Windows 11 Overclocking

[Hibuki]

Hello, this may not be right place to ask this but since 2-3 days my Windows 11 has started overclocking my GPU (I had already noticed that it handles the overclocking of my CPU but it never touched the GPU until now).

All seems to work fine so far but the GPU started making the GPU Coil Whine noise because of this overclock...

I wanted to consult more experience people on this matter before taking any actions.

I am using an Nvidia GeForce 2060 Super. The standard clock was 1470MHz and I see that now it clock up to 1965MHz when i nheavy use but when not in use it stays at 300MHz.
Interestingly, Windows overclocks the GPU selectively - it pushes it to 1965MHz for EDF6 but does not push it for Vermintide 2. Currently, the difference is that I have EDF6 on an SSD and Vermintide 2 on an HDD (not sure it matters for the clocking).

All this to ask - should I disable the Windows 11 automatic overclocking for the CPU/GPU? - for the CPU it never caused issues and cooling is fine. For the GPU the only thing that has me concerned is the Coil Whine (I'll keep an eye on the cooling).

[Haruspex]

The 2060 Super has a base clock speed of 1470 mhz and a boost clock of 1650 mhz. Some third party releases may come factory overclocked.

It won't be Windows 11 doing anything like that, but it would be your Nvidia drivers. You can probably make adjustments there to make it run at lower clocks if you want.

As long as the GPU temperatures are within safe parameters during use, I wouldn't worry about it. If the coil whine annoys you, I'm not sure what to say. Some cards just whine more than others. I remember my old RX Vega 64 was whiney as hell, but it performed fine. My current RX 6800 is silent even under load.

[Hibuki]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Haruspex:

The 2060 Super has a base clock speed of 1470 mhz and a boost clock of 1650 mhz. Some third party releases may come factory overclocked.

It won't be Windows 11 doing anything like that, but it would be your Nvidia drivers. You can probably make adjustments there to make it run at lower clocks if you want.

As long as the GPU temperatures are within safe parameters during use, I wouldn't worry about it. If the coil whine annoys you, I'm not sure what to say. Some cards just whine more than others. I remember my old RX Vega 64 was whiney as hell, but it performed fine. My current RX 6800 is silent even under load.

Thanks for the reply - I've been using this card for years and it was never overclocked. Drivers got updated 1-2 weeks ago too. The card always ran at 1470MHz.

It started overclocking itself 2-3 days ago when I re-installed Genshin Impact (Uninstalled it shortly after). I initially though it was the SSD or some fan that was making the noise. After trial and error I found out it was the GPU and I learned what "coil whine" means.

So far the only games that cause the overclocking are Genshin Impact, Muse Dash and EDF6. I'm thinking of buying Wukong soon so I will test with it as well. Games I played without the whine are Vermintide 2 and Titan Quest Anniversary.

This is a very weird and novel situation for me... The GPU overclocking itself like that...

[Hibuki]

Interestingly, only Vermintide 2 and Titan Quest are recognized by GeForce Experience

[Haruspex]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hibuki:

Interestingly, only Vermintide 2 and Titan Quest are recognized by GeForce Experience

Hmm. You might try capping the FPS in the games where it does this. I remember with my old Vega 64 running The Sims 3 of all games, the coil whine really ramped up because the game was trying to run at 1000+ FPS. It mellowed out when I capped it to 60 fps.

[Hibuki]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Haruspex:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hibuki:

Interestingly, only Vermintide 2 and Titan Quest are recognized by GeForce Experience

Hmm. You might try capping the FPS in the games where it does this. I remember with my old Vega 64 running The Sims 3 of all games, the coil whine really ramped up because the game was trying to run at 1000+ FPS. It mellowed out when I capped it to 60 fps.

Indeed, this solved it for Muse Dash (It was loading 2000+ frames so I capped it to 240 xD). But for EDF6 (and other heavier games) I always use VSync (60Hz monitor) so I cannot lower it further.

