What they don't tell you about high refresh rate monitors

[InputLag]

Some background, I'm running a pretty good system. AMD 3700x, 2080 Super, 32gb of ram. Not bad right? For around 6-7 months I was running 3 1080p//60hz displays. A TV and  some monitors I had lying around. This month I got very serious about upgrading my monitors. I read so many reviews, learned so much terminology and spent hours comparing and asking for firsthand experiences. Come this week, they finally arrive. These gorgeous 1440p.165hz displays from Dell. Colors looking good for ips, set up the osd and I'm flying sky high. But something seems off, the room suddenly seems less quiet. I open up gpu-z to discover that.. wow. What is going on.

 

 

The clocks used to run in the very low triple digits, the fans never turned on unless a game was pushing the card and now it's like full speed ahead for browsing around. After many troubleshooting steps (driver reinstalls, power cycles, removing and reinserting the gpu, etc), much worrying and freaking out on the LTT tech support Discord a helpful user found me this link: https://www.evga.com/support/faq/FAQdetails.aspx?f=59708

 

 

It's the monitors. Oh no. My new fancy monitors. I quickly mess with the hz and resolution to confirm. It's true. Oh no. But wait, what is "Multi Display Power Saver"? I download NVIDIA Inspector and follow this guide: https://pcgamesbeat.blogspot.com/2012/08/enable-power-saving-mode-on-nvidia-gpus.html

The feature is on and...

 

 

Sure, the GPU clock went from about 300 at idle to 645 but functionally it seems all is back to normal. Or is it?

 

Let's take a look at this Multi Display Power Saver

 

The idea here is, it downclocks your gpu to a pretty extreme degree and you add applications/games to the lists and in doing so they're allowed to run at full speed, as you'd expect. However, this is a pain in the ass, this is not a long term solution. I'm not opening this up, navigating to an exe and adding it each and every time I want to try a game. This is PC, we get a new free full game almost daily. My Steam library is absurdly large I'm not doing this. What kills me is It worked so well before, I just don't know what to do. I wish I had been told of this not so small caveat and I really feel like NVIDIA should up their game on this. The title is totally clickbait though, this is related to LTT so that seemed like fair game.

[Moonzy]

So basically high clock speed during idle?

Yea I noticed it, I have a thread linked in my signature, maybe you can see if it's relevant

[InputLag]

29 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

So basically high clock speed during idle?

Yea I noticed it, I have a thread linked in my signature, maybe you can see if it's relevant

You have 2 good threads I responded to now. Feel like NVIDIA or whoever still has some bugs to iron out. This is in some ways a worse user experience than my near decade old 60hz displays.

[SkilledRebuilds]

Offtopic kinda but not really..

 

Dual Monitors (HDMI+DVI OR DP) on my AMD R9 290 made the idle memory clocks stay at full 3d mode 1250Mhz from 300Mhz idle.

24/7.

I got around it by using Intel iGPU for the second panel, and the dGPU only getting one signal it went back down to typical idle speeds.

[InputLag]

1 minute ago, SkilledRebuilds said:

Offtopic kinda but not really..

 

Dual Monitors (HDMI+DVI OR DP) on my AMD R9 290 made the idle memory clocks stay at full 3d mode 1250Mhz from 300Mhz idle.

24/7.

I got around it by using Intel iGPU for the second panel, and the dGPU only getting one signal it went back down to typical idle speeds.

Man, that could be neat but I don't have onboard graphics.

[InputLag]

I'm learning more. In my setup I have the 2 165hz monitors and an older 60hz TV.. I deactivated the tv and even at 165hz things are better than fine, they're as they were in my 60hz days. I believe it's either the mismatch or that I'm using HDMI. I'm leaning towards HDMI being the issue because setting the 2 165hz monitors to 60hz did not solve the issue.

[WkdPaul]

* thread moved to the Displays section *

[InputLag]

20 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

* thread moved to the Displays section *

Thanks man, I'm new and I must have missed that section.

[Doobeedoo]

Well, obviously higher resolution and refresh rate will require more from your GPU though. 

Also, wait you got 3 of those? Why? 

[InputLag]

36 minutes ago, Doobeedoo said:

Well, obviously higher resolution and refresh rate will require more from your GPU though. 

Also, wait you got 3 of those? Why? 

2 and 1 60hz tv. Because it's cool!

[Doobeedoo]

13 minutes ago, InputLag said:

2 and 1 60hz tv. Because it's cool!

