High GPU idle temp with dual monitors

GOD'SlittleSERVANT

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jul 18, 2001
Messages
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Does anyone know how to fix this issue? With only one monitor plugged in, i get idle temps of 33. With 2 monitors plugged in, i get idle temps of 48. I tried messing with the power settings and nothing seemed to help...
 
I'm not sure why this is normal behavior, but it is. With dual monitors, (all?) cards seem to bump up their idle clockspeed. With one monitor your card may idle at 200mhz, but with two monitors it may idle at 500mhz (made up numbers). Happens with AMD cards too.
 
I assume that you only use one monitor if/when gaming? Go into the NV control panel under 3D settings and choose 'single display performance mode' from the 'multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration' option.
 
Is it bad for my card to be idling at 48 constantly?

No but is this really normal behavior? My cards downclock to the lowest setting after a short period of idle time (well on Linux at least, I can check Windows later on tonight). Are the monitors the same resolution and refresh rates? Is there an app open that could be using hardware acceleration like a browser?
 
Use adaptive power management in the control panel to fix it. Multi monitor should idle at the same clockspeeds that a single card does, but you need to either set up program profiles for adaptive power management or use that as global.
 
I just changed to single display performance mode and it really didn't change much. Right now it's at 46.

Nvidia control panel is already set to adaptive power management.

And my main monitor is a Qnix QX2710LED @ 1440p while my 2nd monitor is a Benq 24inch @ 1080p.
 
My titan is the same temp on one or 3 monitors or 2 and a cintiq wacom tablet. its the same with one monitor

it does not care even with windows 7 areo glass on the gpu use is zero. the entire time until it is time to do something.. clock speed is the same under full speed.
 
I know that with the Fermi cards it wouldn't downclock if the monitors were of different resolutions. Maybe 1440p is pushing up the requirements?
 
With two monitors plugged into DVI connections the higher idle temps are quite normal, both ATI/AMD and Nvidia cards do it.

It has something to do with the fact than the idle clock speeds stay higher, as normal single monitor idle clocks result in flickering as the single monitor clocks are too low to support the rendering of the additional monitor.
 
It's my experience that this seems to happen most often with NV cards when the displays are not identical. If you check the clocks on the card, you'll see that, when the second display is plugged in, the card will jump into 3D performance mode and just sit there. Since load is low, the temps don't crank up really bad, but they do rise considerably with the increased clock rate.

I used to deal with this issue by running Nvidia Inspector. When running the application, right click the task bar icon for it and there should be something like "power management mode" and you can manually set the power state for the GPU so that when you're just using the desktop, things will stay low clocks. However, you'll have to remember to set the power state back if you game or the GPU will just sit at low clocks and your game performance will obviously suffer.
 
It's my experience that this seems to happen most often with NV cards when the displays are not identical. If you check the clocks on the card, you'll see that, when the second display is plugged in, the card will jump into 3D performance mode and just sit there. Since load is low, the temps don't crank up really bad, but they do rise considerably with the increased clock rate.

I used to deal with this issue by running Nvidia Inspector. When running the application, right click the task bar icon for it and there should be something like "power management mode" and you can manually set the power state for the GPU so that when you're just using the desktop, things will stay low clocks. However, you'll have to remember to set the power state back if you game or the GPU will just sit at low clocks and your game performance will obviously suffer.

I rather keep the temps where they're at instead of having to change it each time I want to game. Thanks for the tip, though.

I'm going to try an HDMI cord later tonight or tomorrow.
 
I rather keep the temps where they're at instead of having to change it each time I want to game. Thanks for the tip, though.

I'm going to try an HDMI cord later tonight or tomorrow.

you can set it to change based on gpu usage or based on when an application is running, no having to mess with it every time you want to play a game.
 
Hah. I know what it is.

Your overclock on your Qnix is causing it. You are using timings that are too low. Switch to automatic timings and the problem will go away. You may need to either adjust your timings or adjust your overclock.
 
Hah. I know what it is.

Your overclock on your Qnix is causing it. You are using timings that are too low. Switch to automatic timings and the problem will go away. You may need to either adjust your timings or adjust your overclock.

lol, how do i switch to automatic timings?
 
