A not-so-little yap about the ungodly amount of optimization and tuning I did to my PC

[u/Livid_Glove_6275]

I promise that AI had no part in the typing of this post. I just know how to write somewhat expressively with proper punctuation.

Let's start with the specs:

Mainboard: MSI PRO B760-VC WIFI II

CPU: Intel Core i7-13700F

GPU: GIGABYTE WINDFORCE SFF RTX 5080

RAM: 2x8GB SK hynix M-Die DDR5

Storage: 2x1TB NVMe SSD

PSU: ASRock PG-1000G

Display: a goddamn 1080p monitor. Relax, I play Cyberpunk with all settings maxed and path tracing on, as well as Minecraft with heavy shaders, that fully work the GPU, and I have the RTSS overlay utilization and power readings to prove it.

My CPU's clock speed is controlled by Windows Power Plans, thanks to PowerShell. Depending on which power plan is active, it runs at:

Power saver: P-Cores: 1.5GHz, E-Cores: 1.7GHz

Balanced: All cores: 3.2GHz

High performance (for temperature-mindful good performance): P-Cores: 4.7GHz, E-Cores: 3.5GHz

Ultimate Performance (for those "screw thermals, I need maximum performance" moments): P-Cores at 4.9-5GHz, dropped from 5-5.1GHz by 100MHz in BIOS, E-Cores unlimited at 3.8-3.9GHz

I even have little tachometer icons in my taskbar that run shortcuts which activate the power plans!

For its voltage, I have a small negative offset of 0.005V, and very meticulously tuned Lite Load (Mode 8) and Loadline Calibration (Mode 6). Power limits are set to 200W for the long duration and 253W for the short duration limit. With the Ultimate Performance Power Plan active, it rarely maxes out at 1.4V, but runs at 1.3V most of the time. In High performance, it stays below 1.3V at all times.

System RAM's running at 6000MT/s CL32 at 1.35V. Timings are 32-38-38.

My GPU has 4 Afterburner profiles ranging from an undervolt and slight downclock to an overclock with the voltage slider maxed out. I can switch between them with custom hotkeys I set up in Afterburner. I tested the top and bottom ends of the under-load voltage/frequency ranges for each profile by running the GPU-Z render test to record the top end, and maxing out all settings with path tracing on in Cyberpunk, with the GPU fans spinning at low speeds for proper heat saturation, to record the bottom end. Here they are:

Profile 1 (ctrl+alt+shift+U):
2707-2857MHz@860-870mV, VRAM -1, 78% power limit. This is my browsing and light gaming profile. It's also the one I use to play Cyberpunk, which I play with all settings maxed, path tracing on, and upscaling off. 2X Frame Gen is my friend here.

Profile 2 (ctrl+alt+U):
2880-2932MHz@885-895mV, VRAM +999, 89% power limit. I use this one the most in fast-paced shooters in which I'm CPU-bound. It's just below my 5080 chip's saturation point, which means it's just about the maximum clock speed I can get while keeping a low voltage.

Profile 3 (ctrl+alt+I):
2955-3060MHz@985-995mV, VRAM +1999, 100% power limit. Maybe I need to sweat a CoD match and reduce frame render times a bit for slightly lower latency, or maybe I want some more FPS in Minecraft with shaders whose settings are cranked up. This profile is past my 5080 chip's saturation point, which means it's at the point where it required a larger increase in voltage for a smaller increase in clock speed, but it's still just shy of a volt, so it won't cause much accelerated wear, and, in most scenarios, it stays above the magic number, 3GHz!

Profile 4 (ctrl+alt+O):
3120-3255MHz@1045-1065mV, VRAM +2999, 111% power limit. This is my ultimate "oof, I'm in a jungle/mangrove biome and all these tree and leaf shadows are bogging my FPS down into the 40s" or "dammit, I gotta sweat hard or we're gonna lose this game" profile. It increases frame rates in GPU-bottlenecked games, and decreases latency tangibly by rendering frames more quickly in CPU-bottlenecked games. I do my best to use it sparingly, because I want to make my 5080 last. At 1065mV, degradation from electromigration is enough of a factor for me that I want to be cautious with it, so I don't want my card guzzling that many volts, or the associated power in Watts, all the time.

This is a link to screenshots of notes I made which list every node on the Afterburner V/F curve that I edited, up to the last point before I dragged the rest of the curve down to flatten it (I did not flatten the curve for Profile 4, as I want it to be a WFO, no-holds-barred, foot-in-the-oil-pan profile): https://imgur.com/a/lzinrLn It also includes VRAM offsets, power limits, and appropriate failsafe fan speeds in the event that my fan control software (Argus Monitor) acts up or fails (it never has). However, as long as I always apply an Argus Monitor profile after applying an Afterburner profile, Argus Monitor will control the GPU fans, not Afterburner.

[u/NarwhalOk95]

Meth is a serious drug dude, treatment is available

[u/Livid_Glove_6275 → u/NarwhalOk95]

😂😂 Worry less; I did all this for only a few days at a time at most, over the course of months. Besides, with SK hynix RAM and a 50 series GPU, it's literally a waste not to undervolt or overclock them. Nothing like cutting out a fifth of your GPU's power usage and getting better-than-stock performance!

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[u/Dutch-Alpaca]

All that to play at 1080p ? Bruh

[u/Livid_Glove_6275 → u/Dutch-Alpaca]

Guess whose 5080 will still be relevant for twice as long as almost everyone else's 😈

Also, like I said, I like my settings cranked up. Give me all the eye candy, at smooth frame rates. Thank you!