[SOLVED] Temperature of GPU with automatic fan speed

[omega3111]

I have a Gigabyte RX 470 4GB and I have installed the "XTREME Gaming Engine" installed. The fan control is set on Auto. During idle, the fan does not spin as it doesn't need to. Under heavy load, the temps go to 87-89C and the fan spins at around 2000RPM. These temps seemed high so I tried to set the fan speed to 100% fixed. RPM went to ~3200 (with noise) and the temp dropped to 74-76C.

Does the Auto setting know what it's doing?

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

Does the Auto setting know what it's doing?

Basically speaking YES.

 

[WildCard999]

Does the Auto setting know what it's doing?

Sometimes but it's pretty generic and the settings may not work for everyone.

 

[omega3111]

Sometimes but it's pretty generic and the settings may not work for everyone.

So what do you recommend?

 

[WildCard999]

So what do you recommend?

Make a custom fan curve via a program such as MSI Afterburner and set it to 100% by 75C or 80C.

 

[omega3111]

Make a custom fan curve via a program such as MSI Afterburner and set it to 100% by 75C or 80C.

The XTREME Gaming Engine allows to create a fan curve. But I don't know what a good curve looks like.

 

[WildCard999]

The XTREME Gaming Engine allows to create a fan curve. But I don't know what a good curve looks like.

This should be fine...

75C or 80C=100%
70C=80%
60C=60%

and so on. I would probably keep the fans at 50% all the time unless it's too loud.

 

[omega3111]

I will try, thanks!

 

[WildCard999]

Your welcome!

 

[tennis2]

Yeah, once it hits 80C you should have the fan at 100%.

That said, we should address the underlying problem of why your GPU needs 100% fan speed to keep itself under 80C. That's not ok.

What frequency and voltage is the GPU @ under load?
Please describe your case cooling fan layout (number, size, direction)

 

[omega3111]

What frequency and voltage is the GPU @ under load?
Please describe your case cooling fan layout (number, size, direction)

2 front 120mm fans intake, 1 120 back fan outtake.

 

[tennis2]

That screenshot doesn't show a voltage, but...

Memory should be at 1750MHz to match stock, right?

Have a look at this WattMan guide and if you list out your 7 frequencies, I'll just give you the voltages to enter.
AMD WattMan is already installed and running inside the AMD driver software. Go to gaming - global settings - then the global WattMan tab at the top.

Probably uninstall the Gigabyte utility so it doesn't interfere with that you're doing in WattMan.

 

[omega3111]

That screenshot doesn't show a voltage, but...

Memory should be at 1750MHz to match stock, right?

Have a look at this WattMan guide and if you list out your 7 frequencies, I'll just give you the voltages to enter.
AMD WattMan is already installed and running inside the AMD driver software. Go to gaming - global settings - then the global WattMan tab at the top.

Probably uninstall the Gigabyte utility so it doesn't interfere with that you're doing in WattMan.

I uninstalled the Gigabyte gaming xtreme engine because I see that WattMan also allows a temp-fan curve, so all the better to work only with WattMan 👍

I also took the opportunity to open the case and do some dusting, I think that helped a bit.

I don't know if the memory stock freq. is 1650 or 1750. According to this it's 1650. This is what WattMan is set to too if I click Reset.

These are the exposed numbers after a WattMan Reset, at idle, so I guess they are the default. The fan stops at 44-45C so the number you see there is at 45-46C. I will try later under load and see what happens. Thanks for the help BTW!

 

[omega3111]

I logged the results done by Performance Monitoring. First under load then closed the game and let it sit at idle a bit. Here is the spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wIPbswg2-jxjuiqwwY_L1k0DXeF3jfJQBIcvDsbH7GQ/edit?usp=sharing

 

[tennis2]

Perfect. Enter these voltages:

Frequency / Voltage
465MHz / 800mV
750 / 850
1020 / 900
1075 / 910
1125 / 925
1170 / 940
1230 / 960

Memory voltage = 925mV
Memory Timing = Auto

Save that as a profile so you can re-apply it with a couple clicks later.

