AMD Adrenalin: How to Set Max Frequency Offset Accurately?

[Jurchen King]

Question for AMD Radeon GPU users:

We know AMD GPUs by default boost way high above specified maximum frequency, causing issues like driver time-out or crashes.

Last time Adrenalin software can set the exact maximum frequency to stop GPU from over-boosting above manufacturer specs. But now Adrenalin software has removed this setting and replaced it with a Mhz offset slider.

So how do you know how much offset to set in order to match manufacturer specified maximum boost frequency? For example, let's say maximum boost frequency is 3020Mhz. If left at default, confirm software will over-boost above maximum frequency. If offset too much, then performance drop below what you pay for. So how much offset should be in this example?

Thank you for your expert advice.

 

[Koenig168]

I use MSI Afterburner with Core Voltage -80 mV and Power Limit -20%. The GPU will boost according to what it is capable of but with these two limitations, there will be no thermal throttling.

I tested stable at -110 mV but -80 mV is good enough for daily use.

 

[Vanyel]

think u have to monitor what ur card over boost to ba

above figures from my card playing steller blade max settings, a game which is known to be very sensitive and crashes alot
but i dun really have much issues except for starting the game from steam is i believe is dev issue
need to click drag this file dwmapi.dll out of folder, start game, close immediately and then restore it back whenever game cant launch

actually my personal belief is that amd cards are probly very sensitive and that it may be something else with the system is causing the issue that all those ppl whose cards are crashing
the root cause might not be the gpu at all

my default settings

same goes for my son's Asus 9070XT, mine is Asrock steel legend

 

[Jurchen King]

I answer my own OP after experimenting with the Adrenalin software. Hope it will be useful as reference for other users as well.

No need to install 3rd party software like MSI Afterburner. The trick is to use the built-in overlay function and add GPU clock as one of the indicators. Check your own GPU model specs for maximum (up to) boost speed.

Set an initial offset of -100Mhz and launch your most frequently played game(s). With the overlay on display, check how high the GPU boosts to. If boost clock frequently overshoots way higher than manufacturer spec, keep increasing negative offset until boost clock go no higher than around +50Mhz of manufacturer spec. Keep testing with different games. Once you're satisfied, export the settings profile and remove screen metrics overlay.

I must say the Radeon algorithm is very aggressive. For my case, even though I offset -100Mhz clock and -10% power limit with 60mV undervolt, I still kena driver timeout error as the clock was frequently boosting +250Mhz above maximum manufacturer spec. No wonder my screen froze and error message appeared.

For me to set as close as possible to maximum boost clock of 3010Mhz, I had to offset clock frequency by -370Mhz . After I've locked in my tuning settings, I'm shocked but happy to see my GPU consume between 145W-253W of power and temps consistently around 60+ degrees . This is way below the 304W TDP of my card and GPU fans are silent. And I'm still hitting/exceeding the FPS maximum refresh rate of my monitor.

Sucks that Adrenalin removed the option to manually set exact maximum clock frequency value in tuning options. So my method is not as precise but solves all driver timeout error issues due to auto over-boosting.