[SOLVED] Is It Just Paranoia - Gpu Underclocking

Lushern1309

Reputable
Aug 22, 2019
164
15
4,615
Hello Guys, no real issues here but want some opinions. I tend to under power my GPUs using afterburner by dropping the power slider and temp slider in an effort to not put too much strain on it, getting new hardware is an issue with me so I tend to try to preserve what I have using means possible to me, but is it warranted, am I increasing the lifespan of my card by not running it at max, I also tend to cap FPS in order to drop GPU usage, but is it all needed, am i going to do any real harm by maxing my card out at its stock operating frequencies, my other specs are in sig, i think i have a decent quality PSU
 
Solution
Just use the FPS limiter function and be done. I see absolutely no use in underclocking your card at all. Almost all my cards ran longer than I actually used them, and I tend to keep them for a couple years most of the time. Too much strain is also not really a thing unless you OC, these cards are designed to run at the specs they are running at (again, unless it is OC), to tempering with that will give you a small improvement at best at the cost of a lot of performance. They will also clock down on their own when they hit the FPS limit (which I always set to 1 FPS below refresh rate for best performance without tearing effects). If you really want to care for your card, monitor temperatures and don't let them run past 80°C core...

KyaraM

Admirable
Just use the FPS limiter function and be done. I see absolutely no use in underclocking your card at all. Almost all my cards ran longer than I actually used them, and I tend to keep them for a couple years most of the time. Too much strain is also not really a thing unless you OC, these cards are designed to run at the specs they are running at (again, unless it is OC), to tempering with that will give you a small improvement at best at the cost of a lot of performance. They will also clock down on their own when they hit the FPS limit (which I always set to 1 FPS below refresh rate for best performance without tearing effects). If you really want to care for your card, monitor temperatures and don't let them run past 80°C core temperature. Temps are the no. 1 GPU killers and pretty much the only thing you can control. I mean, what do you think you can do if something breaks due to a material defect or something? For most people, the answer is nothing. It happens. No 100% certainty. What you can do if energy consumption is an issue for you, or the card runs too hot, is undervolting the card. That usually helps in both cases.
 
Solution

Endre

Reputable
Hello Guys, no real issues here but want some opinions. I tend to under power my GPUs using afterburner by dropping the power slider and temp slider in an effort to not put too much strain on it, getting new hardware is an issue with me so I tend to try to preserve what I have using means possible to me, but is it warranted, am I increasing the lifespan of my card by not running it at max, I also tend to cap FPS in order to drop GPU usage, but is it all needed, am i going to do any real harm by maxing my card out at its stock operating frequencies, my other specs are in sig, i think i have a decent quality PSU

Hello!

Capping FPS to the max refresh rate of your monitor is a good idea, since your monitor won't be able to reproduce any frame above that (I am talking about conventional monitors with fixed refresh rate, not VRR).
But, I wouldn't undervolt the GPU.
 
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