Question Can someone explain AMD boost clocks/power draw to me?

BaaaaL44

Prominent
Aug 7, 2023
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I purchased an RX9070XT yesterday, and have been playing around with it quite a lot. I noticed that the boost clocks sometimes go WAY past factory specifications (2970Mhz to 3200Mhz or so), and when this happens, there usually is a driver timeout crash. This is nothing new, I had the same issue with my RX6800 at higher clocks, so I went into Adrenaline and put a negative offset to the core clock so that it remains under factory specs. However, what absolutely baffles me is that when I do so, the power consumption of the card goes from 300W to 220-230W and it runs 20 degrees cooler, while performance remains basically identical. Can anyone with engineering experience tell me how it is possible for the GPU to consume one third less power while still putting out the exact same performance? Is this just a case of AMD factory specs and driver clock controls being "off" to say the least?
 
what absolutely baffles me is that when I do so, the power consumption of the card goes from 300W to 220-230W and it runs 20 degrees cooler, while performance remains basically identical.
Underclocking, like undervolting, helps cause reduce power draw by the component. This has been a thing for about a decade or so.
 
which psu are you using?
which RX9070XT model and brand is it?
which cpu are you using?
BIOS of the motherboard up to date?
how much core clock is it under load after your tweak?

Asus ROG Strix 850G, and it's a Sapphire 9070XT Pulse. MOBO Bios has not been updated in a good while, and after the tweaks core clocks remain consistently in the 2900-2970Mhz range, which is the official factory boost. I am currently powering the card through a pigtail connector (until I can get my PSU cables from 200km away), not sure if it has anything to do with it.
 
what absolutely baffles me is that when I do so, the power consumption of the card goes from 300W to 220-230W and it runs 20 degrees cooler, while performance remains basically identical.
Underclocking, like undervolting, helps cause reduce power draw by the component. This has been a thing for about a decade or so.
That much is clear, obviously, it's 7th grade physics. I just find it strange that the card has the same (amazing, btw) performance at 230W as it does at 300W, and 200Mhz higher.