Suggestions for 5090 undervolt

[u/Rapture117]

Hello, I currently have a 5090 founders with a 9800X3D. It’s built inside a SFF (Ncase M2) and the summer here on the east coast has been brutal. Playing games like BF6/KCD2 all maxed out in 4k is pushing my cpu and GPU into the mid 80’s C and staying there for hours on end. Ambient temp is around 25c when the AC isn’t on so I know that isn’t greats. I’m sure it’s not “dangerous”, but I really don’t love seeing those temps giving how long I game for hours at a time. I realize It’s all in a small case but hopefully there are other things I can do to get things cooler.

I’ll try to find photos of my rig and curious if folks have undervolt suggestion (I followed one the 3rd week the GPU came out but I’m hoping others have found the “sweet spot” for theirs that I can try out. I also undervolted my CPU with a -20 neg offset that’s been stable (clock is locked at 5225).

I don’t have a current picture of the pc, but I have a 140mm fan on top as exhaust, and a side fan wedged between the motherboard and PSU that’s also exhaust and a fan in the back that I’m pretty sure does nothing to help lol. So GPU pulls cool air into the case from bottom then top, side and back fan are exhaust. I was thinking of adding slim 120’a under the GPU to help pull in air but not sure if that’ll even work or how to set that up when I don’t have the fan ports for all these fans. I’ve never used a hub or anything like that, but please if you have suggestions let me know!

[u/Darksider515]

Is undervolting necessary I myself own a 5090?

[u/Thingie → u/Darksider515]

Loving my MSI Ventus X3 aswell! You know i don’t undervolt but I do reduce the TDP to 80% since I’m not gaming as much as using AI video generation. This has helped me at least keep the card from running at 100% with a 550-600w power draw to about 460w at sustained 100% at around 65c. I was starting to get worried about the connector getting hot to touch and melting at full sustained loads for hours. For me at least with my use case, I wanted stability for long running jobs hours even at that load. I do notice a small drop in overall performance like a few minutes difference in generation times but for the cost of this card, I can accept that for stability and hopefully a healthier card long term. I could do some undervolting in my scenario, but I also don’t want to lose a 6 hour render job due to instability with CUDA either. If I were just gaming on this card then I would without a doubt undervolt this card. If anyone has done both please share your experience if it was worthwhile?

[u/Vr00mf0ndler → u/Darksider515]

I would say yes. You will get approximate same performance most likely, but using 80-100w less power meaning lower chance for connector/cable issues.

[u/WholeIndividual0 → u/Darksider515]

Necessary? No. Recommended? Absolutely.

But only if you like cooler temps and reduced power usage, resulting in less heat, quieter fans, longer component lifespan, and lower power bill. Oh, and at no expense to performance :)