Nvidia looking into problem high IDLE power usage vs high refreshrate

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Hilbert Hagedoorn, Nov 9, 2015.

  1. Hilbert Hagedoorn

    Hilbert Hagedoorn Don Vito Corleone Staff Member

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  2. Webhiker

    Webhiker Master Guru

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    With or without G-Sync. If I switch to 2560x1440x144 my GTX 980Ti goes to 963 MHz idle clock. If I stay at 120 Hz it idles at 135 Mhz. Acer XB270HU monitor.
     
  3. Fox2232

    Fox2232 Guest

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    Considering average PC user/gamer has it running quite a lot on idle (browsing, watching movie, listening music, ...), I would say this is not nice.

    But I am not one to bash it since I am running CPU at permanent 4.5GHz, no power states, nothing to conserve energy. But it eats only 15W more on idle than having speedstep and down-clocking to 1.6GHz.
     
  4. HonoredShadow

    HonoredShadow Ancient Guru

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    Is that even worth doing Fox?
     

  5. SetsunaFZero

    SetsunaFZero Active Member

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    same here every refreshrate over 100Hz clocks my 980ti to 912Mhz. Monitor Benq XL2411Z
    I reported this issue more then 3 months ago to nvidia but nobody gave a ****.
     
  6. Fox2232

    Fox2232 Guest

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    When I had 1st i7 with base clock 1.83GHz and turbo 3.2GHz, it did stutter badly based on load as it clocked down and up very often.

    With i5 and speedstep I had basically 3 frequencies. Base 1.6GHz (idle), 3.3GHz (standard) and 4.5GHz (turbo). Very aggressive turbo was causing minor stutter, noticeable even on 120Hz.
    But locking all 4 cores to 4.5GHz removed it.

    So, 15W is small price to pay for removal of CPU clock variation.
     
  7. southamptonfc

    southamptonfc Ancient Guru

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    Wow. Mine runs at over 800mhz at the desktop. I just assumed it was normal, I never knew it was burning so much power!

    I am running 2 monitors, 144hz Gsync and a 120hz secondary.
     
  8. fantaskarsef

    fantaskarsef Ancient Guru

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    I wonder if people will eventually realise that we used to have 100W light bulbs around just a few years ago. Two of those in your apartment / house, and you are where your PC is.
    Or if you compare how increadibly much your idle PC uses in power, while some people's air condition is working all it got to get your room to a low temperature in summer... people are sometimes getting out of track just because they could save 100W with the PC yet blowing out a couple of hundreds for other comfort.
     
  9. Fox2232

    Fox2232 Guest

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    That's why I have LED light everywhere. If I keep everything lit, it still eats as much as one forgotten incandescent light bulb.
    And I consider that energy saving from lights as way to feed other stuff.
    But one should note that every watt GPU eats is turned into heat. For some people it may be problem.

    100W idle difference can be problem for others too (for people running system 24/7). In case of 24/7 system it costs like 11 Euro/month.
     
  10. crashburn162

    crashburn162 Active Member

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    Yep same here ASUS PG278Q Swift if it's idle only first card stays at 823mhz the second is at 135mhz. Although if the monitor is off it goes down to 135mhz. Yep good thing someone caught it this will save a lot of money.
     

  11. Juliuszek

    Juliuszek Guest

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    I hope they will not brake the graphics card... I just need those components to operate properly, I am aware they consume power. Since I assume we are talking about few Watts - I can have 2 beers per year less - no problem.
     
  12. cryohellinc

    cryohellinc Ancient Guru

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    Thank you guys for this tip. My IDLE temperatures straight away dropped from 43c to 34c once I have switched from 144hz to 120hz. This is amazing. However it has to be fixed.
     
  13. zipper

    zipper Maha Guru

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    Nothing new - years back Nvidia drivers did the same when connecting ordinary HDMI external screen to my laptop even when laptop screen was switched off.
     
  14. Turanis

    Turanis Guest

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  15. fantaskarsef

    fantaskarsef Ancient Guru

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    I don't know about you guys, but I still feel this is not the topmost issue we have, that's what I'm trying to say.
    It is an issue, I myself noticed my first 980 running at 900+MHz even while browsing, as well as the vram at the highest frequency.
    But then again I have an expansive rig, and I am aware that running it consumes more energy than a rig for browsing, emails and such things, that's why to me personally it is not on my wishlist's top thing I want nvidia to fix, subjectively.

    Also, there has been the word that you could change to 120Hz and save the energy, only that I am not aware if it works to turn down the max refresh rate only on desktop.
     

  16. SSD_PRO

    SSD_PRO Guest

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    Shocking story... displaying higher resolutions at higher refresh rates consumes more power. I don't think anyone wants a "fix" to this; if they determined product Y needs X to produce acceptable visual display I don't want them to try .5(x) resulting in subpar visual display. I sense some tearing coming to high refresh dislays at idle clocks. They might patch current cards at the expense of quality but the only real "fix" will be engineering with this issue being considered - i.e. the next gen cards.
     
  17. nhlkoho

    nhlkoho Guest

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    Noticed this on my system a while back. Changing the desktop resolution to 120hz fixed it for me. Now I idle at 135mhz instead of the 900mhz it idled at 144hz.
     
  18. fantaskarsef

    fantaskarsef Ancient Guru

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    Have you checked if you actually go back to 144Hz during gaming?
    I turned down the refresh rate to 120Hz, but my XB270HU showed it to stick to 120Hz Gsync even if I turn on a game (BF4 for instance). I then switched back to 144Hz on desktop too to get what I bought my hardware for during playing. At least the monitor's OSD states it doesn't go up to 144Hz and sticks to 120Hz, as I don't have a high speed camera I can't really check ;)
     
  19. alanm

    alanm Ancient Guru

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    Did you select 'prefer max refresh rate' in Nv CP? I heard this fix working for others, that if monitor is set to 120hz, it will stick to that at idle but use higher in gaming.
     
  20. Szaby59

    Szaby59 Active Member

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