Push it to the Limit!
All three games we tested (Metro: Last Light in 1440p, GTA V and The Witcher 3 in 1080p) take a 21% performance hit compared to MSI's stock configuration. At the same time, though, power consumption drops below 60% of the original measurements. Taking into account the 4% slow-down imposed by our 80% power target, the potential loss of performance due to passive cooling doesn’t seem as disheartening as before.
Let's have a look at an example where the GPU negatively affects our benchmark sequence's performance. These limitations are not outside the norm by any means, and they occur routinely in demanding games like the ones we're using to test. We see again that, as of the moment when the GPU’s emergency measures kick in, something else appears to be bottlenecking the system’s performance.
It cannot be our power limit, since there's constant intervention right up until minute 53, when this appears to evaporate.
In the end, this has to be caused by the card's consistently high temperature, and it persists even after the fail-safe brings temperatures down below our preset limit.
SummaryPerformance degrades more slowly than power consumption.Performance is reduced up to 21% as a result of preset limits.There is a performance loss of up to 4% in the benchmarks due to our 80% power target.
