Just a friendly nVidia card Power Setting NOTAM:

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

...on the Pascal series cards, as you know, there is a Power Down State listed from P0, (the highest power and watts burned), to the idle P8, (the lowest 'idle' in watts).

 

Because of a quark and coding in the latest nVidia driver suites, if you set your power state in the mask, to Prefer Max Power, you will be seeing that your card does not power down to idle, (P8), and will in fact stay at P0, even at the computer desktop.

 

If you set your Power Setting to Adaptive, that is the one that will allow your card to use its internal power-ramp settings, and thereby, will take your card down to a cooling P8 (idle) when graphics tasks do not call for max power rendering.  Another feature of Adaptive that you actually want when in flight simulation, is that it will monitor the actual power needs to generate whatever is called upon on the screen....and your flight scenario.  This will not only conserve power, but MOST IMPORTANTLY, will keep your card from throttling down it freq's, because it is hitting, or getting close to the heat threshold limits, by where your card starts to drop its frequency output.  

 

Your card will stay in its coolest thermal state, for what is being asked of it to render;

 

Some are mistaken in believing that by using the Adaptive setting, you do not receive the full benefit of your gear...and that by only usng the Prefer Max Power, do you. Nope...for Adaptive is powering the 'scene' to what the card needs, to give you the best FPS, (averaged) at the LEAST power required to do so.

 

Another way to look at it...is if you have a 6 speed transmission, why keep it in fifth gear at a higher rev point, to cruise at 70, then rather drop your engine torque, by using the sixth gear to achieve the same road speed (FPS).

 

By using Prefer Max Power, you are keeping your card, at an elevated heat setting, for no reason...even at idle.  Adaptive keeps your card at its lowest possible internal chip heat, to handle whatever you are asking it to render, with no chance of your card auto-throttling down your running frequencies.

 

I use Adaptive as my setting always, and can see my GTX 1070 FTW, idle down its twin fans to a dead stop, within 2 minutes from very demanding XP, P3D, or FSX scene complexities.  If I run at Prefer Max Power, the card will stay at P0, no matter if I drop to a low-demand graphic environment, like my computer Desktop, with the card's twin fans never dropping to full stop (idle cool).  You can check out what your P-state is by using CPUZ....to see this.  Sometimes..but very sporadic, your card might drop to P8, while in Prefer Max Power, but that is not what is happening in actuality. Prefer Max Power is just that...whereby you hinder/clamp the auto P-state routine of your card, and force it to run at P0, always.  This is not good for your card's thermals, as well as your pocket book.

 

Just a head's up.   If you run Prefer Max Power, any showing P8 state is inaccurate, for Prefer Max Power, is a by-pass 'clamp', that disengages the auto-P(x) state, to achieve full freq generation power at all times of usage.  You will get better FPS performance (weight adjusted) as well as longer tech life, by using Adaptive in the nVidia driver setting under Global.

 

Cheers,

[vortex681 806]

Is this something specific to Pascal?

 

I have a GTX 970 card (which also has different power states) and after a driver update the power state seemed to be stuck all the time when "Prefer Maximum Performance" was set. I was advised to completely uninstall and reinstall the driver and it now goes into idle state (with fans stopped) when "Prefer Maximum Performance" is set globally with no load. There seem to be a lot of posts around the NVIDIA forums from people whose cards are stuck at maximum all the time with "Prefer Maximum Performance" set and as many who say that their card clocks down normally when not gaming with this setting.

 

Just found this explanation:

 

Optimal Power

Maximum power saving. It effectively stops the GPU from rendering anything in idle if the desktop isn't changing. Moving your cursor around for instance will trigger a render. Other than that, it's the same as Adaptive.

 

Adaptive

Lowers the clock of the GPU and memory when idle and in games (when usage is low). It's basically the same as Intel's Speedstep and AMD's Cool'n'Quiet.

 

Maximum Performance

Clocks will not be lowered when in games, this will of course increase power consumption and heat. It will lower in idle.

"Optimal Power" and "Adaptive" can, apparently, cause some stuttering in certain games while the clock speed is changing which doesn't happen with "Prefer Maximum Performance".

 

By using Prefer Max Power, you are keeping your card, at an elevated heat setting, for no reason...even at idle. Adaptive keeps your card at its lowest possible internal chip heat, to handle whatever you are asking it to render, with no chance of your card auto-throttling down your running frequencies.

 

Perhaps it's something specific to the particular card/BIOS but that doesn't happen with my card. When flying in FSX my card runs at around 60C and when I shut down FSX it drops back to idle at about 30C with the fans stopped.

[Novation 534]

 

 

"Optimal Power" and "Adaptive" can, apparently, cause some stuttering in certain games while the clock speed is changing which doesn't happen with "Prefer Maximum Performance".

 

 

Yes it can, I always use Prefer Maximum Performance for simming and gaming. This can be set for for your 3D apps only, using profiles, rather than globally to ensure your card is not running at higher clocks and volts when in the desktop or non 3D apps, not that it should. Each to their own of course, but I want to ensure my card is running at its max all the time my sims and games are running, and I've seen drops when not locking the power management mode.

 

But do whatever works for you :smile: