Transient "temp limit/power limit" spikes recording on MSI Afterburner?

[coarse flax]

I have a slightly undervolted ZOTAC RTX 4090 Trinity OC card running at 975MHz @2730MHz, with a +1000MHz memory OC. I notice that in at least one game (Black Myth: Wukong), sometimes, when the game is paused... MSI Afterburner records a temp limit AND power limit spike for a short moment, before returning to normal. I've read sometimes this happens to some RTX 3xxx/4xxx people when exiting/entering a game's or benchmark's menu/screen.

It is quite strange to me, since the GPU and memory temperatures do NOT spike when this happens. In fact, in that moment, GPU usage in that spike goes down to 0% before picking right back up to normal, and temperatures spike downward before picking back up to expected temperatures. No crashes, no reduction in performance when the spikes don't happen. My personal GPU temps for a game like that do not go over 60C, and none of this happens during any kind of gameplay.

I've ONLY seen this happen in that "pausing the game" moment, and the GPU continues like nothing ever happened. Researching forums have brought up confusing conclusions saying that it's a weird thing with modern GPUs when undervolted in anyway, to a bug in the GPU drivers themselves past 457.xx with sensor reading software, to happens when there's a sudden load change post 457.xx...

Is this something I should worry about? Is this just a known bug? Or is, for a very very short moment, something in the GPU is overheating? I can bring in charts if needed.

Charts here.

[muted moss]

Have you set your GPU to "Prefer Maximum Performance" in the nvidia control panel?

[coarse flax]

I'm off the PC, but I have that turned off. The only things changed are the slight undervolt, the power limit increase, and the memory OC.

[muted moss]

try turning that on

https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3130/~/setting-power-management-mode-from-adaptive-to-maximum-performance

This support article says "Setting Power management mode from "Normal" to "Prefer maximum Performance" can improve performance in certain applications when the GPU is throttling the clock speeds incorrectly resulting in low fps."

[coarse flax]

Hm. That's strange, because the clock speed actually never changes, and the "temp limit" spike only pops up sometimes for that extreme short moment I pause the game. When playing the game, it runs flawlessly, and the temperatures never go above 59°C.

[muted moss]

Sometimes games frame throttle their menus also, and if that's the case then the GPU doesn't need to work as hard, which is why you could see lower usage

your card isn't overheating at 60 degrees

[coarse flax]

That's what I was kinda thinking doing research on this...

• I pause the game
• the game transitions to the pause menu
• GPU usage goes down by a lot for a short moment, spiking the power limit and temp limit even if all GPU temps are nominal
• the menu screen shows up after a split second, and the GPU returns to its typical gaming conditions

Like the game, for a short moment, lowered the usage before returning to it's previous state.

https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/power-thermal-limit-spikes-in-afterburner.436523/

Something like this.

[muted moss]

I'm sure it's fine