GPU Down-clocks itself !!

[PatXioPC]

I'm recently seeing my 1060 perform very poorly in some games and applications. Previously I set my GPU core clock to 2.1ghz by a 152 offset in MSI afterburner, and apparently reinstalled my graphics driver. then I started seeing a very poor performance (it might as well be even before I noticed), and the clock speed gets downclocked to even 1.4ghz when I benchmarked the OpenGL in CBR15, but going to other games, I see the clock standing 1.7ghz but sometimes it runs well at the clock it's supposed to run 2.1ghz.

 

THINGS I DID:

• First I thought there might be some power limitations, so I went ahead and set all the power saver features off, including in the BIOS PCIe power output. But it didn't help at all.
• In some games, the gpu usage is pretty low, so in the global 3d setting in the control panel, I let all applications use maximum bandwidth from my video card.
• Then I updated to the latest driver. 

 

Now I'm seeing very low usage in PUBG, but the core clocks at 2.0ghz, in some other AAA titles, the gpu had full utilization but it sometimes downclocks itself tp 1.7ghz. Please let me know what I'm supposed to do. I still see lower framerate than what it used to be. 

[Jimkirk363]

@PatXioPCUsually if a GPU down clocks itself its due heat and its starting to Thermal Throttle.

[PatXioPC]

2 minutes ago, jimkirk363 said:

@PatXioPCUsually if a GPU down clocks itself its due heat and its starting to Thermal Throttle.

I don't think the case here. The max heat output looks to be 70c, and that's no surprise because my MSI gaming x card has as big body as a 1080 , and almost the same twin frozer cooling design. 

[PatXioPC]

7 minutes ago, jimkirk363 said:

@PatXioPCUsually if a GPU down clocks itself its due heat and its starting to Thermal Throttle.

and it didn't even turn on the fans when it first downclocked. 

[Jimkirk363]

@PatXioPC Have a look in the software that came bundled with the card and u should be able to set the fans to come on perminantly and see if this makes any difference.

[MedievalMatt]

1 minute ago, PatXioPC said:

and it didn't even turn on the fans when it first downclocked. 

What are the power and thermal targets set at.  you could be hitting a power limit.

 

GPU Boost will also adjust the clock speed of the GPU automatically on the fly based on load.

 

Playing a game like GTA V for example on my 1070 and I see variations in GPU clock speed constantly, sometimes by a lot.  and im at 112% power, and 92C thermal limit.  GPU sits around 70c.

 

If i turn the power limit to 100%... the GPU doesnt hit its max boost clock, ever.

[PatXioPC]

2 minutes ago, jimkirk363 said:

@PatXioPC Have a look in the software that came bundled with the card and u should be able to set the fans to come on perminantly and see if this makes any difference.

I like to keep it auto because I don't really see it overheat that much but yea I did so. I basically set the max fan speed, to be expected, the temp went down to 60C gradually, but still, it isn't that cool because 10C improvement from already good 70C doesn't benefit at all, the card gets loud like a jet engine.

[Jimkirk363]

@PatXioPCIf the card is getting loud then i'd say thats a good sign its thermal throttelling

[PatXioPC]

5 minutes ago, MedievalMatt said:

What are the power and thermal targets set at.  you could be hitting a power limit.

 

GPU Boost will also adjust the clock speed of the GPU automatically on the fly based on load.

 

Playing a game like GTA V for example on my 1070 and I see variations in GPU clock speed constantly, sometimes by a lot.  and im at 112% power, and 92C thermal limit.  GPU sits around 70c.

2

If I say from the ground, I set the max power output in the BIOS to the extreme, and in the OS with the utilities, I've maxed them out as well. I don't see it overheating tho. 

 

Quote

If i turn the power limit to 100%... the GPU doesnt hit its max boost clock, ever.

 

I have set a static multiplier with the offset, but it's adaptive depending on the load it takes. It used to hit the very exact 2.1ghz mark but it doesn't for some days apparently.

[PatXioPC]

4 minutes ago, jimkirk363 said:

@PatXioPCIf the card is getting loud then i'd say thats a good sign its thermal throttelling

I didn't mention that the card naturally goes this loud, it does when I manually set the fan speed to 100%, so it's supposed to be loud like that. And that's as well my very point why I like to keep them at auto. They never even past 50% under load. 

[MedievalMatt]

1 minute ago, PatXioPC said:

If I say from the ground, I set the max power output in the BIOS to the extreme, and in the OS with the utilities, I've maxed them out as well. I don't see it overheating tho. 

 

I have set a static multiplier with the offset, but it's adaptive depending on the load it takes. It used to hit the very exact 2.1ghz mark but it doesn't for some days apparently.

the power limit is set through software.  I use MSI afterburner.

