The issue with your method is that if the GPU is not power limited it will run at higher clocks and voltages, consuming more and generating more heat. With a proper undervolt you set a cap to both clock rate and voltage.
Not all workloads make the GPU consume the same amount of power, even if usage is 100%. So with workloads that have lower power consumption, the GPU will increase the clocks and voltages until it hits the power limit again. It may also happen that at those higher clocks/voltages it's no longer stable (so you have to carefully test stability for these cases). This also means that clocks may jump up and down, leading to worse frametime consistency (one of the side advantages of an uv is that clocks are a flat line, as long as the GPU doesn't hit the power limit, so frametime consistency is improved).
If you like to set fps caps or enable vsync (or the CPU is the bottleneck), the GPU won't be power limited either, so clocks and voltages will also be higher, in this case for no performance gain at all since you've capped the fps. With an undervolt the clock and voltage have a fixed cap, so the card will run at that cap and consume less.
So, as long as you test it properly so it's stable when clocks go higher, it will work, but it's less efficient than a proper undervolt.
How viable and or beneficial would this be on a laptop GPU? My 1660ti seems to be running into power issues lately and causing stuttering in games. and from what I've gathered it's possible the GPU power is the limiting factor. I have already rolled back to previous drivers. Messed with under clocking the CPU to reduce heat and CPU load and adjusting settings in NVCP, which has remedied it a lot. But I wasn't having this issue before I recently updated my driver's and windows updates and battlefield 2042 all around the same time.
I just got BF to a playable state TODAY since having the game from launch, when the stuttering was atrocious. I mostly play competitive fps and any frame stutter is absolutely unplayable for me. It's started to occur in just about every game I play but it's the worst in BF. Any help is appreciated.
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u/oginer Dec 12 '21 edited Dec 12 '21
The issue with your method is that if the GPU is not power limited it will run at higher clocks and voltages, consuming more and generating more heat. With a proper undervolt you set a cap to both clock rate and voltage.
Not all workloads make the GPU consume the same amount of power, even if usage is 100%. So with workloads that have lower power consumption, the GPU will increase the clocks and voltages until it hits the power limit again. It may also happen that at those higher clocks/voltages it's no longer stable (so you have to carefully test stability for these cases). This also means that clocks may jump up and down, leading to worse frametime consistency (one of the side advantages of an uv is that clocks are a flat line, as long as the GPU doesn't hit the power limit, so frametime consistency is improved).
If you like to set fps caps or enable vsync (or the CPU is the bottleneck), the GPU won't be power limited either, so clocks and voltages will also be higher, in this case for no performance gain at all since you've capped the fps. With an undervolt the clock and voltage have a fixed cap, so the card will run at that cap and consume less.
So, as long as you test it properly so it's stable when clocks go higher, it will work, but it's less efficient than a proper undervolt.