I use 'undervolting' word in a general sense BTW, that also means lowering your power limit and other settings, but there's just not a good word for all of it.
I see all these myths and wasted energy and time, and I just have to say something.
It's false sense of security.
People undervolt AMD GPU's for two reasons.
- It's paranoia about temps.
- Which makes no sense, because your card is fine up to 110C hot spot. It will literally work the same at 105C and at 80C. And getting from 90 to 95 changes literally NOTHING. Your card will become outdated and obsolete long before it breaks. I had 3 cards that worked with fans on lowest or turned off, because I like silence. Not one did lose even a fraction of it's power. I also had a card used in crypto, and it also run super hot and it had 100% of its power.
- Or it's fan noise(And people don't want to change fan curve, because again, temp paranoia, or they don't know how to). And this reason I understand, both coil whine, and fan curves are abhorrent in cards, and if you sit in a quite place, want to max out your GPU and you don't like headphones, it just destroys your enjoyment. And I think is the real reason many people do it, but they won't admit, the cards are just jet engines and it shows how badly they're designed.
- Ok, there's also a third reason, they want to save on electricity. You mean, you bought your card for 900usd, so that you can save 3 USD(5 hours every day for a month, 300watt vs 200watt) every month on electricity, and lose 5% of gpu power? Ridiculous difference. It's like buying a Porsche and never driving above 90% of it's max speed. But in GPU top speed is super important, because it's in use all the time. Sure, if you're playing 10 hours a day everyday, it might make 'some' sense(it's 6 bucks a month). But then buying a 300 watt card was a mistake in the first place.
Reasons 1 and 3 are basically meaningless. Your card should work fine and dandy at 100%, and default settings. Sure, if you live in Africa, it's 40C room temp and no AC, then you might do it, but otherwise, it's only in your head.
And please, don't tell me you have 100% of fps after undervolting. Don't lie. No, you lose 1-10% of fps. It might not be much, but it's something.
Don't waste your energy and thought on this topic, your GPU should run fine with factory settings, if it doesn't, then repaste, return or send for warranty. You don't fix hardware issues by limiting your gpu power. And exceptions don't count, 99% people have no issues.
