Question Zotac RTX 4070 and afterburner settings

[kulharin]

Hello,

Anyone have any recommendations for a potential overclock? I ran downloaded the newest version of Afterburner and ran the scanner. It sets my memory to +200 and clock to "curve" but also says the results are unstable.

Any suggestions on where to go from here? Thanks

 

[hedwar2011]

Overclocking is to your own comfort level as it could potentially damage your hardware.

If you desire higher performance, make small changes, test stability, and go from there. If something goes wonky, reverse whatever change you made.

 

[Phaaze88]

Anyone have any recommendations for a potential overclock? I ran downloaded the newest version of Afterburner and ran the scanner. It sets my memory to +200 and clock to "curve" but also says the results are unstable.

It ALWAYS says that, and it kinda HAS to, because no overclock is 100% stable - or, at least, they don't stay that way forever.
I suggest ignoring that notice and saving the settings to one of the numbered profiles.

If you want to use less power with the OC, simply lower the power limit about 90% and save that to another profile. It does the same thing as undervolting, by the way.

 

[kulharin]

Oh interesting. So no point n setting power consumption to 120%? I am confused why that is under the ‘Fans’ section of the OC

 

[Zerk2012]

Oh interesting. So no point n setting power consumption to 120%? I am confused why that is under the ‘Fans’ section of the OC

If your card is already factory overclocked then usually no reason to go further.
If you could get 5% and were getting 100FPS then you would get 105 FPS not really worth the trouble.

 

[Phaaze88]

So no point n setting power consumption to 120%?

With how the built in Gpu Boost 5.0 works, it doesn't do much, that's for sure.
A higher max power limit means higher operating temperatures over time, and that will affect clock averages.
Keeping it as cool as you can yields higher averages[ignoring other performance limit reasons that are outside of our control].
The algorithm can dial back over the smallest thing, be it 15~30mhz one day because it was running a few degrees warmer.

Most of the core OC is already done, more so if you acquire a factory OC'ed model.
Gpu Boost does not touch memory clock, but you can't go too crazy(think 500mhz+) on memory OC because of the error correction.
Detecting errors slows down processing and adds latency, so going too high can worsen performance.


I use what Afterburner found, but power limited the settings to 90%. Still does a little better than what the card did at default, while using less power than the max allowed limit.

 

[kulharin]

So just curve / whatever it sets the memory to and 90% consumption?

 

[Phaaze88]

So just curve / whatever it sets the memory to and 90% consumption?

Yes.

 

[kulharin]

Hmm I apply on start up and have my profile saved. Any time it restarts the curve and memory are still set but power limit always reverts back to 100 from whatever it’s set.

 

[Phaaze88]

Hmm I apply on start up and have my profile saved. Any time it restarts the curve and memory are still set but power limit always reverts back to 100 from whatever it’s set.

I don't have it set to apply on startup. When ready to play, I select the custom profile, and click apply on Afterburner's main window, and click reset when I'm finished.

Maybe apply on startup is bugged.

 

[kulharin]

Based on Unigine Heaven. Curve doesn't do much. without the OC the clock speed is 3105; with it 3165. Or is this not the best indicator?

 

[kulharin]

I went manually with +175 on the clock and ran a few stress tests without issue. apparently people are pushing the memory above +1000 ... so is the scanner just super conservative.

Funny enough is Skyrim with ENB seems to be a better stress test then the actual stress test. I'll notice artifacts, visual glitches and instability in skyrim before any of the stress benchmarks such as Unigine or furmark.

 

[Phaaze88]

I went manually with +175 on the clock and ran a few stress tests without issue. apparently people are pushing the memory above +1000 ... so is the scanner just super conservative.

Perhaps it is... better than nothing though.
The gpu memory controller does need to be able to handle being pushed that high. It is subject to silicon lottery; they can't all be pushed the same.
Combined with the error correction in GDDR6X memory, the added latency from such high OCs is probably being offset by whatever the user bumped the core clock up to.
Better to go with a small bump on both than trying to push 'em to the extreme, IMO.

 

[kulharin]

While running unigine heaven I notice setting power limit between 80-120% doesn’t change consumption. It holds at 1100mv… is this to be expected? If I drop power limit lower like 70% then the MV begins to drop but then performance also begins to drop.

Is there any benefit to setting up a custom curve or using a power limit %?

 

[Phaaze88]

While running unigine heaven I notice setting power limit between 80-120% doesn’t change consumption.

It's not supposed to. That's telling the gpu, 'you're not supposed to cross this line'.
But the darn things happen to do it anyway, one of the reasons undervolting/lower power limit topics picked up.
Software doesn't pick up the power transients that are going over the power limit.

It holds at 1100mv… is this to be expected?

Yep. Nvidia hard capped the voltage limit on 40 series.

If I drop power limit lower like 70% then the MV begins to drop but then performance also begins to drop.

You can try bumping up the core clock a little to offset the power limit decrease, but you might have gone too low on the power limit.
Gotta experiment some more - if you want.

Is there any benefit to setting up a custom curve or using a power limit %?

Yes: matching the performance, or better, of the gpu at its defaults, while using less power and also reducing the degree of the power transients, which are easier on the board VRM.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Is there any benefit to setting up a custom curve or using a power limit %?

At least for setting power limit, I've noticed some games will happily drive the GPU with no noticeable benefit. Like it will literally add another 20% of the TDP of power yet have no FPS improvement. So for such games I set a power limit so the card doesn't use up more power for no gain.

 

[kulharin]

At least for setting power limit, I've noticed some games will happily drive the GPU with no noticeable benefit. Like it will literally add another 20% of the TDP of power yet have no FPS improvement. So for such games I set a power limit so the card doesn't use up more power for no ga

 

[kulharin]

sorry, I mean is there a benefit of setting a custom curve vs just setting the power limit % ? Or the end result is pretty much the same?

 

[hotaru.hino]

sorry, I mean is there a benefit of setting a custom curve vs just setting the power limit % ? Or the end result is pretty much the same?

Setting a custom curve can let you undervolt the GPU to save power while keeping the same performance, but it's a lot of work to do.

Note that "overclocking" video cards that people do is actually undervolting them due to the way the GPUs clock themselves.