommend uninstalling the old card in the Device Manager before removing the old card.
Included on the driver disk is a cool little utility by Sparkle called SPA Tune. With all factory overclocked video cards, to get a lower clock during low-use or idle periods, which for me is most of the time, you actually have to underclock the GPU. With SPA Tune, you can push a button and underclock the GPU to “Standard Mode” which is 740mHz, or to “Green Mode”, which is 400mHz. This can go a long way towards saving energy in your rig.
The SPA Tune window also serves as a dashboard for observing clocks, temperature, and fan speed.
Overclocking
I did spend some time overclocking the P980X+ beyond the 761mHz factory overclock. Though I did get the GPU to 803mHz with stability and no artifacts, I received no performance gain to speak of. This isn’t the first video card I’ve had that was clocked to the maximum effective speed, which I greatly appreciate because I usually don’t keep my video cards overclocked, and it is nice to know that I am already getting the maximum performance.