Undervolt GPU: the complete guide to a cooler card

Is your graphics card running hot, making a lot of noise, and driving up your electricity bill? Undervolting is one of the most effective and safe optimizations you can apply to your GPU. When done correctly, it allows you to reduce the temperature, noise, and power consumption of your card without losing performance—and sometimes even gaining some. This guide explains the complete method for both Nvidia GeForce and AMD Radeon cards.

What is undervolting and why does it work?

Every GPU leaves the factory with a voltage/frequency curve defined by the manufacturer. To ensure that 100% of the produced chips are stable, this curve is intentionally generous with voltage: most units can reach the same frequencies with fewer volts than what the factory settings provide.

Undervolting consists of exploiting this margin: we ask the GPU to reach its target frequency with a lower voltage. Less voltage means fewer watts dissipated, therefore less heat, quieter fans, and often a boost that remains higher for longer because the card hits its thermal limits less quickly.

• Temperature: typical drop of 5 to 15 °C depending on the card and cooling
• Power consumption: common reduction of 10 to 25% in games
• Noise: fans are significantly quieter under the same load
• Performance: identical, sometimes slightly higher thanks to a more stable boost

Is it risky? No, and that is what distinguishes undervolting from overclocking: lowering the voltage cannot damage your hardware. At worst, an overly aggressive setting will cause the driver or game to crash—in that case, just raise the voltage slightly. Just note that every chip is unique: stable values vary from one unit to another, which is why it is important to test gradually.

Prerequisites: software to install

• For Nvidia: MSI Afterburner (free, works with all brands of cards, not just MSI)
• For AMD: AMD Software Adrenalin Edition, already installed with your drivers
• For monitoring: HWiNFO64 or the Afterburner overlay (temperature, power consumption, frequency)
• For stability testing: a demanding game you know well, 3DMark (Steel Nomad or Time Spy in a loop), or a built-in benchmark from a game like Cyberpunk 2077

Nvidia method: Afterburner's voltage/frequency curve

Step 1: Note your starting point

Run a demanding game for about ten minutes and note your GPU's actual boost frequency (for example, 2,700 MHz) as well as the associated voltage (often around 1,000 to 1,050 mV). These values are visible in the Afterburner overlay or in HWiNFO64.

Step 2: Open the curve editor

In MSI Afterburner, press Ctrl + F to open the voltage/frequency curve editor. Each point represents a frequency reached for a given voltage.

Step 3: Build the undervolted curve

• Choose a target voltage lower than the one recorded in-game, for example 900 mV (a good starting point for most recent cards).
• Select the point on the curve corresponding to 900 mV and move it up to your desired frequency, slightly below your original boost (for example, 2,600 MHz if you were at 2,700 MHz).
• Then flatten the entire curve to the right of this point: select the following points and align them to the same frequency. The GPU will thus never exceed 900 mV.
• Click the apply checkmark in Afterburner.

Step 4: Test, adjust, lock

Run your reference game or benchmark for at least 20 to 30 minutes. If everything is stable, you can try to go lower (875 mV, 850 mV...) or raise the frequency in 15 MHz increments. In the event of a crash, raise the voltage by one step or lower the frequency by 30 MHz. Once satisfied, save the setting in an Afterburner profile and enable it to apply at Windows startup.

AMD method: undervolting integrated into Adrenalin

AMD has the advantage of offering undervolting directly in its drivers, without third-party software.

• Open AMD Software Adrenalin Edition, then go to the Performance → Tuning tab.
• Switch to Manual Tuning and enable GPU voltage control.
• Lower the maximum voltage in increments of 25 mV: if your card runs at 1,150 mV by default, test 1,100, then 1,075, then 1,050 mV, etc.
• Test stability after each increment with your reference game.
• You can also lower the Power Limit by a few percent to increase power consumption gains.

The one-click "Undervolt GPU" option offered by Adrenalin is a good automatic first step, but a well-tested manual setting almost always yields better results.

Validating stability: do not skip this step

An undervolt can seem stable in one game and crash in another, because not all games stress the GPU in the same way. To seriously validate your setting:

• Test several different games, including a title with ray tracing if your card supports it—ray tracing stresses parts of the GPU often more sensitive to voltage drops.
• Alternate between heavy and light loads: frequency transitions are a critical moment for stability.
• Monitor for visual artifacts (flickering, abnormal pixels): these signal a setting that is too tight even without a crash.
• Keep the setting under observation for a few days before considering it definitive.

What gains can you realistically expect?

These ranges are indicative: results depend on your card model, the quality of your chip, and the airflow in your case. Recent cards like the RTX 5060, 5060 Ti, and 5070 generally respond very well to the exercise, as their energy efficiency is already high.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Trying to go too fast: going directly to 800 mV without increments almost always leads to instability.
• Testing for only 5 minutes: some crashes only appear after 30 minutes or in specific scenes.
• Forgetting the profile at startup: without this, your setting disappears upon reboot.
• Confusing undervolt with underclock: the goal is to keep the frequency almost identical while lowering the voltage, not to throttle the card.
• Neglecting the rest of the cooling: a poorly ventilated case will limit your gains—also check your airflow.

In summary

Undervolting is the optimization with the best effort-to-benefit ratio for a gaming PC: 30 minutes of setup and testing are enough to get a cooler, quieter, and less energy-intensive machine without sacrificing performance. It is also an excellent way to extend the lifespan of your graphics card by reducing its daily thermal stress.

And if you prefer to start from a healthy and well-ventilated base, gaming PCs assembled in France by DSGate are built with careful airflow and components selected for their reliability—an ideal foundation for applying this tutorial.