HDMI is electrically almost identical to DVI.

You could try a DP connection as DP doesn't require the use of a RAMDAC.

When I ran dual identical monitors the slightly higher idle clocks and the resulting increase in temps happened every time the second monitor was connected with every configuration and NV card I ever had. Ironically, the use of three monitors in surround results in the same idle slock speeds as a single monitor resulting in lower idle temps than the dual monitor setup.
 
Nvidia cards often refuses to clock down and is set to a different performance state when more than one monitors are plugged in. And even if you're lucky and it doesn't do that you'll notice it'll show similar behavior when you scroll on your browse it'll cause performance states to change and that in turn increases the idle temp and the power consumed.

Nvidia inspector works as mentioned above but it isn't very polished and when starting it up it'll cause your screen to flash black, and when you want to game you'll have to switch it back.

The only way to fix this is to edit the gpu bios and change the performance states. I think state 0 is the idle clocks and when you plug in your monitor it'll jump to state 1. Just look at afterburner to see what clock your card is idling at and then match it up with the performance state, after that just adjust the max clock allowed to the same as the idle performance state.
 
Nvidia cards often refuses to clock down and is set to a different performance state when more than one monitors are plugged in. And even if you're lucky and it doesn't do that you'll notice it'll show similar behavior when you scroll on your browse it'll cause performance states to change and that in turn increases the idle temp and the power consumed.

Nvidia inspector works as mentioned above but it isn't very polished and when starting it up it'll cause your screen to flash black, and when you want to game you'll have to switch it back.

The only way to fix this is to edit the gpu bios and change the performance states. I think state 0 is the idle clocks and when you plug in your monitor it'll jump to state 1. Just look at afterburner to see what clock your card is idling at and then match it up with the performance state, after that just adjust the max clock allowed to the same as the idle performance state.

Are you using a Fermi card? This was true with Fermi but changed with Kepler. I remember the difference being quite stark because I also had 580s and when switching to Kepler GPUs, I noticed the idle states being far improved with multi monitor.

Now the OP is having some issues with this, but generally speaking, with any Kepler + GPU it will idle at idle states with single or multi monitor. My cards idle at 324 mhz, all you have to do is set the control panel to adaptive power management. If you use maximum performance sometimes it will use 3d clocks; to prevent this you need either a global setting of adaptive power management OR you need to create adaptive management program profiles for all of your system tray applications, mouse applications (such as razer/logitech/etc) and all of your browsers. If you do this your cards will idle at 324mhz with any Kepler GPU.

Note that this is with same monitors in surround or dual monitors, which is what I have experience with. If you're using non similar resolutions (with dual monitor) or if you're overclocking a monitor as mentioned above, perhaps that will change things. Fermi SLI definitely DID use 3d clocks for the most part with multi monitor. Kepler GPUs will properly idle in multi monitor if you set the control panel up properly. Again, Nvidia changed and improved the idle state management with multi monitor with the Kepler.
 
No need to consider this issue any longer. We have the same GPU (his is unlocked) and the same monitor, and the same issue. I literally just solved this problem myself the other day. His timings for his overclock on his monitor are too low. I've overclocked 2 qnix at 100Hz each off one GTX 780 at the same time. Both the DVI-D (digital) and the DVI-I (integrated digital and analog) are dual link. If I put the timings too low on either monitor it would stop idling voltage. if I got them almost high enough then it would switch to 2d voltage. Little higher, idle voltage. OP did you do the partial or full pixel clock patch? GTX 780/Ti only need partial patch. If you have an issue can't resolve can always try the DVI-I plug as well.
 
Are you using a Fermi card? This was true with Fermi but changed with Kepler. I remember the difference being quite stark because I also had 580s and when switching to Kepler GPUs, I noticed the idle states being far improved with multi monitor.

