NVIDIA Ampere RTX Workstations Capable of Overclocking With Newest MSI Afterburner Beta

Jason R. Wilson

Workstation graphics cards are quite expensive and are not recommended for use in overclocked environments unless you have a budget that allows for this. NVIDIA does not condone this type of usage of their workstation GPUs. In doing so, users can run into costly issues and, more than likely, void their warranty pushing the product past its intended use. NVIDIA Ampere RTX workstation graphics cards are meant for long-lasting use, monitored temperature levels, stable noise levels, and consistent structure of the ECC-RAM.

NVIDIA's RTX GPUs Based on Ampere Architecture Could Be Overclocked Using MSI Afterburner

Igor Wallossek of Igor's Lab discovered that with the current version of MSI Afterburner, version 4.6.4. Beta 3, allows for overclocking of, not only GeForce RTX cards but certain Ampere RTX workstation GPUs, a feature never unlocked in previous MSI Afterburner versions. Typically, the only values that were up for alteration were memory, core, voltage, and fan curvature.

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"Fan curvature" is only an option that is specifically designed for use with Turing RTX workstation graphics cards, the previous generation of NVIDIA's ray-tracing microarchitecture. So, while the current Ampere RTX graphics cards use newer and advanced technology, they are still open to being overclocked because they contain similar technology. The primary practice of overclocking is usually reserved for gaming GPUs, such as NVIDIA's GeForce RTX line.

NVIDIA Ampere RTX Workstations Capable of Overclocking With Newest MSI Afterburner Beta. (Image Source: Igor's Lab)

Wallossek tested MSI Afterburner's overclocking ability with an RTX A5000 GPU, a GA102 GPU with 8192 CUDA cores. The RTX A5000 GPU showcases 24 GB of GDDR6 EEC memory. Under normal circumstances, the GPU processes with a maximum clock rate limit of 1440 MHz. Using the unlocked overclocking technique, Wallossek added increased performance by 5%, pushing the maximum clock rate to 1590 MHz. He was able to replicate the same test with similar results with the corresponding RTX A6000 GPU as well.

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Igor Wallossek is planning to further test the overclocking technique in the future utilizing a water cooling system to maintain temperatures of the workstation GPU, allowing for further checks on limitations of the RTX A5000 and also the RTX A6000. He states that under the current conditions he was brave since he knows how expensive of an outcome that would have created if he pushed the GPU too far past its limitations.

MSI Afterburner 4.6.4. Beta 3 is currently available for download from the website Guru3D.

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