Question Underclocking/Undervolting a 4080 Super for an Intel i7-7700k CPU ?

[Fatal_Pastry]

Hello,

Currently I'm slowly upgrading pc parts as they fail and/or I can afford it, and as a result right now I have the kind of weird combination of an Intel i7 7700k CPU with a 4080 super as my GPU. I am experiencing lag spikes in games after this upgrade and after investigation I believe it may be due to my CPU being unable to keep up with the GPU's performance and that leading to throttling on my system. It was suggested to me that I underclock or undervolt the GPU to compensate. I'm ok with losing some performance for now if it results in a more stable system. However I haven't done much underclocking before, mostly overclocking, and I'm also not sure how much to reduce it by.

Does anyone have any experience with underclocking or undervolting a 4080 super for a 1151 socket CPU? How much should I be looking to reduce it by? Any advice or discussions you could point me to would be welcomed.

 

[rene641]

According to the manufacturer's website, your RAM is XMP 2.0 (Extreme Memory Profile) Ready
https://www.gskill.com/specification/165/166/1620975274/F4-3600C14D-32GTZRA-Specification

If you don't upload the latest bios and drivers to the old motherboard, you can hardly expect the latest generation GPU to run on it without problems.

 

[Fatal_Pastry]

According to the manufacturer's website, your RAM is XMP 2.0 (Extreme Memory Profile) Ready
https://www.gskill.com/specification/165/166/1620975274/F4-3600C14D-32GTZRA-Specification

If you don't upload the latest bios and drivers to the old motherboard, you can hardly expect the latest generation GPU to run on it without problems.

The manufacturer's website does not list this RAM as XMP compatible with my chipset and motherboard specifically. With XMP mode enabled, my pc fails to boot. I had to swap it out for older RAM to access the BIOS and disable the setting.

 

[rene641]

What bios version do you have?
Edit, have you tried windows update to see if all drivers are up to date?

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-install-driver-and-optional-updates-in-windows-10

 

[Fatal_Pastry]

My BIOS version reads as "American Megatrends Inc. 0505, 11/8/2016". There is a later driver dated from 2017.

I checked the windows update page and it had several Intel drivers related to the chipset. I've installed all of them and will see if that helped.

 

[rene641]

The ASUS Prime Z270-A has the latest BIOS version 1302 with the date 2018/04/17 and it would be very advisable to update it.

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-c...-z270-a/helpdesk_bios?model2Name=PRIME-Z270-A

 

[Fatal_Pastry]

The ASUS Prime Z270-A has the latest BIOS version 1302 with the date 2018/04/17 and it would be very advisable to update it.

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-c...-z270-a/helpdesk_bios?model2Name=PRIME-Z270-A

I have updated my BIOS to the latest version, 1302 with the date 2018/04/17. Unfortunately I am still noticing the issue. I have updated my CPU and GPU drivers to latest as well as all the other drivers that were Intel-related in the windows driver updater utility you also linked above. Is there anything else you suggest I try? Should I try getting ram that is XMP-compatible with my current motherboard and chipset and enabling XMP mode?

 

[rcald2000]

Fatal_Pastry Hello. In my opinion there is nothing that you can do to correct the performance imbalance between your CPU and GPU. If I were in your situation, I would return the RTX 4080 Super and purchase a RTX 4070 Super ($600 USD) and a new platform (CPU, MB, RAM kit): Ryzen 5 7600, B650 MB, 32GB 6000MT CL30 RAM kit. You should be able to purchase this all for between $1,000 - $1,100. Below I've hastily pasted a few possibilities. Keep in mind that until recently the Asrock B650M HDV/M.2 was selling for $120, and I've heard that 32GB 6000MT CL30 RAM kits can possibly be bought as cheaply as $75-$80. Also, if you're not keen on AMD builds, then you could purchase an Intel core i5-13600KF and B760 DDR5 motherboard for a comparable price.

---------------------------
AMD Ryzen 5 7600 6-Core, 12-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor
$188.99

Amazon.com

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GIGABYTE B650M AORUS Elite AX (AM5/ LGA 1718/ AMD B650/ Micro-ATX/ 5-Year Warranty/ DDR5/ 2* M.2/ PCIe 5.0/ USB 3.2 Gen2X2 Type-C/Intel 2.5GbE LAN/Q-Flash Plus/EZ-Latch/Gaming Motherboard)
$179.99

Amazon.com

---------------------------
G.SKILL Flare X5 Series (AMD EXPO) DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 6000MT/s CL30-38-38-96 1.35V Desktop Computer Memory UDIMM - Matte Black (F5-6000J3038F16GX2-FX5)
$104.99

