To undervolt a GPU, you ask the card to run its normal clock speeds at a lower voltage, or you cap the voltage at a fixed point and hold a slightly lower clock. On NVIDIA cards that means editing the voltage-frequency curve in MSI Afterburner. On AMD Radeon cards it usually means a voltage offset or undervolt slider in the Adrenalin software. Done carefully, the result is lower temperatures and less fan noise for little or no performance loss. Done carelessly, it produces crashes. This guide shows both routes, a reference matrix for starting points, and a stability checklist.
A caution before anything else: undervolting is a tuning step, and silicon varies from one card to the next. Every number below is a starting estimate, not a value guaranteed to work on your model. Read your card maker’s warranty terms, and make changes in small steps.
Undervolting, power limiting and underclocking compared
People use these three terms loosely, but they do different things, and picking the right one saves time.
| Method | What it changes | Typical effect | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Undervolting | Voltage paired with each clock speed | Lower heat and power at similar speed | Moderate |
| Power limiting | Total board power cap | Card lowers clocks to stay under the cap | Easy |
| Underclocking | Maximum clock speed | Lower heat, lower performance | Easy |
If you want the fastest, simplest result and do not mind losing a few percent of speed, a power limit slider is enough. If you want to keep performance and trim heat, an undervolt is the better tool, because it removes voltage the chip did not need rather than forcing it to slow down. Many enthusiasts use an undervolt as the main change and add a small power limit reduction on top.
What you need before you start
- Current graphics driver from the NVIDIA or AMD site, installed and working.
- MSI Afterburner (works with most NVIDIA cards and many AMD ones) or AMD Adrenalin for Radeon.
- A monitoring overlay, such as the one in Afterburner or the built-in Adrenalin metrics, showing clock, temperature, power and fan speed.
- A repeatable load: one demanding game scene or a looping graphics benchmark you can run the same way each time.
- A notepad or screenshots to log each change and the result.
Record your baseline first: run the load for ten minutes at stock settings and note the average clock, peak temperature, board power and average frame rate. Without a baseline you cannot tell whether a change helped. If your temperatures look high at stock, read our guide to diagnosing and fixing GPU thermal throttling first, because poor case airflow or a clogged cooler is a different problem from excess voltage.
How to undervolt an NVIDIA GPU with MSI Afterburner
The curve editor method is the standard approach on recent GeForce cards. The steps below describe the common workflow; menus can vary slightly between Afterburner versions.
- Open Afterburner and press Ctrl+F to open the voltage-frequency curve editor.
- Note the highest clock your card reaches at stock under load, and the voltage that goes with it on the curve.
- Choose a target voltage lower than that stock point. As a cautious starting estimate, many people begin around 50 to 100 mV below the stock peak voltage, in the range of roughly 850 to 950 mV, depending on the card.
- Click the curve point at your target voltage and raise it until its clock matches (or sits just under) your stock peak clock.
- Flatten everything to the right of that point so the card does not request higher voltage. In most versions you select the point and apply, or use the lock-voltage shortcut shown in the software.
- Click Apply (the checkmark), then run your repeatable load while watching the overlay.
- If it is stable, lower the target voltage by one step, or raise the clock by one step, and repeat. If it is not, go back to the last stable point.
Work in steps of about 25 mV or 15 MHz. Smaller steps take longer but make it obvious which change caused a crash. When you finish, save the result to one of the profile slots and set Afterburner to apply it at startup, if you want it permanently.
How to undervolt an AMD Radeon GPU with Adrenalin
AMD’s driver software has tuning controls built in, so no extra program is needed on many Radeon cards. Availability depends on the model and driver version, and some partner cards or laptop GPUs lock the controls.
- Open AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition and go to the Performance tab, then Tuning.
- Choose Custom and accept the warning about manual tuning, which notes that changes may affect warranty coverage.
- Enable GPU Tuning. If your card shows a voltage or undervolt control, apply a small negative offset or lower the voltage value a step at a time. A starting estimate of 30 to 50 mV below default is a cautious first move.
- Optionally lower the Power Tuning limit by a few percent for extra heat reduction.
- Click Apply Changes and run your repeatable load.
- Step the offset further only if the card remains stable for the full run.
