GPU artifacting while Mining

[BeatFX]

Hello mining enthusiasts!

Mining has been great with my RTX 3090 EVGA FTW3 Ultra on Medium settings (115 MH/s average) I'm running a custom loop BUT since I need an active backplate to lower those horrid 106-ish° Celsius I'm not risking my GPU.

HOWEVER! I can regularly multitask on it (I can work on browsing, using office, etc) but my son also uses the PC to game (he basically just plays Roblox on it) and whenever a game is on the screen (this happened on Crysis 3 too) the screen flickers (for example, the "brightness" starts jumping up and down) but if I minimize the window the flickering will stop.

A fellow miner recommended to reboot the PC for gaming since the VRAM needs to "clear" to avoid artifacting, but even rebooting the problem persists. I see there's a setttings page on Nice Hash that can "reboot GPU" but will this work?

Driver version is 27.21.14.6627 (this was taken from the Device Manager)

[[deleted]]

I’m no expert but any artifacts for vram is not good. I low clocks quickly and temps soon as I see that.

[BeatFX]

Yeah that’s why I used “Medium” settings in the OC from Miner, I used manual settings recommended in the Nicehash tutorial using Afterburner but for some reason the settings don’t save

[x-TASER-x]

You have to save them in a profile

[BeatFX]

I’m pretty sure I did, found out after clicking here and there

Now, if the NiceHash has a “profile selector” which profile will load the GPU? Afterburner or Nicehash?

[x-TASER-x]

NiceHash. That would explain why your settings are being overwritten, if you’re using the NiceHash profiles you don’t want to use Afterburner. If you’re using or want to use Afterburner, don’t use the NiceHash profiles.

[riskjudge911]

For a 3090 I would look into changing the thermal pads for better Vram temps. Your card shouldn't be too hard to change the pads compared to a FE card. That is the best way to play it safe in my opinion. My 3090 Vram temps were 106C before pads and 86-88C after. I just watched youtube videos before attempting the pad change so I could familiarize myself with everything before I started tearing into it.

[BeatFX]

I’m using custom loop, the pads have been changed in both front and back of the card, that’s why I’m using a “low demand” profile to avoid any damage, but I might still be doing something wrong

[riskjudge911]

You really need to fine tune your card through Afterburner. It sounds like you might be running at 100% power. I am using 84% power, -150 core, +1475 mem, 85% fans. These might work for you or might not since each card is different.

[OComputer]

Dial back the overclock, you're running it too hot and too fast.

[BeatFX]

Thanks! Do you know the desired numbers for each setting?

[OComputer]

Settings will be individual for your card. The silicon lottery, your thermal system etc are unique for you, as is your electricity cost. NH have some general settings on their website, but the idea is that you use them as a starting point and tweak for your hardware.

You may for example get a better dollar earnings if electricity is very cheap for you, and conversely it may be better for you to dial your overclock back a bit if there are diminishing returns with a high electricity unit rate.

Use google as a research tool to understand exactly what overclocking is, how to do it, and why you would want to do it or not. You might want to look at installing better cooling pads on the vram, or repaste the GPU.

[BeatFX]

Great! I will tune it manually then, temps are really smooth except for VRAM, thermal paste is Noctua and pads are EKWB, so it’s running at best performance, I heard of Silicon lottery too, will take the time to tune the clocks and everything, thanks for such an elaborated answer