RTX 3080 idles at 100+w

[Dammit45]

So i have been looking through the internet all day about this problem that has seemingly existed for over 2 years

RTX cards seem to love to idle at 100-120w even though they are supposed to idle around 30w. (i only found out i have this problem as my electricity bill was higher than normal)

The nvidia devs seem incompetent at fixing this problem

Has anyone actually even found a solution yet? I've probably tried 30 different things out of the 100 posts ive read through and none of them work.

What I have noticed so far that no one else has even mentioned yet:

When i first boot up my pc it idles at 30w, the second i hit the start button it jumps up to 100w and (sometimes) stays there.

if it does get stuck, going into task manager and closing out "windows (file) explorer" always allows my gpu to go back down to normal 30w idle and behaves as intended for a(n unknown) time.

I am on windows 11 with the latest updates as of today.

This 100w idle problem is not driver dependent. i have tried with 4 different drivers, all having the same problem.

Other than file explorer itself i have not been able to find any solution that will affect the gpu idle state.

What I have found form my limited testing is:
Number of monitors does not matter at all
refresh rate does not matter at all
resolution does not matter at all
Overlock does not matter at all
undervolt does not matter at all
any settings in msi after burner does not matter at all
bios pcie gen settings does not matter at all
a complete stock bios or modified bios does not matter at all
power management mode does not matter at all
restarting does not matter at all
asbolutely no options in nvidia control panel matter at all
I dont have Nvidia voice or whatever that app is called


All forum posts regarding this issue lead to dead ends and fizzle out with extremely limited info about anything and everything really. (was really funny to see nvidia tech support not even respond to multiple tickets about this after admitting they have no clue how to effectively troubleshoot with billions of dollars of time and money)

What ever is going on seems to be directly related to something with windows as the only way to consistently unstick my gpu (other than a reboot or temp disable gpu in device manager) is to quit file explorer and relaunch it.

Should i just dump my stupid 3080 and go with amd? anyone wanna trade for a 6900xt? anyone wanna buy my 3080? (its got a 240mm AIO)

Thank you all in advanced.
 

[GuiltySpark_]

37 minutes ago, Dammit45 said:

RTX cards seem to love to idle at 100-120w

No they don't. 

 

Do you have Prefer Maximum Performance set in NVCP? Have you wiped the system of Nvidia software/drivers with DDU? (No uninstalling the drivers normally does not count) Do you have afterburner installed or any other GPU related tweaking software installed? 

[xg32]

check rtx voice, gsync, and max performance in NVCP

[Bobbysixjp]

My 3080Ti idles at 40W, of which 5W is taken up by the RGB. 100W seems excessive. 

[Kilrah]

50ish W for my 3080, actually it seems the latest driver saved a couple, used to be 52-53 and I'm at 48 now. 

110ish W is if some software prevents it from idling, used to have that with RTX Voice/Broadcast but it's been fixed months ago.

 

Gsync might do it too IIRC.

[Montana One-Six]

My card idles at 40W-42W. 100W seems very high for idle. What are the clock speeds when your card is idle?

Could be the prefer maximum performance issue that happens with RTX cards.

 

4 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Gsync might do it too IIRC.

Using G-Sync and my card draws the same amount of power with or without G-Sync.

[GuiltySpark_]

Yep, my 3090 @ Idle (210Mhz) is using between 25 and 30W. 

[jones177]

All my 30 series cards idle at around 28 watts(210 to 240mhz). That is with the forum and YouTube open on Chrome. 

 

I think you should try the card in another system. If it is still at 100 plus watts RMA it.

[GuiltySpark_]

3 minutes ago, jones177 said:

 

 

I think you should try the card in another system. If it is still at 100 plus watts RMA it.

This. Or wipe Windows. 

 

Until then i'm convinced its software related.

[jones177]

5 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

This. Or wipe Windows. 

 

Until then i'm convinced its software related.

A mining virus?

 

There is some evil stuff out there.

[GuiltySpark_]

3 minutes ago, jones177 said:

A mining virus?

 

There is some evil stuff out there.

Yeah I mean, he's only told us the power draw so far. If something is actually using the GPU it might be easy to spot in Task Manager. 

[Dammit45]

Thank you for all the replies guys.

I have since tried DDU, a fresh wipe of windows software. I am checking task manager for GPU usage "desktop window manager" seems to spike up to 5% gpu usage semi regularly but even when it sits at 0.1% usage the wattage remains steady at 100.

I am going to try to RMA.