GPU boot up, clocking up and down

[Zeebedy]

Hey guys,

quick question, sometimes from a cold boot (if left overnight say) when I boot into Windows, AfterBurner shows my GPU boosting up and down for 3-4 minutes, then "settles" on a idle state?

Is this just the GPU doing its thing until the system has "warmed up" and settling in?

 

[Zeebedy]

Are you running any background startup apps that uses the gpu like live wallpaper etc?

The only apps I have that I have in my taskbar is, Spotify, SteelSeries (for the headset), AfterBurner and GeForce Experience.

A lot of startup apps use GPU even though they don't look like it.

Ahh OK, didnt realise that.

you prob have **** booting up with your pc thats using the card

Yeah, hopefully its one if the above causing that, aslong as the card is OK though, im not overfussed!

 

[Zeebedy]

Hmm, must be background tasks guys?

Just left my PC for 15 minutes, and came back and the usage was fluxuating for a short period?

 

[Zeebedy]

Open up task manager when windows loads. A while ago it updated to show you gpu usage of tasks. Open up that tab and far right hand field should show which apps are using the GPU.

Thanks Spils, I checked today when I booted my machine, and yes, there were Windows processes using a little bit of the GPU..

Thanks dude!

 

[Zeebedy]

Reviving this thread.

Now, sometimes even when I am doing idle / basic tasks my AfterBurner is fluctuating from a low state to :

There is use in the Task Manager, but nothing crazy..

Is this normal, as well as at boot up??

 

[Zeebedy]

Strange, watching the Apple Keynote and the usage is constantly low now?

Is that just the GPU sensing that when its not doing much, its just doing background stuff like a CPU would do??

 

[Zeebedy]

Is the power usage going up significantly when it goes up and down? I doubt it is and mostly just the clocks and slight increase in power / clocks then settling down. Does happen, opening tabs in browser I see my clocks shoot up then settle fine, even opening explorer seems clock speeds notch up then drop / settle. I would expect the keynote to be fine, its all pretty much settled at that point and nothing significant changing.

TBH sounds fine. Your card drops clocks once things settle. it will increase clock speeds, even with what seems like small changes / background bits, as long as your not seeing power hit the roof, then not an issue IMO.

Hi Radox, thanks for the reply.

Yeah, its only after opening or doing something minor. Now and again it will stick at those numbers for a few minutes before settling down, but the power usage and temps dont "go through the roof".

I just checked my AfterBurner settings and during these spikes my Wattage on the card is around 110W and peaks around 335W under high load, eg.. games.

 

[Zeebedy]

Sorry its a bit hard to see, but here are my AB readings, I took a second ago.

 

[Zeebedy]

@Radox-0 thanks mate for posting your setup diagnostics. I cant seem to get afterburner to like a custom fan curve? Do you have one? Also have you undervolted your GPU too?

 

[Zeebedy]

I did set up custom fans, but was finicky, at the time (when the GPUs came out / start of this year) it only ran at certain speeds so did not work that well for me and since then moved to GPU waterblock so did not invest to much time in custom fans to be able to help.

Yep, undervolted the GPU compared to stock. But do not cut the voltage right down like others to save max power in most games (some games suck down more power so need bigger undervolt). Go for a undervolt + overclock on the core / memory.

Can you give me a guide to your settings?? that would be appreciated. What model 3090 are you rocking also Radox?

 

[Zeebedy]

@Radox-0

deffo a problem here mate, i have been monitoring my Wattage on AB and the Memory is boosting to 9501MHz most the time, and only down-clocking to around 405MHz / 40W~ every so often..?

Im a bit baffled? I wonder if its new new NVIDIA driver I got the other day, as it was fine beforehand tbh.

 

[Zeebedy]

Going to be best to check a guide as no one size fits all, depends on power your trying to save, type of game etc, your silicone lottery, temps etc this thread could be a place to start: 3080 Undervolting | Overclockers UK Forums

For me, I have a number of profiles set up designed to ensure for the game in question I am not hitting my power limit on the FE model which is what causes problems, for most games playing atm, I use 1.0 volt @ 2100Mhz which works fine and means it sips around 300w or so in something like AC Vallhalla.

For more power hungry games, will cut the voltage down as will hit into 400w limit in something like CP2077 at 1v. So usually 0.9v @ 2010mhz or something.



Hmm, could try rolling back, I think your spikes is not massively unusual, but if it was more settled before, could be worth trying. I am not on latest drivers myself, rather on 466.11, so not sure if newer ones have introduced anything more pronounced.

So you dont think that the spikes lasting a good 15-20 seconds before dropping then increasing again is unusual? And if when the "spikes" hit, is only drawing around the 100W mark, wont damage the card at all, do you think?

 

[Zeebedy]

I do not think its an issue. Browsing web pages, explorer, checking my pics etc, then I think its fine for GPU to spike up and down, my own 3090 does it and during those times I also see 100w - 100w consumed around those points peek. This is with the Max performance setting off too. Even my older 1080Tis exhibit similar behaviour and those cards are years old running fine so I cannot forsee there being any damage or problems.

Now if your spiking lots and consuming a decent amount of power after say everything is loaded and your PC is fully idle with nothing running intensively, then I would look into things deeper.

Unfortunately that seems to be the case Im gonna roll back the drivers now..

 

[Zeebedy]

@Radox-0 before I reinstalled anything, I checked windows update first to make sure I was up to date, and had one, so I installed (it was quite a big one) and required a reboot, and since then its been back to normal?

Check the Wattage spike now!

 

[Zeebedy]

Nice if its settled!, what update was it?

Cant remember. Is there a way to check? I think it was "cumulative update" or something, took a good 10 minutes to download and install..

And im assuming that it must have been a software issue, as if hardware would still have persisted???

 

[Zeebedy]

Just fired up my PC 30 minutes ago, and the usage is down low, and boosting briefly when needed. Think it was a software issue.

I would rather trouble shoot that as apposed to RMAing this GPU in the current climate!

 

[Zeebedy]

@Radox-0 hi mate, just to update, as apposed to running at "near" constant 110-120W on GPU when idle, since we last spoke, its now around the 38-45W mark and in gaming my peak usage has decreased a few degrees to around 64-65c..

 

[Zeebedy]

Nice, thanks for sharing, I still see 100w now and then for low loads. May check drivers and what have you later or when I rebuild with Win 11.

yeah, I get the spikes too mate, just wasn’t many there that’s all when I took a screenshot.

only thing I have an issue with is when sleeping (posted another thread on this ), that while sleeping the usage sits at around 100w and soon as I wake the pc up it goes back to normal, at 40w odds, with usage spikes..? Well confused.

 

[Zeebedy]

Glad that's sorted. I used to have a similar issue with certain drivers when using a 1080 Ti, the memory would boost all the time and rarely ever enter an idle state. A Windows update does something positive rather than create issues? That's a rarity!

Im not 100% sure it was the Windows update that helped? Only say this because I uninstalled "MSI Rivertuner" or whatever its called, as I read somewhere that that can cause issues with the GPUs so I dont know..

Either way, apart from the weird sleep issue, the card is running really well and cool.

 

[Zeebedy]

Quick update, still getting this, I have narrowed it down to Microsoft Edge browser. Fine with it, just happy my expensive card isnt borked!