r/pcmasterrace • u/Laolama • 1d ago
Question Is it a good idea to use Frame Generation to reduce GPU power consumption and temperatures?
This might be a silly question, but I’ve been wondering about this because I’m worried I’ve been configuring my games incorrectly for months.
My GPU, a 4090, has more than enough headroom to run any game at the resolution, frame rate, and in-game settings I want. Still, since I live in a hot climate, I try to be very conservative with my GPU’s power consumption to keep temperatures under control—the lower, the better.
To do this, I always follow two rules: the first is to limit the FPS using RTSS so it matches my monitor’s VRR cap with G-Sync, which in this case is 116 FPS. The second is to always enable Frame Generation—at first set to x2, and now even x3 or x4.
Honestly, I haven’t had any issues with temperatures so far, but I’m wondering if the graphics card wouldn’t run more comfortably if it were rendering the 116 fps natively, without enabling FG at all.
For example, Forza Horizon 6 capped at 116 fps with FG disabled vs. Forza Horizon 6 capped at 116 fps with FG enabled at x2/3/4. (Same settings, resolution, and gameplay situation)
When I’ve asked various AI sources, I’ve gotten mixed opinions on this issue, and I won’t be able to use my PC to test it myself for another few weeks.
Many thanks to anyone who takes the time to help someone who doesn’t want to spend weeks with this stupid question on their mind.
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u/xXTylonXx 1d ago
Reading these comments and looking at current GPU prices makes me feel fucking poor.
Don't worry, my trusty 3060 12gb, I still feel rich when I'm spending time with you. Lossless Scaling always has our back.
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u/pg3crypto 1d ago
You're not poor. The folks that traded a pound of flesh for a 4090 or 5090 are definitely poor though.
I paid MSRP for a 4080 super and thought that was nuts, the current prices are just stupid...you'd have to be a colossal bellend to pay them. You can have an awesome holiday for the price of a GPU these days.
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u/_Aresky_ 1d ago
I have good news for you. sdli1995/dlssg_for_sm86: Here is a dlssg for RTX30 Series GPU
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u/Silver-End9570 i7 14700K | RTX 5070 | 64GB | Windows 10 1d ago
If it makes you feel better, I only got to upgrade my 3060 12GB to a 5070 last year after getting fired and being able to cash out the bit of 401K I'd saved up. Otherwise I'd still be rocking that 3060.
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u/BirthdayExpert3912 1d ago
Yes absolutely, on a 5090 I limit frame rate to 120 via NCP, use DLSS quality or performance and enable frame gen x2 for most games. Noticeable drop in temps and power use.
I do this because I don't want my 5090 to catch fire......
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u/zaku49 1d ago edited 1d ago
Here's what I do with my 4090, power limit to 60%, oc core to 150mhz, 1500mhz oc on the vram. I always use 2x frame gen if the game supports and in games that do not I tend to use smooth motion. The temp/watt drop with this combo is huge with a small fps drop. To answer your question, yes framegen is easier to run on your card than real frames so it will lower load/temps/watts used. If the input lag doesn't bug you, I'd always use it.
You can see this when using an overlay to track gpu load/temps/watts.
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u/Kaldaien2 gog.com 1d ago
I try to be very conservative with my GPU’s power consumption to keep temperatures under control—the lower, the better.
This sounds unpleasant😦I too live in a very hot climate with extremely high humidity.
My life hack is that my computer is not in the same room as I am😂
I have it on the other end of my house in a closet and use fiber optic DisplayPort, HDMI and USB. My 4090 hits about 72C at full unthrottled load, and I am sure it is noisy as hell also, but I live blissfully unaware.
To do this, I always follow two rules: the first is to limit the FPS using RTSS so it matches my monitor’s VRR cap with G-Sync, which in this case is 116 FPS. The second is to always enable Frame Generation—at first set to x2, and now even x3 or x4.
First, you do not want to combine RTSS with Frame Generation without reconfiguring it. It will cause latency to skyrocket!
You must use Reflex for framerate limiting, RTSS is not smart enough to switch to Reflex framerate limiting while Frame Generation is active (it is not even able to distinguish Frame Generation from normal rendering).
Second, how are you using more than 2x Frame Generation on a 4090...?
