GPU keeps full boost clock even at low usage

[King of Worms]

I have noticed, that my GTX 970 keeps the max clocks, eventho the GPU usage is low, VSYNC is ON and I have "optimal power" set in nVidia inspector.

I tried fiddling with all kinds of settings, but was unable to get the GPU work in a way it works with other games.

In other games, it reduces the Mhz if the full power is not needed. Simple as that. That does not happen in DFU, and this results in higher temps and I guess higher power consumption etc.

Can anyone confirm, that their nVidia cards are reducing the clocks when the usage is low? This is with 0.12.0 but I have a feeling it was always like this.

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Example of how it works in other games, heres Chernobilite. U can see the clocks are reduced to 911mhz from full boost of 1300+/- The Gpu keeps at cca 80% usage and scales the Mhz down or up, according to current scene requirements.

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[King of Worms]

No-one uses some GPU monitoring SW and can confirm this on nvidia or amd?

[Interkarma]

I don't have an answer, I'm sorry. I don't know enough about how Unity manages power features to even guess.

Do you also experience this with other Unity games of a comparable type? Chernobylite is a UE4 title and power management might be an engine level thing moreso than game specific.

[King of Worms]

DFU is a exception in the Unity games, I have not seen this behavior much, cant even remember any case.
Currently I have Vaporum:lockdown and Subnautica Below Zero and they behave as expected, same as the 1st parts of these games did - all running on the Unity engine.

If I had to guess, the reason is, that the VSYNC is handled in some different way in DFU
OR
The fullscreen mode is

These powersaving features work only with VSYNC.
If you disable VSYNC on your 60Hz monitor and lets say limit your FPS to 60 so your GFX card produces same amount of FPS with VSYNC ON vs OFF, the GPU clock will go to full boost and the usage will go down. Exactly like DFU does now - but DFU does this with VSYNC ON and thats the strange part.

Maybe if you describe how Fullscreen and VSYNC is currently handled in some simple way, it will show the reason why DFU behaves like this.

I remember you changed the fullscreen mode in a past, it might be the reason. Are there any ini settings to fiddle with and test?

Also, if you decide you dont want to dive into this topic, I understand Just wanted to let you know this is the case. Plus wanted others to confirm they experience the same behavior.

[Interkarma]

Fullscreen and vsync are Unity player settings, it's not something DFU implements on its own. This is all managed by Unity.

Which fullscreen are you using - default borderless windowed or exclusive fullscreen? Maybe try both and see if you get different results.

[King of Worms]

"Which fullscreen are you using" - where I can see this setting?
Is it the "Fullscreen" red box at options when I press ESC during gameplay?

In the ini my settings are
VSync = True
Fullscreen = True

Thank you

[Interkarma]

Sorry KoW, I should have covered that. The ini setting is "ExclusiveFullscreen=True". You'll find it under [Video].

The default fullscreen is a borderless window stretched to cover desktop, exclusive actually changes the display mode to use the set resolution.

I don't have any ideas outside of that sorry. Like I said, this is all managed from Unity itself. The code in DFU isn't much more complex than passing the true/false settings from ini file into engine. What it does with it from there is a bit of a black box.