Something changed over the past days/weeks (I had not played EDF6 for a few weeks) and I have no idea what it is...

I guess I'll have to get used to the noise and hope I do not need to worry about overheating. Temps are fine for now in EDF6 (up to 75-80 degrees) and GPU usage is around 50% (but in the past I used to play EDF6 with a GPU temperature of no more than 60 degrees). It kind of feels unpleasant to experience an involuntary overclocking of your GPU though... I reported it to both Nvidia and Microsoft (But I think it's Microsoft who did something with Windows 11).

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hibuki:

I am using an Nvidia GeForce 2060 Super. The standard clock was 1470MHz and I see that now it clock up to 1965MHz when i nheavy use but when not in use it stays at 300MHz.
Interestingly, Windows overclocks the GPU selectively - it pushes it to 1965MHz for EDF6 but does not push it for Vermintide 2. Currently, the difference is that I have EDF6 on an SSD and Vermintide 2 on an HDD (not sure it matters for the clocking).

All this to ask - should I disable the Windows 11 automatic overclocking for the CPU/GPU? - for the CPU it never caused issues and cooling is fine. For the GPU the only thing that has me concerned is the Coil Whine (I'll keep an eye on the cooling).

This behavior has nothing to do with Windows or the Nvidia drivers. This is completely normal behavior for all Nvidia video cards. This is operating normally and this self-overclocking is a feature on Nvidia video cards called Nvidia Boost. It can not be disabled.

This is a beneficial thing that you want to happen too. All Nvidia video cards will automatically self-overclock as high as possible until it hits either the power limit or the temperature limit. Also you will see different boosted clock speeds (not overclocked.. boosted. Remember this is by design and it's not overclocking) depending on which game you play as every computer game we play is unique and will load our video cards in a different way. In some games that are very high load your video card may trigger power limits and run at a lower clock speed, while other games may not be very demanding and your video card will boost higher.

There is nothing to be alarmed about. Just go play games and enjoy a fast experience.

[Hibuki]

Opprinnelig skrevet av 🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hibuki:

I am using an Nvidia GeForce 2060 Super. The standard clock was 1470MHz and I see that now it clock up to 1965MHz when i nheavy use but when not in use it stays at 300MHz.
Interestingly, Windows overclocks the GPU selectively - it pushes it to 1965MHz for EDF6 but does not push it for Vermintide 2. Currently, the difference is that I have EDF6 on an SSD and Vermintide 2 on an HDD (not sure it matters for the clocking).

All this to ask - should I disable the Windows 11 automatic overclocking for the CPU/GPU? - for the CPU it never caused issues and cooling is fine. For the GPU the only thing that has me concerned is the Coil Whine (I'll keep an eye on the cooling).

This behavior has nothing to do with Windows or the Nvidia drivers. This is completely normal behavior for all Nvidia video cards. This is operating normally and this self-overclocking is a feature on Nvidia video cards called Nvidia Boost. It can not be disabled.

This is a beneficial thing that you want to happen too. All Nvidia video cards will automatically self-overclock as high as possible until it hits either the power limit or the temperature limit. Also you will see different boosted clock speeds (not overclocked.. boosted. Remember this is by design and it's not overclocking) depending on which game you play as every computer game we play is unique and will load our video cards in a different way. In some games that are very high load your video card may trigger power limits and run at a lower clock speed, while other games may not be very demanding and your video card will boost higher.

There is nothing to be alarmed about. Just go play games and enjoy a fast experience.

Thanks for the input, I also made a realization that I have been hearing the Coil Whine for longer than I thought - I have been taking advantage of the Nvidia Super Resolution (amazing results for animated content) for a while and 1-2 months ago I started hearing the sound. However, since it sounds like crickets and we were in the middle of summer, I thought I was hearing crickets (or was wondering why the videos had cricket sounds in the background) xD

So indeed, it seems like it was nothing new. Considering I've been using the card for over 2 years, it's possible hat it started the coil whine due to amortization.

