Weird Afterburner behavior? (undervolt)

[Mark Kaine]

I think its interfering with Nvidia drivers somehow, because this started happening around when Nvidia "officially" introduced their "perfomance / overclocking" features (does anyone actually use that lol?)

Anyways, so when i apply an undervolt profile in afterburner, lets say 2010mhz @ 1.012v… what happens usually is it'll jump to 2040mhz @ 1.012v…

 

Thats much too high and not stable in some games, and also obviously not what i set it to…

It seems to depend on temps too, a few C more and it'll put it to 2030mhz or something, weirdly it also doesnt seem to affect all profiles, i think its really a temp thing, but still annoying and inconsistent.

 

I need some ideas how to fix this, tried several afterburner versions and the Nvidia  "perfomance" stuff is off, when I turn it on it gets even worse sometimes, overwriting Afterburner fan curves, etc. 

[BetteBalterZen]

13 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

I think its interfering with Nvidia drivers somehow, because this started happening around when Nvidia "officially" introduced their "perfomance / overclocking" features (does anyone actually use that lol?)

Anyways, so when i apply an undervolt profile in afterburner, lets say 2010mhz @ 1.012v… what happens usually is it'll jump to 2040mhz @ 1.012v…

 

Thats much too high and not stable in some games, and also obviously not what i set it to…

It seems to depend on temps too, a few C more and it'll put it to 2030mhz or something, weirdly it also doesnt seem to affect all profiles, i think its really a temp thing, but still annoying and inconsistent.

 

I need some ideas how to fix this, tried several afterburner versions and the Nvidia  "perfomance" stuff is off, when I turn it on it gets even worse sometimes, overwriting Afterburner fan curves, etc. 

It's just GPU Boost doing its thing. I don't think you can do anything about it. Give it 0.05mV more and see if it's enough. 

[Mark Kaine]

4 minutes ago, BetteBalterZen said:

It's just GPU Boost doing its thing. I don't think you can do anything about it. Give it 0.05mV more and see if it's enough. 

Thats the thing, cant fix it that way. So i put more voltage, it'll just clock higher!

You're right, it sounds like a gpu boost thing, but that did not ever happen with older afterburner/drivers… so something changed, and it kinda defeats the purpose of undervolting which specifically tries to circumvent gpu boost.

 

Probably can only be fixed by some afterburner update, i suppose.

[BetteBalterZen]

3 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Thats the thing, cant fix it that way. So i put more voltage, it'll just clock higher!

You're right, it sounds like a gpu boost thing, but that did not ever happen with older afterburner/drivers… so something changed, and it kinda defeats the purpose of undervolting which specifically tries to circumvent gpu boost.

 

Probably can only be fixed by some afterburner update, i suppose.

Hmm, well, I won't claim what you say it not correct and so on, but in my experience, this is just how it works and have worked for a long time, especially with the new 3.0 GPU Boost, were the card looks at power and temps for boosting. 

I also have my 3090 undervolted and mine sometimes creeps up another 15MHz but mostly stays on 1800MHz which I have aimed for. I do however run with low fan speed, so temps near 73c. 

Try lowing your fan speed, so temps get 5c higher and then see if the MHz still goes up. Maybe your card is cooled so well that GPU Boost tries to go higher. 
If it doesn't work, and you aim for 2010, set the curve to hit 1995 at the same mV. See where it lands. 

[Mark Kaine]

1 minute ago, BetteBalterZen said:

Hmm, well, I won't claim what you say it not correct and so on, but in my experience, this is just how it works and have worked for a long time, especially with the new 3.0 GPU Boost, were the card looks at power and temps for boosting. 

I also have my 3090 undervolted and mine sometimes creeps up another 15MHz but mostly stays on 1800MHz which I have aimed for. I do however run with low fan speed, so temps near 73c. 

Try lowing your fan speed, so temps get 5c higher and then see if the MHz still goes up. 

Whats really odd, some profiles it doesnt do this "jump", but its inconsistent, what works today may "jump" tomorrow…

 

But, as said, i think you're right, its mostly a temp thing, i just think its a bug how afterburner interprets this, because it really doesnt do what it says (and it used to be very precise in my experience)

 

Example A, @ "2010mhz" 

 

Example B, now also @ "2010mhz" (that one said 2040 when i made this topic)

 

 

Same temps, etc, but clocks much higher…  lol?

 

Not a big problem , until it'll go even higher… i guess. But really i dont like the inconsistency. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

 

[BetteBalterZen]

2 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Whats really odd, some profiles it doesnt do this "jump", but its inconsistent, what works today may "jump" tomorrow…

 

But, as said, i think you're right, its mostly a temp thing, i just think its a bug how afterburner interprets this, because it really doesnt do what it says (and it used to be very precise in my experience)

 

Example A, @ "2010mhz" 

 

Example B, now also @ "2010mhz" (that one said 2040 when i made this topic)

 

 

Same temps, etc, but clocks much higher…  lol?

 

Not a big problem , until it'll go even higher… i guess. But really i dont like the inconsistency. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

 

I see... Yes, it is kind weird with the inconsistency - probably is temp related. 

If you have a graphics card with a "Performance" and "Quiet" BIOS, try the Quiet - so the temps gets hotter - see if the "jumps" disappears.