Undervolting radeon rx 5700 xt or rx 5700: how to do it and benefits

If anything, the new AMD Navi graphics cards have left us is a good performance against the Nvidia super, but also a spectacular warm-up, especially in the configurations with heatsink Blower. So in this tutorial we will see how to undervolting the Radeon RX 5700 XT, step by step with Radeon WattMan.

This tutorial will be perfectly applicable to the RX 5700 version and to the other versions with custom heatsink of the independent assemblers. Obviously each model will be different and will need different values, but precisely for that we are, to show the procedure and be able to apply it to other models.

Blower heatsinks on the Radeon RX 5700 are out of place

And it is inevitable to criticize AMD in this regard for placing new generation cards with the 5700 a blower type heatsink. For those who don't know, these heatsinks are based on a block that completely covers the PCB of the card and that have a turbine type fan that sucks air to send it through the finned heatsink that covers the graphics processor, VRM and memories.

Why are they so bad? Well, first of all because the block completely covers the finned heatsink, to create the tunnel where the air circulates. In addition, it does not help much that it is all made of metal, keeping a lot of heat in the plates due to the fact that it is closed on both sides. Second, we only have one fan, and effectiveness is nowhere near as axial (vertical) flow. The air passes much more slowly through the heatsink and does not give it time to properly collect the heat from the assembly, not to mention how noisy these turbines are.

Anyway, practically everything is bad in them, so we better leave this system for inflatable castle inflators for birthdays. On the opposite side we have the axial flow heatsinks, which have fans that bathe the heatsink vertically, with much more pressure against the fins and much better outlet on the sides of the hot air. These are used by assemblers like Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, AsRock, etc.

The power of the new Navi doesn't help either

To the above we must add the high power of the graphic chipsets that these new cards have. Nvidia completely scrapped these heatsinks in their new generation as they were completely insufficient due to the high performance of the new GPUs. These AMD Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT are pretty much at the performance level of the Nvidia RTX 2060 Super and 2070 Super, so they should have done the same.

In the model to which we apply undervolting today, we have a chip with the new RDNA technology working at a frequency of 1905 MHz in turbo mode and an available maximum of 2150 MHz. As if that were not enough, it has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory at one 14 Gbps speed (7000 MHz clock) and a 256-bit bus. The result is temperatures that widely exceed 80 ° C in stress, and that at 24 ° C of ambient temperature.

What is undervolting

Undervolting is a technique by which the working voltage of an electronic chip is reduced, whatever it is, CPU, GPU and even memories and other components. All of these components are capable of processing large amounts of information, which, for all practical purposes, is simply energy flowing at high intensity and frequency through millions of transistors.

The basic parameters to control and monitor in a processor are Voltage (V), Intensity (A), Power (W) and frequency (Hz). With this technique, what is done is to decrease the working voltage of a chip below its stock or factory values. With this we get the temperatures of it to drop, since less intensity will circulate through the chip. This will cause it to consume less power, since all three parameters have a direct relationship P = I * V.

There is also another consequence in the voltage drop of the processor, although it is not always met, and it is the decrease in the working frequency, due to not enough energy reaching the chip. We could call this undercloking, which is lowering the clock frequency along with the voltage, just the opposite of overclocking. We say that it is not always true because sometimes the opposite occurs, as the chip heats up less, the frequency rises because it is in more favorable conditions.

And yet another consequence of undervolting is that we prevent thermal throttling from occurring. This is a system so the power of a processor is automatically limited to avoid damage due to over temperature. But this is not a good limitation like undervolting, on the contrary, it is to prevent the chip from burning.

And what software are we going to use

Radeon Adrenalin 2019

That said, the software that we are going to use for undervolting the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is WattMan. This is integrated into the manufacturer's AMD Radeon Adrenalin 2019 graphics drivers, which in this test are in version 19.9.2.

Furmark

There are other programs such as EVGA Precision X1 or MSI Afterburner, but since AMD offers a very complete software and perfectly integrated with its GPU, what less to use it.

To stress this GPU and verify if the changes have the desired effect, we are going to use the free Furmark software. In addition, we will also use MSI Afterburnet or Fraps to monitor in real time the FPS that the stress test is delivering.

