GPU frequencies and hot idle temps

[Madmax1uk]

New to these forums but wanted to share something I experienced with my new 3090. A 'Problem shared' and all that. Caveat: whilst I've been building PCs for years, please consider me new to all this and if this post is common knowledge apologies.

After firing up my new GPU and benching the PC, I noticed that whilst load temps were normal (75C under full load), idle temps spiked dramatically even when the GPU was not underload. I had to push the fan curve up to 50% whilst idle just to keep the card below 52C.

The problem - It appears that the GPU frequency was locked at max (1750mhz), and whilst the card was not under load, the operating frequency appeared to push the GPUs heat way above normal.

Solution - Another clean un-install and re-install of all drivers / MSI afterburner. GPU now sits idle at 37C whilst I type this in a Lian Li Dynamic with 14 fans!

Moral of the story - Clean install folks, clearly old settings locked the frequencies to max and from my experience caused the temps to rise, even under 0% load. Well that is my working assumption.

Apologies if this is obvious, but I'd of probably missed this had I not been so annoyed over idle temps and maybe others will have the same issue.

Thanks for reading, and this 3090 is a total BEAST. My father got me into gaming when I was 15, buying me a 1%'er gaming rig back in the 90s (PII 300hz with a voodoo 4mb gpu!). Taken me 25 years to reach the top of the PC master race again after saving hard and boy does it feel great.

Happy gaming.....

 

[Madmax1uk]

It will be obvious to some, but for others who have the same problem coming along looking for a solution, it's a good piece of info.

I've had this happen too, certain drivers just wouldn't idle properly every time I booted. Either that or the power settings in the NVidia driver weren't right. Those were my two causes of that problem.

Thanks, and yes I tried setting Nvidia power settings to 'normal' and even downgraded monitor refresh and resolution but to no avail.

Something else I noticed after fixing this, my card isn't drawing +300 watts - saving me £££ and the planet at the same time. Just call me captain planet (for anyone old enough who remembers that cartoon).