How can I underclock GT 520?

[Ichinisan]

I installed an MSI low-profile video card (GT 520) for basic UI acceleration and HDMI audio in my mother's HP Pavilion Slimline s3700f system. The entire system gets insanely hot...like you wouldn't believe.

Since the video card will never be used for anything other than Windows Media Center, I want to underclock it to help bring down the overall temperature. The clock speed settings aren't available in the NVIDIA Control Panel.

How can I underclock it?

 

[toyota]

well just use precision or afterburner. there is no way a gt520 can add noticeable heat though especially if not gaming. lol even under full gaming load the gt520 uses like 25-30 watts max.

 

[Ichinisan]

well just use precision or afterburner. there is no way a gt520 can add noticeable heat though especially if not gaming. lol even under full gaming load the gt520 uses like 25-30 watts max.

Well, that heatsink was REALLY hot. I took it apart earlier to add the low-profile bracket (I had been using with no bracket since it was RMA'd and MSI sent it back with a full-size bracket).

It was so hot I had to wait over 15 minutes before I could stand to touch it.

 

[wilds]

Well, any OC software can underclock it. What are the temperatures? I can't imagine a GT 520 to be overheating unless there something is malfunctioning....

 

[Zodiark1593]

The nature of passive cooling is that

A) The heatsink often gets, and remains, very hot to the touch.

and B) Heat is often dumped into the system itself via the case fan.

Found this out firsthand installing a Radeon 5450 into a friend's old HTPC, and that's a 15-20 watt chip. Those things can get exceptionally hot when run with passive cooling. I recommend looking for software to check the actual temps though. Anything under 70C under load isn't anything to worry about.

 

[Ichinisan]

The nature of passive cooling is that

A) The heatsink often gets, and remains, very hot to the touch.

and B) Heat is often dumped into the system itself via the case fan.

Found this out firsthand installing a Radeon 5450 into a friend's old HTPC, and that's a 15-20 watt chip. Those things can get exceptionally hot when run with passive cooling. I recommend looking for software to check the actual temps though. Anything under 70C under load isn't anything to worry about.

It's active cooling.

I had to RMA it previously because the fan failed and it would overheat within 30 seconds of watching TV in Windows Media Center. The replacement must be a different card because they sent it without the low-profile bracket. I had to ask them to send another LP bracket.

 

[Ichinisan]

It looks like EVGA Precision is going to work fine. Since default is GPU:810 / RAM:667 Mhz...what would be good underclock values that wouldn't affect its ability to decode MPEG2 HDTV?

Should I also decrease voltage?

(I don't normally mess with clock speeds and voltage)

 

[Shmee]

yes, if possible. They go together, and decreasing Voltage will save more power and produce less heat than if you just lowered frequency.

 

[wilds]

I use NvidiaInspector and run batch files for my overclock. For my "power save" my core clock is around 130MHz and my memory clock is 419MHz. It plays blu rays and flash video without any stuttering.

Low is it can go I guess.