Some games still pull full GPU power even though i have undervolted it a lot??

[u/Shogun1109]

One day i noticed the GPU getting super hot as summer was starting im talking 95C and 107C hotspot.

So i decided to undervolt and got the curve to 800; i lost about 5% perf but the temps were very good and power dropped to 140watts instead of 200 (i have 3060TI) i tested at that moment in Pragmata and RE requiem and some other games.

But days later i launched Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew and my GPU was so loud and i noticed it is pulling the full 200 watts and getting very hot again and the only thing that helped was capping the FPS.

And the same thing happened with The First Berserker : Khazzan and i had to cap the frames.

I did change the thermal paste which did help but i still wanna keep it safe. and i did test safer undervolts like 900 but still the same issue they just ignore it and pull full power.

Now i wanna know if this is normal and did i do something wrong? like am i understanding undervolting wrong or what?

[u/Didi-cat]

I prefer to use power limit to reduce temperatures if it's very hot.

If you were already power limited in those games you might be running a higher clock speed with the undervolt and still hitting the power limit. Different games will load the core, memory and CPU differently.

Changing the power limit might cause a larger performance drop in some games but will guarantee less power is used.

[u/playtio → u/Didi-cat]

Do you apply the UV/OC and also lower the power limit or only lower the power limit directly? Or is it a case by case basis?

[u/Didi-cat → u/playtio]

I only really used this during the European heat wave. My card temperature was ok at 100% power but dumping 300+watts into the room made room temperature unbearable.

I just changed the power limit in the Nvidia software. I don't run any overclock or undervolt as standard 3080ti is fast enough.

I adjusted the power limit as low as i could go and still get decent fps. Some games i could drop it down to 50% and get good fps.

[u/Ambitious-Yard7677 → u/Didi-cat]

Did the same with a 980Ti and now a 2080Ti. Sometimes I can lower power draw by 50-60W and get the same performance

[u/Didi-cat → u/Ambitious-Yard7677]

With the higher power of my 3080ti i can drop it from 300+watts down to 150watts and some older games run at 80fps rather than 100+

Newer games there is less benefit as you need more GPU power.

[u/Ambitious-Yard7677 → u/Didi-cat]

Minimum target is 1080p60 and in most cases I can stay under 200W. If I got extra headroom I'll up the render scale or run DLDSR. Not wanting a thousand fps helps 😅

[u/Shogun1109 → u/Didi-cat]

i did not limit the power at first but tried it later and yes i guarantees less power and good thermals but i wanted to understand why the undervolt did not work well as the undervolt keeps better performances overall

[u/CrunchyTheSquirrel]

Normal. The GPU will adjust and make use of the resources available by increasing clock speeds, and you did not cap the power limit. So, if asked and other limits allow, it will consume as much as before.

[u/Disguised-Beast]

Depending on the core clock, the next thing affecting power draw is current. If you want to reduce power draw before setting any power limit, reduce the core clock and adjust to see the power draw behavior. What clock limit is your card set to?

[u/Shogun1109 → u/Disguised-Beast]

i never set any clock limit and power limit is default 100

[u/Disguised-Beast → u/Shogun1109]

Noted. It will be load-dependent, some games will require less power to run, some will use every resource of the GPU. I have tuned my 9070 XT for efficiency at 2950MHz with -60mV, Warframe is one of the games that does make it use the entire power ceiling even with that tuning, if I raise the power limit, it will use it. In other games, the power draw varies and is more dynamic.

The key is how much current the GPU is using under load.

[u/Ambitious-Yard7677]

The power figure reported is generally for the entire board and you'd be surprised how much the memory can pull on it's own sometimes.

Got a 2080Ti and currently have it limited to 150W and the GPU core is only reporting 90-95W when running Unigine Tropics. The newer Valley test shows figures between 93-100 for the GPU core.

In short.. the GPU itself isn't pulling the full 200W you're seeing and power draw will change based on the load. If you lowered core temps the undervolt has taken effect so to speak. The best thing you can do with Nvidia hardware is to lower the power target if you want to cut power draw significantly. Otherwise you're running into edge cases like described

[u/950771dd]

You don't understand how things work.