The best way to undervolt your graphics card Leave a comment

Undervolting your GPU is the new coolness! Here's how to get started.

Undervolting your graphics card can have significant improvements in its thermal performance while maintaining a high-level performance. This also means less power draw, less heat, and potentially a longer lifespan. We recently outlined why you should (or should not) consider doing this in our previous article here. It’s usually a safe process that doesn’t damage your hardware.

Today, we‘ll show you how to reduce the power consumption of your Nvidia or AMD graphics cards. It’s free and easy to do! Watch the video below to see how to use the tool, or follow our step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: What you’ll need

We need to gather the necessary tools for this job. We know the GPU shortages are tough, but you’re going to need an Nvidia or AMD Unobtanium GPU to get this to work. Older generation graphics cards also work fine, but your mileage may differ. If you're buying a graphics card that has been overclocked from the factory, you might need to spend some time tweaking it to get the best performance out of it.

Both Nvidia and AMD GPUs follow the same general principles, but they differ slightly when it comes to the most effective applications:

• MSI Afterburner and others: This free utility tool allows you to do all the tweaking on the GPU and monitor its vitals. This is recommended more if you're using an Nvidia GPU. You can further supplement by using HWInfo64, which lets you track GPU junction memory temperatures on the RTX 3000's VRAM. If you're using an AMD graphics card, you'll also want to download AMD's Adrenalin software. It has great easy-to-use tools for this.

• Heaven Benchmark: This is a free benchmark that allows you to get real time feedback from the GPU settings.
• Your Favorite Game: Don’t forget to do tests prior to undervolting, so you can see the improvements. Be aware of temperature and clock speeds. Make sure to take note of the stock specifications for your GPU as well as the ones by the manufacturer, so you know if you're hitting the numbers when undervolt­ing.

 

Radeon RX 6600 Swft 210

Step 2: Pre-Flight Tests

Open up MSI AfterBurner and get acquainted with its different sliders and GPU performance data readouts. Here you’re going to find temperatures, power limits (battery life), memory clock speed, and core clock speeds (CPU). Yours might have different visual skin than mine.

• To run a Heaven Benchmark Pre Test: We're running a test on a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti using the Heaven Benchmark Extreme preset so we can see improvements afterward. With no overclocking, the GTX 1080 Ti will average around 1.8GHz for this GPU with temps around 84°C and then hitting 85°C after 30 minutes in a closed chassis. The GPU will also downclock itself to under 1800MHz when temperatures are high by 15hz increments. Fans are at 83%-86%, audible, but they're not alarmingly loud. Memory speeds are stable around 9752MHz. Our stock Heaven score is 7,350 (291.8 FPS). We'll compare these to our undervolted results soon.

 

Nvidia GeForce GTX 3090 EVGA FTX3 Ultra stock, HeavenBenchmark Extreme:

• After 30 minutes, temperature: 83c to 86C
• Clock speeds: 1800MHz with occasional downclocking
• Fans: 83%-86%
• Heaven Benchmark Extreme score: 7,350 with an average of 291.8 frames per second.

Step 3: Curve Editor

The curve editor: This will be the trickiest bit of the process, but after that, it gets easier. To access the curve editor in MSI Afterburner, press control + F on your keyboard. On the left (Y-axis) column, we're looking at the GPU core clock frequency; on the right (X-axis), we're looking at the voltage.

For our GPU, we see the core boost clock at 1800MHz. If we find that the curve editor falls right around 975 volts when using stock out of the box values. Your GPU will vary from one to another, so be sure to look up stats for your specific one.

You'll want to drag it to 1800MHz, and then start at 975V as a beginning point. Your numbers will vary depending on your GPU. Once you hit the checkmark in Afterburner, you should see a straight line after your selected frequency and Voltage.

These are the basics for creating a synthwave track, but remember that the curve editor can be a bit fussy when lining up the frequencies. You may need to do a little bit more tweaking than you expected.

 

Usually, when I use the “Lines” function in Afterburner, I hold CTRL and drag it down to create a new line, then raise the target frequency by clicking on the target frequency box, and then click on the checkmark to set the target frequency.

Step 4: Test, Adjust, and Test some more

Now the real fun starts. You can use Heaven Benchmark to test different curve points for frequency and voltages. If you go too far, heaven will crash. If it keeps running after testing, continue to test it in your favorite games before deciding whether it’s a reliable undervolt.

After our initial stock 1800MHz/975v starting point, we lowered the voltage to 875v and increased the frequency to 1825MHz. Here is the extreme result in Heaven Benchmark.

• Temperature: 81 degrees Celsius
• Clock speed: 1.815GHz and automatically overclocked to 1.835GHz
• Fan speed: 82%
• Heaven Benchmark score is 7,433 with an average FPS of 295.1.

The above is an improvement in performance numbers, along with slightly better thermals and lower noise. Let's take it one step further and find some really good efficiency.

Test 2: Let's target 1815MHz again, and see how the GPU performs at an even lower 800v.

• It's 74 degrees Fahrenheit
• Clock Speed: 1.8GHz Average
• Fan Speed: 74%
• Heaven Benchmark Score: 7341 With a FPS of 291.4  

The results for 800V at 1815MHz were similar to stock and thermally better than the results for 801V at 1750MHz. Fans dropped from 86 percent to 74 percent and the temperature dropped from 86 degrees Celsius to 74 degrees Celsius while maintaining the stock core clock's speeds. Our score decreased slightly (from 7350 to 7341) and our frame rate dropped (from 291.8 to 291). However, we could increase both scores by making some minor changes.

EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra

We increased the voltage to 875 volts and the frequency to 1890 MHz. We got a score of 7556 points at 300 frames per second but also brought our temperature to 80°C and our fans to 81%. It’s even more efficient than stock with better performance too if this is the route you want to take.

You'll then have to decide whether you want maximum performance gains or maximum efficiency gains or a combination of both Each individual GPU will have its own sweet spot, but this sweet spot will vary from one GPU to another. We were happy with the first set of tests we ran at 1815MHz and 850v, but the voltage could be lowered for even better thermals if needed.

These various examples can help you understand how simple changes in either the voltage or frequency can affect your performance, and how temperature affects them.

The most important thing here is to be aware of a few vital points. Stability is the most critical, followed by your other advantages.

1. It must be stable on both Heaven Benchmark and your games.
2. Check the core clock to make certain it’s hitting its target.
3. Make sure you're watching for thermals and power usage when making improvements.
4. Experiment with different voltage levels and core clock speeds to get the best results.

Undervolting AMD GPUs

If you're using an AMD GPU, you'll have access to the tools inside the Adrenaline software.

We're testing the AMD reference RX 6800 graphics card, which is custom water-cooled. The stated boost frequency for Ryzen Threadripper is typically 2105MHz but here we're given more headroom to over 2220MHz thanks to the extra cooling.

The AMD Radeon Software has a simple interface. First, go to the Performance -> Tunings tab.

You’ll have several options here. You can manually set GPU voltages just like we did with the NVIDIA GPUs. Try experimenting with just changing the voltage. After dropping from 1025mV to 893mV, we had a stable increase in performance. Temperatures, power consumption, and noise levels were lower than stock. Benchmark numbers improved and that’s just what we like to see!

You can also use Auto Undervolting from the same page. With the software, you don't always get perfect results. You may need to do some custom tuning to get the best results.

Conclusion

Fine art is often associated with some healthy science mixed into it. The exact ingredients for the optimal sweet spot will vary depending on your GPU and it’ll be up to you to figure out what works best. The proof is in the pudding: the tests and stats below can help you gauge how well your attempts at undervolted have worked. Good luck and good fun!