Thinking of undervolting my GPU.. Any thoughts?

Alanthor · Jul 17, 2014

Hi,

My gaming rig doesnt like the summer at all, lol. I had to decrease me 4.8GHz OC on my FX-4300, kinda sucks

Btw, HUGE difference in temperatures when having 1.51VCORE and 1.37VCORE, lol.

Anyways, my GPU often get's up to 75 degrees celsius, and I dont like that..

I even get artifacts sometimes a few seconds. I think that the memory is getting even hotter..
Can I undervolt a factory OC'ed GPU, or will it become unstable? Its a AMD Radeon R9 270X 2GB.

oxiide · Jul 17, 2014

It will become unstable eventually, but you may be able to drop a few mV before it loses stability. Just keep stress-testing until you find the limits. You could always lower the overclock, too if needed.

That being said, 75°C is a fairly normal GPU load temperature. If you're getting artifacts at that temperature, it may indicate a faulty card.

Kari · Jul 17, 2014

You might need to lower the clocks to compensate or it might get unstable pretty quickly. It is like overclocking in reverse

So do a little adjustment and test for stability etc...

delellod123 · Jul 17, 2014

consider adjusting fan speed to high, rather than undervaluing/underclocking. Try a new AMD driver, may have a better thermal graph

Alanthor · Jul 17, 2014

Yea, the thing is that artifacts has starting to appear sometimes. Not often, but on some maps in BF4 in comes (sometimes)

So, it could be a driver thing? I have 14.6 beta drivers atm, fan speed 100% always when gaming.
I was thinking of re-seating some new thermal compound, but if the temperatures are normal in load, then I'll probably skip it.

But what about the memory clock, I could imagine that if te GPU core is approx 70degrees celsius in load, the memory "chip" would be hotter, or am I wrong? Maybe the heatpads isnt fully connected, cuz I have applyed thermal compounds 2 times.

But I'll try another driver first. The stable release, not beta.

delellod123 · Jul 17, 2014

defiantly try new driver. Card too new to need new thermal compound, but if new driver dosnt work, may want to try it. 75 degrees on the gpu core isn't that bad at all. The memory won't heat hot enough to need cooling, as they are running at the proper clock speed

Alanthor · Jul 17, 2014

Ah okay.. Well, AMD 14.4 installed, and just because I was bored, I did re-seat some thermal compound, and I cleaned the fan, lol... Ima try play. Thx.

btw, should I set the GPU fan to 100% when gaming, or like 80-90?

delellod123 · Jul 17, 2014

let it be. IF you see temps rising high (past 80 or so) raise the fan to 100. Not much a noise difference between 90 and 100.

Alanthor · Jul 17, 2014

Should I leave the fan alone?... Aka, should I leave it on automatic? Then it will be like 20-30% all the time in load..
Btw, a lil update. No changes on the temperatures after this "maintenance". But I havent seen any artifacts!

A few questions more, lol. In the following picture, you'll see the black squares, right of the GPU core. Is that the memory modules, or is it like VRM's etc? And uhm.. This is right after I cleaned off the old thermal paste. Does it look good, cuz I have no reference on how it should look etc..

That made me think, lol... They have these heatpads on it.. Can I put thermal compound on these pads? xD

delellod123 · Jul 17, 2014

need a more viscus compund on the cooler That looks real wet/loose. No thermal compound on pads

delellod123 · Jul 17, 2014

I use Diamond compound on my GPUS generally

coozie7 · Jul 17, 2014

Nice and clean GPU, no residue on the surrounding parts, good job all round I'd say.
Agree with delellod123, don't put anything on the black thermal pads, it actually reduces their efficiency.
Again, agree with delellod123 on the thermal paste, a small tube should last an average user years so get the best you can find; Arctic silver 5 is good but the diamond pastes are better still (use the stuff myself-it's awesome).

I'd leave the fan alone, just let the drivers/BIOS do their stuff, but if you're concerned leave GPUZ running to log temperatures and fan speeds, anything below 80C is safe and decent enough but the lower the better.

As for the undervolt there are other options: Just underclock it 75MHZ off the core and 140MHz off the memory should cool things down a bit without crippling the frame rates.
Try using Vsync in your games, this is especially handy in older/less demanding titles when the system can easily run over 60 FPS, which just generates extra heat.
Use RadeonPro to cap the framerate in individual games, it's not quite the same as Vsync because while Vsync usually works in multiples of 15 or 30 FPS, RadeonPro can set any framerate (I've got FC3 set to 50 to stop the stuttering for example). You'll need to set profiles for each game, though which means hunting up the executable (.EXE) game file.

Alanthor · Jul 17, 2014

Okay. Well, all issues with artifacts is gone actually after driver change, hehe.
Btw, do I need a more vicious thermal paste? On the pic, and what I use now is Arctic MX-2. I also have Cooler Master Thermal Compound Kit. Is that prefferable?

delellod123 · Jul 17, 2014

viscus is better for GPU. yours looks very loose

oxiide · Jul 17, 2014

Maybe you'd shave off another 1-3 °C with a better compound, but if what you've got is doing alright then don't worry about it. Like I said before, temperatures in the 70's celsius are not unusual or unsafe for a video card at all. Its not a CPU.

delellod123 · Jul 17, 2014

agree with above (oxide)

Kari · Jul 17, 2014

I've always thought thin paste is preferrable with gpus since it is applied straight on the naked chip, also I've heard people say not to use AS5 on gpus....

delellod123 · Jul 17, 2014

Thin not necessary. Thick is good. Not to the point it is blobbing onto the pvc , but buldgimg out the sides is fine. Ideal. That is how manufacturers do it. As5 is fine. Thick diamond compound is better. Antec makes good one.

Alanthor · Jul 17, 2014

Alright. Thanks everybody for your replys! Every reply were highly appreciated!

Thinking of undervolting my GPU.. Any thoughts?

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