 

you also cant have a static offset be adaptive, its one or the other.  you can run something like furmark which will put a 100% constant load on the GPU and see what the clock stabilizes at.

 

My 1070 will boost up to over 2.1GHz in certain scenarios, but under a constant load like furmark i sit in the 1.9GHz range.

 

If you can, see if you can monitor the GPU power draw %.  if you never exceed 100% then you need to up the limit.  and if you are at the limit constantly, then you are power limited.

[PatXioPC]

3 minutes ago, MedievalMatt said:

If you can, see if you can monitor the GPU power draw %.  if you never exceed 100% then you need to up the limit.  and if you are at the limit constantly, then you are power limited.

So I'm hitting close to 2.1ghz but the GPU only uses 77% of its total TDP, is this supposed to be power limitation? I've set everything to draw as much power as it can. I'm running them all of a 500watt PSU, is this supposed to be a power bottleneck?

[MedievalMatt]

1 minute ago, PatXioPC said:

So I'm hitting close to 2.1ghz but the GPU only uses 77% of its total TDP, is this supposed to be power limitation? I've set everything to draw as much power as it can. I'm running them all of a 500watt PSU, is this supposed to be a power bottleneck?

 

that all looks 100% normal.

 

What games are you playing, and what FPS are you getting that the GPU is downclocking.

 

Ill give an example.  If i play at 144Hz, my GPU is pretty constantly at 100% load and at the max sustained boost clock (like in your screenshot).  but if i limit to 60Hz, GPU load may still be 100%, but the clock is much lower.  or the clock will be high, and the load lower.  it all depends on what is being rendered.

[PatXioPC]

2 minutes ago, MedievalMatt said:

that all looks 100% normal.

 

What games are you playing, and what FPS are you getting that the GPU is downclocking.

 

Ill give an example.  If i play at 144Hz, my GPU is pretty constantly at 100% load and at the max sustained boost clock (like in your screenshot).  but if i limit to 60Hz, GPU load may still be 100%, but the clock is much lower.  or the clock will be high, and the load lower.  it all depends on what is being rendered.

I don't basically play a lot of games but the ones I do are PUBG and CSGO. And in both, the gpu usage is pretty low, especially in PUBG. The usage is like 40% and the framerate is like 30-45FPS, and max 50 at 1080p high settings. In CSGO, the gpu usage is like 77%, the ave framerate is like 250fps at 1080p high.

[MedievalMatt]

Just now, PatXioPC said:

I don't basically play a lot of games but the ones I do are PUBG and CSGO. And in both, the gpu usage is pretty low, especially in PUBG. The usage is like 40% and the framerate is like 30-45FPS, and max 50 at 1080p high settings. In CSGO, the gpu usage is like 77%, the ave framerate is like 250fps at 1080p high.

what CPU do you have, you may be CPU limited.

 

if you can.  does playing at a higher resolution help things out?

[PatXioPC]

2 minutes ago, MedievalMatt said:

what CPU do you have, you may be CPU limited.

 

if you can.  does playing at a higher resolution help things out?

I have a 2700x which runs at 4.1ghz with PBO enabled, and the CPU usage is barely like 40% overall (the application uses 27-30%).

[PatXioPC]

6 minutes ago, MedievalMatt said:

if you can.  does playing at a higher resolution help things out?

my max res of my monitor is 1080p, so can't really tell.

[Mick Naughty]

4 minutes ago, PatXioPC said:

my max res of my monitor is 1080p, so can't really tell.

Scale the resolution in the game higher.

 

Normally if you test it right it will tell you want the issue. Like a power limit, voltage limit, thermal limit and no load limit. Like when I use precision x and the overlay. 

If the card works as intended in benchmarks then switch the driver and hope for the best. I normally see around 80% usage on one of my 1080's when playing at 1080p playing pubg.

[PatXioPC]

2 hours ago, Mick Naughty said:

Normally if you test it right it will tell you want the issue. Like a power limit, voltage limit, thermal limit and no load limit. Like when I use precision x and the overlay. 

If the card works as intended in benchmarks then switch the driver and hope for the best. I normally see around 80% usage on one of my 1080's when playing at 1080p playing pubg.

Well, It shouldn't really be any hardware limitations since I basically ran them fine a couple days ago on the very same hardware, but now this seems to be this weird low utilization issue. I don't really know if this is some software drivers which are limiting some bandwidth. 

 

However, when I tested with ghost recon wildlands, it just ran fine. The gpu had 100% load on it, the core was clocked at where it's supposed to be but in a lot of the other applications and games, this weird issue pops up. I've done so far everything I knew, from allowing programs to utilize max gpu bandwidth, maximizing their power output limit and so on. I don't know about the voltage tho. I don't know if I can control it at all, but I think it should scale with the frequency. 

 

I'm getting 55% usage, and 250 avg framerate in csgo, is this supposed to be normal?