High Frame Rate Monitor Locking GPU Memory Clock to Max Speed on DisplayPort (known bug)

Macemore

Circumcised pineapples
Aug 26, 2011
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Hey everyone-

I've noticed an increase in demand on recommendations for High Frame Rate / High Refresh Rate Monitors (HFR) and I wanted to share my concerns for your poor, poor memory modules.
This issue is actually quite an interesting one that devolves from the display standards set by old CRT monitors, but that isn't why we're here! Long story short: Check your GPU Memory Clock while using your HFR Monitor to make sure it's not locked to 100%!

This may be fixed by the following:
Reducing Refresh rate to multiples of 60 (120hz good, 144hz bad)
Switch to HDMI 1.4

Those are my only fixes, actually. I've been dealing with this issue for about 6 months now and my solution was to just swap to HDMI when I need HFR and DisplayPort when I want it normal, but this might not work for everyone.


Why be concerned? Because setting your memory clocks to max speed increases power consumption, heat, and overall wear/tear on your device. The only reason I noticed this was because my GPU was consistently running 10C above normal idle after a reconstruction of my desk, and that's how I found out it was because I went from using HDMI to using DisplayPort, and the display doesn't have this "bug" fixed, and the GPU doesn't fix it outside of multiples of 60Hz (i.e 240hz ok, 170 not). I've been able to replicate the issue with HDMI, only with 170hz mode. This also happens on all systems I've tested, including other monitors (albeit overclocked), Intel/AMD, Nvidia/AMD, it's a display standard issue.
 

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