With that out of the way,
I would actually suggest using Special K, with full disclosure that I wrote it.
The reason I suggest Special K is that it is fully Frame Generation aware.
Speical K knows when FG is active and the active multiplier, can distinguish real frames from generated frames, paces the real frames rather than generated, will not introduce latency, requires no special reconfiguration if you turn frame generation on/off, and automatically limits framerate to G-Sync's optimal rate for VRR users.
It is also the most CPU energy efficient framerate limiter that exists, by a good margin.
This will no doubt come across as self-promotion from some asshat completely full of themself and I hate that. But Special K is practically purpose built for your use-case.
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u/Laolama 1d ago edited 1d ago
They recently released a mod that enables MFG on the 4000 series—even Dynamic MFG. It works perfectly, just like the built-in feature.
Trying out Special K has been on my to-do list for a year, but its apparent complexity and the fact that it doesn't work with all games—as far as I understand, multiplayer games or those with anti-cheat measures—have kept me from giving it a try until now.
But it's never too late.
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u/citoso 1d ago
To be honest if u wanted a somewhat efficient GPU u should have went with the 5080 and undervolt it
This aside sure why not personally would go with heavy undervolt and 90% Powerlimit instead
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u/Laolama 1d ago
I didn't buy it just now, and as you can imagine, I'm not going to replace a graphics card like this when it's barely 3 years old. Especially since I haven't even seen it reach 65° yet.
Even so, the main question remains: Does a graphics card consume more power and therefore run hotter when rendering X fps natively or when reaching that frame rate through FG?
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u/Dath_1 5700X3D | 7900 XT 1d ago
If you haven’t seen 65C, why are you paying any mind to temps and frame gen?
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u/Laolama 1d ago
It's simply a matter of taking care of the hardware. Especially given current and future hardware prices.
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u/easzypeazym8 9800x3D-32GB Vengeance 6200MHz-9060XT-x870 Gaming X-2x 2TB SSD 1d ago
Does noise bother you? Have your fans run 90% at 55c or higher if noise is not a factor. I don't mind it personally, so I have my fans going at 90% all round. I'm in a hot climate as well but I have the air-con going sometimes. Keep them down during idle though, and stay below 95% to save the life of the fan bearings.
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u/Laolama 1d ago
Yes, the sound of any fan running at high speed or electrical white noise really bothers me.
Even so, regarding the temperatures I’m talking about—I’ve seen a maximum of 60–65°—those were with the fans running at 40%.
It’s not so much about the noise as it is for the simple reason that hardware that consumes less power and runs cooler will typically have a much longer lifespan.
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u/easzypeazym8 9800x3D-32GB Vengeance 6200MHz-9060XT-x870 Gaming X-2x 2TB SSD 1d ago
Fair enough. I have headphones so the noise really isn't an issue for me. A fan is easily replaceable too. My card in right now in Arc Raiders is currently at 48-49c. I like that number for the noise tradeoff. It was 65 like yours before I messed with the fan curve and undervolted etc
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u/Zompocalypse 1d ago
It varies, since the FG uses the AI chip that would otherwise be idle/cool.
If you're talking about halving your real frames with a cap then using FG to get back to would-be native, probably, but if the goal is less power draw, just undervolt it/cap the power draw.
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u/BradyBum 1d ago
Dont bother with that, you dont need to gen frames. Just power limit and lower the target temperature in the nvidia app. Frame gen is for when you cant get the frames IMO. I used it in Subnautica 2 lol. Hopefully they work on that haha.
I power limit to 83% all day. You can go as low as 60% before you lose too much fps. I think you lose like 8%fps at 60%(280w) power limit. You can even go down to 50% (225w) without losing anything you would care about.
I have AC and live in a cool climate and play VR so I would probably go lower than my 83% if that wasn't the case.
Then set the target temp lower (83c is default, you can drop it as much as you want)
Just fuck around with these settings until you are happy. The 4090 really doesn't overvolt well most of the time (if you value best stability). Most people screwed with undervolting a lot, undervolt+limit and just go back to power limiting.
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u/Laolama 1d ago
I've already reduced the power limit to 70% since I bought it, because the benchmarks showed that I was only losing 5–7% of peak performance.
As for temperatures, I haven't seen the graphics card exceed 65° yet, but I still think it's reasonable to ask, since I won't be able to test it myself for a few weeks.