Undervolting AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT step by step

Practice as we say, is applicable to any AMD graphics card. This process is always by iteration, that is, we start from a reference value and vary it until we achieve the desired results in temperature, performance, consumption and, of course, stability. So be patient, it may not turn out as you expected the first time, at least it is much safer than overclocking, but we are not going to burn anything.

Well, what we will do is open the AMD Radeon Settings software and go to the Games section. Next, we go to Global Configuration and then in the upper tab we will find WattMan Global. And it would be.

WattMan software

The program is divided into four basic sections:

• Performance graphs: represent the load, temperatures, GPU and memory frequency, consumption and RPM of the fans in real time. It will be very important to look at them after making the relevant changes. GPU: for us it will be the most important section, since we have a graph where the frequency is represented as a function of the voltage. Fan and temperature: in this section we will configure the fan RPM profile to lower the temperature. Energy: the parameters of energy and memory frequency are shown. We will also play something from here.

Adjustment control modes in manual

Under the first commented section we have four adjustment modes, but the one we will use is the Manual. With it the rest of the graphics will be activated for us to be able to modify them. We will also later test the “ Lower CPU Voltage Automatically ” mode, to see what undervolting the program does automatically.

Modify voltage and frequency

It will be the basic parameter for undervolting the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT. In the X axis of this graph we are shown the clock frequency range of the graphic processor, while in the Y axis we will have the voltage to be applied at all times.

This card is capable of reaching 2, 150 MHz at a maximum of 1, 200 mV (millivolts) or 1.2 V. What we are going to do is move that vertical flag to the left to decrease the maximum working frequency. In turn, we will click on the orange circle to decrease the mV that must be applied at this frequency.

For this AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT some values ​​that have given good results are to limit the frequency to 1900 MHz and the voltage to 994 mV. The figures will always be around those records, less than 1000 mV and less than 1920 MHz. It will depend a lot on the maximum temperatures that we have previously obtained in a stress process, which we recommend doing.

These parameters will be considered good when we obtain values ​​around 70 ° C or less in “Current Temperature”. The same we will apply to the Radeon RX 5700, even the voltage and frequency will be very similar to this GPU that we tested. We could also lower the voltage curve with the center point of the graph, but the program automatically makes a proportional adjustment, so there is no problem.

Modify the temperature profile

When we have finished in the previous graph, we are going to control the RPM of the fan depending on the temperature.

The series profile that comes to us is a complete nonsense, since it is not even close to squeezing all the possibilities of the blower. And the reason is simple, to show the user that it is a silent system at the cost of overflowing temperatures. We must be realistic, if we want to lower temperatures, we are going to pay with more noise, and it is not much, so we are going to give a little more energy to this fan.

We are going to start by raising the low temperature regime to 20-25% so that the heatsink does not overheat. A good benchmark will be to increase the speed by 42% when the GPU reaches 60-65 ° C. At this regime we will already have a system with some noise, but it is a good starting point for subsequent iterations.

By the end of the graph, we are going to place the fan at 95% of its capacity when the temperature reaches 85 degrees. Although we already assure you that with undervolting we will never reach these records.

Maximize the energy limit

It is not mandatory, but it does not hurt to increase it because of what could happen. In this way we are allowing the GPU to work with more energy than initially established in the profile.

We are not going to modify any more parameters, since the frequency of the memories does not affect the temperatures too much, and already it is below the possibilities of the GPU.

The option of automatic undervolting

The Andrenalin software that we are using also has an automatic undervolting option. We just have to activate the corresponding option at the top and apply the changes. The program will automatically select what it considers best for the GPU.

It is a fairly inflexible system, since it completely blocks the manual adjustment of the graphics. In addition, we already anticipate that the values ​​obtained with this mode are practically the same as if we do nothing to the GPU, so basically it is useless.

How to verify that the configuration works well

After making the changes, it is time to verify if the configuration we have made gives good results, so we go to the upper area and click on the " apply " button. We can also save this profile and load it whenever we want.

Now what we recommend is to use Furmark to see if the undervolting to the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT has taken effect. We have left the test for 10 uninterrupted minutes to make it faster. Also, after this period of time temperatures tend to stabilize and give us a good idea of ​​where the shots are going.

