GPU undervolting has become a favorite pastime for many enthusiast PC gamers. For years, we’ve been told that a simple undervolt drastically lowers temperatures and power consumption while also resulting in quieter operation, but the truth is that, in most situations, running your GPU at its default settings is completely fine.

Your GPU will work just fine at default settings

Modern GPUs are optimized to work at stock settings

Graphics cards are designed to function with their default settings. NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel spend countless hours testing their GPUs under various conditions before settling on those defaults. GPU vendors must also meet certain requirements regarding cooling solutions and power delivery for NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel to approve the sale of their custom GPU models.

Regarding safe operating temperatures, NVIDIA GPUs can work fine up to around 85 degrees Celsius before they start thermally throttling, while AMD cards can push even higher temperatures. If you own an AMD GPU (especially an RDNA 2 or RDNA 3 part), it should work fine up to around 90 degrees Celsius, with the hotspot (the hottest part of the GPU die) allowed to reach 110 degrees Celsius before thermal throttling occurs.

It’s a similar story with GPU memory. GDDR6 and GDDR6X can safely operate at up to around 95 degrees Celsius, while GDDR7, found on RTX 50 GPUs, is fine up to about 90 degrees Celsius.

Credit: NVIDIA

After all, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition cards, manufactured by NVIDIA itself, are known to run at higher temperatures than most partner designs from ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, and others. For example, the NVIDIA RTX 5080 FE runs at 67 degrees Celsius, which is higher than most third-party RTX 5080 models, and the same goes for AMD reference designs.

Now, while thermal throttling was a real concern in the past, it has more or less become a nothingburger starting with the NVIDIA RTX 40 and AMD RX 70 series, as manufacturers equipped these cards with overengineered coolers that keep both GPU and memory temperatures well below thermal throttling thresholds.

There are some outliers, usually among the cheapest models and those custom-made for SFF (small form factor) builds, but the majority of RTX 40, RTX 50, RX 70, and RX 90 GPUs won’t come close to thermal throttling temperatures when used at default settings. Better yet, their coolers not only keep the cards cool but also quiet.

When it comes to efficiency, undervolting your card can slightly reduce its power consumption, but the gains are usually below 50W. There are some cards that can run drastically more efficiently (the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090, for instance), but in most cases, the improvements are relatively modest.

Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek

For example, my Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Pulse comes with one of those overengineered coolers. It’s heckin’ huge, and it keeps the card cool and quiet even under extreme loads. I’ve never seen it run higher than mid-70s for the hotspot and low-80s for the memory, which is more than fine, while also being whisper-quiet no matter the workload. I’d tried to undervolt it just for fun when I got it, but all I got was a few degrees Celsius lower thermals and a few dozens of watts lower power usage, so I quickly went back to the default settings.

Many GPU models also come with dual BIOS, one optimized for quiet performance and the other aiming for the best cooling performance at higher noise levels. If you think your GPU runs too hot for comfort, check whether it comes with dual BIOS, and if so, switch it to performance mode. If the GPU supports dual BIOS, you should see a small switch on its body, as shown in the images below.

So, in a nutshell, your GPU should work fine at stock settings. You shouldn’t worry about thermal throttle, especially if you own a newer NVIDIA or AMD GPU. Intel GPUs also have excellent thermals since they, too, come with overengineered coolers. With all that said, undervolting does make sense in certain scenarios.

When undervolting the GPU makes sense

Sometimes, undervolting it can be the best thing to do for your graphics card

Credit: Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

There are certain situations in which undervolting your GPU is the right path to take. For example, my previous graphics card, a Gigabyte RTX 3070 Eagle OC, was one of the cheapest RTX 3070 models I could find during the 2020 GPU shortage. It worked fine, and thermals weren’t an issue, but the card was loud as a jet engine.

After about 15 minutes of gaming, the fans would become as loud as those on a gaming laptop. So I downloaded MSI Afterburner and applied a relatively tame 925mV undervolt. The results were impressive: the card ran a few degrees cooler and was whisper-quiet. I kept it undervolted for almost five years before upgrading to the RX 9070 XT, and the card worked flawlessly the whole time.

Credit: Ismar Hrnjicevic / How-To Geek

If you also have an annoyingly loud graphics card, even a mild undervolt can noticeably reduce noise and slightly lower temperatures. You might also consider creating a custom fan curve; if you do, I recommend trying Fan Control, the best fan control tool for Windows PCs.

GPU undervolting also makes sense if you own a dual-fan version of a GPU that’s usually equipped with a triple-fan cooling solution, or a compact graphics card designed for Mini-ITX builds. Such GPUs can be very loud and run very hot, especially when placed in a poorly ventilated enclosure, in which case undervolting can help rein in their noise and temperatures.

Overclocking AMD GPUs—and, to a lesser extent, RTX 50 GPUs—often requires undervolting them in addition to increasing GPU and memory clocks. If you want to overclock an AMD GPU or an NVIDIA RTX 50 GPU, you’ll likely need to undervolt it to achieve the best results.

If your GPU works fine, but you still want to undervolt it, don’t let me or anyone else stop you

While it’s true that GPU undervolt is unnecessary in most situations, we’re all PC enthusiasts, and we tinker with our hardware just for the fun of it.

I mean, the first thing I did after getting my RX 9070 XT was undervolt it just because I could. I then tried overclocking it, but since I wasn’t impressed with the gains, I returned it to stock. I guess I just didn’t get lucky in the silicon lottery. Still, I recommend undervolting your GPU if you know what you’re doing and enjoy tinkering. If you happen to get a particularly good chip, the results might pleasantly surprise you.

If your graphics card works fine and is cool and quiet, undervolting it isn’t necessary. But if you still want to tinker with it, undervolt it, or overclock it, don’t let anyone stop you. Have your fun!

Cooling Method

Air

GPU Speed

2520Mhz

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT from Sapphire features 16GB of DDR6 memory, two HDMI and two DisplayPorts, and an overengineered cooling setup that will keep the card cool and whisper quiet no matter the workload.