How does Boost Clock work?

[kitsvanrc]

I've been running 3DMark on my PC and am a bit confused with the results I am getting.  I've looked at so many websites and these are the numbers I've found:

• Nvidia website states the RTX3090 boost clock is 1.70GHz
• The Asus website doesn't seem to list clock speed
• TechPowerUp lists 1860MHz (+10%)
• Some review sites list 1890MHz
• My 3D mark tests show clock speeds as high as 2050MHz

I haven't done any manually overclocking so I'm wondering if the Asus ROG STRIX 3090 OC just OC to whatever speed it can reach without crashing but I can't figure out what determines the Boost clock in my sample and if it's a good number.  

[Fasauceome]

Whatever Nvidia lists on the site is the advertised speed for the founders edition. Board partners like Asus will almost always advertise a different (higher) speed because they're not selling a founders edition, they're selling a different product.

 

GPU boost is part of the Nvidia driver that automatically boosts clocks if you have the thermal and power headroom to spare. In the majority of cases, you will end up automatically getting clock speeds above what is advertised, but how much you get will vary. Not all chips are made equal, and there is variance in silicon quality.

[Moonzy]

6 minutes ago, kitsvanrc said:

Nvidia website states the RTX3090 boost clock is 1.70GHz

i would assume this is the minimum boost clock

though im not sure if it's guaranteed, since there's base clock for that

 

but actual cards will boost higher than that when headrooms are available

[kitsvanrc]

6 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

Whatever Nvidia lists on the site is the advertised speed for the founders edition. Board partners like Asus will almost always advertise a different (higher) speed because they're not selling a founders edition, they're selling a different product.

 

GPU boost is part of the Nvidia driver that automatically boosts clocks if you have the thermal and power headroom to spare. In the majority of cases, you will end up automatically getting clock speeds above what is advertised, but how much you get will vary. Not all chips are made equal, and there is variance in silicon quality.

Thanks.  I understand what silicon lottery is and how it affects manual overclocking but I didn't expect there to be auto overclocking.  I wonder what the difference is then between the Asus regular 3090 ROG STRIX and the OC version.  It sounds like they would both overclock automatically.  

[Fasauceome]

8 minutes ago, kitsvanrc said:

.  I wonder what the difference is then between the Asus regular 3090 ROG STRIX and the OC version.  It sounds like they would both overclock automatically.  

Just a small differencw in binning, and maybe a different power limit setting in the card's BIOS

[kitsvanrc]

On 12/1/2020 at 5:31 AM, Fasauceome said:

Just a small differencw in binning, and maybe a different power limit setting in the card's BIOS

Thanks.  I did some searching to see how Nvidia Boost works and the explanations all seemed like it's different for every card.  The Nvidia driver takes into account the power limit, temperature and voltage (I'm not an expert so I might have some things wrong) and then just adjusts the clock on the fly.   So if this is true, it means the that non-OC and OC variants of the Asus card could perform similarly since the boost frequency is determined more by the Nvidia driver.  i.e. a good 3080 non-OC might perform the same as a 3090 OC-variant.  

[Fasauceome]

33 minutes ago, kitsvanrc said:

a good 3080 non-OC might perform the same as a 3090 OC-variant.  

Well you won't quite be getting that level of performance gap being closed unless the 3090 was under some pretty severe thermal restrictions but you definitely understand 

the general idea.