[Hibuki]

I am really sorry for coming back to this topic but this GPU setting has to be something new from the past few weeks/months (either Nvidia drivers or Windows 11 updates). When Shadow of the Erdtree released my GPU was running at 1470MHz and I was losing a few frames here and there but I never had to worry about crazy temperatures...

I've never seen my GPU hit 86 degrees while playing (and it consistently hits 86 degrees in the character creator of Baldur's Gate 3 at 60 FPS). This is not ok for me - I would rather lose frames than burn out my GPU (even though 88 degrees is listed as the maximum temperature that my GPU can handle)...

I've never dabbled with over/underclocking but I am seriously considering installing something like MSI Afterburner to tweak this... Unless there is a way to tweak via the Nvidia control panel that I am not aware of (kind of like how Windows allows you to set the maximum/minimum CPU usage in the Power settings).

P.S. I am using NZXTcam for monitoring purposes and that is how I track the aforementioned statistics.

Edit: It looks like I might be able to tweak this via the GeForce Experience Overlay - I'll look into it now.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hibuki:

I am really sorry for coming back to this topic but this GPU setting has to be something new from the past few weeks/months (either Nvidia drivers or Windows 11 updates). When Shadow of the Erdtree released my GPU was running at 1470MHz and I was losing a few frames here and there but I never had to worry about crazy temperatures...

I've never seen my GPU hit 86 degrees while playing (and it consistently hits 86 degrees in the character creator of Baldur's Gate 3 at 60 FPS). This is not ok for me - I would rather lose frames than burn out my GPU (even though 88 degrees is listed as the maximum temperature that my GPU can handle)...

I've never dabbled with over/underclocking but I am seriously considering installing something like MSI Afterburner to tweak this... Unless there is a way to tweak via the Nvidia control panel that I am not aware of (kind of like how Windows allows you to set the maximum/minimum CPU usage in the Power settings).

P.S. I am using NZXTcam for monitoring purposes and that is how I track the aforementioned statistics.

Edit: It looks like I might be able to tweak this via the GeForce Experience Overlay - I'll look into it now.

The maximum temperature for your video card is around 120c for the hottest hot spot. 86c is no where near dangerous levels for your card and nothing at all to be concerned with.

If you're really concerned (even though you shouldn't be) then you can you can do this: Nvidia control panel -> manage 3d settings -> program settings tab -> click the drop-down box to select the game you are playing -> scroll down and find the Max Frame Rate setting -> Set this to your monitor's refresh rate, or 60 FPS.

By restricting the frame rate then it will also restrict the video card's clock speeds when playing.

But again I want to emphasize: 86c is NOT going to damage your card. 86c is not dangerous for the card. You should never worry about the health of your video card unless you end up with "the computer is running but black screen and the video card fans jump to 100% suddenly". If that happens then your video card has overheated. If it's not happening then there's nothing to worry about.

[Hibuki]

Opprinnelig skrevet av 🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hibuki:

I am really sorry for coming back to this topic but this GPU setting has to be something new from the past few weeks/months (either Nvidia drivers or Windows 11 updates). When Shadow of the Erdtree released my GPU was running at 1470MHz and I was losing a few frames here and there but I never had to worry about crazy temperatures...

I've never seen my GPU hit 86 degrees while playing (and it consistently hits 86 degrees in the character creator of Baldur's Gate 3 at 60 FPS). This is not ok for me - I would rather lose frames than burn out my GPU (even though 88 degrees is listed as the maximum temperature that my GPU can handle)...

I've never dabbled with over/underclocking but I am seriously considering installing something like MSI Afterburner to tweak this... Unless there is a way to tweak via the Nvidia control panel that I am not aware of (kind of like how Windows allows you to set the maximum/minimum CPU usage in the Power settings).

P.S. I am using NZXTcam for monitoring purposes and that is how I track the aforementioned statistics.

