MSI Afterburner + Voltage curve editor = a massive time sink.
If you are expecting undervolting to make your card NOT sit slammed into the power limiter constantly, save a bit of power and not nurf your FPS too much, you'll not have that hard a time.
If you are expecting undervolting to get in under the power limiter for a few more Mhz it gets increasingly complicated.
First off, the curve editor is lying. Rather it's always out of date. I believe it is setting clock offsets for each voltage point on the voltage curve. However, the base curve is constantly updating by the driver. So when you set it to, save it, confirm it, set it again, save it confirm it.... to 1860Mhz@800mV it might run at 1845, 1860 or 1875, depending on how it's feeling. The reason behind this is the driver is constantly trying to learn, adapt and respond to the card, just like you the overclocker are. It's modifying that base curve in real time, while you try and set offsets against it. Luckily, it seems at least, it only moves it by 1 bin at a time.
Second, there are "other things at play". For example if you rotate the whole curve to favour lower voltages and lower the clocks at higher voltages, it will hit 100% utilisation, no power limit, no voltage limit, no temp limit, but not boost any higher. There is still room on the curve to go higher, but it's limiter status says "GO" and it still limits.
Next is those top end voltage clocks. When you use a curve wide offset, like with the normal slider. You will raise the clocks at lower voltages, that will increase your performance a little before... On these cards, you will rapidly slam into the power limiter which will halt your progress up that curve. However, how much current and therefore power the GPU consumes is not equal for all loads. Many benchmarks throw curve balls to test for this. Super Position does it at the start with a fade. This fade seems to max your GPU with a load so light your voltage rises far higher than normal, your clocks of course follow it... they hit SillyMhz and crash. Time Spy puts it at the ends just to tease you. Cap your top end of the curve. Hold control grab the top handle and pull the whole top end down. Then fix your 800/900/1000 points again, apply, repeat. This will stop it going silly on light loads designed to trick it and those that will occur from time to time gaming. I think 2040Mhz is reasonable. 2020Mhz maybe.
Again on the upper voltages. Yes you will slam into the power limiter instantly on timeframes of what you see and so those upper voltage settings don't seem to matter. "It always stops at 1860Mhz anyway, so what if at 1.0V it could boost to 2040Mhz, it's never going to do it."... wrong. It will go there and cause random crashes. To stop that as above completely flattening or locking out the upper clocks will work for "under volt to save power", but will lose out on a ton of performance.
It's all a bit of a juggling act with the power limiter and voltage which isn't made any easier because it's own auto-overclocking driver is moving the stage your standing on while you do it. All for at most, 10% more Hz, <10% more FPS and 50% more power.
Under volting it for power saving is easier, works better. I have "Farming Simulator 2022" (hey! don't judge!) on ULTRA 1440p ultrawide, VSync at 75Hz and pulling only 100W on the GPU. Rad fans at 20%. When it is under 100% it will hunt down the curve, so the bottom end is not unimportant. This is why I recommend never adjusting single points. Hold control and "bias" the curve by that handle point.
How sane are the VBIOS options, versus the shunt mod? Gigabyte Eagle. Asking for a friend.
If you are expecting undervolting to make your card NOT sit slammed into the power limiter constantly, save a bit of power and not nurf your FPS too much, you'll not have that hard a time.
If you are expecting undervolting to get in under the power limiter for a few more Mhz it gets increasingly complicated.
First off, the curve editor is lying. Rather it's always out of date. I believe it is setting clock offsets for each voltage point on the voltage curve. However, the base curve is constantly updating by the driver. So when you set it to, save it, confirm it, set it again, save it confirm it.... to 1860Mhz@800mV it might run at 1845, 1860 or 1875, depending on how it's feeling. The reason behind this is the driver is constantly trying to learn, adapt and respond to the card, just like you the overclocker are. It's modifying that base curve in real time, while you try and set offsets against it. Luckily, it seems at least, it only moves it by 1 bin at a time.
Second, there are "other things at play". For example if you rotate the whole curve to favour lower voltages and lower the clocks at higher voltages, it will hit 100% utilisation, no power limit, no voltage limit, no temp limit, but not boost any higher. There is still room on the curve to go higher, but it's limiter status says "GO" and it still limits.
Next is those top end voltage clocks. When you use a curve wide offset, like with the normal slider. You will raise the clocks at lower voltages, that will increase your performance a little before... On these cards, you will rapidly slam into the power limiter which will halt your progress up that curve. However, how much current and therefore power the GPU consumes is not equal for all loads. Many benchmarks throw curve balls to test for this. Super Position does it at the start with a fade. This fade seems to max your GPU with a load so light your voltage rises far higher than normal, your clocks of course follow it... they hit SillyMhz and crash. Time Spy puts it at the ends just to tease you. Cap your top end of the curve. Hold control grab the top handle and pull the whole top end down. Then fix your 800/900/1000 points again, apply, repeat. This will stop it going silly on light loads designed to trick it and those that will occur from time to time gaming. I think 2040Mhz is reasonable. 2020Mhz maybe.
Again on the upper voltages. Yes you will slam into the power limiter instantly on timeframes of what you see and so those upper voltage settings don't seem to matter. "It always stops at 1860Mhz anyway, so what if at 1.0V it could boost to 2040Mhz, it's never going to do it."... wrong. It will go there and cause random crashes. To stop that as above completely flattening or locking out the upper clocks will work for "under volt to save power", but will lose out on a ton of performance.
It's all a bit of a juggling act with the power limiter and voltage which isn't made any easier because it's own auto-overclocking driver is moving the stage your standing on while you do it. All for at most, 10% more Hz, <10% more FPS and 50% more power.
Under volting it for power saving is easier, works better. I have "Farming Simulator 2022" (hey! don't judge!) on ULTRA 1440p ultrawide, VSync at 75Hz and pulling only 100W on the GPU. Rad fans at 20%. When it is under 100% it will hunt down the curve, so the bottom end is not unimportant. This is why I recommend never adjusting single points. Hold control and "bias" the curve by that handle point.
How sane are the VBIOS options, versus the shunt mod? Gigabyte Eagle. Asking for a friend.
