underclocking Pascal

[xorbe]

Probably not a popular topic, but I've noted something curious. 1080 + MSI AB seems to work quite well even if the power target slider lowered to 50%. In contrast, my Maxwell Titan X would stutter below 80% in order to meet the power target. I guess the new boost algorithm is better implemented.

Another note, -491 on vram is 9GHz, but -492 is 8GHz, there is a step function at that point.

Power target 60% / -250 vram seems to match my Maxwell Titan X on max Heaven 1440p while topping out at 70C, pretty incredible.

 

[kasakka]

Out of curiosity, why do this? Why not just use a cheaper card to begin with?

 

[noobferguson]

Lowers your thermals at a non-linear rate to lowered performance. I sometimes do this + frame rate cap at 90 on really long runs of non-demanding games like Civ.

 

[LFaWolf]

Out of curiosity, why do this? Why not just use a cheaper card to begin with?

Keep the card cool and lower the noise level when idle or playing non-demand game

 

[Araxie]

Keep the card cool and lower the noise level when idle or playing non-demand game

Nonsense as the card already just clock depending on the demand for both memory and clock..

You can't downclock, downvolt more of what the card already can do at 139mhz for the core and 100mhz memory at 0.625v and it will go from there up to max boost clock depending on load and horsepower needs. in light/non-demanding games as League of Legends for example the card doesn't even need to go too much above those idle clocks..

Only point I see to do this is in extreme power constrained situations which in that situation would be better served with a cheaper card that have lower power consumption.

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

Keep the card cool and lower the noise level when idle or playing non-demand game

Software does this just fine...

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

Nonsense as the card already just clock depending on the demand for both memory and clock..

You can't downclock, downvolt more of what the card already can do at 139mhz for the core and 100mhz memory at 0.625v and it will go from there up to max boost clock depending on load and horsepower needs. in light/non-demanding games as League of Legends for example the card doesn't even need to go too much above those idle clocks..

Only point I see to do this is in extreme power constrained situations which in that situation would be better served with a cheaper card that have lower power consumption.

100% correct.

 

[noobferguson]

Not exactly, since there are certain steppings that cards choose between for loads, and downclocking fine-tunes, rather than wholesale jumps to full vs. idle clocks.

Memory clock is constant.

I'll grant this doesn't result in sweeping changes, but the couple of degree differences allows me to run silent fan (or 0) without clock fluctuation.

 

[ChosenUno]

At low load Pascal cards don't seem to boost at all. I'm playing old games and the card is humming along at 1000MHz core@0.625V. Not much power/temp saved if you underclock tbh.

 

[Stev3FrencH]

At low load Pascal cards don't seem to boost at all. I'm playing old games and the card is humming along at 1000MHz core@0.625V. Not much power/temp saved if you underclock tbh.

Yep I agree here. These suckers don't need much voltage. To do what you want to do with Pascal you probably would be better off setting the power limit lower and keeping the TDP in check to keep thermals down. This way you can potentially hit max performance from time to time while keeping temps right where you want. Let GPU boost handle it basically.

 

[Dayaks]

I'd personally just prefer to cap framerate, try undervolting and letting the card do it's thing. Basically everything but the under clocking part. Even if it's running at 50% I'd a at the power to be there to eliminate any momentary dips in framerates.

I'd only do that on a mini card though for noise reasons.

 

[xorbe]

Out of curiosity, why do this? Why not just use a cheaper card to begin with?

It was just an observation. I have two cheaper 1060 cards already ... I think I'm all loaded up on Pascal now. Keeping the 650Ti / 660 / 960 for now (yeah, 6 boxes ...)