GPU Zotac GTX 1080 Mini

[archijs]

It was meee :-)



do you have the hdmi audio disabled problem after flashing?
Are the fans at 0 rpm at idle?

Thanks archijs for your brave soul :-)

About hdmi - dont know. To be honest never even plugged in a hdmi in this pc. I looked for a hdmi cable but dont see one at home, so not a deciding factor for me.

About the fans - you can put them on 0, but i opted for 27% (not audible) so the card doesnt get hot really fast. I will probably replace the fans with Noctua ones because on full load its still a bit louder than my usual preference.

 

[archijs]

Hello! I think this will be my last update on this topic, but in short - got two A9x14 Noctua fans, mounted them on the card. The mounting is easy, and you dont need to take the aluminum block off(no need to reapply thermal paste). You simply unscrew the fans and the shroud, reconnect the new coolers and zip tie them in. A few pics:
So the noise part - the loudest these go is roughly the same as zotac fans on 50%. So would totally recommend. You dont need to reflash the BIOS, and I might return to the original one because Noctua fans on 44% are inaudible. My HDD is louder than that. You kind of start to hear them at roughly 60-65%.

As my recommendations go - replace the shitty zotac fans with noctua fans. BIOS flash is optional. It might give you the silence in desktop, but as soon as you start doing something you start hearing them again. And the temps are obviously nicer.

Thanks again for this thread everyone.

 

[Broxin]

Thank you archijis for this Thread.

@CubanLegend, you think the two fans would fit onto the card in your S4C ?

 

[CubanLegend]

Thank you archijis for this Thread.

@CubanLegend, you think the two fans would fit onto the card in your S4C ?

I don't remember who , but someone actually already did this, and they posted about it too! It did fit if i remember correctly. I actually ordered those 2 fans, the fan splitter, and extender from Noctua, I just haven't done it because the BIOS mod was quiet enough for me.

 

[dumplinknet]

Hello! I think this will be my last update on this topic, but in short - got two A9x14 Noctua fans, mounted them on the card. The mounting is easy, and you dont need to take the aluminum block off(no need to reapply thermal paste). You simply unscrew the fans and the shroud, reconnect the new coolers and zip tie them in. A few pics:
So the noise part - the loudest these go is roughly the same as zotac fans on 50%. So would totally recommend. You dont need to reflash the BIOS, and I might return to the original one because Noctua fans on 44% are inaudible. My HDD is louder than that. You kind of start to hear them at roughly 60-65%.

As my recommendations go - replace the shitty zotac fans with noctua fans. BIOS flash is optional. It might give you the silence in desktop, but as soon as you start doing something you start hearing them again. And the temps are obviously nicer.

Thanks again for this thread everyone.

To remove the fans, the heatsink must be lifted and "should" be repasted because it interferes with the pin connectors.

 

[archijs]

To remove the fans, the heatsink must be lifted and "should" be repasted because it interferes with the pin connectors.

It did not to be lifted on mine, maybe its because the other card was a 1080 instead of 1080ti? Not sure, but in the pics in the other thread teh heatpipe was right above the connectors, therefore it must be removed / repasted. On my card the pipe was not above the connectors, so I could just remove the shroud/fans and attach the new ones.

 

[Broxin]

wow, the fans in idle @44% @1335RPM @ 0% GPU Load @ 26°C GPU are VERY Loud compared to the MSI 1070. i mean wtf... why are they running at all at 0% Load... ...

EDIT:
wow, this 1080ti is build terrible:


:-/

im gonna flash it now

 

[Broxin]

ok, flashed the Zotac 1080Ti card with the EVGA one that ceski mentioned and it INSTANTLY got SUPER QUIET yayy!
i love it
HDMI Audio works also fine,
have 39 points more in TimeSpy and
the system draws 320 W instead of 380-390...

hmm weird but who would complain :-D

https://www.3dmark.com/compare/spy/4588729/spy/4587624

BIOS:
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/192366/evga-gtx1080ti-11264-170406-1

manual to flash:
https://www.overclock.net/forum/69-nvidia/1627212-how-flash-different-bios-your-1080-ti.html

in case of emergency i saved my bios and prepared an bootable usb to flash it back to normal but everything went flawless

Emergency USB:


Do in command prompt for flashing the evga to the zotac:

To turn protection off so you can flash the BIOS.

nvflash64 --protectoff

Then to backup original bios.

nvflash64 --save filename.rom

To flash bios.

nvflash64 -6 biosfilename.rom


Before:

After:

 

