Do GPUs throttle themselves?

[Crashgate3]

I've managed to get into one of these stupid 'I *have* to have the last word' internet arguments about whether GPUs throttle.

Basically, someone's having trouble with the graphics in their game and someone else is insistant that it's beacuse the GPU has go too hot and has throttled itself back, which I've said is absolute rubbish.

Who's right?

 

[gurusan]

Well, they do indeed throttle themselves yes.

 

[mame]

I think my X1950PRO used to do that

 

[Crashgate3]

haha, fair enough.. that's me well and truly 'telt'.

 

[gurusan]

Yeah different for different cards. Usually between 105 and 125C

 

[rolypolyman]

haha, fair enough.. that's me well and truly 'telt'.

Oops, dunderheid

 

[reflux]

Yeah, they've been doing it for a while now. Have to get quite hot before it kicks in though.

 

[Duff-Man]

Yes, GPUs can throttle themselves.

But, this only happens way outside normal operating temperatures. The threshold is different for different GPUs, but if the temperature doesn't get above 100C you can be sure that throttling is not the answer to the problem.

Thermal load-throttling is blamed for a lot of problems which are due to software / driver issues.

 

[Benimaru]

My friends 4870 does it but its not as bad as you think it is, it only throttles it when its running normal windows, no games open or software that requires heavy gfx power, his stock clock is 750mhz but will clock down to 500mhz when in windows without games opened, once you open a game it clocks back up to 750mhz apparently sumtimes clocks to 800mhz

 

[Meaker]

There is a difference between throttling and 2D clocks. 2D clocks is an idle sort of state where the GPU conserves power and lowers the fan speed, throttling occurs when the card reaches too high a temperature and slows itself down to avoid damage.