Undervolt GPU: The complete guide for a cooler and quieter PC

Is your graphics card running hot, your fans roaring during gaming, and your electricity bill climbing? Undervolting is one of the most cost-effective optimizations you can apply to your gaming PC. When done correctly, it can reduce your GPU's temperature and power consumption by 10 to 20%, with no noticeable performance loss—and sometimes even a slight gain in frequency stability.

In this tutorial, we will walk you through how to undervolt an Nvidia or AMD graphics card, using free tools and without any hardware risk.

What is undervolting and why does it work?

Every GPU leaves the factory with a voltage/frequency curve defined by the manufacturer. This curve is intentionally generous with voltage: it must guarantee the stability of millions of chips, including those that fared less well in the silicon lottery. As a result, the vast majority of cards receive more voltage than necessary to reach their frequencies.

Undervolting consists of reducing this voltage while maintaining the same frequency. Less voltage means:

• Less power consumption: power dissipation varies with the square of the voltage, so every millivolt gained counts.
• Less heat: the GPU dissipates fewer watts, so it heats up less.
• Less noise: fans spin slower to maintain the same target temperature.
• More stable frequencies: a GPU that heats up less will throttle less and better maintain its boost clock.

Unlike overclocking, undervolting poses no risk to the hardware: at worst, an overly aggressive setting will cause a driver crash, and a restart will set everything back to normal.

Step 1: Prepare the tools

You will need three free software applications:

• MSI Afterburner: the go-to tool for adjusting the voltage/frequency curve (works with all card brands, not just MSI).
• A stress benchmark: 3DMark (Steel Nomad or Time Spy), Unigine Superposition, or simply a demanding game you know well.
• A monitoring tool: HWiNFO64 or Afterburner's overlay to monitor temperature, power consumption, and frequency in real time.

For AMD Radeon cards, you can also use the integrated Adrenalin software (Performance tab > Tuning), which offers an even simpler guided undervolt.

Step 2: Note down your reference values

Before changing anything, run your benchmark or game for 10 to 15 minutes and note:

• The average GPU frequency under load (e.g., 2,700 MHz on an RTX 5060 Ti).
• The corresponding voltage (e.g., 1,050 mV).
• The maximum temperature reached.
• The power consumption in watts.

These values will serve as a comparison point to measure your gains.

Step 3: Modify the voltage/frequency curve

In MSI Afterburner, press Ctrl + F to open the curve editor. Each point represents a frequency associated with a voltage. The simplest method:

• Choose a target voltage lower than the one noted under load. Start moderately: 950 mV is a good starting point for most recent cards.
• Select the point on the curve corresponding to 950 mV and raise it to the frequency the card originally achieved (or slightly below, -50 MHz to start).
• Flatten the curve after this point: select all points to the right and align them to the same frequency. The GPU will thus never exceed 950 mV.
• Confirm with the checkmark in Afterburner.

Your card is now running at the same frequency as before, but with about 100 mV less.

Step 4: Test stability

Rerun your benchmark for at least 20 minutes, then play your usual games. Two scenarios:

• Everything is stable: you can try to go further. Lower the voltage in 25 mV increments (925 mV, 900 mV…) and re-test thoroughly at each increment.
• Crash, black screen, or driver crash: your setting is too aggressive. Increase the voltage by 25 mV or lower the target frequency by 50 MHz, then retest.

Each chip is unique: some RTX 5070s can hold 2,600 MHz at 900 mV, while others require 950 mV. Patience is the key to successful undervolting.

Step 5: Make the setting permanent

In Afterburner, save your curve to a profile (floppy disk icon then a profile number), and enable automatic startup with Windows (Windows icon in settings). After a few days of varied use, check that everything remains stable—some games stress the GPU differently than benchmarks.

What concrete gains can be expected?

These figures vary depending on the card, case, and cooling, but the order of magnitude is representative of what most users observe.

Conclusion: a free and reversible optimization

Undervolting is one of the few adjustments where everyone wins: your GPU runs cooler, your PC is quieter, and you save electricity—a significant point considering modern setups can easily exceed 400W while gaming.

Want a machine already well-designed for cooling? DSGate gaming PCs assembled in France are built with suitable CPU coolers and clean cable management for optimized airflow. And if you have any questions about optimizing your setup, our team can be reached at contact@dsgate.fr.