[CubanLegend]

ok, flashed the Zotac 1080Ti card with the EVGA one that ceski mentioned and it INSTANTLY got SUPER QUIET yayy!
i love it
HDMI Audio works also fine,
have 39 points more in TimeSpy and
the system draws 320 W instead of 380-390...

hmm weird but who would complain :-D

https://www.3dmark.com/compare/spy/4588729/spy/4587624

BIOS:
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/192366/evga-gtx1080ti-11264-170406-1

manual to flash:
https://www.overclock.net/forum/69-nvidia/1627212-how-flash-different-bios-your-1080-ti.html

in case of emergency i saved my bios and prepared an bootable usb to flash it back to normal but everything went flawless

Emergency USB:


Do in command prompt for flashing the evga to the zotac:

To turn protection off so you can flash the BIOS.

nvflash64 --protectoff

Then to backup original bios.

nvflash64 --save filename.rom

To flash bios.

nvflash64 -6 biosfilename.rom


Before:

After:

This is HUGE news! Flashing a different brand's BIOS from a card variant that also had 2 fans like our 1080 Mini, but also has 0% fan mode, AND had HDMI audio working?! I'm going to test this comparable EVGA 1080 SC BIOS on my 1080 Mini and will report back if i still had a 0% or silent fan mode, and if HDMI Audio worked for me as well!

 

[Broxin]

make yourself thatUSB recovery stick. if you brick your board then you need to connect your monitor to the intel iGPU to flash your 1080 back again.
also you need a dos version of the NVFlash tool (nvflash_5.163) for the USBStick
I used the most recent nvflash in Windows for backing up and flashing my bios (additionally i backed it up with GPU-Z)

yeah, looking forward to your feedback

look that you have the same
"Board power limit
Target: xxx W
Limit: xxx W"

 

[Broxin]

BTW, my card runs now the whole night at 100% for stress test.
no problems at all with the new bios :-)

 

[CubanLegend]

make yourself thatUSB recovery stick. if you brick your board then you need to connect your monitor to the intel iGPU to flash your 1080 back again.
also you need a dos version of the NVFlash tool (nvflash_5.163) for the USBStick
I used the most recent nvflash in Windows for backing up and flashing my bios (additionally i backed it up with GPU-Z)

yeah, looking forward to your feedback

look that you have the same
"Board power limit
Target: xxx W
Limit: xxx W"

Oh yeah i made the flash drive properly like the video had it setup, autoexec and all. thanks

Well, good news is the BIOS did flash and it did work without bricking the card at all, i didnt test the HDMI audio.. but that's because my GPU was stuck on the lowest power mode of like 138mhz core and 800 mhz mem when on the EVGA BIOS ... it wouldnt go up to stock clocks on that BIOS sadly... (for me at least), maybe it will for others? I also tried EVERY other EVGA 1080 SC BIOS that had the same power target, as i know those cards have the 0% fan mode, same issue with the GPU being stuck on the lowest power mode, it ran games but SUPER SLOW, lol.

So i went back to the AMP BIOS for my 1080, either way though... I'm okay, as i dont ever use HDMI audio over my GPU, i always use the analog audio out on the mobo or the SPDIF digital audio out.

Who knows... maybe if ZOTAC makes a 2080 or 2080Ti Mini... lets hope they may come with 0% fan modes stock this time?

BTW, my card runs now the whole night at 100% for stress test.
no problems at all with the new bios :-)

That's great news! At least the ZOTAC 1080 Ti mini guys have a good alternate bios for quieter fans, and with working HDMI audio out!

 

[Broxin]

Cuban, did you deinstall and reinstall your nvidia drivers with DDU in safe mode after flashing the bios?
there is also a guide to set the power mode in windows in registry, maybe those two things could get rid of the problem.

Powerlimit:
https://www.overclock.net/forum/69-nvidia/1627212-how-flash-different-bios-your-1080-ti.html

 

[CubanLegend]

Cuban, did you deinstall and reinstall your nvidia drivers with DDU in safe mode after flashing the bios?
there is also a guide to set the power mode in windows in registry, maybe those two things could get rid of the problem.

Powerlimit:
https://www.overclock.net/forum/69-nvidia/1627212-how-flash-different-bios-your-1080-ti.html

Hmmm... nah i didn't try that, i just flashed, rebooted, let the GPU enable itself in the device manager again automatically, then rebooted again to allow Afterburner to read the clocks and fan speeds properly... should i do the DDU uninstall in safe mode to be safe? I'll try it today and report back.