Now the OP is having some issues with this, but generally speaking, with any Kepler + GPU it will idle at idle states with single or multi monitor. My cards idle at 324 mhz, all you have to do is set the control panel to adaptive power management. If you use maximum performance sometimes it will use 3d clocks; to prevent this you need either a global setting of adaptive power management OR you need to create adaptive management program profiles for all of your system tray applications, mouse applications (such as razer/logitech/etc) and all of your browsers. If you do this your cards will idle at 324mhz with any Kepler GPU.

Note that this is with same monitors in surround or dual monitors, which is what I have experience with. If you're using non similar resolutions (with dual monitor) or if you're overclocking a monitor as mentioned above, perhaps that will change things. Fermi SLI definitely DID use 3d clocks for the most part with multi monitor. Kepler GPUs will properly idle in multi monitor if you set the control panel up properly. Again, Nvidia changed and improved the idle state management with multi monitor with the Kepler.

Yeah, I had the most issues with this when I was using my 470/580. With Kepler on my 680 I can't recall since I went single 1440p a little more than a year ago.

But if OP is overclocking his monitor or using 120hz I can definitely say it'll cause all cards, green or red, to have higher idle clocks out of the box due to the ramdac running at a higher frequency. I'm on the red team now and I'm still having this issue of it being stuck idling way above the idle clock. At this point I've given up since cards are more efficient nowadays and it isn't worth the trouble editing the bios.
 
running 2560x1440 @ 72 Hz and 1920x1080 @ 120 Hz and my 770 idles at 1085 MHz core
 
No need to consider this issue any longer. We have the same GPU (his is unlocked) and the same monitor, and the same issue. I literally just solved this problem myself the other day. His timings for his overclock on his monitor are too low. I've overclocked 2 qnix at 100Hz each off one GTX 780 at the same time. Both the DVI-D (digital) and the DVI-I (integrated digital and analog) are dual link. If I put the timings too low on either monitor it would stop idling voltage. if I got them almost high enough then it would switch to 2d voltage. Little higher, idle voltage. OP did you do the partial or full pixel clock patch? GTX 780/Ti only need partial patch. If you have an issue can't resolve can always try the DVI-I plug as well.
I did the full patch I believe. And my timing is already set to automatic on both monitors.
running 2560x1440 @ 72 Hz and 1920x1080 @ 120 Hz and my 770 idles at 1085 MHz core

I'm running 2560x1440 @ 70hz and 1920x1080 @ 120hz. My idle clock is at 836.


I'm just going to give up on this. Don't want to bother with the bios and as Agenesis stated, the cards are more efficient nowadays.
 
I did the full patch I believe. And my timing is already set to automatic on both monitors.


I'm running 2560x1440 @ 70hz and 1920x1080 @ 120hz. My idle clock is at 836.


I'm just going to give up on this. Don't want to bother with the bios and as Agenesis stated, the cards are more efficient nowadays.

You didn't need the full patch, try undoing it and doing the partial. Also check to make sure you have the latest version.

Compatibility:
Version 1.2.6 is compatible with 304.48 to 337.50. It can be used with future versions if it finds all the limits.
Test mode is not required anymore. Test mode can be disabled using this: testmode.zip
Getting started:
Run nvlddmkm-patcher.exe. (Catleap/Tempest/QNIX/X-Star users with SLI or 400/500-series GPUs: run nvlddmkm-patcher-full.exe instead.)
If all limits are found, click "Yes" to patch and sign. If a limit is not found or if multiple matches are found, the patcher needs to be updated.
Reboot.
You can then add higher refresh rates using the NVIDIA Control Panel or Custom Resolution Utility (CRU).

To restore the unpatched driver, run the patcher again and click "Yes" to restore from backup.

Known issues:
The full patch breaks HDCP support. It is only needed if the pixel clock is greater than 400 MHz with SLI or 400/500-series GPUs.
Titan and GTX 780 cards do not need the full patch for SLI.
NVIDIA cards will not reduce clock speeds when idle if the vertical blanking/total is too low.

400/500-series cards will not reduce clock speeds if the pixel clock is greater than 404 MHz.
Recent changes:
1.2.6: Updated for 337.50. Fixed SL-DVI/HDMI limit for 64-bit. Fixed SLI limits for 32-bit.
 
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