Arch Linux

snowcliffx

Member

Registered: 2024-08-26

Posts: 3

NVIDIA GPU running at maximum speed unless it's monitored.

Whenever I check the current state (idle) of my NVIDIA GPU with tools such as nvidia-smi, nvidia-settings, nvtop etc. my GPU always seems to be running at the maximum speed (2250MHz clockspeed, 9000MHz memory rate) and drawing approximately 30W. After a few seconds of monitoring it, it suddenly returns to its normal state (210 MHz clockspeed, 405MHz memory rate) and drawing as little as 1W. I don't know if this is a "feature" or not, but it really bugs me.

Here's some information about my system:
Laptop: Asus ROG Strix 18 (G814JZ_G814JZ)
CPU: Intel Gen 13th Core i9-13980HX
GPU (dedicated): NVIDIA RTX 4080-Mobile | Using nvidia-open 560.35.03
GPU (integrated): Raptor Lake-S UHD Graphics
WM: i3-wm

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: NVIDIA GPU running at maximum speed unless it's monitored.

Does it really or do those diagnostic tools fire up the card for a moment and then return to normal?

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,176

Re: NVIDIA GPU running at maximum speed unless it's monitored.

It is normal, likely inevitable. The driver wakes the GPU to query it.
=> https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PRIME# … Management

tail /sys/class/drm/card*/device/power_state

to check the power status.

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snowcliffx

Member

Registered: 2024-08-26

Posts: 3

Re: NVIDIA GPU running at maximum speed unless it's monitored.

Does it really or do those diagnostic tools fire up the card for a moment and then return to normal?

The latter might be the case, actually. The terminal does stutter for a second or so before querying the results (when i do it for the first time in a while). As long as it's not actually happening while idling, that's fine.

snowcliffx

Member

Registered: 2024-08-26

Posts: 3

Re: NVIDIA GPU running at maximum speed unless it's monitored.

It is normal, likely inevitable. The driver wakes the GPU to query it.
=> https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PRIME# … Management

tail /sys/class/drm/card*/device/power_state

to check the power status.

I see, thanks for the information.