MSI afterburner 'No Load' limit when undervolt RTX 5080

[K4Y84]

Hello,

So I have an RTX 5080 FE that when stock runs fine and the limiting factors in MSI AB as expected are power and/or voltage.

When I undervolt the card (no matter what I set in the curve), it always runs the voltage/frequency at one or more points below what I set and MSI AB shows the limiting factor as 'No Load'. It's like it is not boosting.

For example if I set something like 2800mhz @ .975v it runs 2700mhz at .950v. But then if I set 2900mhz @ 1v it runs 2800mhz at .975v.

Tried multiple 3D Mark tests, Heaven and Cyberpunk - same deal.

Any guides or videos do not show this same behaviour and I didn't have it in my RTX 3080 not does my friend have it in his RTX 4090.

No v-sync or screen caps are set on Nvidia control panel.

I've seen some mention of this on Reddit etc but no concrete information. Is MSI Afterburner just bugging out?

 

[Joxeon]

Have you got the latest AB?

 

[Rroff]

This is known/expected behaviour though I can't remember the reasons why off the top of my head, also GPUs run in voltage and frequency steps - usually something like 12MHz, 25mV though I don't know what they are for Blackwell off the top of my head - so setting a specific voltage or frequency might not have the results you expect.

 

[K4Y84]

edit

I found this on Reddit, which also explains my issues perfectly.

Reddit - The heart of the internet

www.reddit.com

/edit


When you say a known thing, you mean specifically with the 50 series?

It's definitely not the standard voltage/frequency steps thing as I was already aware of this and had ruled it out. When you select a voltage on the curve in MSI after burner and apply it, the dot sets at the nearest correct step. So if I select 3010mhz @ say 1v it sets the curve to 3007mhz at 1v. So I'm not expecting it to show 3010, I'm expecting it to show 3007 for example, but it's not, it's going 100mhz or so below whatever the dot in the curve is set to, and this is no matter what I set it to, even an underclock. I've overclocked many cards from the 30 and 40 series and never experienced this. If I up the voltage I still get the 'No Load' limit in after burner and it still does the same thing. Interesting it doesn't have this problem if I use the Auto Tune function in the Nvidia app. I'm using AB Beta 6 and also tried Beta 5.

In summary, MSI AB shows a No Load limit. This should not be happening unless the GPU it's not getting enough work sent it's way. I've a 9800X3D so it's not as if it's being bottleneck by that or by a frame cap. These benchmarks push the GPU to 100% at stock but somehow any undervolt or overclock in MSI AB and No Load limit. At stock MSI AB shows the card follows it's voltage frequency curve as expected. Puzzling.

 

[Dg834man]

It's also effected by temperature my ab curve on my 3070 would be lower if i applied my oc when the card was hot vs cold.

 

[K4Y84]

It's not temperature in this case. It's 'No Load'.

 

[K4Y84]

Ok so I worked out what is going on, sort of. If I undervolt or overclock but don't flatten out the curve to the right of desired voltage/frequency then I do not get the No Load limit, but if I do flatten it out, the problem occurs. I guess this is something odd with the 50 series that wasn't on previous gens. I'll overclock by just raising the entire curve to find my max clock and then limit it myself using the power limit to keep it in check, rather than flattening out the curve. Will end up with the same result as an undervolt.