Yeah, definitely it will be a bit more strenuous then a single 1080p 60Hz display reason GPU works more. Really zero reason to worry. Though still strange even with two, why not just get a single higher refresh rate though, you game on one no.

[InputLag]

1 minute ago, Doobeedoo said:

Yeah, definitely it will be a bit more strenuous then a single 1080p 60Hz display reason GPU works more. Really zero reason to worry. Though still strange even with two, why not just get a single higher refresh rate though, you game on one no.

I wanna feel the hz on my spreadsheets!!! But as I've written, the issue isn't power the issue is hdmi not playing nice with dp inputs when they're running different different refresh rates. I got an adapter to test my theory will update tomorrow.

[Doobeedoo]

6 minutes ago, InputLag said:

I wanna feel the hz on my spreadsheets!!! But as I've written, the issue isn't power the issue is hdmi not playing nice with dp inputs when they're running different different refresh rates. I got an adapter to test my theory will update tomorrow.

Hmm ok, I don't have that problem, possible a driver issues.

[InputLag]

Update: The adapter didn't do a damn thing differently. The issue actually became WORSE in general. Numbers just jumping around like crazy regardless of what is and isn't being used  So I called my gpu manufacturer (EVGA) and they said this is gonna be an RMA situation. Fingers crossed that's it, because if it isn't this is a motherboard issue and no one needs to live through that. More on my epic saga to get high refresh rates as it develops.

[InputLag]

Used the new RMA'd card. Same deal.  I spoke to someone higher up at EVGA and after he did some research he said very high clocks with some configurations of mismatched monitors is an old bug nvidia has had since the 900 series (I have a 2080 Super) and I shouldn't worry about my motherboard. He told me to contact Nvidia themselves. I did and after several useless troubleshooting steps. now I'm waiting on them. This has been such a freaking nightmare of a process, How are you gonna sell people such expensive parts and still have this kind of crap happen?

[Grabhanem]

Have you confirmed that the higher GPU clocks are actually causing higher power consumption or thermals? You're only using 40W total board power before any tweaks, which sounds pretty reasonable for a large GPU at idle.

[InputLag]

6 hours ago, Grabhanem said:

Have you confirmed that the higher GPU clocks are actually causing higher power consumption or thermals? You're only using 40W total board power before any tweaks, which sounds pretty reasonable for a large GPU at idle.

I have on thermals, the fans even need to kick up. That's what started this whole thing. Consumption is also significantly higher as you can see in the original post.

 

Update by the way, pretty major one. Just because I was doing so many clean installs I decided to re-tinker with my settings, when I got to  g-sync, just for fun I completely killed it and as it turns out that was the issue.

 

If this box is ticked on, my gpu is going into overdrive.

 

Now even with G-sync off, it seems that it still does jump around a little but functionally it's not destroying my thermals and I'd be cool with it.

 

Anyway, fix your stuff giant companies. Thank you.

[InputLag]

Look at this bullshit response Nvidia gave. Unbelievable.

[Helly]

I'm running 3 monitors here on a vega64. 1 4K60hz, 1 4k120hz and 1 1080p60hz. I haven't noticed any changes in noise or temps since adding the 120hz (its an LG gn950, vega64 cant run it at 144 ).

Never even thought about this being a thing. Makes me wonder if its an nvidia thing though....

[InputLag]

On 10/8/2020 at 6:51 AM, Helly said:

I'm running 3 monitors here on a vega64. 1 4K60hz, 1 4k120hz and 1 1080p60hz. I haven't noticed any changes in noise or temps since adding the 120hz (its an LG gn950, vega64 cant run it at 144 ).

Never even thought about this being a thing. Makes me wonder if its an nvidia thing though....

Imagine it is? What is up with that?

 

Also update: I had a galaxy brain moment when it was working sans g-sync. The monitors were also running at 60hz. At 165hz the g-sync settings don't matter. In short, I'm at square one again.

[InputLag]

I updated in another thread about a similar issue. I'm so pissed at nvidia. This experience has been such a letdown. It's normal that my computer room needs to heat up, have my case heat up even though through Inspector's power saver the gpu is more than capable of driving the 3 monitors as I'd like them? Dear Nvidia, you're failing hard here, fix your firmware.

 

 

[InputLag]

Update 3.0:

So I need the temps down and I have begrudgingly been using the power saver option in Inspector. But whenever I turn it off, screens flicker occasionally and it gives me a headache. So that means, even the solution EVGA/Nvidia is peddling is complete garbage.

