Question Is this normal idle behavior for a 3080TI?

[thxcobra]

Hello there. I will try to keep this short and sweet. I'm just looking to figure out whether or not this is normal behavior for this kind of graphics card, or if i potentially have a faulty unit. Or maybe i have some settings wrong in general.

I have gotten my hands on a ASUS ROG Strix 3080TI. However, my concern is that the card idles at anywhere from 55-60c with the fan at 40%, and it draws upwards of 140 watts. I looked into it a little bit, and figured out that my card wasn't downclocking itself when it wasn't under load. I fixed that issue by lowering the HZ on my monitors, and disabling wallpaper engine. It now correctly downclocks the core clock and the memory clock, and stays at around 33c with fan at 40% on idle.

However, my previous card, the 2080TI, i was able to run my monitors at their full HZ, have wallpaper engine going, and allow the card to be in boost clock at all times, and the card would still easily maintain around 45c with the fans at 0%. (Silent operation mode).
I find it weird that the 3080TI pulls 140 watts just because its running in its boost clock, when the 2080TI had no problem drawing 50 watts while still being in its boost clock and able to handle high refresh rates + wallpaper engine.

So what do you guys think? Is this normal behavior for a 3080TI? Will i just have to live with lower refresh rates and no wallpaper engine if I don't want my card to draw 130 watts at idle? Or is there something im missing?
Ill leave a list below of everything i have tried.

I've tried:
Setting the power management mode in Nvidia Control Panel to: "Normal"
Setting my Windows power plan to "Balanced" and "Power Saver"
Making sure i have no RTX Broadcast or RTX Voice running or installed
Making sure i have desktop capture in Nvidia Shadowplay disabled.
Used DDU to completely clear and update to the latest 3080TI drivers.

What ultimately let the card downclock correctly was: Lowering my 2 secondary monitors from 144hz to 120hz, lowering my main monitor from 240hz to 144hz, and turning off wallpaper engine. However, as i said, i would love to be able to have my monitors running at their full HZ potential if it is possible with this card.

Thanks for reading, and i hope you guys have some suggestions for me, or atleast a confirmation that this is normal behavior for my card!

 

[hotaru.hino]

NVIDIA cards won't idle properly if the refresh rates on the monitors aren't divisible by each other. Since you still have a 144Hz refresh rate in the loop, it won't let the card idle properly. You have to put it to 120Hz. While I think the card will idle at 240Hz, it'll only happen if you're only using the one monitor.

 

[thxcobra]

NVIDIA cards won't idle properly if the refresh rates on the monitors aren't divisible by each other. Since you still have a 144Hz refresh rate in the loop, it won't let the card idle properly. You have to put it to 120Hz. While I think the card will idle at 240Hz, it'll only happen if you're only using the one monitor.

Hmm thats interesting. Right now its downclocking correctly with my main monitor being at 144 and my secondary monitors being at 120.
But if they have to be divisble by eachother, wouldnt that mean it should be able to downclock correctly while all 3 monitors are at 144hz?
If i put my secondary monitors to 144hz as well, the memory clock goes from 810mhz to 9051mhz and the card starts heating up.

 

[thxcobra]

Ill provide a little more information about my monitors:

My two secondary monitors are both ASUS Rog 32 Inch, 1440p, 144hz panels.
My main monitor is a Samsung 32 inch, 1440p, 240hz panel.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Hmm thats interesting. Right now its downclocking correctly with my main monitor being at 144 and my secondary monitors being at 120.
But if they have to be divisble by eachother, wouldnt that mean it should be able to downclock correctly while all 3 monitors are at 144hz?
If i put my secondary monitors to 144hz as well, the memory clock goes from 810mhz to 9051mhz and the card starts heating up.

So I wanted to check how various refresh rates triggered idling behavior on my computer and I discovered something by accident. Though I'm left even more confused about this situation. I found out if I have G-Sync enabled on both my monitors, the video card seems to idle regardless of refresh rates I've set, though it does have spikes in clock speed. If I disabled G-Sync, having non-divisible refresh rates caused the video card to no longer idle.

You may just have to play around with your settings until the video card start properly idling.

 

[thxcobra]

So I wanted to check how various refresh rates triggered idling behavior on my computer and I discovered something by accident. Though I'm left even more confused about this situation. I found out if I have G-Sync enabled on both my monitors, the video card seems to idle regardless of refresh rates I've set, though it does have spikes in clock speed. If I disabled G-Sync, having non-divisible refresh rates caused the video card to no longer idle.

You may just have to play around with your settings until the video card start properly idling.

Interesting. My main gaming monitor is G-Sync compatible, and it is enabled, but my two secondary ones are not.
Ive tested pretty much everything so far, and it seems that 120hz/144hz/120hz is the upper limit before my GPU stops downclocking.

However, im still sort of left wondering whether or not it is normal for a 3080TI to get that hot just because it isnt downclocking? As i said in my original post, my 2080TI that i had previously, was able to be in its boost clock 24/7, with my monitors at 144/240/144, and it would only ever draw about 50 watts if i wasnt gaming. It seems weird to me that the 3080TI draws 130 watts at idle just because it isnt downclocking. Would love to hear your thoughts on whether or not this is just how the 30-series cards are, or if something else is wrong with the card.