Older games often run slower due to limited GPU clock speeds, causing performance problems.
Older games often run slower due to limited GPU clock speeds, causing performance problems.
So I've got an issue I can't quite pin down. Having issues with my GPU not reaching its full boost clock in older titles, which leads to significant performance issues. Team Fortress 2 is what I have been using to benchmark, as the issue is extremely prevalent there. Basically I run a benchmark within the game and get anywhere from 190-200 fps. However, during these runs, my GPU's clock speed rarely goes over the base 2535 mhz, and is only pulling around 935 mV. However, during the times where the boost clock does engage, it pulls around 1000-1000 mV. GPU usage here is around 30-40%. I can also trick my GPU into boost clocking higher, by playing multiple videos on my second monitor. Where I can get the boost clock (of 2775 mhz) to actually engage nearly at all times, and I get a result of around 250 fps in my TF2 benchmark. Funny enough, downloading a game in the background also triggers the same behavior, which doesn't really make sense to me. Undervolting with a curve in MSI afterburner helps a small bit, but I can't get it to consistently hit the max boost clock. Modern games tend to work fine, as once I'm hitting higher GPU usage everything works as expected. However, is there anything that I can do to keep the boost clock engaging in older titles? I'm already running at 1440p. Rig is: 4070 super 14900kf ASrock z790-c 32 GB of 6000 Mt/s RAM
Honestly it's just TF2. Between the game engine and just how old the game is, it probably just isn't optimized to use the newer GPUs to their full capability. Also if you can hit 200fps without boost clocking then you should be happy since you're not putting unnecessary stress on your GPU. Also games that run on the Source Engine are more CPU heavy. What is your CPU usage during the benchmark? If you're not hitting 80%+ then I wouldn't worry about it. Being that you have a 14900, I can't imagine that you are. I haven't messed with afterburner in a long while but if I remember, if you set the clock speed, that's what it should run at. If you're referencing the factory set GPU boost clock then that would most likely be driver issue and be that your GPU just doesn't think that it needs to run any faster than it does. Just set the clock speed in afterburner to the boost clock and it should run at that every time.
TF2 is considered one of the less impressive benchmarks available, mainly because it was released in 2007 and hasn't been updated to work with newer hardware since the RTX 1000 series. While LoL is a stronger benchmark as it adapts to current hardware, TF2 still relies on the original source engine. Interestingly, achieving higher FPS in TF2 isn't very useful due to server rate limits, especially in community servers. Unless you're playing jump maps and closely track frame data like rocket or sticky jumps, FPS above 66 is generally acceptable since servers use a fixed 66 tik rate.