Edit: It looks like I might be able to tweak this via the GeForce Experience Overlay - I'll look into it now.

The maximum temperature for your video card is around 120c for the hottest hot spot. 86c is no where near dangerous levels for your card and nothing at all to be concerned with.

If you're really concerned (even though you shouldn't be) then you can you can do this: Nvidia control panel -> manage 3d settings -> program settings tab -> click the drop-down box to select the game you are playing -> scroll down and find the Max Frame Rate setting -> Set this to your monitor's refresh rate, or 60 FPS.

By restricting the frame rate then it will also restrict the video card's clock speeds when playing.

But again I want to emphasize: 86c is NOT going to damage your card. 86c is not dangerous for the card. You should never worry about the health of your video card unless you end up with "the computer is running but black screen and the video card fans jump to 100% suddenly". If that happens then your video card has overheated. If it's not happening then there's nothing to worry about.

Thanks for the additional input - I had already limited the frames to 60 + enabled VSync in the General tab (not game specific) but it was still heating up and pushing the fans to 100%

---

Ok, final update on the matter - I used the Geforce Experience Overlay to Underclock the GPU:
- Power Maximum: 85% instead of 100%
- Temperature Maximum: 75 instead of 83

The way I understand this is that these settings are "my" preferences and the GPU can still choose to go over them if it deems it necessary but at least I am seeing better results now.

For example, Balder's Gate 3 character creation screen is now only pushing the GPU to 78-79 degrees Celsius (instead of the previous 85-86). The fan speed overall seems lower which tells me that the overall heat generation is also lower and this makes me happy. :D

Sorry for bothering you with my illogical issues (Who wants to lower the performance of their GPU when they can push it further? xD).

Wish you all a nice day and thanks for bearing with me.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hibuki:

Ok, final update on the matter - I used the Geforce Experience Overlay to Underclock the GPU:
- Power Maximum: 85% instead of 100%
- Temperature Maximum: 75 instead of 83

The way I understand this is that these settings are "my" preferences and the GPU can still choose to go over them if it deems it necessary but at least I am seeing better results now.

For example, Balder's Gate 3 character creation screen is now only pushing the GPU to 78-79 degrees Celsius (instead of the previous 85-86). The fan speed overall seems lower which tells me that the overall heat generation is also lower and this makes me happy. :D

Sorry for bothering you with my illogical issues (Who wants to lower the performance of their GPU when they can push it further? xD).

Wish you all a nice day and thanks for bearing with me. :akaneheart:

Why are you doing this? You shouldn't be doing that at all. You WANT the video card to boost it's clocks and go faster. If it needs the extra power to run the game it should boost and use the speed and power to run the game. The video card boosting it's speed is DESIRABLE and everyone wants this.

Like I said above: As long as the system is not shutting off or going "black screen" when gaming then you shouldn't even be concerned about anything at all.

Although I would comment that you should see about getting better airflow in your case and possibly also reducing your room temps as well.

[Hibuki]

Opprinnelig skrevet av 🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hibuki:

Ok, final update on the matter - I used the Geforce Experience Overlay to Underclock the GPU:
- Power Maximum: 85% instead of 100%
- Temperature Maximum: 75 instead of 83

The way I understand this is that these settings are "my" preferences and the GPU can still choose to go over them if it deems it necessary but at least I am seeing better results now.

For example, Balder's Gate 3 character creation screen is now only pushing the GPU to 78-79 degrees Celsius (instead of the previous 85-86). The fan speed overall seems lower which tells me that the overall heat generation is also lower and this makes me happy. :D

Sorry for bothering you with my illogical issues (Who wants to lower the performance of their GPU when they can push it further? xD).

Wish you all a nice day and thanks for bearing with me.

Why are you doing this? You shouldn't be doing that at all. You WANT the video card to boost it's clocks and go faster. If it needs the extra power to run the game it should boost and use the speed and power to run the game. The video card boosting it's speed is DESIRABLE and everyone wants this.