Amazon.com

---------------------------
ASUS Dual GeForce RTX™ 4070 Super EVO OC Edition 12GB GDDR6X (PCIe 4.0, 12GB GDDR6X, DLSS 3, HDMI 2.1a, DisplayPort 1.4a, 2.5-Slot Design, Axial-tech Fan Design, 0dB Technology, and More)
$599.99

Amazon.com

non-RGB and RGB version of excellent single tower air cooler.
---------------------------
Thermalright BA120 CPU Air Cooler, 6 Heat Pipes, TL-C12C PWM Quiet Fan CPU Cooler with S-FDB Bearing, for AMD AM4 AM5/Intel 1700/1150/1151/1200, PC Cooler
$21.49
non-RGB
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YXD9V35?th=1
---------------------------
Thermalright BA120 ARGB CPU Air Cooler, 6 Heat Pipes, TL-C12CG-S PWM Quiet Fan CPU Cooler with S-FDB Bearing, for AMD AM4/AM5 Intel LGA1700/1150/1151/1200
$22.90
RGB
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YY72PYN?th=1
---------------------------

 

[rene641]

I have updated my BIOS to the latest version, 1302 with the date 2018/04/17. Unfortunately I am still noticing the issue. I have updated my CPU and GPU drivers to latest as well as all the other drivers that were Intel-related in the windows driver updater utility you also linked above. Is there anything else you suggest I try? Should I try getting ram that is XMP-compatible with my current motherboard and chipset and enabling XMP mode?

You wrote, Unfortunately I am still noticing the issue. Is the issue still the same, or little bit better? Could you send screenshot from BIOS or HWinfo or CPU-Z or something like this what is your CPU and RAM timing?

 

[Fatal_Pastry]

Rcald, I probably will just replace everything eventually. Really I'm just trying it put it off.

You wrote, Unfortunately I am still noticing the issue. Is the issue still the same, or little bit better? Could you send screenshot from BIOS or HWinfo or CPU-Z or something like this what is your CPU and RAM timing?

It's a little tricky to tell at this point but I think it is improved somewhat. I still get the hitches but they might be less severe and frequent. I was able to play VR all night without issues cropping up. Here is a screenshot of the summary view in HWInfo, I hope it's what you needed:

https://imgur.com/a/yo9TW8V

 

[Unolocogringo]

Have you tried to set XMP then manually set memory voltage to 1.45v before you save and exit?
My prime 170 board had a problem with automatically setting voltage when enabling XMP.

 

[Fatal_Pastry]

Have you tried to set XMP then manually set memory voltage to 1.45v before you save and exit?
My prime 170 board had a problem with automatically setting voltage when enabling XMP.

I have not but my memory is explicitly not supported on this motherboard according to the manufacturer which is why I think I had that issue with it.

 

[rene641]

I have not but my memory is explicitly not supported on this motherboard according to the manufacturer which is why I think I had that issue with it.

The fact that the manufacturer does not write that the board supports XMP for these memories does not mean that it cannot work. Try now after the BIOS update if XMP won't work. If it doesn't work, try entering the XMP timing values in the bios one by one manually according to the table you see at HWinfo.
You have three disks in your PC, two SSDs and one HDD. I assume the HDD is for file archiving and one of the SSD is the system drive, is that right?

 

[Fatal_Pastry]

The fact that the manufacturer does not write that the board supports XMP for these memories does not mean that it cannot work. Try now after the BIOS update if XMP won't work. If it doesn't work, try entering the XMP timing values in the bios one by one manually according to the table you see at HWinfo.
You have three disks in your PC, two SSDs and one HDD. I assume the HDD is for file archiving and one of the SSD is the system drive, is that right?

Yes, the OS is on one SSD, the other SSD is mostly games, and the HDD is for file storage. The problem seems diminished somewhat after the BIOS update. I'm not sure what memory timings you mean, though. I'm a little uncomfortable messing with the manual BIOS memory timings.

 

[rene641]

OK, so try to do as Unolocogringo wrote, enable XMP and manually set the DDR voltage to 1.45.

 

[rcald2000]

Fatal_Pastry Any update? Find a solution?

 

[Fatal_Pastry]

I have not had the chance to fiddle with my PC yet, sorry. I've been needing it for work. I will probably try the memory voltage setting tomorrow and see if my PC boots up with XMP mode enabled.

 

[Fatal_Pastry]

Apologies for the delay, I was able to check my ram settings today. I noticed that by default the XMP profile I was using before actually did have the memory set to 1.45v but I still tried re-enabling and manually setting the DDRM voltage to 1.45V. Unfortunately the previous problem occurred again and my PC would not boot up until I put in some old ram I had lying around, at which point I could boot up and disable XMP mode.