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Issues with idle clocks and temps when running ROG Swift at 144hz?

FlameChucks76
Level 7
Hello everyone.

This is my first time posting so please let me know if something is off on the formatting.

So i recently received the ROG Swift monitor after waiting what feels like forever for an official release date.

I received it last Friday along with a second EVGA 780 FTW Edition card so that I can properly future proof the system for 1440p gaming at high frame rates.

Now, one of the things that I noticed right away was that my idle temps were incredibly high. It wasn't until running open hardware monitor that I noticed that the idle clock speeds on my main video card was running at almost full settings when having the monitor set at 144hz. I went back and forth thinking that it was probably the video so I made the necessary changes to see if anything would change. I swapped video cards and the same issue persisted. I tested this out with both single and sli setups with both setups giving me the exact same problem when running this monitor at 144hz. I then started thinking that it could have power related, but it's not as the power supply I have supplied enough power to both cards during SLI gaming.

Below are screenshots from what I was looking at.

Again, this is all reflecting idle temps and clock speeds. Power settings have been set to adaptive for better power management. When the monitor is set to 120hz, the video card down clocks when nothing is happening, as it should, and blocks up when running a game. When the monitor is set to 144hz, the video card is clocked at almost high speed when nothing is happening, causing the temps to spike up roughly 10 - 20 degrees hotter just on idle.


Has anyone else encountered this problem since the monitor released?


First set of screenshots is when running the test on one video card.









This second set is when running it on sli.





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Vannor
Level 7
After SLI stuttering with G-Sync, 4 light leaks from holes on the top of the plastic frame, YES again... I have this same issue too.

FlameChucks76
Level 7
At this point looking at several issues on the forum, is it unfair for me to consider returning this monitor?

I haven't heard much as far as ASUS is concerned some of these problems. It very well could be that my monitor is defective. People on other spots note that their monitor's work perfectly. But alas, here I am dealing with these problems and not able to enjoy the monitor for what it was advertised for.

Mine does this also, mabey a driver problem?

ibbill wrote:
This is a known issue with all 144hz monitors.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1497172/did-you-know-that-running-144-hz-causes-ridiculously-high-idle-te...

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/648304/1080p-144hz-excessive-gpu-usage-while-idle/


I'm gonna have to disagree on that one.

I had previously owned a BenQ monitor that was also 144hz and never did i notice an increase in clock speed when running at that high of a resolution. so far from what i've seen, the only people that have had issues with this particular glitch seem to stem from ASUS branded monitors. There may be some other ones that I am not mentioning, and i'm not trying to single out ASUS, but this is the first time I have ever run into this issue.

With my previous BenQ I never had this issue.


I think at this stage, along with several other factors concerning the product, i don't really see myself needing to hit 1440p at this point in time with all the features advertised.


It sucks because I had been waiting for this monitor for a long time, much like most of you guys out there.


At this price point I was expecting more, and what I got was just more of the same and more money down the tube to be the first to try something new. At the end of the day, the price point doesn't really cut it for me, especially with this particular issue with not being able to run at 144hz. I can invest in a nice dual setup instead.

You may never have noticed it, but at least one other person using a BenQ monitor had the problem.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/6019-switch-from-60hz-to-144hz/

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1803942


It could be some various combination of driver + software + monitor that triggers it. Who knows....

I also get higher memory and GPU clock speeds when I'm running @144Hz idling on the desktop, but I just set it at 120Hz and I'm OK with it. This monitor is not without its faults, but to me that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

FlameChucks76 wrote:
I'm gonna have to disagree on that one.

I had previously owned a BenQ monitor that was also 144hz and never did i notice an increase in clock speed when running at that high of a resolution. so far from what i've seen, the only people that have had issues with this particular glitch seem to stem from ASUS branded monitors. There may be some other ones that I am not mentioning, and i'm not trying to single out ASUS, but this is the first time I have ever run into this issue.

With my previous BenQ I never had this issue.

Republic_of_Pax
Level 8
this is a copy and paste from an online search so take it for what its worth
sounds like this is a 144hz problem not so much just a swift issue
so...they say
"It's by design and it was NVidia's decision. I doubt that they will change it. It seems that 144Hz is too fast to hide the flicker caused by power state changes, and NVidia went with disabling power savings when in 144Hz."
sounds like this was done a few driver updates ago so people running old drivers may not have seen this at the time
not claiming to know this as a fact but many sites refer to this and 144hz

class101
Level 7
Getting the same weakness if I monitor my hwinfo while switching frequency

Would explain why in just a few unoptimized games like DayZ I get screen flickerings if I set 144MHz, but all is perfect on 120MHz

Well at least here I think with a 1x GPU GTX780 I will stick with 120MHz as a default, it is really smoother in DayZ after downgrading to 120

At least thanks for the head up, it doesn't seems worth to switch to a permanent 144

Although I don't like this "side effect" of running 144mhz on the desktop, I also do not find it very concerning. It's much akin to those who overclock their CPU and turn off all of the power states in the BIOS and window to stabilize high clocks. I don't do that myself as I prefer to give up some CPU clock for the power and heat savings, but the example is along the same lines. Perhaps it is because I am water cooling, but the small bump in temp and power usage for 144mhz is worth it as 144mhz is easier on the eyes at the desktop. And if users are worried, the turbo button is there to easily adjust the monitor down to 120 at the desktop level if they want lower power desktop idle.