2080 low clock speeds

Brumboy · 9 Feb 2020 at 10:40

Hi so I play OW and for the past two days my 2080 has been going down to very low clocks, mostly under 1000Mhz, no idea why as the temp is 40 degrees with 40% fans.

CPU usage is about 45%. Any idea how to fix this?

*Rich* · 9 Feb 2020 at 11:42

Not sure what OW is, but is it a demanding game?

I sometimes play games that aren't demanding at all and my 2080 will run slower. Usually around 1000-12000mhz.
Just for comparison when i play BFV with a slight overclock, my card runs around 2050mhz.

koooowweeee · 9 Feb 2020 at 12:37

If it's not a demanding game and you have a frame limiter on then it won't need the power and downclock

Aretak · 9 Feb 2020 at 12:57

Best thing to do would be to download a benchmark like Unigine Heaven or something and check the clocks with that running. If it's clocking up fine under that load, there's no need to worry.

Webster · 10 Feb 2020 at 12:34

Overwatch. Check in nvidia control panel the card is set to performance mode.

Psycho Sonny · 10 Feb 2020 at 16:44

Rossuk89 said:
Hi so I play OW and for the past two days my 2080 has been going down to very low clocks, mostly under 1000Mhz, no idea why as the temp is 40 degrees with 40% fans.

CPU usage is about 45%. Any idea how to fix this?

are you playing full screen or full screen windowed?

if full screen windowed make sure you have nothing else open in a window in the background. fixed it for me with 2070 S and CSGO.

Brumboy · 10 Feb 2020 at 17:06

Sorry OW stands for OverWatch.

Well I don't have vsync on, the frames are uncapped, it used to hover about 240ish, but it was going below 100, clock speed kept fluctuating. All the other stats seemed okay too.

I reinstalled the driver and reset everything else, changed a few things in Nvidia control panel and I think it's back to normal. I will test it tonight though, hopefully it's fine!

Brumboy · 10 Feb 2020 at 17:08

Aretak said:
Best thing to do would be to download a benchmark like Unigine Heaven or something and check the clocks with that running. If it's clocking up fine under that load, there's no need to worry.

I will do this just to double check it's okay, thanks for the suggestion.

Webzta said:
Overwatch. Check in nvidia control panel the card is set to performance mode.

I think I did this yesterday, will check again tonight to make sure, cheers!

Psycho Sonny said:
are you playing full screen or full screen windowed?

if full screen windowed make sure you have nothing else open in a window in the background. fixed it for me with 2070 S and CSGO.

Always full screen, 1080p/144hz. When I play games I close everything down, the RAM/CPU usage are normal, GPU temp/fan normal.

Psycho Sonny · 10 Feb 2020 at 17:11

koooowweeee said:
If it's not a demanding game and you have a frame limiter on then it won't need the power and downclock

it's not a demanding game but it's not exactly web based either. it shouldn't downclock at all. it will just run at less usage and run cooler.

for example my 2070 super can hit 500 fps and i limit to 163 fps in csgo. it still runs at boosted clock speeds. it just runs at 65% and 50C instead of 100% and 60C.

koooowweeee · 10 Feb 2020 at 17:40

Psycho Sonny said:
it's not a demanding game but it's not exactly web based either. it shouldn't downclock at all. it will just run at less usage and run cooler.

for example my 2070 super can hit 500 fps and i limit to 163 fps in csgo. it still runs at boosted clock speeds. it just runs at 65% and 50C instead of 100% and 60C.

No idea what the game is. My 1080ti down clocks all the time when in menus and loading screens because it's just doesn't need full power.

Drumroll · 10 Feb 2020 at 20:59

koooowweeee said:
If it's not a demanding game and you have a frame limiter on then it won't need the power and downclock

This. Mine, unless unlocked FPS, moat of the time, will be 40-50% load.

Brumboy · 27 Feb 2020 at 20:43

Right it's back again..

40% usage
40 degrees
40% fan speed
1550mhz clock speed
Rarely boosts close to 2000mhz
Frame limit set to off - hovers around 170 fps, then rarely goes to 240+ fps when it's at full clock speed

Surely with no limit on frame rate it should be boosting to it's full clock speed?

Any idea why this is happening? a bit annoyed to be honest!

Jacky60 · 27 Feb 2020 at 21:33

I think your card isn't being taxed enough to boost. My cards always down clock if usage is low even in 3D games, surely 170fps is enough?
Also check the power plan/s are max performance.

koooowweeee · 27 Feb 2020 at 22:21

Run a few benchmarks. See what your score is. I think your just worrying about nothing

Grim5 · 27 Feb 2020 at 23:26

run some benchmarks

Aretak · 28 Feb 2020 at 13:32

Rossuk89 said:
Surely with no limit on frame rate it should be boosting to it's full clock speed?

Unless it's being limited by the CPU, yes. What CPU are you using? I know you said that general usage of it is low, but that's an overall reading. Games often don't use many threads, so you can have one thread hitting 100% and capping your framerate whilst the rest sit mostly idle (and so overall CPU usage is quite low). Afterburner allows you to display the usage of every individual thread via the OSD if you have a look in the settings.

Brumboy · 28 Feb 2020 at 16:44

What benchmarks do you recommend?

Brumboy · 28 Feb 2020 at 16:47

Aretak said:
Unless it's being limited by the CPU, yes. What CPU are you using? I know you said that general usage of it is low, but that's an overall reading. Games often don't use many threads, so you can have one thread hitting 100% and capping your framerate whilst the rest sit mostly idle (and so overall CPU usage is quite low). Afterburner allows you to display the usage of every individual thread via the OSD if you have a look in the settings.

4690k @ 4.2, CPU usage about 70%-80% I think.

Ah okay I will try and find that setting in Afterburner, what's it called specifically? CPU Usage 1 through to 4 I'm guessing.

I hope it's nothing hardware related basically.

tyler_jrb · 28 Feb 2020 at 18:10

Rossuk89 said:
4690k @ 4.2, CPU usage about 70%-80% I think.

Ah okay I will try and find that setting in Afterburner, what's it called specifically? CPU Usage 1 through to 4 I'm guessing.

I hope it's nothing hardware related basically.

A CPU bottleneck is likely with what you have. The 4690k is getting on now and it’s only a 4 core 4 thread cpu. It’s likely it would bottleneck something like a 2080 especially at 1080p with unlocked framerate.

3700x and possibly an upgrade to 1440p is in order I think!

Aretak · 28 Feb 2020 at 18:10

Rossuk89 said:
4690k @ 4.2, CPU usage about 70%-80% I think.

Ah okay I will try and find that setting in Afterburner, what's it called specifically? CPU Usage 1 through to 4 I'm guessing.

Aye, that's it. I don't know about the specific scenario you're experiencing, but in more general terms that CPU is going to hold a 2080 back a fair bit. And I've just noticed that you're running at 1080p as well, which is only going to amplify that. There are games where a 9900K at 5GHz can and will bottleneck a 2080 at 1080p, let alone a 4c4t Haswell part with a relatively modest overclock.