How to make your graphics card better by adjusting power limits

Is it actually doable to make present graphics playing cards from AMD’s Radeon RX and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX sequence with only one click on? Yes, it’s doable, and fairly easy, as I’ll show on this easy-to-understand step-by-step information.

The key to rapidly optimizing your graphics card lies in the very best configuration of the so-called “Power Targets (PT)” or “Power Limits (PL),” which considerably affect the utmost energy consumption of the graphics processor (GPU) and the graphics reminiscence (VRAM).

Further studying: Best graphics cards for PC gaming

This is strictly the place we begin and have to make use of two totally different instruments, relying on whether or not we wish to optimize an AMD Radeon RX or an Nvidia GeForce RTX.

Optimize Radeon with one click on

You wish to optimize a Radeon RX 5000 (RDNA), Radeon RX 6000 (RDNA 2) or Radeon RX 7000 (RNDA 3) with only one click on? Then AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition is the fitting instrument so that you can pursue this purpose.

The tidy, trendy and user-friendly interface, which bundles fast entry to all software program features, recreation statistics, and efficiency values, in addition to driver updates in a single place, additionally helps to optimize the graphics card.

With the important thing mixture Alt+R, the multifunction instrument can be known as up instantly in video games at any time. To begin optimizing, name up the graphics card instrument instantly from the Windows 10 or Windows 11 Start menu.

In the Performance space, now you can set the so-called Power Limit (PL) and use it to tune the efficiency.

The Power Limit signifies by proportion what efficiency degree ought to be despatched to the graphics processor. In the manufacturing facility settings supplied by the producer, this worth is often outlined as 100 p.c by default.

To make the graphics processor and, correspondingly, the complete graphics card work extra effectively and thus cooler, decrease this worth step-by-step from 100 to 80 to 60 p.c.

In our exams, this optimization, which will be realized with only one click on, resulted in considerably decrease energy consumption, warmth growth, and noise.

All measurement outcomes had been decided in Full HD (1080p) with Dying Light 2: Stay Human on a Radeon RX 5700 XT:

• Frames per second (FPS)
  • 100% Power Limit: 77 FPS (base)
    • 80% Power Limit: 72 FPS (- 6.5%)
      • 60% Power Limit: 66 FPS (- 14.3%)
• GPU clock frequency
  • 100% Power Limit: 1,820 MHz (base)
    • 80% Power Limit: 1,700 MHz (-6.6%)
      • 60% Power Limit: 1,450 MHz (-20.3%)
• GPU temperature
  • 100% Power Limit: 82 °C (base)
    • 80% Power Limit: 78 °C (-4.9%)
      • 60% Power Limit: 76 °C (-7.3%)
• Fan velocity at load
  • 100% Power Limit: 2,100 RPM (base)
    • 80% Power Limit: 1,650 RPM (-21.4%)
      • 60% Power Limit: 1,150 RPM (-45.2%)
• Power consumption (whole PC)
  • 100% Power Limit: 305 Watt (Base)
    • 80% Power Limit: 260 Watt (-14.8%)
      • 60% Power Limit: 210 Watt (-31.1%)

As will be seen from this instance, by reducing the ability restrict from 100 to 80 p.c you possibly can already save greater than 14 p.c vitality and run your graphics card about 5 p.c cooler and considerably quieter.

The efficiency loss is just 6.5 p.c, which is often completely negligible. The nice benefits of a considerably extra environment friendly graphics card simply compensate for this small penalty. The one-click optimization is worth it for nearly everybody.

If, as an alternative, you need even higher efficiency reserves out of your graphics card, you can too change the ability restrict to constructive by +10 to +30 p.c, relying on the graphics card. A constructive energy restrict of 110 to 130 p.c, nonetheless, goes hand in hand with larger energy consumption, warmth growth, and noise.

If you wish to optimize your Radeon graphics card even additional, PCWorld has the fitting ideas for you: AMD Radeon tuning guide: 6 tips to optimize your graphics card.

Optimize GeForce with one click on

You wish to optimize a GeForce RTX 2000 (Turing), GeForce RTX 3000 (Ampere) or GeForce RTX 4000 (Ada Lovelace) with only one click on? Then it’s important to resort to a well-liked third-party software program, MSI Afterburner.

MSI

The Power Limit specifies in proportion what energy degree ought to be despatched to the graphics processor. In the manufacturing facility settings supplied by the producer, this worth is often outlined as 100 p.c by default.

In order to make the graphics processor and thus the complete graphics card work extra effectively and thus cooler, decrease this worth step-by-step from 100 to 80 and 60 p.c.

The corresponding choice for this may be present in MSI Afterburner on the primary display screen underneath “Power Limit (%).”

The GeForce RTX 3080 exams additionally runs cooler, quieter, and extra effectively after the change.

All measurement outcomes had been decided in 4K/UHD (2160p) with Cyberpunk 2077 on a GeForce RTX 3080:

• Frames per second (FPS)
  • 100% energy restrict: 42 FPS (base)
    • 80% Power Limit: 40 FPS (- 4.8%)
      • 60% Power Limit: 37 FPS (- 11.9%)
• GPU clock frequency
  • 100% Power Limit: 1,875 MHz (base)
    • 80% Power Limit: 1,750 MHz (-6.7%)
      • 60% Power Limit: 1,545 MHz (-17.6%)
• GPU temperature
  • 100% Power Limit: 75 °C (base)
    • 80% Power Limit: 71 °C (-5.3%)
      • 60% Power Limit: 64 °C (-14.7%)
• Fan velocity at load
  • 100% Power Limit: 1,850 RPM (base)
    • 80% Power Limit: 1,630 RPM (-11.9%)
      • 60% Power Limit: 1,296 RPM (-29.9%)
• Power consumption (whole PC)
  • 100% Power Limit: 570 Watt (Base)
    • 80% Power Limit: 480 Watt (-15.8%)
      • 60% Power Limit: 410 watts (-28.1%)

As will be seen from this instance, by reducing the ability restrict from 100 to 80 p.c you possibly can already save nearly 16 p.c vitality and run your graphics card round 5 p.c cooler and considerably quieter.

The efficiency loss is just 4.8 p.c, which is often completely negligible. The nice benefits of a considerably extra environment friendly graphics card simply compensate for this small penalty. The one-click optimization is worth it for nearly everybody.

Here, too, the next applies: If you need even higher efficiency reserves out of your graphics card as an alternative, you can too change the ability restrict +10 to +30 p.c into the constructive, relying on the graphics card. A constructive energy restrict of 110 to 130 p.c goes hand in hand with larger energy consumption, warmth era, and noise.

If you wish to optimize your GeForce graphics card even additional, PCWorld affords tips about overclocking: How to use Nvidia’s performance tuning tool for one-click GeForce overclocking.

More GPU efficiency by way of undervolting

The supreme self-discipline in overclocking is with the ability to function the graphics card with extra or no less than the identical efficiency, typically with considerably much less consumption.

To do that, it’s essential to decrease the voltage of the graphics processor and thus to carry out “undervolting.” PCWorld explains how this works in a separate article: How to undervolt your graphics card.

To cut back the ability consumption of the graphics card, both the availability voltage or the ability restrict should be diminished. It doesn’t actually matter which methodology you in the end determine on, as there’s now an appropriate instrument from each producer.

The following instruments, amongst others, are appropriate for overclocking and undervolting:

Note: These producer instruments additionally work with out issues with graphics playing cards from different producers.

This article was translated from German to English and initially appeared on pcwelt.de.