[InputLag]

Update 4.0:

 

My response (Once I can navigate their maze to send a reply):

Quote

 

My guy, Josh. I can appreciate that you probably have a million tickets a day and you're busy. I get it. That being said you seemed to have overlooked a crucial component of what I was saying. So I'm going to list off exactly what is going on, what I've tried and why I believe it's an issue on your end.

 

1. The screen does not flicker using Inspector. It only flickers after I turn Inspector off. The reason I call that a flaw on your end is that clearly the card can idle and do all non-intensive tasks at low clocks just fine but won't, I assume due to some decision by nvidia.

2. Turning off g-sync doesn't do the trick at all. In fact, the only thing that does do the trick is turning Inspector on, disabling g-sync and then turning Inspector off again but that comes with the aforementioned flickering.

3. If it DID do the trick, you're telling me to use this big flagship feature I invested roughly 1500 additional dollars into I need to dig into control panel and click something on, wait for all the weird on and off the monitors need to do and then I can load a game? Yeah, that definitely sounds like a flaw on your guys' part.

4. You seem to link this issue with there being 3 monitors but I used to run 3 monitors at 1080p/60hz from this exact PC just fine. So I don't think it's an issue with the number of monitors. What also works as I've detailed before is is removing the one 1080p/60hz display from the setup.and I imagine pushing such a measly amount of pixels is basically 0 work for my gpu which again leads me back to me pointing to this as an issue on the part of nvidia and how this works whether intentional or not.

 

To sum up, I spent a lot of money here and it definitely feels like you guys are just kind of slacking on this particular use-case.

 

[SolarNova]

I'll be honest here OP.

 

I dont see the problem.

 

Your putting a higher idle load on the GPU, so yes its going to idle at a higher clock if it deems it necessary

.

You say fans ramp up, but their only at 17% (600rpm), GPU usage is 0-1%, power draw only 15w. However ur temps do seem high at 54c. Even in ur example of how it used to run ur idling at 50c due to the 0% fan mode. So what ur hearing is the fans going from 'off' to 'very slow'. I'd say ur expecting to much 'silence' if u think 17% is noisy enough to complain.

 

In the end, even if u think ur case is fine and temps are fine, and there's is absolutely nothing ur side wrong, u can just create a custom fan profile so ur fans dont ramp up, or set them to always idle at like somewhere in the region of 10-20%. Problem solved.

 

Idling at 1500mhz is nothing to worry about. And Monitors at a higher resolution and higher frequency is ofc going to put a small amount of extra idle load. Most people wont notice it, only reason u have is because ur specific model of GPU cooler has a 0 RPM fan mode that ur used to having it at all the time when browsing.

[InputLag]

9 hours ago, SolarNova said:

I'll be honest here OP.

 

I dont see the problem.

 

Your putting a higher idle load on the GPU, so yes its going to idle at a higher clock if it deems it necessary

.

You say fans ramp up, but their only at 17% (600rpm), GPU usage is 0-1%, power draw only 15w. However ur temps do seem high at 54c. Even in ur example of how it used to run ur idling at 50c due to the 0% fan mode. So what ur hearing is the fans going from 'off' to 'very slow'. I'd say ur expecting to much 'silence' if u think 17% is noisy enough to complain.

 

In the end, even if u think ur case is fine and temps are fine, and there's is absolutely nothing ur side wrong, u can just create a custom fan profile so ur fans dont ramp up, or set them to always idle at like somewhere in the region of 10-20%. Problem solved.

 

Idling at 1500mhz is nothing to worry about. And Monitors at a higher resolution and higher frequency is ofc going to put a small amount of extra idle load. Most people wont notice it, only reason u have is because ur specific model of GPU cooler has a 0 RPM fan mode that ur used to having it at all the time when browsing.

Higher is one thing, running this high is another. One additional 1080p/60hz monitor should not take it from here (with a few minor and infrequent jumps):

(2 1440p/165hz monitors running with g-sync enabled)

 

To 1500+ MHz GPU clock and 1900~ MHz Memory clock

 

My temps are high because of this unnecessary clocking up. Before this monitor upgrade/without the tv the card runs at 45 degrees with the fan off.

So I hope now you see the problem. One additional 1080p/60hz display causing this much of a clock and subsequent temp rise makes no sense.

 

Not to be rude, I do appreciate your reply but I really don't feel like you read much of this.