It’s a gamer’s nightmare because it negatively impacts performance while also damaging your hardware. GPUs are hogging more power than ever, so this issue is becoming more apparent. There’s a simple way to stop thermal throttling. You might just be able to stop throttling your GPU with a few small software tweaks and some dusting.
Thermal Throttling On GPUs: What Is It?
The clock speeds on modern GPUs are insane. Your card’s performance will be better if you have higher core and memory clock speeds. However, power consumption goes up. Although you’ll get great performance from Nvidia’s RTX 40-Series cards, they will generate a lot of heat since they are rated between 200W and 450W TGP (Total Graphics Power). The GPU will slow down when it reaches a certain temperature until it drops to an acceptable level. When your GPU gets overloaded, it throttles to keep itself from melting.
After a certain temperature, your GPU clock speeds will drop. This varies from GPU to GPU, but in general it’s around 195 degrees Fahrenheit. There are several ways GPU thermal throttling affects gaming, but basically you can get reduced performance and damage your card if your GPU thermal throttles. Thermo-throttling doesn’t always have to be bad either. There’s nothing else preventing your GPU from going up in flames.
Despite that, performance suffers. This won’t help your framerates in-game or GPU. Fixing the problem isn’t too bad either.
1. Optimize GPU performance
By reducing GPU load, you can get rid of GPU thermal throttling. Using less power means less heat for your GPU. This can be done in a few ways. It’s obvious to lower graphics settings in-game, but it may not work with all games if CPU is more important than GPU. It’s also a good idea to limit your FPS in-game.
To make sure your GPU doesn’t get over-used, you should have your FPS match your monitor’s refresh rate. In terms of latency, you may want to render more frames than your monitor can display, but you don’t want to overtax your GPU. V-Sync does this in a click so you don’t have to mess around with in-game settings and try to figure out which ones work best for your hardware. You should only use it as a last resort because it can slow down your computer and introduce input lag.
You can also reduce GPU load by using a low or balanced power plan if you have a laptop, since it limits how much power your GPU can use. Additionally, your dedicated GPU won’t eat up as much power when you’re on the go. Even mobile GPUs can deliver 120W TGP, which is quite a bit for a mobile device.
2. Maintenance of systems
You can’t have a computer without dust. Dust can clog your fan vents no matter what system you’re using or what gaming rig you’re using, leading to thermal throttling because your GPU (or other components) won’t get as much cool air as it needs. No matter how water-cooled your PC is, fans still circulate air. Get rid of any dust you can find inside those fan vents to keep your computer cool. Hopefully, this won’t take too long. Dust should be blown out of your fan vents with compressed air or a dust blower and some careful spraying.
Keeping high temperatures at bay can also be achieved with thermal repasting, especially if you’re using a high-speed laptop. Resetting your GPU isn’t something you should do if you’re not comfortable opening up your system, and you shouldn’t do it very often. You should be able to use thermal paste for a long time with good quality.
It can be an indication that your GPU isn’t getting enough cooling if you’re experiencing extremely high temperatures (around 190 Fahrenheit or above) even when it’s idle. You can fix that with thorough system maintenance.
3. GPU undervolting
The last thing you can try is undervolting your GPU if reducing GPU load isn’t working or your thermal solution isn’t working. Basically, this is the opposite of overclocking, since you’re trying to reduce your GPU’s power consumption while still keeping it consistent. Overclocking is dangerous, but undervolting is much safer, so you’re less likely to damage your hardware. You’ll still have to do some research, tweak things manually, and restart a lot.
In addition, undervolting your GPU may actually boost its performance even more than it would at stock settings, if done properly. Undervolted GPUs stay stable much easier than stock GPUs at maximum usage. The best tool for this is MSI Afterburner. You can undervolt a desktop GPU the same way we undervolt gaming laptop GPUs.
How to Make Your GPU Work Better
Each generation of GPUs gets more powerful, so gamers need to balance power consumption and GPU load and make sure their thermal solutions are optimized. It’s a necessary operation, but it’s well worth it for longevity and performance.
