Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question
Solved

Can I "Underclock" my GPU?

Tags:
  • Overclocking
  • Performance
  • Graphics Cards
  • AMD
  • Radeon
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
Share
September 27, 2014 12:05:08 PM

I have a Radeon 6970, and this card provides more than enough performance for my needs. However, I have heard that this card draws a lot of power and it runs kind of warm. Can I lower the clock speeds to lower power draw and temperature? Is it even worth it? Will I notice a major difference?

More about : underclock gpu

a b U Graphics card
September 27, 2014 12:17:45 PM

Best bet is too try, and experiment. If anything your system will freeze up and bluescreen :p 
m
0
l
September 27, 2014 12:43:24 PM

Its not really worth it it will probably save you 2 degrees and at most a couple of watts. The cards are designed to work up to 90 degree+ and they do get too hot they turn themselves off.
m
0
l
Related resources
a c 89 U Graphics card
a b À AMD
September 27, 2014 1:09:19 PM

It depends how much you're willing to downclock it. If you seriously drop the clocks the power consumption and temps will also see a significant reduction.
I sometimes play CivV with flash running in background (youtube) it locks the clocks to 400MHz and makes the card run silently with 30c lower temps while still giving enough fps for a smooth enough gameplay.
m
0
l
a b U Graphics card
September 27, 2014 1:57:24 PM

Downclocking is the same as ovsrclocking, eventually you'll Downclocking it so far it'll crash from data overload or just hiccuping on power.
Don't expect the card drastically reduce temperatures, but noise should reduce a little noticeably.
m
0
l

Best solution

a b K Overclocking
a c 100 U Graphics card
a b À AMD
September 27, 2014 2:29:51 PM

Basically you can use the same tools as overclocking uses.

But if it is enough performance, why not just turn vsync on. It will lower usage (hence power, temperature and noise)
and provide just enough performance to get 60 FPS
Share
!