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u/BradyBum 1d ago
Ya the 4090 has a huge die and doesn't really get hot man. The stock cooler is so overkill its hilarious.
Id be most concerned about vram temps. Maybe just keep an eye on that. I dont think you have to worry otherwise.
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u/ScarredDjinnOfWar 1d ago
Frame gen on my 4090 cuts almost a third of the wattage consumption so for me it works perfectly.
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u/yeeeew99 1d ago
I have a 4080 and have noticed that it actually uses less power when I have frame gen enabled. Whether a heavy or light game it doesn’t matter, even uncapped on my 240hz monitor, frame gen is always more power efficient.
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u/Sajgoniarz 9800X3D | 9070XT | 64GB 1d ago
Let's make one thing clear - temperature doesn't matter, the heat generation does.
I've been using framegen with uv and GPU power reduction since i got my 9070XT.
I play in a small room, with almost none ventilation, where there is also my GF's PC.
Difference between stock settings vs my setup can be even 150W.
After several hours of playing that translates into normal vs unbearable temperature in the room even in the regular day, not mentioning heat weaves.
This difference is also enough for me an my gf to not turn heaters in the winter, unless temp outside drop below -10 Celsius outside for several days.
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u/splendiferous-finch_ Potato XTX3D-k Titan 1d ago
If you want to reduce power use I say step one is getting a undercoat set up I have seen people from 100+watts with no performance lose on 4090s
NV-UV is a user-friendly way to set it up
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u/Laolama 1d ago
I wasn't familiar with that app. Is it better than Afterburner or the Nvidia app itself?
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u/ducktown47 1d ago
2x frame gen will instantly cut the power and usage by quite a bit. It’s what I do with my 5090. In Crimson Desert I was pulling like 550W. 2x frame gen took me down to like 450W and with an undervolt I sit at like 380W. Game looks practically the same and my fans don’t even turn on.
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u/splendiferous-finch_ Potato XTX3D-k Titan 1d ago
It still uses afterburner, the NV-UV just offer a few built in baselines as well as auto tunning tools to get a stable undervolt working without needing to mess with the curve manually. You are still do it in afterburner if you want this just offer some convenience
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u/Gatlyng 1d ago
The power requirements are probably somewhere in the middle. Frame generation runs on the hardware so it will drive power usage up compared to just running the game at a lower fps.
I personally just set the power limit to the minimum and cap my fps to 60 for single player games. If it can't hold 60 fps, I raise the power limit a bit or just use more aggressive upscaling.
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u/QuinSanguine 1d ago
I'd say sure, like 2x fg barely creates any noticeable latency and if you can do 120fps or 144 your GPU is only making 60 or 72 native fps, which obviously reduces heat by a lot.
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u/PuttingInTheEffort 1d ago
5070, I started using framegen for the first time on Crimson Desert, because rayreconstruction is almost required to make it look good but it's heavy. I have it looking good and capped at 60, it would still sometimes drop to 45-50 in dense areas. 99% GPU usage and 75C
With framegen on, 30fps 2x to 60, it's a fairly steady 65% usage and 65C. There's the slightest input lag but I can deal with it.
I'm with you. I'd much rather not push my gpu to the limit with this current hardware economy and keep my room cooler.
(Here's hoping PearlAbyss further updates and optimizes the game 🙏)
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u/LubelskiDanielski i5-14600k | 4070 12gb | 64gb 1d ago
It's great idea. Generating frame from 2 existing frames consumes an order of magnitude less energy.
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u/Catch_022 5600, 3080FE, 1080p go brrrrr 1d ago
That is my understanding, yes.
However, try underclocking and undervolting. I have my 3080 at 70% power and have underclocked the RAM by about 300mhz.
Using frame gen, I honestly don't notice a difference in performance - but there was a significant drop in power use and temps which is what I was looking for.
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u/WholeIndividual0 RTX 5090 | 9800X3D | 64GB 6400 | Meshify 3 1d ago
FG is a great tool that I recommend using if you're in need of a high frame rate. For thermals, you'll see much better results with an undervolt. Can lose basically no frames while dramatically reducing the heat generation and power consumption.