 

[Broxin]

it is written that if a swap of the bios to another manufacturer is going to be done, you have to:

• Download the newest nvidia driver​
• Download DDU​
• Disable Internet​
• Flash your GPU​
• Boot into safemode​
• Run DDU->Deinstall NVIDIA and delete the CNVIDIA folder​
• Reboot normally and install new NVIDIA Driver
  

  • Optionally: insert your desired Powerlimit into Powerlimit.bat

  @ECHO
  start cmd.exe /k "C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI\nvidia-smi.exe" -pl xxx

xxx = desired powerlimit

 

[vetch1]

I joined this forum specifically to thank @ceski for his posts regarding flashing the EVGA 1080Ti SC bios to the Zotac 1080Ti Mini.

I now have silence when the card is idling thanks to the 0% fan setting in the EVGA bios.

The new bios seems totally compatible with the 1080Ti mini, all ports work (including audio) and the power thresholds are the same.

I've undervolted the card, hitting a consistent 1900mhz at 0.950mv (consuming 230w). Maximum temp is 73 degrees in a Node 202, which I'm quite happy with. The fans are ridiculously loud though.

The next step is to see if I can cool the card more effectively and quietly.

 

[vetch1]

Hmmm... nah i didn't try that, i just flashed, rebooted, let the GPU enable itself in the device manager again automatically, then rebooted again to allow Afterburner to read the clocks and fan speeds properly... should i do the DDU uninstall in safe mode to be safe? I'll try it today and report back.

@CubanLegend, did you run the .bat file to adjust the power threshold of your card as per the link in ceski's post?

 

[Panda]

I tried flashing my 1080 Mini's bios with the one that Cuban supplied, but I also had the issue with the memory becoming "unknown" in GPU-Z and getting stuck at 405Mhz. I re-flashed the card to the one that brt02 supplied and that fixed the memory issue. I left it as is for a while, but I have a hard time not tinkering with things when I can (risks be damned). I read more of the thread about people having luck with EVGA bios in the Ti version, so I figured I'd try this again with a non-zotac bios.

I tried the above EVGA bios, but that produced the same outcome as the Zotac AMP! from before. I then re-opened brt02's link and noticed that the vbios version is "86.04.60.00.6F". I went to check if I could filter the Bios database based on that information and I was able to find several like-kind bios versions (last 2 differed). I then tried out this MSI bios version "86.04.60.00.5B" using Cuban's steps and after a reboot, GPU-Z recognized the memory properly! I started up a game, but it was terribly slow still. I decided to do a quick DDU/driver update to see if that would help and I'm happy to say that its working! The memory now ramps up as expected and I have free reign on the fan speed! I haven't tested to see if HDMI audio or anything else still works since I don't use those features.

 

[teisysadmin]

To add my personal experience with bios flashing to the discussion - I found that the EVGA SC2 ROM got my fan speed floor on my 1080ti mini down to 0% without disabling hdmi audio. Anyone having issues with their 1080ti mini bios can shoot me a PM with their email address and I'll send you the ROM that I'm using, I'm not 100% sure which link I got it from anymore.

I've been watching some videos about the 1080ti mini. Apparently it doesn't have any input filtering chokes. Does anyone know if there would be any tangible gain to DIYing in some input filtering chokes somehow?

 

[brt02]

I tried flashing my 1080 Mini's bios with the one that Cuban supplied, but I also had the issue with the memory becoming "unknown" in GPU-Z and getting stuck at 405Mhz. I re-flashed the card to the one that brt02 supplied and that fixed the memory issue. I left it as is for a while, but I have a hard time not tinkering with things when I can (risks be damned). I read more of the thread about people having luck with EVGA bios in the Ti version, so I figured I'd try this again with a non-zotac bios.

I tried the above EVGA bios, but that produced the same outcome as the Zotac AMP! from before. I then re-opened brt02's link and noticed that the vbios version is "86.04.60.00.6F". I went to check if I could filter the Bios database based on that information and I was able to find several like-kind bios versions (last 2 differed). I then tried out this MSI bios version "86.04.60.00.5B" using Cuban's steps and after a reboot, GPU-Z recognized the memory properly! I started up a game, but it was terribly slow still. I decided to do a quick DDU/driver update to see if that would help and I'm happy to say that its working! The memory now ramps up as expected and I have free reign on the fan speed! I haven't tested to see if HDMI audio or anything else still works since I don't use those features.

Thanks for letting us know.

I did notice the difference in BIOS version numbers, but after thinking I'd killed my card the first time, I decided to quit whilst i was ahead and give my heart a rest.

That MSI BIOS looks like a good match for the Zotac - no need to worry about power limits, display outputs are the same - so maybe everything will work.

Hats off to you.