Nowadays, when every graphics card is pushed to its limits out of the box, you should consider undervolting rather than overclocking. Undervolting the GPU allows you to retain the same or nearly the same level of performance as with the default settings while reducing power consumption, noise, and thermals.
What Is Undervolting, and Why Should You Do It?
YourGPUuses a certain amount of voltage (basically the measurement of the “pressure” with which electrons flow through the GPU’s circuits). That amountis lower when idleand higher when under load. The default, out-of-the-box GPU settings are usually “looser” regarding voltage, allowing the GPU to use more voltage, and thus more power, than optimal.
Undervolting your gaming GPU means finding the voltage sweet spot without causing instability. By undervolting it, you are limiting the amount of voltage your GPU can use, trying to find the lowest voltage at which it can achieve its default level of gaming performance. You can go even lower if you’re okay with reduced boost clocks and slightly decreased gaming performance.
The benefits include lowerthermalsand power usage when playing games, with no or minimal performance penalties. Less power used can also result in a quieter graphics card because the cooler has to dissipate less heat. In some cases, you might even snag a percent or two higher in-game performance.
The procedure is fairly straightforward, but there are some rules you ought to follow to get the best results.
1Start With a Conservative Undervolt and Work Your Way Up
Finding the voltage sweet spot can be a time-consuming procedure if you don’t have any reference points. The best way to find this is to scour the web (especially Reddit, YouTube, and tech forums such asLevel1Techs,TechPowerUp, orLTT forums) to find undervolt settings for your particular GPU.
For instance, if you own an NVIDIA RTX 5070, search for “RTX 5070 undervolting settings” or “RTX 5070 undervolting guide.”
Once you find what other owners are getting, start by applying a bit more voltage to be safe and then gradually work your way up (or down, to be accurate). Not every graphics card is equallybinned, so it’s best to start with a slightly conservative undervolt just to be safe.
Each time after you change the settings, test the card, both in benchmarks and games, to confirm there isn’t any instability. If all’s well you can stop there, or try going lower until you’re satisfied with the results or hit an instability wall.
2Use AMD Software to Undervolt AMD GPUs
AMD Software: Adrenalin Editionis all you need to undervolt your AMD GPU. The process is super straightforward.
Simply open AMD Software, click the “Performance” tab, then click the “Tuning” tab. Once there, select the “Custom” tuning preset. Finally, enable GPU tuning.
Now, you’re able to undervolt your card by adjusting the voltage slider. If you want to undervolt andoverclock your GPU, you should also enable VRAM and Power tuning and start experimenting.
3MSI Afterburner Is Best for Undervolting NVIDIA GPUs
NVIDIA GPU owners should useMSI Afterburnerto undervolt their GPU.
All you’ve got to do is download and install MSI Afterburner, open the settings menu, and enable the “Unlock Voltage Control” and “Unlock Voltage Monitoring” options. Click “Apply,” exit the settings menu, and then click the “Curve Editor” button.
Once there, knock yourself out.
The good news is that the web is chock-full of NVIDIA GPU undervolting guides. Unless you’re rocking an ancient graphics card, you won’t have any difficulty finding a guide made specifically for your card, so I won’t go into any more details here.
I also recommend installingRiva Tuner Statisticsserver, included in the MSI Afterburner installation package, which isan excellent toolformonitoring in-game performance stats.
Many undervolting and overclocking tutorials use synthetic GPU benchmarks as stress tests, including free options such asHeavenorSuperposition, both developed by Unigine.
From my experience, these two, as well as most benchmarks from the3DMarksuite, are quite lenient undervolting stress tests. Your GPU can pass them with flying colors and then crash two minutes after loading into your favorite game.
The best undervolt stability benchmark I’ve found to date is actually 3DMark Steel Nomad. Its stress test variant comprises 20 benchmark runs one after another. If your GPU survives all 20 loops without crashing, the undervolt should be stable in most games.
While a paid app,3DMarkis often discounted on Steam and well worth the price. If you’re patient, you can grab it for less than $10.
I’ve noticed that only Unreal Engine 5 games can crash an undervolted GPU even after it had survived the Steel Nomad stress test.
