Question How do I undervolt an XFX Radeon RX 590 Fatboy ?

[M Uzair Arshad]

i have an XFX Radeon RX 590 Fatboy. Currently at 1545mhz core clock at 1150mV. it pulls around 185w at max in game while temperature goes to 74 C max. I have no issue with temperature but i want to bring down power consumption. I have tried multiple combinations for undervolting such as 1510mhz at 1030mV, 1520 at 1110mV. For the first one the power consumption was very good around 160w at max and it boosted fps as well.

These undervolts are stable in Superposition and Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmarks but they would crash in Arena Breakout Infinite and sometimes in Tomb Raider's benchmarks as well. I read somewhere that the
XFX Fatboy edition of the RX 590 cannot be undervolted. Can someone help me with the exact combination for undervolting, or tell me if it is even possible to undervolt the XFX Fatboy edition?

 

[tennis2]

possible to undervolt the XFX Fatboy edition

I mean....you've already explained that you've done it, so yes, it's possible.

What you need to understand is that all chips are different (statistically in a sort of bell curve fashion). The exercise of undervolting is simply finding the lowest stable voltage curve for your specific chip. Really the same underlying concept as overclocking (since frequency is typically limited by max voltage these days for the average user).

Generally speaking, I'd say 1510MHz at 1030mV is aggressive, and that 1100mV is probably closer to what you'd expect to be stable.

The game has changed a bit since I sold my RX580, but back then it was important to make sure you're setting a memory voltage that's enough to keep the VRAM from throttling. This effectively acted as a voltage floor for the entire GPU (since the core and VRAM are fed the same voltage). I believe the RX590 acts the same way. The VRAM voltage setting generally doesn't control at the max GPU clock though.

 

[M Uzair Arshad]

I mean....you've already explained that you've done it, so yes, it's possible.

What you need to understand is that all chips are different (statistically in a sort of bell curve fashion). The exercise of undervolting is simply finding the lowest stable voltage curve for your specific chip. Really the same underlying concept as overclocking (since frequency is typically limited by max voltage these days for the average user).

Generally speaking, I'd say 1510MHz at 1030mV is aggressive, and that 1100mV is probably closer to what you'd expect to be stable.

The game has changed a bit since I sold my RX580, but back then it was important to make sure you're setting a memory voltage that's enough to keep the VRAM from throttling. This effectively acted as a voltage floor for the entire GPU (since the core and VRAM are fed the same voltage). I believe the RX590 acts the same way. The VRAM voltage setting generally doesn't control at the max GPU clock though.

Do i need to change vram voltage as well or should i let it stay at default? And i don't understand how should mhz and mV go together. Like should i decrease speed wkth voltage, increase it or let it stay at default? I want to limit power at around 160-170w can you please help me with mV and mhz?

Also what I read on some site is that xfx fatboy cards have some specific capacitors that will cause gpu to crash whenever you change voltage.

 

[Imperat0r]

Hello.
Undervolting a card would make sense if you have a low quality PSU or a PSU that has lower wattage then suggested. Why would somebody undervolt a card that is so old and would not offer enough frames for a current game in high settings?

Is there anything else you wanna share with us ?
For example that card was an ex miner ?

 

[tennis2]

And i don't understand how should mhz and mV go together.

It takes a given amount of voltage to drive a chip at a given MHz. More MHz = more mV to keep it stable. When chip manufacturers create frequency/voltage curves (for BIOS or VBIOS) suffice to say they generally do a single all-encompassing curve, so that's going to be stable for most/all, but with a varying amount of headroom depending on the quality/characteristics of each individual chip. What you're doing with undervolting is finding the "exact" freq/voltage curve that YOUR chip needs to run stable.

I want to limit power at around 160-170w

You can just lower the power % slider to achieve this. ie, an RX590 is rated for 175W, so 90% power = 158W.

