Nvidia looking into problem high IDLE power usage vs high refreshrate
The IDLE power consumption of Nvidia graphics cards in combination with a GSYNC monitor with a high refresh-rate is much higher compared to regular monitors. Nvidia confirmed the problem and is working on a solution.
During testing of a Asus PG279Q Ryan Shrout from PC Perspective discovered this abnormal behaviour. The 27"-in GSYNC monitor at 165 Hz made his test system use much more power in Idle opposed to your regular PC at a 60Hz refresh-rate.
The power consumption differences in IDLE are massive, at 60 Hz the PC utilizes 74 Watts, yet at 165Hz his PC started using 201 Watts in IDLE, yes that's just displaying your idle Windows desktop.Once you look at the graphics card (in this case a GeForce GTX 980 Ti) the problem becomes abundantly clear, ay 60 Hz the card will have a baseclock of 135 MHz and with 120Hz or higher, the cards kicks in and remains at 885 MHz. The problem only seems to be focusing at GSYNC monitors. Disabling GSYNC does not change the power consumption at 144 Hz.
NVIDIA is looking into this and has found the problem. They will issue a fix with a driver future update.
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Senior Member
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Have you checked if you actually go back to 144Hz during gaming?
I turned down the refresh rate to 120Hz, but my XB270HU showed it to stick to 120Hz Gsync even if I turn on a game (BF4 for instance). I then switched back to 144Hz on desktop too to get what I bought my hardware for during playing. At least the monitor's OSD states it doesn't go up to 144Hz and sticks to 120Hz, as I don't have a high speed camera I can't really check

Senior Member
Posts: 11257
Joined: 2004-05-10
Have you checked if you actually go back to 144Hz during gaming?
I turned down the refresh rate to 120Hz, but my XB270HU showed it to stick to 120Hz Gsync even if I turn on a game (BF4 for instance). I then switched back to 144Hz on desktop too to get what I bought my hardware for during playing. At least the monitor's OSD states it doesn't go up to 144Hz and sticks to 120Hz, as I don't have a high speed camera I can't really check

Did you select 'prefer max refresh rate' in Nv CP? I heard this fix working for others, that if monitor is set to 120hz, it will stick to that at idle but use higher in gaming.
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AMD should do the same with the R9 Fury/X/Nano Display Corruption issue
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The IDLE power consumption of Nvidia graphics cards in combination with a GSYNC monitor with a high refresh-rate is much higher compared to regular monitors. Nvidia confirmed the problem and is workin...
This just proves that Nvidia doesn't read it's own forums. This problem was reported awhile ago. Users were using the vBios tweaker to change the power states. Or setting their performance rates to be a lower refreshrate on the desktop.
Yes, higher refreshrate requires more power, but it should be double or triple the power of 60hz idle, Not full.
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Noticed this on my system a while back. Changing the desktop resolution to 120hz fixed it for me. Now I idle at 135mhz instead of the 900mhz it idled at 144hz.