What are differences between Optimal and Adaptive power in nvidia panel?

[Pit12]

Hello. Fast question. What are differences between Optimal and Adaptive power in nvidia panel? I have Optimal. But sometimes in games i have fps drops which resulting in clock drop for one second. After second clock back again to normal.

So what are differences between Optimal and Adaptive power in nvidia panel?

My card is Gigabyte Xtreme 1080

 

[AndyGawg]

Same question here. I always put gaming profiles to, "prefer maximum performance." But only games, all of them.

Global settings for everything else I am leaving at optimal. Of course I tried adaptive but couldn't notice any obvious differences. An answer from someone in the know would be good.
Currently both settings seem the same for me? I have not checked in great detail just normal GPUz, and HWInfo 64 readings, may be very subtle?

(GTX 1080 ftu). Same goes for my GTX 980 hof as well, that is no clear difference.

 

[FYFI13]

Adaptive profile sets GPU clocks based on load, which means in basic games your card might run at very low clocks.
Optimal performance profile will keep you GPU at base clocks, even if game doesn't need so much of power.
Prefer maximum performance profile will try to use maximum boost clocks, based on load.

For example, difference is very noticeable in Arma 2/3 multiplayer where games performance is very limited by the server. Setting "prefer maximum performance" gives you much smoother experience, while i couldn't see any difference in single player mode. For most games i use adaptive profile, since GPU clocks are set based on GPU usage and it saves power whenever it's possible.

PS, i literally just woke up, sorry if I'm not being clear.

 

[P4-630]

Hmm I always had mine set to "Optimal Performance", even when I was benchmarking.

 

[FYFI13]

On optimal there will be clock drops more often due to fps spike? When on adaptive not?

On optimal plan it will stay at least on base clocks, on adaptable they will drop down.

 

[AndyGawg]

Adaptive profile sets GPU clocks based on load, which means in basic games your card might run at very low clocks.
Optimal performance profile will keep you GPU at base clocks, even if game doesn't need so much of power.
Prefer maximum performance profile will try to use maximum boost clocks, based on load.

For example, difference is very noticeable in Arma 2/3 multiplayer where games performance is very limited by the server. Setting "prefer maximum performance" gives you much smoother experience, while i couldn't see any difference in single player mode. For most games i use adaptive profile, since GPU clocks are set based on GPU usage and it saves power whenever it's possible.

PS, i literally just woke up, sorry if I'm not being clear.

Thanks, that seems sensible. Seeing as I am not too concerned about GPU power usage I can conclude from this that "prefer maximum performance" is the most certain way to get proper/max performance. However in many cases
adaptive will be just as good with the added benefit of saving power
.
My only reason for keeping max power when gaming is, I'm not 100% sure if the adaptive setting is quick enough to almost instantly ramp up the power everytime? Seems clear it is most of the time though. But if a sudden heavy action/visual screen comes in after sometime not moving much or being in a simple menu I prefer not to take the chance (at the cost of power). One other thing that solidified this opinion is that a small amount of very graphics demanding games already have the default setting on prefer maximum performance in the NVCP. This is certain for Doom 2016.

So I will continue what I've been doing. That is, IMO it's just that bit better (possibly in extreme cases) to set prefer max performance in games. Well, modern resource hogging games at least.

As for everything else I have my global setting to Optimal so only gaming likely uses full power. I've done this since optimal was introduced and had zero problems. I reckon if it ain't broke, no point messing with it.

P.S. Even though there have been helpful replies in this thread, I get the feeling that no one really knows, or I should say agrees, on what exactly optimal is!
For me it's a non issue, but I sure wish NV would do a better job of passing on relevant info - like GPU power settings, that's pretty relevant don't you think?

 

[FYFI13]

Hey. So why during fps drop in GTAV i had clock spike for just one second? I have optimal setting in nvidia panel. It is because optimal? Maybe i must change to adaptive then?

I'd try maxinum perfirmance option instead.

 

[eidairaman1]

Adaptive is power when demands arrise, max performance should run the card at a constant rate.

 

[TheHunter]

I noticed optimal can lower full 3d p0 state bellow base freq., I keep optimal in global and in games perfer max perf. Imo the safest bet to run the game smooth.