The Ampere owners club - 30xx series

[toilet pepper]

1830 at .81 is my sweet spot. Any higher clocks and port royal will just crash.

I just checked, the vram was sucking 150 watts of power when mining. If there is poor thermal conductivity with the cooler it will really cook itself.

 

[FireFox]

What is the point under-clocking the card?

 

[wolf]

What is the point under-clocking the card?

So these cards (and a lot of others these days) have a voltage/frequency curve that is designed around the lowest common denominator and then some, basically ultra safe (more voltage than needed for any given frequency) so that 100% of cards will be stable no matter what you get in the silicon lottery. Undervolting is tweaking the card so that you're optimising for your unique silicon 'win' or 'loss'.

In GA102's case (3080 and 3090), it seems the FE cards settle in the low 1800mhz range with with a lot more volts, 0.950v to 1.025v or thereabouts if memory serves, but it is very common to run them right around ~1800mhz @ 0.800v.

In practice what this achieves is roughly FE/stock performance, but with drastically reduced power consumption (50++watts) and as a consequence, heat too, due to the lower voltage used to maintain that frequency.

The same methodology of undervolting can be used using the MSI Afterburner curve editor to maximise clock speeds and effectively overclock too, say 1950+ mhz but at lower than stock volts, like maybe ~.950v or so - thus giving you better than stock performance for roughly the same power and heat. The other extreme is also possible for those chasing crazy efficiency, like ~1600-1700mhz at even lower volts like maybe 0.700v or so, thus giving you ~90% of stock performance for ~70% of the power.

Hope I've done the explanation some justice, I'm sure others will help fill gaps.

 

[Mussels]

What is the point under-clocking the card?

100W more for 5% performance isn't worth it?

Some people play games, not fight for benchmarks

 

[nguyen]

1830 at .81 is my sweet spot. Any higher clocks and port royal will just crash.

I just checked, the vram was sucking 150 watts of power when mining. If there is poor thermal conductivity with the cooler it will really cook itself.

Yeah my 3090's VRAM use like <90W, these GDDR6X modules are capable of sucking down a tremendous amount of juice .
The Asus TUF design with seperate VRAM heatsink would be much better suited for mining, no wonder they are all sold out .

 

[wolf]

The Asus TUF design with seperate VRAM heatsink would be much better suited for mining

Indeed, been using my TUF 3080 for mining, still, can't really tell what the mem temps are, just piece of mind that they're well cooled, even the back of the card with no memory chips has thermal pads on the backside of the memory contacting the backplate.

 

[FireFox]

So these cards (and a lot of others these days) have a voltage/frequency curve that is designed around the lowest common denominator and then some, basically ultra safe (more voltage than needed for any given frequency) so that 100% of cards will be stable no matter what you get in the silicon lottery. Undervolting is tweaking the card so that you're optimising for your unique silicon 'win' or 'loss'.

In GA102's case (3080 and 3090), it seems the FE cards settle in the low 1800mhz range with with a lot more volts, 0.950v to 1.025v or thereabouts if memory serves, but it is very common to run them right around ~1800mhz @ 0.800v.

In practice what this achieves is roughly FE/stock performance, but with drastically reduced power consumption (50++watts) and as a consequence, heat too, due to the lower voltage used to maintain that frequency.

The same methodology of undervolting can be used using the MSI Afterburner curve editor to maximise clock speeds and effectively overclock too, say 1950+ mhz but at lower than stock volts, like maybe ~.950v or so - thus giving you better than stock performance for roughly the same power and heat. The other extreme is also possible for those chasing crazy efficiency, like ~1600-1700mhz at even lower volts like maybe 0.700v or so, thus giving you ~90% of stock performance for ~70% of the power.

Hope I've done the explanation some justice, I'm sure others will help fill gaps.

Thanks for the explanation.

