What are the negative effects of lowering power limit in MSI AB?

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Sparks420

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Apr 8, 2014
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My rig:
Case- NZXT Tempest 410 Elite
Mobo- Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3V Rev.1.1
HDD- Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA III 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive
Cpu- Intel Core i3 2120 Dual Core
Gpu- Geforce GTX 760 EVGA Superclocked 2gb
Ram- G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
PSU- SilverStone Strider 500W, 80 PLUS, Active PFC Power Supply

The reason I ask is after getting a new GPU my pc would crash while playing graphically demanding games so I lowered the power limit in MSI AB from 100%(Default) to 80% and everything seems to be working fine now but im just curious what are the negative effects of lowering power limit in MSI AB?
 
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Damn_Rookie
Well, depending on the card in question, lowering the power limit will limit the graphics performance of the card. If your card hits it's power limit it throttles down the GPU, lowering the core clock.

As an example, my GTX 670 card prefers a power limit of 105% when in very demanding situations (the kind where the GPU utilization is around 99%); anything lower and the dynamic boost kicks in and the core clock lowers.

The negative effects will only show up when the card is working hard, so if you're playing an older game with V-sync turned on, you probably won't notice any issue as you never get near the power limit.
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Damn_Rookie

Damn_Rookie

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Well, depending on the card in question, lowering the power limit will limit the graphics performance of the card. If your card hits it's power limit it throttles down the GPU, lowering the core clock.

As an example, my GTX 670 card prefers a power limit of 105% when in very demanding situations (the kind where the GPU utilization is around 99%); anything lower and the dynamic boost kicks in and the core clock lowers.

The negative effects will only show up when the card is working hard, so if you're playing an older game with V-sync turned on, you probably won't notice any issue as you never get near the power limit.
 
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Sparks420

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Thanks!! So my GPU isnt going to burst into flames or anything? lol I plan on upgrading to a 750w PSU next month just to be safe and for future upgrading.
 
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Damn_Rookie

Damn_Rookie

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No no, lowering it's power thankfully won't cause any flames! :) I am a little curious as to why it would crash when the power limit was still set to 100% though. What kind of temperature was it getting up to when it used to crash? Did it use to crash straight away, or was it after a certain amount of time?
 
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Sparks420

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See thats what I thought at first that is was a overheating issue so I bought a new case fan(Cause one of my case fans was no good when I first got my case but it was my first gaming pc so I was excited and didnt want to have to wait so I just left it) :p But anyway now it doesnt get over 65-70 degrees C so thats not the problem. To answer your question though the time before it crashed varied. Ive had the PSU for 2 years and being the idiot I am lol I used to leave my computer on all through the night so id imagine its lost some of its efficiency.
 
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Damn_Rookie

Damn_Rookie

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Okay, just one more question, I promise! When it used to crash, what kind of crash are we talking? Did the whole computer just turn off instantly? Did the graphics driver crash and recover, with the screen flickering or going black?
 
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Sparks420

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Nah man youre fine any help I can get is greatly appreciated. The whole computer would turn off instantly and restart.
 
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Damn_Rookie

Damn_Rookie

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Yeah, that does sound like a power supply issue rather than a graphics card one. Just wanted to make sure, as I was worried from your initial description and 'fix' that it could be due to an unstable graphics card which would need to be returned. Thankfully it sounds a lot like a power issue.

I'd say your plan of getting a new PSU is wise, although you don't need to go quite as high as 750W (unless you're planning for SLI in the future). A decent well made 500W (a seasonic or similar quality) should be able to comfortably run that current set up. But obviously, if you have big upgrade plans in mind, find a crazy good deal on a bigger capacity PSU, or would just be comfortable with more headroom, go for a higher wattage.
 
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