5You Can Power Limit RTX 40 and 50 Series GPUs Instead
While undervolting the RTX 40 and RTX 50 series GPUs is still the best way to achieve the lowest thermals and power usage with minimal or no performance loss, there’s a quick and dirty way to achieve similar results: power-limiting your GPU.
To do this, open MSI Afterburner, drop the power limit to your discretion (90% or 80% should be enough), apply the setting, and Bob’s your uncle. You will get similar results to undervolting, but the drop in performance will most likely be more drastic than undervolting the GPU.
Personally, I don’t recommend this because undervolting your GPU is really simple, especially if you own an NVIDIA GPU. There are dozens of great NVIDIA undervolting guides out there; you won’t have issues finding an in-depth and informative tutorial. But you do you.
6AMD Software Supports Custom Undervolt Profiles
AMD GPU owners can use per-game undervolt profiles, which is a nice boon because some games are more sensitive to GPU undervolt than others.
To add a new power profile for a specific game, open AMD Software, click the “Performance” menu, navigate to the “Tuning” tab, and click the “Add Game Profile” button.
Find the game you want to create a custom profile for, or manually select its .exe file by clicking the “+” symbol.
Now, you may apply a custom undervolt just for that game in case it makes your GPU crash when you play it with the default undervolt settings.
7Some Games Are More Sensitive Than Others
As noted, some games are more sensitive to an undervolt than others. For instance, before I undervolted my RX 9070 XT, I searched the web to see what other RX 9070 XT owners have managed to achieve.
I noticed that many owners reported stable performance with a -100mV offset, so I also went with a -100mV undervolt. At the time, I was playingKingdom Come: Deliverance II, and a -100mV undervolt was fully stable in that game.
In fact, after playing around a bit, I managed to overclock and undervolt my GPU by -150mV. I was thrilled because myGPU’s thermalswere fine, and I had managed to get more than 10% more frames on average.
But that didn’t last long. After finishingKingdom Come II, I downloadedS.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, and that game would crash immediately after loading a save. I dropped the undervolt to -100mV but got the same result.
So, I went back online. After some digging, I learned that I should stress test my GPU with the Steel Nomad benchmark instead of using the Unigine Superposition test I had used before.
Fast-forward an hour and dozens of Steel Nomad loops, and I settled at a -80mV undervolt. ButS.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2had other plans and continued crashing. After some more digging, I learned that Unreal Engine 5 games are very sensitive to undervolt and would crash even if other games worked fine.
After testing these claims with two UE5 titles,Silent Hill 2 RemakeandBlack Myth Wukong, I discovered that I have to decrease undervolt to only -40mV to prevent UE5 games from crashing.
Out of curiosity, I had tried higher undervolts inOblivion RemasterandClair Obscur(both UE5 games as well), but, expectedly, the games would crash as soon as I’d apply anything higher than -40mV.
Interestingly,DOOM: The Dark Ages,which I’m playing right now, works great with a -100mV undervolt, at least for my GPU. This shows that some game engines are more undervolt-sensitive than others.
This is why I recommend that AMD GPU owners who plan to undervolt their GPU use per-game undervolt profiles with undervolt-sensitive games. Beats having to settle for a conservative undervolt that has little to no benefits only because certain games don’t play nice with undervolted GPUs.
8Overclocking an AMD GPU? Undervolting Is a Prerequisite
Last but not least, if you own an AMD GPU and want to overclock it instead of undervolt it, the latter is a prerequisite if you want to get any noticeable performance boost.
Increasing the power, memory, and max GPU frequency sliders without applying undervolt can only net you an extra frame or two in games. The GPU cannot achieve higher boost clocks because it hits its thermal and power limits since it works at high voltages to begin with.
But if you include undervolt in the equation, the GPU will be able to achieve higher boost clocks since it now has both the power and thermal headroom to boost higher.
Undervolting your graphics card is a fairly straightforward procedure. I recommend it to every PC gamer who can spare a few hours to get the best results. Your prize will be a cooler, quieter, less power-hungry GPU that performs the same.