Now....with the "stock" freq/voltage curve, maybe....1500MHz pulls 175W, and 1450MHz pulls 158W. So if you only cap the wattage, you get a maximum frequency of 1450MHz. What undervolting does is to pull (say) 1500MHz from 175W down to 158W. So NOW when you cap the wattage, you still get the "stock" (1500MHz) frequency. Or* if you don't cap the wattage, you get a higher frequency (maybe now 1550MHz = 175W)

^all hypothetical numbers. For example, I run my RTX3060Ti at 60% power limit and an undervolt. This reults in a 5% decrease in frequency compared to stock. FPS isn't measurably different without logging it to a .csv file and doing statistical analysis (which I don't care enough to do anymore these days).

 

[tennis2]

Why some1 would undervoltage a card that is so old and would not offer enough frames for a current game in high settings?

lower power draw = less heat generated = lower fan speeds = quieter operation

 

[M Uzair Arshad]

Hello.
Undervolting a card would make sense if you have a low quality PSU or a PSU that has lower wattage then suggested.
Why some1 would undervoltage a card that is so old and would not offer enough frames for a current game in high settings?
Is there anything else you wanna share with us ?
For example that card was an ex miner ?

well my card is good, not mined at all and i have 60hz screen so it can pull 60 fps in nearly every game at high settings. Psu is good as well I just want to decrease power consumption.

 

[M Uzair Arshad]

It takes a given amount of voltage to drive a chip at a given MHz. More MHz = more mV to keep it stable. When chip manufacturers create frequency/voltage curves (for BIOS or VBIOS) suffice to say they generally do a single all-encompassing curve, so that's going to be stable for most/all, but with a varying amount of headroom depending on the quality/characteristics of each individual chip. What you're doing with undervolting is finding the "exact" freq/voltage curve that YOUR chip needs to run stable.


You can just lower the power % slider to achieve this. ie, an RX590 is rated for 175W, so 90% power = 158W.

Now....with the "stock" freq/voltage curve, maybe....1500MHz pulls 175W, and 1450MHz pulls 158W. So if you only cap the wattage, you get a maximum frequency of 1450MHz. What undervolting does is to pull (say) 1500MHz from 175W down to 158W. So NOW when you cap the wattage, you still get the "stock" (1500MHz) frequency. Or* if you don't cap the wattage, you get a higher frequency (maybe now 1550MHz = 175W)

^all hypothetical numbers. For example, I run my RTX3060Ti at 60% power limit and an undervolt. This reults in a 5% decrease in frequency compared to stock. FPS isn't measurably different without logging it to a .csv file and doing statistical analysis (which I don't care enough to do anymore these days).

i have tried 1530mhz at 1110mV it was running good in furmark, rise of tomb raider benchmark, played arena breakout for around 20 minutes but then later i was playing ROTR and it crashed about half hour into the game

 

[Imperat0r]

Well, as @tennis2 said, you can achieve that goal by using the software settings.
I would put at 1190 mV.
At least that is what i did when i used to flash my cards for mining.
Indeed i had only 2 RX590 among them, but all the rest were RX580.
After that you will decrease further the Mhz, in order to achieve the stability at that voltage..
After all, you need to test the computer for hours and hours until you are pleased with the outcome.

 

[M Uzair Arshad]

Well, as @tennis2 said, you can achieve that goal by using the software settings.
I would put at 1190 mV.
At least that is what i did when i used to flash my cards for mining.
Indeed i had only 2 RX590 among them, but all the rest were RX580.
After that you will decrease further the Mhz, in order to achieve the stability at that voltage..
After all, you need to test the computer for hours and hours until you are pleased with the outcome.

1190 or 1090? Also today i will try UV with afterburner. Can you tell me is undervolting safe right? like if my gpu crashes multiple time etc etc its safe? it won't hurt my hardware?

 

[Imperat0r]

OK.
Let's focus first on what happen'when you undervolt.
You basically provide less voltage to GPU or memory or both.
In this case you limit the voltage using a software or like i did with bios editing.
If you undervolt you won't damage your chip physically.
But you will need countless hours of testing until you find a working solution.
For the second question :
The answer is 1190.
In my case i discovered that some chips works with 1150 some with 1170 and some with 1190.
So i decided to flash all my mining cards with 1190.
I undervolted all my cards and underclocked them.
I went for safety rather to better hash rate.
Even now if i decide to take a card from a rig i could flash it with normal BIOS in it and it works flawless.

 

[Phaaze88]

Just use the power limit slider. Same goal, but without having to go through all the trial and error testing of undervolting.

 

[M Uzair Arshad]

OK.
Let's focus first on what happen'when you undervolt.
You basically provide less voltage to GPU or memory or both.
In this case you limit the voltage using a software or like i did with bios editing.
If you undervolt you won't damage your chip physically.
But you will need countless hours of testing until you find a working solution.
For the second question :
The answer is 1190.
In my case i discovered that some chips works with 1150 some with 1170 and some with 1190.
So i decided to flash all my mining cards with 1190.
I undervolted all my cards and underclocked them.
I went for safety rather to better hash rate.
Even now if i decide to take a card from a rig i could flash it with normal BIOS in it and it works flawless.

1190 would increase voltage therefore increasing power draw right?

 

[Imperat0r]

What is the default voltage for your card?
I mean what voltage it displays now ?
You are right. 1190 was the core clock.
I used for mining the following settings :
core voltage : default or lowered by 10%
core clock and memory clock : 1150 Mhz

So just by limiting the core + memory clock by few percent it will draw less power so in the end less heat.

PS: in some of my tests i used to have even 850 mV for core.
But that depends also on clock of the core and mem.
If you lower them at 850mV you will obtain under 140W power draw compared to 185W the default

 

[M Uzair Arshad]

What is the default voltage for your card?
I mean what voltage it displays now ?
You are right. 1190 was the core clock.
I used for mining the following settings :
core voltage : default or lowered by 10%
core clock and memory clock : 1150 Mhz

So just by limiting the core + memory clock by few percent it will draw less power so in the end less heat.

PS: in some of my tests i used to have even 850 mV for core.
But that depends also on clock of the core and mem.
If you lower them at 850mV you will obtain under 140W power draw compared to 185W the default

my stock voltage is 1150mV and draws 185W.
i have tried a lot but even after stable benchmark tests later on in game it always crashes

https://imgur.com/a/5pQQM4L

View: https://imgur.com/a/5pQQM4L

can u tell me about this. saw this on reddit

 

[Imperat0r]

1090mV is perfect.
I managed to obtain that amount , but in my case i did it with reflashing the BIOS with a modded one.
In your case i will strongly advise not to do that.
You use your card only for gaming.
So the solution is to use a software that allows you to undervoltage it w/o altering the BIOS.
Trust me. I was there.

 

[M Uzair Arshad]

1090mV is perfect.
I managed to obtain that amount , but in my case i did it with reflashing the BIOS with a modded one.
In your case i will strongly advise not to do that.
You use your card only for gaming.
So the solution is to use a software that allows you to undervoltage it w/o altering the BIOS.
Trust me. I was there.

XD definitely won't be messing with bios. 1090mV with default 1545mhz? it would crash

 

[Imperat0r]

1090mV with default 1545mhz?

No way. I never said that he will preserve the default 1545Mhz.
Indeed he must lower the Mhz in order to find a stable combination.
You are right.
When you lower the voltage and keep the current setup it will crash.
But he must play with the settings until he will find a right combination that gives the less crashes.
Even when he find apparently a stable combination, that will lead from time to time to a crash.
But that is acceptable since your goal to reduce the power draw was achieved.

 

[tennis2]

What PSU and CPU do you have?
Granted this is just based on some simple Google-fu, but it seems you can expect to hit somewhere in the 1090mV to 1100mV range for most RX590's at 1545MHz. Keep in mind, it's entirely possible that your particular chip just doesn't undervolt well.

Some other things that are possible (but will also require more work). If you're only intermittently getting crashes (20 minute return period), then it's possible that you're hitting an instability somewhere below your 1545MHz focus point (GPU frequency varies, especially in games compared to FurMark). Solving this would require extensive testing to diverge from a simple curve offset to a newly defined freq/voltage curve (with different slope) so it's certainly not for everyone. Just depends on how much time you want to spend.

 

[Imperat0r]

Keep in mind, it's entirely possible that your particular chip just doesn't undervolt well.

I totally agree. In my case not all GPU-s went at 1090. Some of them just doesn't want to allow me to UV them.
All depends on the silicon lottery.