I see the stock memory speed for your card is in fact 1650MHz. You most likely can get 1750MHz stable though. Test out the core settings first though before you start tweaking the memory.

If you ever want to OC, you can input 1300MHz / 1040mV.

 

[omega3111]

Done. Will do a Performance Monitoring under the same load I did last time and compare to my previous one. Thanks!

If you ever want to OC, you can input 1300MHz / 1040mV.

Where will I input this? I have only 8 states.

 

[omega3111]

Just when browsing I get screen artifacts and freezes, and then the settings revert to default.

 

[tennis2]

Add 10mV to the 1230MHz state.
1230MHz / 970mV

Each chip is different (silicon lottery) so it's just a matter of finding what your particular chip needs.

 

[omega3111]

But isn't 1230MHz under load? If I was just browsing and had issues I would think that it's the lower states that will be used, so they need more voltage, no?

 

[tennis2]

Hard for me to say what frequency it was at when it crashed. You'd have to monitor the chip frequency to know.

That 960mV I gave you for 1230mV was pretty conservative (+25mV above my average).

Try bumping the lower states (1-6) up 10mV instead then. The original values i gave for those weren't quite as conservative.

 

[omega3111]

Will try to play around with it. BTW, I noticed that your 750Mhz is 850mV while the default is 824, it's the only value you gave that is higher. On the other hand, the default for 1230 is 1137, which is way higher than your conservative levels. I guess they don't want to take any chances because 150mV is a lot compared to the tweaking of 20mV we're doing on the lower states.

 

[tennis2]

I've tested the voltages to be stable on a few different cars. I've tested 1400MHz stable at 1140mV BTW. 1230MHz generally only needs 930mV on average.
The reason the 750MHz one is higher is because 824mV doesn't fit the trend line. I don't have any data below 800MHz, so I was just extrapolating voltages for you on that 465MHz state.

If you put the values I gave you in a scatter plot, you'll visually see what's going on. Above 950mV the slope of the GloFo 14nm voltage curve increases. Graphing the values helps to interpolate values between ones you've tested.

Ultimately, when you're gaming, you're going to be in the top 3 performance states. And that's where all the heat is generated. So you can run states 1-4 at a bit higher voltage without much worry. See next paragraph.

State 1 is idle. That will cause the memory frequency to drop also and will override the memory voltage "limit". Any states 2-7 are going to be subject to the memory voltage limit that you set. If you've got memory voltage set at 925mV, that's going to be the voltage that states 2-5 will get from my list above, regardles of what you've set in the core frequency voltages.

^That can be another value to toy with to gain stability in "web browsing and other minimal tasks". Try bumping the memory voltage up 10mV to 935mV or 940mV.

 

[omega3111]

Iv'e logged and analyzed voltages for state 7 1230:

Voltage [mV]	Average temp [C]	Average power [W]	Average fan speed [RPM]
1137 (default)	84.35	98.36	2016.55
1025	79.1	76.57	1503.1
1000	70.5	73.3	1126.31

At 1000 I got a crash after like 5 minutes, so the data might not average as well. Will continue to fine tune.

Any states 2-7 are going to be subject to the memory voltage limit that you set

So they will use the minimum between the mem voltage and their own set voltage? That's quite a limiting factor for the lower states. Then again, as you said, at these states the power draw is very low and the fan is usually at idle anyway.

I also realize that the crashes I got while browsing might really have been on states 5-7 because it loaded a video (YT or some autoplay), and apparently videos jump the clock to 1230Mhz at least for a bit.

 

[tennis2]

Each chip is different, so yes, your results may vary.

The card delivers the maximum of the core voltage and the memory voltage. The memory and core get the same voltage. Because the core has many load frequency states over a large range of voltages and the memory is only idle or 100% (and needs a given voltage to be stable at that speed), you need to prevent the card voltage from dropping below the stable voltage that the memory needs when you're in the lower core frequencies.