However i know what Under-volting/Under-clocking means i just asked the wrong question to @toilet pepper , i meant that we used to overclock the cards as higher as we could with the less voltage possible but these days the cards aren't just under-volted but under-clocked too

I was curious and tried 0.800v for 1800Mhz but nothing happened, in Afterburner i set a curve 0.800v for 1800Mhz saved the profile and ran Heaven but my card was using to default settings

 

[bug]

Thanks for the explanation.

However i know what Under-volting/Under-clocking means i just asked the wrong question to @toilet pepper , i meant that we used to overclock the cards as higher as we could with the less voltage possible but these days the cards aren't just under-volted but under-clocked too

I was curious and tried 0.800v for 1800Mhz but nothing happened, in Afterburner i set a curve 0.800v for 1800Mhz saved the profile and ran Heaven but my card was using to default settings

The thing is highest clocks and highest voltages aren't sustained for very long. If you lower those, you don't lose much, but in some cases you can lower the power draw significantly.

To me, this is not a feature, but rather a sign the manufacturers push their cards into unreasonable territory, because they need to look good in benchmarks.

 

[FireFox]

The thing is highest clocks and highest voltages aren't sustained for very long. If you lower those, you don't lose much, but in some cases you can lower the power draw significantly.

To me, this is not a feature, but rather a sign the manufacturers push their cards into unreasonable territory, because they need to look good in benchmarks.

i have my card at 0.918v for 1950Mhz and it wont downclock when Gaming and for me that is fine, now could you explain me the last bit of my previous post?

 

[toilet pepper]

Indeed, been using my TUF 3080 for mining, still, can't really tell what the mem temps are, just piece of mind that they're well cooled, even the back of the card with no memory chips has thermal pads on the backside of the memory contacting the backplate.

I just saw a teardown of the Asus TUF and it looks good! The Ventus has thermal pads on the back as well and it gets hot too. Honestly, I never considered mining when I bought the Ventus and couldn't justify that the TUF costs around $100 more when 3080s costs around $1000 here already.

 

[bug]

i have my card at 0.918v for 1950Mhz and it wont downclock when Gaming and for me that is fine, now could you explain me the last bit of my previous post?

Not really. I only buy mid-range cards, so I don't have first-hand experience with undervolting&friends.

 

[Deleted member 205776]

My 2070 died on me in December (that's what you get for buying Zotac), needed to use my PC immediately and I found a 3070 Gaming X Trio in stock very close to MSRP. So I went for it. Got the card like 2 weeks ago but figured I'd still post this here. Never goes past 64C not even in Furmark, MSI did a great job on the cooling for this card.

(note: I have since installed a GPU support mount from uphere since it was sagging a little lol)

Bit bummed about the only 8 gigs of VRAM but it'll do I guess. Playing at 1440p144. My next upgrade will be RTX 4000.

 

[toilet pepper]

Thanks for the explanation.

However i know what Under-volting/Under-clocking means i just asked the wrong question to @toilet pepper , i meant that we used to overclock the cards as higher as we could with the less voltage possible but these days the cards aren't just under-volted but under-clocked too

I was curious and tried 0.800v for 1800Mhz but nothing happened, in Afterburner i set a curve 0.800v for 1800Mhz saved the profile and ran Heaven but my card was using to default settings

Here's what I noticed with the Ampere cards and also my 2070s, if left at stock the card will constantly try to hit the highest boost clock and pump as much voltage to it as possible it then downclocks it because it is getting hot. This cycle just soaks the heatsink and causes unnecesary power draw just for that split second 1-5fps increase. Keep in mind that if you dont fix the voltage curve it will do this all the time that's why it is running hot.

 

[biffzinker]

I was curious and tried 0.800v for 1800Mhz but nothing happened, in Afterburner i set a curve 0.800v for 1800Mhz saved the profile and ran Heaven but my card was using to default settings

What happens if you lower the Power Limit below 100%? Say 85/80%, should be the same as a undervolt. I’m unable to change the voltage for my RTX 2060 only recourse is the power limit.

