Question GPU Power consumption in games

[flagmonkey47]

While playing Fallout 4 and Far cry Primal I noticed that my RX 460 was not drawing its full 76W as it does in Furmark and other games. It was stuck at 52 W and I got only 24fps. However the GPU utilisation was not dropping much , only to 98% when the drops ocurred. Is this behaviour normal? I was playing at ultra. The odd thing is that when I lower settings the power consumption increases.

 

[flagmonkey47]

52w is probably the core. the rest is vram and it isnt monitored

I monitored all kinds of power draw and nothing exceeded 52W. And what about other games which are consuming 67 W.

 

[PontiacGTX]

more demanding on the core and reaches higher boost voltage? no thermal throttling? no vsync limit?

 

[flagmonkey47]

more demanding on the core and reaches higher boost voltage? no thermal throttling? no vsync limit?

Didn't quite understand what you are asking in the very first line-"more demanding on the core and reaches higher boost voltage ?"

 

[PontiacGTX]

I wasnt asking just a dubious suggestion

 

[flagmonkey47]

I wasnt asking just a dubious suggestion

Oh okay.

 

[PontiacGTX]

what I mean is it can be the game is more demanding or reaches higher gpu usage, that increases boost clocks hence uses higher boost voltage and increases power consumption there are games which power consumption are quite different maybe a 20-15w difference or so in some cases, but this could be something like thermal throttling if you card underpeforms and the vrm temps are high or some driver bug

 

[flagmonkey47]

what I mean is it can be the game is more demanding or reaches higher gpu usage, that increases boost clocks hence uses higher boost voltage and increases power consumption there are games which power consumption are quite different maybe a 20-15w difference or so in some cases, but this could be something like thermal throttling if you card underpeforms and the vrm temps are high or some driver bug

What is confusing me is that when the fps climbs the power consumption rises and when the fps drops power consumption lowers. I think psolord is correct about power consumption behaviour of GPUs. And yes my temps are fine.

 

[PontiacGTX]

only I can think is a bottleneck or the game reduces the load for some reason, also could be the card throttling itself you should check the clocks and save the logs from a monitoring tool

 

[psolord]

Do you mean forcing vsync off using .ini files? I tried that already. I saw on the internet how a GTX 960 was having problem with this game so i think my fps is as it should be. What do you think?

No, by rehashing the game files, I meant checking their integrity. Maybe there is something wrong with them, that could inhibit the system from working properly.

The tampering with the vcync could help up to a point but it messes with the physics engine as well. Did it help?

 

[flagmonkey47]

No, by rehashing the game files, I meant checking their integrity. Maybe there is something wrong with them, that could inhibit the system from working properly.

The tampering with the vcync could help up to a point but it messes with the physics engine as well. Did it help?

I found out the root cause of the problem but I don't know how to fix it. When I enabled bootlog option I saw that a directx component named as dxkrnl.sys is not loaded while booting. It could be AMD drivers issue or my motherboard. I have tried doing clean install of windows and running directx installer from Microsoft's site.

 

[ElFenix]

What is confusing me is that when the fps climbs the power consumption rises and when the fps drops power consumption lowers.

that's expected. more fps = more work done = more energy consumed.

 

[flagmonkey47]

that's expected. more fps = more work done = more energy consumed.

Did you read my last post?

 

[ElFenix]

Did you read my last post?

try reinstalling directx?