Like I said above: As long as the system is not shutting off or going "black screen" when gaming then you shouldn't even be concerned about anything at all.

Although I would comment that you should see about getting better airflow in your case and possibly also reducing your room temps as well.

The airflow in the case is great (spacious and with enough case fans). I also regularly clear the dust inside the case (using a hair drier on the cold setting xD). The issue is the room temperature - the moment I turn the AC off, everything gets unpleasantly hot...

I understand your points and fully agree that my actions are counter intuitive for the average user. However, the priority for me is to reduce amortization and reach a decent efficiency level. I don't mind lowering some graphics (or playing in 1080p instead of 1440p) in order to maintain the 60FPS that I am used to, if it means the GPU can take it easy :D

By the way, both games are still running at 60FPS without any changes to the graphical settings and despite me lowering the Maximum Power/Temperature preference. To me this means that the GPU was unnecessarily using extra power when it could have been more efficient/economical. I'll have to test some more demanding games later on and see how it goes (Wukong maybe :D)

At the same time, if memory serves, I used to play EDF6 1-2 months ago (after release) with the same settings at 60FPS AND the GPU fans got turned on once every 5-10min to maintain a temperature lower than 60C. At the time, the GPU was not exceeding 1470MHz (But I have no idea how much power was being used). Now, after the changing the preferences, EDF6 is still resulting in a temperature of around 70C (which is acceptable to me but seems overkill if the GPU can handle 60 FPS while being more efficient).

The more I think about it, the more I think that Nvidia made some changes with the last few releases of the Game Ready drivers which prompted this automatic GPU operation. While it ensures overall better performance, it does not seem efficient to me...

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hibuki:

The more I think about it, the more I think that Nvidia made some changes with the last few releases of the Game Ready drivers which prompted this automatic GPU operation. While it ensures overall better performance, it does not seem efficient to me...

You could always try reverting back to a previous driver version if you know the version ###.## of nvidia driver you want to revert to. You don't have to run the latest driver if you don't want to and if you also don't have any games that require newer drivers.

[Hibuki]

Opprinnelig skrevet av 🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hibuki:

The more I think about it, the more I think that Nvidia made some changes with the last few releases of the Game Ready drivers which prompted this automatic GPU operation. While it ensures overall better performance, it does not seem efficient to me...

You could always try reverting back to a previous driver version if you know the version ###.## of nvidia driver you want to revert to. You don't have to run the latest driver if you don't want to and if you also don't have any games that require newer drivers.

I understand that but I do want the newest drivers as I do plan to play Wukong and newer games (Maybe Space Marines 2) at some point xD

By the way, let me clarify that even though I said I underclocked the GPU by setting the Power to 85% instead of 100%, it is still using more than 1470MHz (which is standard for 2060 SUPER) during gameplay. I believe this % is actually % from the maximum MHz it was willing to use (at some points it was pushing over 2000MHz but after the change it stays around 1700MHz)

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hibuki:

I understand that but I do want the newest drivers as I do plan to play Wukong and newer games (Maybe Space Marines 2) at some point xD

By the way, let me clarify that even though I said I underclocked the GPU by setting the Power to 85% instead of 100%, it is still using more than 1470MHz (which is standard for 2060 SUPER) during gameplay. I believe this % is actually % from the maximum MHz it was willing to use (at some points it was pushing over 2000MHz but after the change it stays around 1700MHz)

I have a bit of information for you: I own a RTX 3070 Ti which Nvidia specifies the standard clock speed for this card of 1770 Mhz. I have mine in a large custom water loop (3 pumps, 5 radiators, 23 fans, etc, etc) and my card has been running at between 2145 <-> 2190 Mhz when gaming going on 3 years and nothing has happened to it. It doesn't hurt anything for Nvidia cards to self-boost like this. They're designed to do it. You should just let it go and enjoy it.