Hey all. I want to share all my experiences with this card so far. Like many who bought this, including me were frustrated how bad the Zotac firestorm program was and the whole thing was not near Lightning at all. Obviously Zotac didn't give me anything upon asking if I could receive the extreme version of their firestorm, so with the help of RRainbo at kingpincooling forum I did some decent mods on this card and now got all the control I need. The card component design is good, the components are very good quality and built wise I like the card. The mods should apply on both 970 and 980 Omega and Extreme models since the PCB laypout and components are the same, atleast all of these mods work on my card. All these I've confirmed working on water, haven't got a chance to test on LN2 yet.
Remember that you do all these on your own risk and I'm not responsible for any damage or anything etc etc..
Lets start then.
Step 1 - Power Limit Mod
Short sides together on each of those shunts to make power limit never stop you anymore. Easy and takes 10 minutes of your time. Like here:
Step 2 - OCP
Step 3 - VGPU and GPU PWM switching frequency
With the VGPU mod your new stock 3D voltage should be about 1.26v and goes up when resistance decreases. For switching frequency after the mod you will start around 125kohm which is about 375khz and frequency increases like this:
Good ground points on the card are mounting holes and PCI-E connectors' Ground pins. An example of that here:
Step 4 - Vmem and Memory PWM switching frequency
With the Vmem mod above your stock voltage will be about the same but obviously goes up when you lower resistance. Memory pwm switching frequency scales like on this diagram:
Stock resistance is 33Kohm and after mod you start at 28K ohm.
Step 5 - PLL Mods
The card PLL voltage is split into two separate circuits so you need to control them individually with a 50k ohm VR.
All right, now you should be all set like on my card. This way you can overcome the failure of Firestorm software and get all the primary voltages and other things high. The card has two switches at the end of the card, one is for LN2_OTP which should prevent any cold shutdown issues. I don't know what the 2nd switch is for but for LN2 I would just go with both of them flipped and not worry about it.
If you use 2 or 3 pin connectors where you plug in VRs you can instantly make the card stock or modded. A very handy method for most of us.
The only thing I haven't figured out yet is VID mod that will trigger around 300mV - 400mV increase over stock vid so around 1.55-1.6v most likely but using these you can do more than enough for Water or even subzero cooling methods
![biggrin.gif]( "biggrin.gif")
. I will edit the VID mod if I get it figured out. Be my guest and go ahead and try. Please give some comments and rep if you appreciate my efforts to bring all this to you. Many people have got frustrated with these zotac cards when you cant get power limit off nor voltages up so heres your salvation.
Remember that you do all these on your own risk and I'm not responsible for any damage or anything etc etc..
Lets start then.
Step 1 - Power Limit Mod
Short sides together on each of those shunts to make power limit never stop you anymore. Easy and takes 10 minutes of your time. Like here:
Step 2 - OCP
Step 3 - VGPU and GPU PWM switching frequency
With the VGPU mod your new stock 3D voltage should be about 1.26v and goes up when resistance decreases. For switching frequency after the mod you will start around 125kohm which is about 375khz and frequency increases like this:
Good ground points on the card are mounting holes and PCI-E connectors' Ground pins. An example of that here:
Step 4 - Vmem and Memory PWM switching frequency
With the Vmem mod above your stock voltage will be about the same but obviously goes up when you lower resistance. Memory pwm switching frequency scales like on this diagram:
Stock resistance is 33Kohm and after mod you start at 28K ohm.
Step 5 - PLL Mods
The card PLL voltage is split into two separate circuits so you need to control them individually with a 50k ohm VR.
All right, now you should be all set like on my card. This way you can overcome the failure of Firestorm software and get all the primary voltages and other things high. The card has two switches at the end of the card, one is for LN2_OTP which should prevent any cold shutdown issues. I don't know what the 2nd switch is for but for LN2 I would just go with both of them flipped and not worry about it.
If you use 2 or 3 pin connectors where you plug in VRs you can instantly make the card stock or modded. A very handy method for most of us.
The only thing I haven't figured out yet is VID mod that will trigger around 300mV - 400mV increase over stock vid so around 1.55-1.6v most likely but using these you can do more than enough for Water or even subzero cooling methods
