Undervolting Your GPU: Squeezing More Performance From Older Hardware
Common wisdom suggests that if you want more performance from your GPU, you have to feed it more power. However, recent experimentation suggests the opposite may be true. Driven by curiosity, the method of undervolting an aging RTX 2070 Super was tested, challenging assumptions about performance optimization.
Establishing a Baseline
Before adjusting voltage curves or power sliders, it was necessary to understand the typical performance of the 7-year-old GPU. At stock settings, the Zotac RTX 2070 Super achieved a 3D Mark Speed Way score of 2,137, maintaining an average clock frequency of 1,872 MHz and a steady 64°C. This performance was consistent, indicating stable operation.
The 3DMark Speed Way benchmark, built around DirectX 12 Ultimate, heavily utilizes ray-tracing, rasterization, global illumination, and mesh shader performance – a demanding workload for exposing GPU weaknesses. The GPU was paired with a Zen 2 Ryzen 3600 on a B450M platform, delivering standard performance for comparable configurations, indicating potential for further tuning.
The Undervolting Process
Undervolting was approached conservatively using MSI Afterburner, making the process accessible. The process involved gradually lowering the power limit and validating each step with successive 3DMark Speed Way runs. Performance remained largely unchanged until reaching a 60% power limit, at which point a measurable performance dip occurred. This established that the GPU had significant headroom beyond its stock settings, with the 65–70% range appearing to be optimal for this particular RTX 2070 Super.
Identifying this threshold revealed thermal and electrical headroom. This led to modest frequency adjustments, building on observations from previous tests with an RTX 4070 Ti Super, where simultaneous overclocking and undervolting proved effective.
The Verdict: More for Less
Locking in a 65% power limit and applying a modest overclock to the core and memory clock yielded surprising results. The RTX 2070 Super operated within a tighter, more stable, and slightly more performant envelope.
The 3DMark Speed Way score increased from 2,137 to 2,140, and the average clock frequency rose from 1,872 MHz to 1,924 MHz – a 2.7% uplift. Importantly, temperatures dropped from 64°C to 61°C. With the power cap in place, the GPU sustained higher effective clocks more consistently, a hallmark of successful undervolting.
| Metric | Stock Configuration | UV+OC (65% Power) |
|---|---|---|
| Speed Way Score | 2,137 | 2,140 |
| Avg. Clock Speed | 1,872 MHz | 1,924 MHz |
| Avg. Temperature | 64°C | 61°C |
| Power Limit | 100% | 65% |
With the power cap in place, the GPU no longer experienced fluctuations under load, sustaining higher effective clocks consistently.
Beyond the Benchmarks
This experiment confirms that stock settings are often a safe, unoptimized average. Trimming a power budget can reclaim performance, reduce temperatures, and potentially extend the life of a GPU. While results vary between cards, there is often unused efficiency and performance left untapped in factory-applied defaults. Manufacturers prioritize stability margins and worst-case silicon scenarios, rather than optimizing for each individual chip.