Is my 1070Ti experiencing thermal throttling?
Is my 1070Ti experiencing thermal throttling?
The EVGA 1070Ti Ultra FTW appears to experience thermal throttling even though temperatures remain below 65°C. During the Heaven benchmark, it begins with a core clock of 2062 (plus 160Mhz OC) but drops to 2032 around the middle of the test (temperatures between 59–62°C), despite being well under the threshold. Is this typical behavior for the Pascal card, or is there an issue with my GPU when power and temperature limits are set to MAX (+130% and 92°C)?
My system specifications are as follows:
- CPU: i5 3570K
- Cooler: HYPER 212X
- MBO: Intel DH77KC
- RAM: 2×4GB CORSAIR VENGEANCE 1600Mhz
- SSD/HDD: 250GB SAMSUNG 850 EVO (Boot)/3TB Seagate Barracuda (1+2TB)
- GPU: EVGA GTX 1070Ti FTW ULTRA SILENT
- PSU: Seasonic S12ii-620W
- Chassis: Antec P8
- OS: Windows 10 Pro 1903.
Based on what you're tracking, it seems you can observe the logical conditions of throttling. There will be certain checks that return only 1 or 0. This might just be a result of boosting, throttling should reduce its value below that.
It's not due to thermal throttling. GPU Boost 3.0 is handling the situation by auto-overclocking and adjusting based on temperature, power limits, and usage.
Pascal reacts strongly to heat, so you can only reach GPU Boost speeds up to 40°C or less. Above that point, the boost reduces gradually but consistently. This behavior is completely normal.
Gpu boost 3 functions quite alike to Intel CPU turbo settings. The i9-9900k reaches up to 5GHz with 2 cores, 4.9GHz for 3-4 cores and 4.7GHz for higher loads. This adjustment helps keep power balance while temperatures stay manageable under stress. The 1070ti behaves similarly; when the workload increases, clocks decrease slightly, which lowers voltage needs and reduces current through the VRM and related circuits. You’ll notice mid-60s temperatures, though the rest of the system can easily exceed 90°C. Reducing boost is mainly about monitoring temperature rather than limiting the GPU itself.