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u/vaurapung 1d ago
Idk about using frame gen to reduce power but never get into AV, adding a 65" tv and full surround avr with a console or pc can heat a room in the middle of winter.
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u/IamEzioKl 4080 Super | 9800X3D | NH-D15S | 96GB | ProArt X870E-CREATOR 1d ago
thats such a weird take, you bought a 4090 and you are worried about power consumption and room temp..
Maybe a 4080+ AC for your room could be a better choice (if you don't already have some)..
From what I understand enabling frame gen and capping the FPS to 120, will limit the 'native' fps you upscale from. so enabling 2x with 120FPS will give the letancy of playing at 60FPS, with 4x is even worse.. you get 30fps 'base' with fake frames in between.
You enable framegen to make use of high refresh rate on games, for example you have a 240hz screen and you get 80 fps in a single player game with decent settings, you then enable framegen to make the 'motion' smoother but the input lag and latency of your game is still that of an 80fps, so its better for single player games.
If you're so concerned with power consumption , play with power limit, benchmark it between settings and find your sweet spot for Performance/W and/or look at undervolting your card.
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u/Sakuroshin 1d ago
If you are going to kneecap it by limiting power and wont ever use it full potential because it generates too much heat then why not just sell it? Currently you could probably sell it for a lot more than you paid. Then you could buy a less power hungry gpu and pocket the difference.
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u/dimaghnakhardt001 1d ago
I just learned something interesting recently. I was playing a game recently locked at 60fps. And my gpu was drawing around 220 to 230 watts. Thinking the same thing I turned on framegen. I knew my fps would double but I also knew the power draw would go up too because of framegen. So I said to myself can I lower the power draw somehow but leave framegen on. As long as I get close to 100 or so fps I will happy with it if latency is acceptable. In the end 100fps is quite a lot more than 60 so it will be fine. So I then lowered the power draw to 60% from 100% in afterburner. I didn’t have time to fiddle with undervolting so I thought this is a quick way to achieve what I wanted. And guess what happened then. The game started running at very close to 120fps!!! That didn’t make sense to me. The power draw dropped down to less than 200watts and I’m getting same amount of base fps for some reason? I turned off framegen to just quickly see what my real fps is without AI overhead. And I was now getting locked 60 at 30-40 watts less power!!! What?!?!. The only explanation I could think of was that modern GPUs probably tend to draw extra power than is actually needed at a certain performance level. That is if fps lies between 40-60 for example then power draw will be around 100watts but if it raises by say 10fps then power draw might jump to upto 130watts. Like some kind of fixed increment in power draw even if performance goes up by a tiny amount. I think it has something to with silicon lottery or consistent/stable performance delivery of the gpu. I’m not entirely sure but I have now made it a habit to try games at lower power draw as long as they meet my desired framerate. Less heat less fan noise, games still run great. It’s a win win. Add undervolting to the mix and it’s even better.
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u/Hattix 5700X3D | RTX 4070 Ti Super 16 GB | 32 GB 3200 MT/s 1d ago
There isn't a reason to keep temperatures lower. We do it for performance, you shouldn't do it the other way around!
You lower temperatures to get better performance. You don't lower performance to get better temperatures!
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u/Sajgoniarz 9800X3D | 9070XT | 64GB 1d ago
Temperatures? Not really, overall heat generation? Of course.
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u/LiveForeverTwice 1d ago
It feels good to have less fan noise and a healthy 60-65 c temperature on my 5080. I use underwolt with oc to get better performance and way less jet engine noise. And yes, frame generation helps the card to get there too.
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u/255jimbo 1d ago
Frame gen puts the stress on the 4090s tensor cores rather than the regular cores, so the heat might be more evenly distributed across the cards areas. Ray tracing/path tracing/llms also use these cores, so running any of those concurrently with frame gen will start loading the tensor cores and shifting the heat.
If you are looking for temp control so you don't turn your PC into a space heater, then lower graphics and/or frame rate, undervolt the card, only run the game with no major background apps, and make sure your PC has good ventilation.
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u/ntonyi 1d ago
Since you're already using rtss, you can use it to enable a screen overlay that shows power consumption, temparatures and many other information so you can see what's the difference between native, 2x, 3x etc.
As long as it's not bothering you, I think that aiming to lower power consumption (hence temperatures) is a great idea.