Folding Forum

Howdy - I just wanted to share a friendly tip for anyone who may want to fold with their AMD GPU but doesn't like the fans cranked up, or is concerned about thermals.
I suspect most everyone will already know this & other means, but this is just in case someone doesn't and may decide not to fold because of it.

I asked the Q to myself: How can I throttle the GPU to lower fan speeds & temps just enough to not be abysmal, since I have to use this PC during the day & don't want to hear it at night?

Simple really:
1) Open AMD Radeon Software (assumes you are running the 2020 software)
2) Select Performance tab
3) Select Tuning sub tab
4) Select Manual tuning ctrl
5) Change your power limit to negative percent - Be sure to click Apply
6) Naturally play with the neg slider to find something that better suits your desired noise/temp goals.

I am using -20% daytime and find that the fans are then tolerable - This hovers around 155W - I still get est 953K (~1M) PPD too, so not much lost I think.

-Matthew

This is good info to put out there as I know many people do not realize how easily this can be done!

While messing with the power limit is for sure the fastest way to lower thermals, you can go a step further and tune the target frequency and voltage which can give you better performance per watt than just the power target alone. Most AMD cards benefit a lot from undervolting (running a lower voltage than the card would stock for any given frequency) which lowers the power being consumed, the heat being produced, and the noise the fans make all while the performance can stay the same or nearly so. There is no golden number or rule for this, it is all trial and error.

For anyone else who is running a 5700 XT, the spreadsheet in my sig shows the PPD for various frequencies and ASIC power levels (chip power only, not the whole card). While the figures shown are only applicable to my card in my environment, perhaps they could be of use to someone else. I know my card is far from a lottery winner so your card may be able to run even lower voltages for the given frequency targets, but it could also require more.