Is the GPU Load percentage a relevant number?

[bmtphoenix]

Sort of new to overclocking, as in I haven't done it in nearly ten years, so I'm wondering, is this load percentage number in MSI Afterburner a useful number for overclocking purposes?

 

I'm thinking, overclock it X amount, see if the load in the game that I'm playing stays well under 90%, if not, overclock it a bit more until it starts acting unstable. Does that sound like a reasonable way to use that number? Or am I being silly?

 

Just for reference, I'm keeping between 30-40 FPS even without overclocking, for the most part.

[TheMainPimp]

I never looked at my GPU load, i just clocked mine the the palit sonic platinum version of my card and its fine, GPU jumps about so i would just benchmark.

[bmtphoenix]

I never looked at my GPU load, i just clocked mine the the palit sonic platinum version of my card and its fine, GPU jumps about so i would just benchmark.

 

Well, it's a MSI GTX 460, and I brought it up from the 700mhz clock to 821mhz, memory from 1790 to 1990, and it's running fine. Isn't heating up much at all, either. When I sent the clock a bit higher, I got some light artifacting and it dropped itself back down, even though it was under load, so I figured that was as high as I should go. I'm not brave enough to play with voltage, yet. The load numbers did decrease, so I'm thinking it's working like I thought it would.

Edited January 15, 2012 by bmtphoenix

[Speedway]

GPU load % is going to be based on application. The only relevance it will have on OCing would be that the higher the load %, the higher your GPU temps will be. So an application that runs at 100% load will produce higher temps which will usually lower the max OC you can achieve. Programs like Furmark are going to put a huge load on your GPUs, while most games would never run at the same load the entire time. So while you may be able to achieve X overclock for an application running at a higher load, you may be able to achieve a higher OC than X for an application that runs a lighter load % on your GPUs. Hope that helps

[TheyCallMeGunny]

Short answer: Yes, GPU load percentage is a relevant number.

 

Answer more catered to your question: if you're getting 30-40 FPS in this game, you're probably not going to lower the GPU load much. It'll still be under 90%+ load, but you'll probably notice slightly higher framerates as you clock it up. So as far as determing OC efficiency, nop it's not relevant in a game receiving low framerates.

 

Long, generalized answer: GPU load represents how much of your GPU an application is using. For instance, if you play a game at 60FPS and your GPU usage is only 50%, that would indicate that your GPU has plenty more punch than the game even uses. This is basically headroom, which is a good thing.

 

The lower your GPU usage, the lower your temperatures will be. Also, this is an indication that you could potentially raise graphical settings if you're running on low load, and that your GPU can handle more stressful applications than what you're currently running.

 

At the same time, if your GPU NEVER goes above a certain percentage, even in high demand rendering tasks... It could potentially be a sign of a bottle neck. In this type of case, check other resource monitors. If a game reads 40% GPU usage, and 90%+ CPU usage, it's likely that your CPU is bottlenecking your GPU. Which hints that upgrading the CPU could also improve the GPU's performance.

 

GPU usage ties into a lot of things basically. But.. In your case of high GPU usage, it doesn't mean anything major as long as you're getting FPS that you're happy with. Although, if you have high temperatures, the GPU load should have a lot to do with it. Still, no point in upgrading if you'll only end up using 50% of what you have. Modern GPUs are made to handle some pretty high temps.

Edited February 5, 2012 by dragonsdontfly

[edge929]

Well, the GPU load tells how much your GPU is being used so yeah, it's relevant especially if you're monitoring temps/fan settings. Some older games won't need the full extent of power from your GPU so you may only see 20-40% load, others will bring it to it's knees (looking at you Metro, Furmark and BF3).