ASU’s TUF 3090 throttling issues

oldestgregg · 31 May 2021 at 23:08

I don’t know if I’m missing something obvious here so any help would be great.

My TUF 3090 keeps throttling down to as low as 1590mhz when under 100% load. I’ve undervolted it down to 885mv and set a max of 1935mhz. Card tops out at 70 degrees at 70% fan speed. Power limit I’ve left at 100%. Where’s my issue here? Could it be the thermal pads I’ve read about? Being honest, if thats the case I’m not really confident of replacing them.

Case is the Corsair 5000x and air flow isn’t an issue. Top rad AIO so cool air coming in the front.

Last two games I’ve been playing that I’ve noticed it in mostly have been Resident evil village and Gears 5. At 4K these are around 80fps most of the time so I’m not running up against a frame limiter or anything like that but Cyberpunk seemed to run around 1900mhz most of the time fully maxed despite much lower frames.

JediFragger · 31 May 2021 at 23:17

Might be useful to list the rest of your spec @oldestgregg CPU/Mobo etc etc

Also the res you're playing along with monitor specs (60hz/144hz etc)

oldestgregg · 31 May 2021 at 23:29

JediFragger said:
Might be useful to list the rest of your spec @oldestgregg CPU/Mobo etc etc

Also the res you're playing along with monitor specs (60hz/144hz etc)

Of course..

CPU is 10900k with H115i 360mm rad at 50 degrees under load gaming

Mobo is Gigabyte Z490 elite

Playing at 4K res on an ASUS CG743KP HDR 120hz monitor

Resize bar is enabled and running latest Nvidia drivers.

hyperseven · 31 May 2021 at 23:32

did you notice the throttling before or after your undervolt? Does it do it at stock?
Have you got any wacky power profile set in windows/nvcp?
Driver re-install with clear settings/fresh install option.

oldestgregg · 1 Jun 2021 at 00:11

hyperseven said:
did you notice the throttling before or after your undervolt? Does it do it at stock?
Have you got any wacky power profile set in windows/nvcp?
Driver re-install with clear settings/fresh install option.

I’ve undervolted to bring temps down a bit so I can try stock again.

No wacky profiles and NCP is at is at default power settings. I’ve raised temp limit to 91 and left power at 100% in Afterburner.

I’m going to do a clean driver install but I’ve a feeling it’s the VRM temps causing an issue. Ive seen people talking about "clean" drivers as well? Could that make a difference?

hyperseven · 1 Jun 2021 at 00:28

oldestgregg said:
I’ve undervolted to bring temps down a bit so I can try stock again.

No wacky profiles and NCP is at is at default power settings. I’ve raised temp limit to 91 and left power at 100% in Afterburner.

I’m going to do a clean driver install but I’ve a feeling it’s the VRM temps causing an issue. Ive seen people talking about "clean" drivers as well? Could that make a difference?

clean drivers are ones that have been edited to remove GFE, telemetry and other software people consider bloat. Still installs the same core driver package.

JediFragger · 1 Jun 2021 at 07:54

Tried upping your PL a little?

oldestgregg · 1 Jun 2021 at 19:54

JediFragger said:
Tried upping your PL a little?

PL? Power limit? So leave everything at stock but bump power limit from 100 to 107?

JediFragger · 1 Jun 2021 at 20:13

oldestgregg said:
PL? Power limit? So leave everything at stock but bump power limit from 100 to 107?

Yup

oldestgregg · 1 Jun 2021 at 21:20

JediFragger said:
Yup

Awesome. Just finished work now so I will try reinstall for both drivers and Afterburner. Where is the best place to get these "clean" drivers from?

D1craig · 1 Jun 2021 at 22:22

you just click custom install when installing a new driver and untick everything apart from the gpu driver

oldestgregg · 1 Jun 2021 at 23:10

D1craig said:
you just click custom install when installing a new driver and untick everything apart from the gpu driver

So what about all the telemetry people are removing and things like that? I know how to tick clean install but it seems people are removing a lot more.

Aretak · 2 Jun 2021 at 01:11

oldestgregg said:
So what about all the telemetry people are removing and things like that? I know how to tick clean install but it seems people are removing a lot more.

Use this:

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-nvcleanstall/

It gives you a clear list of every component, including its dependencies and what it does, letting you choose what you wish to install.

oldestgregg · 2 Jun 2021 at 13:26

Aretak said:
Use this:

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-nvcleanstall/

It gives you a clear list of every component, including its dependencies and what it does, letting you choose what you wish to install.

Perfect. Thank you for that.

DarkBahamut · 2 Jun 2021 at 13:46

This is almost definitely power limited. ~885 mV @ 1935 MHz hits >375 W in a few games I've tried on a 3090 so will definitely cause the clocks to drop.

As for why the clocks are dropping to 1590 MHz, that's almost certainly a misconfigured curve. Most people who undervolt do so by only dragging one single frequency point up, but when you do that it means the can has to drop tons of clock to get any significant voltage reduction when power limited. You just end up with a cliff, and not a curve.

oldestgregg · 2 Jun 2021 at 17:20

DarkBahamut said:
This is almost definitely power limited. ~885 mV @ 1935 MHz hits >375 W in a few games I've tried on a 3090 so will definitely cause the clocks to drop.

As for why the clocks are dropping to 1590 MHz, that's almost certainly a misconfigured curve. Most people who undervolt do so by only dragging one single frequency point up, but when you do that it means the can has to drop tons of clock to get any significant voltage reduction when power limited. You just end up with a cliff, and not a curve.

Yeah that sounds about right. Clean install but bumped up the temp limit and power and its sitting around 1800mhz in gears and 1900mhz-ish in the tomb raider benchmark. As for the under-volt, I basically watched a few videos on what people had done for the 3090 and tried the same but I will have to try and get a better understanding of it before I jump back in.

D1craig · 2 Jun 2021 at 22:28

oldestgregg said:
So what about all the telemetry people are removing and things like that? I know how to tick clean install but it seems people are removing a lot more.

i didnt realise people were doing all that. i thought they were just installing the driver but non of the software.

deuse · 3 Jun 2021 at 08:52

oldestgregg said:
Yeah that sounds about right. Clean install but bumped up the temp limit and power and its sitting around 1800mhz in gears and 1900mhz-ish in the tomb raider benchmark. As for the under-volt, I basically watched a few videos on what people had done for the 3090 and tried the same but I will have to try and get a better understanding of it before I jump back in.

It's the heat.

Put it back to stock.
Then set your fans to 100% and see how you get on.

I'm hard of hearing so having my fans at 100% when gaming doesn't bother me.
But it works. Or you could get an AIO from alphacool.

oldestgregg · 3 Jun 2021 at 10:19

deuse said:
It's the heat.

Put it back to stock.
Then set your fans to 100% and see how you get on.

I'm hard of hearing so having my fans at 100% when gaming doesn't bother me.
But it works. Or you could get an AIO from alphacool.

To be honest though, thats great for you as you are hard of hearing. I dont want to have my fans stuck at 100% the whole time when it really shouldnt have to be that way.

deuse · 3 Jun 2021 at 10:29

oldestgregg said:
The links above. It’s anot

To be honest though, thats great for you as you are hard of hearing. I dont want to have my fans stuck at 100% the whole time when it really shouldnt have to be that way.

The only thing you can do is get an AIO for it.

I do have a fan blowing at the back of my 3090. That helps.