Some Radeon generations expose a combined undervolt slider and a separate minimum or maximum clock control. Changing both at once makes troubleshooting harder, so adjust one, confirm stability, and then move on to the other.
Reference matrix: what to change and how far
This table collects the starting estimates in one place. It is a guide for cautious first steps and not a promise that your card will accept them.
| Platform | Tool | First step (estimate) | Step size | Stop when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce | MSI Afterburner curve | Peak clock at about 850 to 950 mV | 15 MHz or 25 mV | Any crash, artifact or driver reset |
| AMD Radeon | Adrenalin tuning | Negative offset of 30 to 50 mV | 10 mV | Any crash, black screen or timeout |
| Either | Power limit | Reduce by 5 to 10 percent | 5 percent | FPS drops more than you accept |
Typical outcomes reported by owners are a drop of several degrees Celsius and lower fan speeds, but the size of the gain depends on the chip, the cooler and the case. Treat any figure you read, including these, as a range and not as a target.
Stability verification checklist
A setting that survives a minute of benchmarking is not necessarily stable. Work through these in order.
- Run your repeatable load for 30 to 60 minutes with the overlay on. Watch for clocks dropping or temperatures spiking.
- Look for visual artifacts: flickering textures, colored dots, black or white flashes.
- Play a different, lighter game for an hour. Low-load and menu scenes sometimes expose voltages that are too low for idle clocks.
- Watch the Windows event log or driver notifications for display driver reset messages.
- Play normally for several days before deciding it is final.
If the card is running hot because of airflow or because you are fitting it into a tight build, a larger cooling upgrade may help more than any voltage tweak. Our roundup of GPU waterblocks covers that option for those considering liquid cooling.
Troubleshooting common failure modes
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| Game crashes to desktop | Voltage too low for the clock | Raise voltage one step or lower clock |
| Black screen, fans spin up | Driver timeout from unstable setting | Reboot, reset to default, retry more gently |
| Artifacts or flickering | Memory or core instability | Return memory to stock, back off the core |
| Stable in games, crash at idle | Low-clock voltage point too low | Restore default idle behavior |
| Settings gone after reboot | Profile not applied at startup | Enable apply-at-startup, check the driver |
| FPS lower than stock | Clock cap too low or power throttling | Raise the target clock a notch |
If you cannot get back to a working desktop, boot into safe mode and uninstall the tuning software or reset the driver defaults. When the system will not boot at all, or you see crashes at stock settings too, stop tuning: that points to a hardware or power supply problem, not an undervolt problem.
If you are putting several cards in one machine, remember that undervolting lowers heat and power per card, which helps in cramped layouts; see our advice on choosing a case for a dual-GPU build for the airflow side.
Frequently asked questions
Is undervolting a GPU safe?
Undervolting stays inside the voltage range the card already uses, so it is generally considered low risk. The usual failure is a driver crash or black screen when the setting is too aggressive, which a reboot clears. Check your card maker’s warranty wording, because some treat any tuning as an overclock, and stay modest until you have confirmed stability.
Will undervolting reduce my FPS?
A well-chosen undervolt often keeps frame rates within a couple of percent of stock because the card was running at a higher voltage than it needed for its clocks. An aggressive one that forces lower clocks will cost performance. The only way to know is to compare average and one-percent-low frame rates in the same scene before and after.
How do I know if my undervolt is stable?
Run your most demanding game or a looping graphics benchmark for 30 to 60 minutes while watching clocks, temperature and power draw. Then play normally for a few days, since light loads and menus can expose different problems than heavy ones. Crashes, artifacts, driver resets or a frozen screen all mean the setting needs backing off.
Is undervolting the same as lowering the power limit?
No. A power limit caps total board power and lets the card choose its own clocks and voltage under that cap. An undervolt changes the voltage that goes with each clock speed. Many people combine the two, but they behave differently, and the undervolt tends to preserve more performance per watt.
Do I have to redo the undervolt after a driver update?
Afterburner profiles usually persist, but a clean driver install or a new major version can reset tuning and fan settings. AMD’s Adrenalin tuning is tied to the driver software and may reset as well. Save a screenshot or exported profile of your working values so you can restore them in a minute instead of starting over.