How should we interpret the results?

• Well, the main thing will be to verify that the temperature reaches lower values ​​than in its previous state. If they are below 60 ° C it still supports more power, perhaps we have lowered the voltage too much or increased the fan a lot. In case the GPU is too noisy we can try to lower RPM to see if the temperatures do not shoot up, in which case we keep the voltage the same. If on the contrary we have very high temperatures, we may have to lower the voltage and frequency even more, for example, at 1850 MHz / 950mV. Or slightly increase the RPM of the fan.

Results obtained in the undervolting to the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

For these tests we have taken all the data that the WattMan software shows us, along with the frames per second that Furmark has registered in the stress test. The graphs show the values ​​collected in for 10 minutes in sections of 60 seconds. In all cases we compare the registers without undervolting, with manual undervolting and with automatic undervolting.

The values ​​that we have shown in the previous WattMan captures are those that we consider final and optimal for this graphics card in our conditions of use.

In both cases, the manual method is the one that has really taken effect on the graphics card. We have constantly managed to reduce surface temperatures by 15 ° C, while those of the DIE are reduced by no less than 23 ° C in almost all cases. We are talking about a drop from almost 100 ° C to 75 ° C, and just limiting the voltage a bit.

In automatic mode we do not see any differences in temperature, so we can already discard this mode as a solution.

The fan has of course been increased in RPM, especially when approaching performance compromised temperatures. The advantage we get is great, while the disadvantage is that of increased noise.

Now notice how drastic the reduction in energy consumption has been. Actively controlling the voltage, we've gone from 180W averages to just 137W. They are more than 40W, so we could think that the drop in performance is going to be brutal. We will see later if this is the case.

Now we see the records regarding the frequency of the GPU, which is certainly not that far from the automatic and normal modes. This invites you to think that thermal throttling was a fact in this GPU without undervolting.

And we finished this test run with Furmark's FPS, which are exactly the same in all three cases. As you can see, the performance has not fallen at any time, even with consumption of 40W less. That can surely mean that the Radeon XR 5700 XT is working perfectly at these voltages.

Benchmark test and test in Final Fantasy XV

We wanted to make the comparison with the undervolting to the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT and the stock configuration. We have directly discarded the option of automatic undervolting because it is useless.

Final Fantasy XV	Stock	Undervolting
1920 x 1080 (Full HD)	120 FPS	117 FPS
2560 x 1440 (WQHD)	82 FPS	81 FPS
3840 x 2160 (4K)	42 FPS	43 FPS
Benchmarks	Stock	Undervolting
Fire Strike (Graphics Score)	26309	26126
Time Spy (Graphics Score)	8833	8717

Let's look at the values ​​related to the “ Graphics Score ” card. For the test with Fire Stri ke with the normal configuration we have obtained 26, 309 points, while with undervolting we have almost the same, 26, 126 FPS, just 200 points less. This confirms the previous performance results showing that we are practically the same. In the DirectX 12 benchmark exactly the same thing happens, with virtually equal results.

And we ended the tests testing the performance of Final Fantasy XV with DirectX 12, which has also produced very similar data. We only lose 3 FPS in 1080p resolution, while in the other resolutions, we have the same figures. It is little, it is true, but for the most demanding players it may seem like a loss to consider. For us it honestly is not, since we are well above 60 FPS.

Final conclusion about undervolting the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

Well, here we have come with this undervolting to one of the new AMD creations, and precisely one of the ones that needs this practice the most to get the most out of it. We have seen that even limiting its voltage to 996 mV it is still capable of giving us a performance practically identical to its normal state.

This invites us to think that this GPU only needed certain adjustments by the manufacturer to alleviate those horrible temperatures that the blower heatsink it installs gives us. It is a model that is always cheaper than the customized ones, so for users who, before a little budget, this tutorial will be phenomenal.

Furthermore, we have not needed any software for this practice, since WattMan is an excellent bet from AMD to modify its products at the hardware level. Of course, the topic of automatic undervolting is absolutely useless, where our hand and judgment is, that the rest be removed.

Now we leave you with some more tutorials that may interest you to complement this one:

Tell us about your experience with undervolting on this or other graphics cards. Can you think of any other that needs an adjustment?