Apparent changes in RTX 3080 behavior since Oct 2020

[Migz - DH]

Hi, this isn't commentary about 3DMark but about my experience with undervolting an RTX 3080 and how it does not undervolt the same way that it did months ago. I'm curious if other RTX 3000-series owners are experiencing similar things.

For a long time, I used MSI's Afterburner to undervolt my 3080 (ASUS ROG Strix) with a curve of ~0.93V, 2020 MHz, +810 MHz memory, and maxed temp and power limits. And, I got really good scores in 3DMark as well as other benchmarks.

For a time, my normal operating Core Clock would be around 2010 MHz, but during the winter, it got as high as 2030 MHz at the same temperatures and voltage. In recent weeks though, again at similar ambient temps, my operating frequency has been 1995 MHz and at a lower voltage. This has been at lower operating temperatures than previously too.

I update my driver and VBIOS within days of their releases.

Today, I gave up on my old undervolt and recalibrated, albeit not as finely as I did last fall. Now, I'm using a 2020 MHz, 0.962 V, +810 MHz memory, and maxed temp and power limits. It's stable, uses the correct voltages and reaches the desired core frequency. I don't get as good of benchmarks with this as I used to though.

So, have other RTX 3000-series owners had issues with needing to change their undervolts since first creating them?

Cheers

[SoldierScar]

The behavior can change depends at what temperature you create/load the profile, so sometimes the profile might not be stable, what worked for me is i apply the settings right after the startup when the gpu is cold at around 24c and save the profile, that way it always loads the correct settings/behavior no matter at what temp i reload it.

[Migz - DH]

Thanks for your response.

Ya, I hear that. But, I used that undervolt for several months, and it behaved mostly the same for most of that time. The biggest difference was during the final month when not only the operating frequency dropped but the operating voltage did too.

It's as though the GPU couldn't be stable at that undervolt combo anymore, so it dropped freqs/voltage until it found a stable combo.