 

[bug]

Here's what I noticed with the Ampere cards and also my 2070s, if left at stock the card will constantly try to hit the highest boost clock and pump as much voltage to it as possible it then downclocks it because it is getting hot. This cycle just soaks the heatsink and causes unnecesary power draw just for that split second 1-5fps increase. Keep in mind that if you dont fix the voltage curve it will do this all the time that's why it is running hot.

That's the whole idea behind "boosting". It's the same for CPUs.
It works well for bursty workloads (e.g. loading a complex web page, performing some calculations in Excel, short game benchmark runs). For steady loads, it's supposed to stabilize at lower clocks. But if those lower clocks are not low enough, they will still generate too much heat and cause thermal throttling.

Also keep in mind these values are not always set in stone. CPUs at least will boost as high as your cooling can sustain and with good cooling you can go quite a bit above nominal TDP. I wouldn't be surprised if Ampere did the same, but so far I don't have enough data on that.

 

[FireFox]

What happens if you lower the Power Limit below 100%? Say 85/80%, should be the same as a undervolt. I’m unable to change the voltage for my RTX 2060 only recourse is the power limit.

I tried and it was working when running Heaven Benchmark

Stopped working right after i started playing COD

 

[Mussels]

What happens if you lower the Power Limit below 100%? Say 85/80%, should be the same as a undervolt. I’m unable to change the voltage for my RTX 2060 only recourse is the power limit.

the undervolt works a lot better


the power limit still lets it boost up really high for brief periods, then it has to lower to cool down so its see-sawing - where the undervolt gives you more performance per watt and stays at a steady level

in a quick short benchmark that doesnt build up heat, being at 2GHz would give a better score - but in sustained gaming where it might dip to 1900 due to heat anyway, i'm gunna get the same experience locked to 1800 with a curve - and the reduced heat in the case could help CPU performance too, in many systems

 

[FireFox]

the undervolt works a lot better

but i cant get it at 0.800v the card reverse the voltage that i set, i don't know if this is a card issue

 

[Mussels]

Are you using a curve?
make sure to uninstall anything that isn't afterburner, and run the latest beta

 

[FireFox]

Are you using a curve?
make sure to uninstall anything that isn't afterburner, and run the latest beta

yes i am using and afterburner 4.6.2, uninstall evga precision too?

 

[Mussels]

yes i am using and afterburner 4.6.2, uninstall evga precision too?

Does 4.6.2 even support ampere? you need the 4.6.3 betas for ampere OCing

 

[wolf]

Honestly, I never considered mining when I bought

Me neither but when I saw Ampere going beast mode on mining, and I have solar power....

but i cant get it at 0.800v the card reverse the voltage that i set, i don't know if this is a card issue

There are a few methods, but looking at your pic there are still values above your target.

What I do in MSI AB is click reset, then drag core clock all the way down in the main window, -300 or something I think, then when you open the curve editor, drag up the point along the curve that is your target then hit apply, everything to the right should be a flat line now.

 

[FireFox]

Does 4.6.2 even support ampere? you need the 4.6.3 betas for ampere OCing

i will download 4.6.3 in a few minutes, you are right, the 4.6.2 doesn't support ampere

What I do in MSI AB is click reset, then drag core clock all the way down in the main window, -300

-502 says here

 

[Mussels]

As others have said, its simple enough

reset
-300 on core clock
ctrl-f to bring up the window
click and drag the clock you want to the voltage you want (in my case, 0.8v 1800mhz) click apply, save profile - le done

if you want to tweak it, reset and try again - this stops you from needing to adjust every single step along the way

 

[toilet pepper]

but i cant get it at 0.800v the card reverse the voltage that i set, i don't know if this is a card issue

.800 is too low and can only be achieved by a very good sample. Try chcecking what your default clocks and voltages are and go for a lower voltage until it crashes.